How to improve your level of Happiness

[Hawk]

First of all, this is a second attempt.  I deleted my last topic that was trashed.  Don't clutter my topic.  If you don't want to discuss the psychological aspects of Peyronies Disease move on.  If you are on this forum to name call or threaten you will be banned to the point you cannot even read the forum as a guest.

If you want to comment on what I posted feel free.

After 16 years of running this forum, I could probably write a book on this topic but I will be brief.

Yale University has a great free course on the Psychology of Well-being.  It essentially teaches you those things that lead to happiness and how they are often very different than the things our brains intuitively think will bring us happiness.  It also stresses that knowing these things is of very little benefit unless we learn to incorporate them into our lives.  The course helps you do that.  The instructor is not dynamic, there are no secret, effort-free, gimmicks, just insight into the science of how our brains work and how they often work against us.

Now, this is the point were those blind to their own problems jump in and say "but my dick is broke and this won't fix my dick that robs me of any chance for joys I deserved.  I am just screwed and I don't need any propaganda course making me believe a bunch of lies to trick me into being happy."  I am not posting for those people.  You know who they are.  we meet them in every walk of life.  They willfully choose despair and victim-hood.  To them, it is like a hobby if not a career.  They have learned to find joy in the special status of "Exceptional Victim of Life's Unfairness".  Unsatisfied with just that they see it as their mission to jump in and project their brand of misery on to everyone around them. Caught in their own trap, they seek to fill the trap with others so that maybe it will dilute their own misery.

This is for those who understand that the psychological component to Peyronies Disease is at least half of the battle and it is the half you have total control over.  Here is the link.  I hope you get a lot out of the course. https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being?fbclid=IwAR2Hjems-JVQiFRPlzZfxTFWE9kxiyn1vZxFi0bHesK9TcXyNRFLwD3_Pv4

Hawk

[TonySa]

Great link!

[Hawk]

One of the many interesting points was that there is little difference between the happiness of lottery winners and people who had been paralyzed one year after the event.  Our brains tend to normalize and pull us back to our base level of happiness even in the face of big changes. The same thing happens with material purchases.  

One of the positive things is that psychology has moved from just improving mental problems to helping sound minds improve the level of wellbeing in healthy minds.

I don't know anyone who can say "I am just as happy as I want to be.  I couldn't stand any more happiness.