Today

Today, I am making it a point to be happy. That's right. I have to make an effort to be happy. You do too, believe it or not.

Happiness is not the normal level of human emotion. You have to feel happy. Look at the range of emotions as a continuum of numbers, infinite in both directions. At the middle is zero where you are neither happy nor sad...you just are. At any given time your emotional state is at some point on that continuum. Did I mention you cannot reach zero? I guess I cannot say that with certainty, so I will put it another way. Reaching zero on the emotional scale is like reaching absolute zero on the temperature scale. You may be able to get within a billionth of a degree of zero, but you just can't get there. Why? I speculate that you cannot survive at zero as you would be neither happy nor sad and therefore not exist. Email me if you want to get further into this part of the conversation.

Removing all the negative stress, problems, irritants, etc does not rocket you from negative 10 to positive 10. Each side of zero is its own entity and you exist on both sides at all times independent of your other emotional self. Removing all the negative things in your life would only get you closer to zero. Same with the happy side.

Now are you confused? First I say you are somewhere on a continuum, then I say you are on two planes at once. No I did not. I said that you are on the continuum, while your happy emotional state is stuck on the happy side and the sad emotional state is on the sad side. Getting the picture yet? You can only experience one side at a time but you are on each side at all times. What you are feeling is dependant on your current stimulus.

Let's bring this back to the addiction post I made the other day. Say for instance your day to day existence makes you sad. To escape from that, you fill a vein with cocaine. You just shot up your happy side to incredible levels, but that cocaine did not bring the sad side any closer to zero. When that cocaine wears off the sad side will still be waiting.

I personally try to keep my sad side as close to zero as possible and my happy side as far away as possible. I am not always successful. Lately I am rarely successful as Mrs. Biggus will tell you. The key is that I recognize how the system works and I take the appropriate steps to fix it. Sometimes the fixes are medicinal (under the guidance of a doctor) and sometimes they are sheer will power. Today, I use will power and I am winning.

Be good to one another,
Rev. Biggus