Is Happiness Good? Is feeling happy important?

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 Coming at the end of today, December 20, 2020, I feel… happy. In this section, perhaps I’ll explore a bit of the circumstances that that surround my happiness, as well as what is the significance of my happiness.

The first question I should explore is--why am I happy? Is the cause of my self-perceived happiness biological, circumstantial, or both? One interesting event today is my idea to work on the project of building an emulator. The project seems exciting, and also seems to hold much value. I’m also excited about embarking on another project--that of building a garden bed. Both of these projects excite me, and perhaps contribute to the reason that I feel myself to be happy.

Another lifestyle change I’ve made is restricting my computer time, a decision which has led me to do things outside of playing chess and watching YouTube. I had a nap today, for the first time in a few months.

Being happy is important to me because the excitement about the future, and hopes for my potential contribute to my enjoyment of the present moment and motivation to pursue my goals. I feel privileged to have the chance to pursue projects and endeavors that give me such a amount of happiness and excitement for the potential that they hold, as well as the opportunity to invest my efforts into a task that is well worth my effort.

If I were not happy for an extended period of time, therefore, I feel that I would lack motivation, and life would overall seem duller. The projects that I now want to work towards and whose progress I am excited to push further would not drive me or excite me to the same extent. But is such a life onesidedly bad? Could there be some advantage to not being happy--meaning suffering--for an extended period of time, say for over a couple of weeks?

Perhaps if, and hopefully when, such a period is followed by the eventual return of happiness, the sense of gratitude it brings would be deeper, and its return would give us a greater sense of wisdom by giving us a chance to deepen our wisdom by ruminating upon the nature of our suffering, as well as admonish us from turning to vices or making bad decisions that would put us into a similar state of suffering.

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