Conscious Happiness

By Bruce Barbour

There are many different methods of achieving happiness. Some methods leads to happiness that is short lived, some that is long lasting. Some require a lot of effort and resources and some only little. Some are fragile and some are resilient. It is obvious that method or methods chosen to achieve happiness should be long lasting, easy to achieve and resilient. The question is - how is this achieved?
This book proposes a reasonably comprehensive method of answering this question. As happiness is part of consciousness two interrelated models of consciousness are proposed. The models are then used to examine how each part of the consciousness is best utilised in the pursuit of happiness. Ultimately it is proposed that in order to achieve happiness people develop a personal Happiness Strategy that combines a number of the approaches to happiness covering each aspect of the consciousness, with each approach chosen to maximise the chances of achieving long lasting and resilient happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bruce Barbour
• Release date: Jun 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310315060

Bruce Barbour

56 years old. Lives in Melbourne Australia.

Book preview

Conscious Happiness

By Bruce Barbour

Copyright 2016 Bruce Barbour

Published at Smashwords

Edition 1

License Notes

The book is licensed for your personal use only. The book, including copies of it, may only be redistributed with the authorisation of the author or the approved distributor. Further copies can be downloaded from Smashwords or another authorised retailer.

Disclaimer:

This book has been developed based on my reading, investigations, experience and careful thought over many years. I publish this information in the hope that people will gain benefits from any insights provided on happiness. I urge people to read this book and to form their own opinions on the validity of the theory and practices, based on their own experience and understandings.

This book is not intended for any person who has or suspects that they have a depressive or any other mental illness. If you suspect that you have these conditions please consult your medical adviser.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1 - What is Consciousness

The Consciousness Model

Awareness

Emotion

Thought

Relationship of Emotion and Thought

Memory

The Consciousness Vessel

Part 2 - Happiness

The Happiness Continuum

Happiness and Awareness

Evolution

Enhancing Happiness from Awareness - Conscious Awareness

Happiness and Thought

Handling Negative Self Thought - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Other Ways of Handling Negative Thought

Generating Positive Self Thoughts

Learned and Forced Thought

Intellect Thought and Imagination

Emotions and Happiness

Memory and Happiness

Summary of the Approaches to Happiness

Part 3 – The Happiness Strategy

Happiness - Is That All There Is?

The Strategy

End Notes

Suggested Reading

Conscious Happiness

Introduction

I, like many of you, have read many books about how to have a happy life or to increase happiness in life. What I have noticed about many of these books is that they usually do two things.

The first of these is that they tend to lock onto one idea or one approach to happiness and then sell it, sometimes with an almost religious fervour, as the only true approach to happiness - Do this and you will be happy. I would read many of these books and in some cases would think that the approach had some merit. Then I would read another book advising another quite different approach and would sometimes form the same view - the approach had some merit. So over time I formed the view that there is no one true approach but many different approaches, some better than others, some with weaknesses and some with great strength, some which would be applicable to certain people or situations and some that would be more applicable to others. In fact many of the proposed methods are not mutually exclusive and can and in fact should be used in conjunction with other methods to make up for the weaknesses of individual systems, in order to provide a system of achieving long term happiness that is reliably available and resilient.

The second aspect I noticed about some books on happiness is that they don't give a theoretical framework for the happiness method proposed. While this would not be important to some people I found that I was not satisfied with someone giving me a simple rule - do this and you will be happy even if it did work to an extent. For long term and resilient implementation I wanted to know why.

So this is the approach I adopt in this book: I set up a theoretical framework for happiness and then look at a number of different approaches to happiness in the context of this framework, choosing some to establish what I have called the Happiness Strategy.

Part 1 of this book is all about the establishment of the framework. I look at the structure of consciousness. How consciousness works is vitally important in determining happiness because happiness is an aspect of consciousness. I propose two interrelated models of consciousness as the basis for the further understanding of happiness.

In Part 2 I look at the way the various aspects of our consciousness impacts on happiness and how each can be utilised to achieve happiness. I also provide a summary of various available approaches to happiness.

Finally in Part 3 I put this all together to develop a personal Happiness Strategy that can be developed specifically to suit your life in order to increase your potential to achieve happiness that lasts over a long timeframe.

Aspects of Life Impacting on Happiness that this Book Does Not Cover

While this book offers a reasonable approach to achieving happiness I want to state up front that this book does not cover a number of significant areas that can impact on long term happiness.

Firstly the book does not cover life meaning and purpose. Meaning and purpose are intrinsically important for a person’s happiness. They also are usually the basis for a person’s ethics and many of their values which are important for some of the personal choices made in determining an approach to happiness, as will be discussed in this book.

I have not tried to suggest any life meaning or purpose in this book as many people will have already come to a conclusion on these issues that is satisfactory to them be that acceptance of a traditional religious belief system or some other life philosophy. The other reason I have not covered this topic is that any attempt to cover the subject would warrant a substantial book on its own.

The other area of life that is helpful for happiness is good health, which includes diet and fitness, and also mental health. If you are sick it goes without saying that this impacts on your ability to enjoy life. Diet can and does impact directly on some diseases as well as a general feeling of well being. I have not covered any of these areas as there are many books already written on the subject.

While it is possible to have happiness without having resolved meaning and purpose questions or while sick, it is better to not have either of these items as issues.

With that said please read on for Part 1 where I discuss the workings of consciousness.

Part 1 - What is Consciousness

Introduction

Happiness and sadness are part of our consciousness. In order to investigate happiness properly a necessary starting point is to understand the nature of consciousness. From this base I will build up an understanding of the various approaches to happiness.

The concept and definition of consciousness is not straightforward and has intrigued philosophers and others for centuries (End Note 1). The word itself has a wide range of usages. In its most basic form to be conscious can be used to mean to be simply awake. However this usage is not very useful for our discussion. One popular idea is that it is primarily related to the ability to think - I think therefore I am (2) is a well known formulation of this idea however as we will discover this idea is not complete. Consciousness can also be used to mean awareness of self, or awareness that you are alive. Beyond that there is the idea of higher consciousness which would be awareness beyond the self and possibly the physical universe.

Consciousness encompasses all these aspects.

The Consciousness Model

The model of consciousness that I propose consists of interrelated parts: