Physician, public speaker, writers and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra writes that happiness is "never a simple matter". Happiness can be different in the perspective of a child compared with that of an adult.
In recent polls, it was discovered that 80 percent of American adults reported that they are happy, but admit that they do not fully know what happiness means. Chopra highlights that it is impossible to be happy every minute of the day, that romantic love cannot guarantee happiness, and that having a baby is not a surefire way to be happy. However, impossible as it may seem, Chopra stresses that it is possible to achieve perfect happiness, but it requires a major shift in thinking and in living.
According to him, this major shift entails giving up all assumptions about what will bring happiness. Chopra draws this conclusion from the world's wisdom traditions- Buddhism, Indians Vedas, Christianity- which have studied and deeply examined human happiness and unhappiness.
Chopra notes that these wisdom traditions make the following points:
1. Pleasure and happiness are not the same. Getting more pleasure may not necessarily bring you happiness. However, Western, capitalistic culture continues to emphasize the value of having and desiring, feeding into pleasure, with the false promise of happiness.
2. Unhappiness stems from not truly knowing who you are.
3. Relying on another person's love does not guarantee happiness. It can only make you even more miserable as it establishes that the other person has the power to give this love and take it away.
4. Eternal happiness means getting in touch with the bliss that is fundamental to one's being. Capturing this bliss, however, requires some major lifestyle changes which are good for the mind and health, such as limiting alcohol toxicity, giving oneself time to rest, allowing the brain to enter into a quiet meditative state, and reducing external stressors.