How much clarity does it take to become happy?

Question

You can become happy when you choose. But often times it is beyond choice. It's also intent, you become what you think, is that right? How much does it take to become happy?

Answer 1

"ignorance is bliss" comes to mind. If you subscribe to that notion, then you don't need clarity to become happy.

Great question. First, we do have the choice to be happy, but we don't always have as much control as we'd like over that choice. We must have the clarity or knowledge that happiness is a "choice" on how we view what life dishes out.

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions & not on our circumstances.
— Martha Washington

It is not the event itself that is important, but rather our reaction to that event. “Rather than altering the external world to bring it into line with one's desires, (one should) set those desires so that they are in line with the way the external world actually is.”
— Epictetus (55-135 A.D)

One does not laugh because one is happy; one is happy because one laughs.
— Mireille Guiliano

Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.
— Dale Carnegie

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.
— Mary Engelbreit

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.
— William James

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens
— Kahlil Gibran

A monk asks a superior if it is permissible to smoke while praying. The superior says certainly not. Next day the monk asks if it is permissible to pray while smoking. That, says the superior, is not merely permissible, it is admirable. The moral of the story is that much depends on how a thing is presented
— George Will

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
— Marcus Aurelius

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
— John Milton (1608-1674) [Paradise Lost]

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
— Viktor Frankl

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.
— Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
— Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)

Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.
— Count Leo Tolstoy

No man is happy who does not think himself so.
— Publilius Syrus, Maxims (100 BC)

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
— Abraham Lincoln

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
— Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Men are not disturbed by things, but the view they take of things.
— Epictetus (55-135 A.D.)

What about things like bullets?
— Herb Kimmel, Behavioralist, Professor of Psychology, upon hearing the above quote

Answer 2

The amount of clarity is dependent on the opposite, the amount of distortion. Reducing this haziness is done by confronting your inner thoughts, including those which have been placed there by others. We all have our self delusions, to some extent, and we are the only ones who can face up to them. The ones that are beyond choice, inflicted on us, have a lot of influence on what we think of ourselves. The only way to rid ourselves of those thoughts is through forgiveness. That is why it is best to not inform the ones being forgiven that you have. It is done for you, not them, and they might just do it again. Letting this baggage go, not trying to force it out, is the path to clarity, . Good Luck

Answer 3

Hasn't it been said that ignorance is bliss? If that is the case, then it takes little to none.
I think that it is a matter of intelligence. The more one knows, the more one wants to know. If we constantly seek truths, definitives, and clarity, then maybe we can never truly be happy. On the other hand, if we do not seek clarity, yet lead our life with the blinders on, then perhaps we can be happy and not face reality and or challenge.

Answer 4

Just as much effort as you want to put into it. It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. I think it takes less energy to be happy than it does to be mad, upset and mean all the time. One only needs to see life just a bit clearer as you say, by adjusting ones attitude. All things work towards good for those that do so.

Answer 5

I find to get or have anything good and pure in this system of things takes a lot of work. Being happy takes work, for me anyways.

Answer 6

The amount you put in now, is the amount you will receive later.