I have committed to serve here for three months and on those months I have committed not to drink alcohol while onboard or do any immorality acts which mean no sex. So where do I get my pleasures? We can’t consume any alcohol? Here are no really places to shop and the food is really simple rice and meat stuff. Sex is not allowed. So where do we get our pleasures and do we need them for our happiness?
“The essence of philosophy is that man should live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things”. -Epictetus
This blog is about pleasure vs. happiness.
Today we went on a local church for Sunday service. It was a gospel service and there was some preaching and singing. It was an experience. A good one! People got pleasure by getting together for singing and worshipping. After the service we were invited for a lunch in one of our workers home. She made us some local food…interesting experience. J But it was really nice way to spend the Sunday afternoon. We Socialized, ate, walked a little bit and got some sun. It was pleasures but there were some basic elements of happiness.
People confuse happiness with pleasure all the time, difference between those two is that happiness comes inside us, and pleasure is depended on external stimulates. Happiness can be and should be long lasting; pleasure is usually a short joy.
What I mean about all this is that we can fill our lives with joy, with different pleasures both still be unhappy. Pleasures don’t bring happiness. It might help but it also can be a gateway to unhappiness.
There are so many different types of pleasures like eating, drinking, shopping, having sex…
For example too much eating, too much partying or too much shopping, any of those usually leads to unhappiness.
So where is the line? How much pleasure do we need to be happy or do we need even it for our happiness?
Here on the ship people get together, have dinners together, watch movies, go to the beach and just hung around; chatting. I love that. We don’t have to get drunk to have fun and have hangover on the next day while trying to remember what happened. I feel like I am happier that I can have fun without all the drinking and partying. I haven’t watch TV while being here so that is liberating, I have so much more time to do other stuff like socialize, read, and work out, and so much more. By stimulating myself with different activities I make myself happier. If I would just sit all day, doing nothing and watching TV, I would get unhappy. Don’t get me wrong, I do spend days doing nothing and it can be really relaxing. But to be happy, we have to keep our minds busy, challenge ourselves, socialize and do things that make us happy. We have to understand the difference between pleasure and happiness to achieve real happiness.
We do need pleasures to be happy but we have to choose the right pleasures.
Here the local people don’t have lots of external stimulants to pleasure them and people are happy!! It is amazing to see how people are happy here and I think there are lots of reasons for that. No worries, they socialize, no stress, they have time for themselves; they have time for their families, they live simple lifes. We could learn these thinks from these people.
Simple life brings happiness.
“If you want to be happy, set a goal, commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes”. –Andrew Carnegie
-Simple-
:)
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