Monday, February 28, 2011

Oxygen mask

This weekend, I gave a simple talk about happiness and its connection to evolution. I focused a lot on our need to work on developing happiness as a sort of "skill" we can improve with effort (rather than simply chasing after what we assume will make us happy). At the end, I talked about how important it was to develop our own happiness, because happiness is "contagious". I gave an example of how I helped my mom stay happy by being happy myself.

When I sat down after the speech, a girl in the row in front of me told me that it reminded her of the instructions they give you for operating the oxygen masks on the airplane: "Please make sure your mask is securely fastened before assisting others".


Of course, she was referring to the idea that we need to be happy ourselves before we can think about trying to help others. I've actually thought the same thing when looking at those flight safety instructions. How can we realistically expect to help others be happy, if we don't fully understand the subtle workings of happiness ourselves?

The pursuit of happiness isn't selfish, so long as you have the right motivations (a focus on the happiness of others). That's actually the reason I still focus on developing my happiness further; I'm already happy enough for my own purposes, but if I truly want to help others find happiness, I need to understand how it works, how to get it, and where it comes from.