Should Happiness Really Be the Goal? [PsychCentral.com]

Samantha Sangenito 2/19/164:00 AM

According to renowned psychiatrist Peter Kramer, happiness isn’t the opposite of depression. Resilience is.

I’ve always loved that reminder because the word “happiness” makes me uneasy. It’s not that I want to be unhappy, or I don’t want to be happy. It’s that every time I make happiness my goal, I become very unhappy. Like that famous study about suppressing thoughts of white polar bears. When everyone was instructed to think about anything but a white polar bear, they all thought about a white polar bear.

To be completely honest, I even hate the “life is good” T-shirts. I prefer the “life is crap” ones, such as the one with the cruise ship about to plow over the guy in the canoe. Whenever my husband wears that one, it puts me in a good mood.

[For more of this story, written by Therese J. Borchard, go to http://psychcentral.com/blog/a...-really-be-the-goal/]

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