{"id":704,"date":"2008-06-19T06:58:16","date_gmt":"2008-06-19T06:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/http:\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/archives\/2008\/06\/2008_06_19_1458.php"},"modified":"2017-02-08T03:58:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T03:58:18","slug":"synthesizing-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/06\/19\/synthesizing-happiness","title":{"rendered":"Synthesizing Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What do you call the process of looking a the brighter side of things &#8211; when you see the glass as half-full instead of the other way around? Positive thinking? Sure, we can call it that.<\/p>\n<p>But what if it&#8217;s something you clearly had not wanted, but just convinced yourself <em>eventually<\/em> that it was all for the best? Here are the two top examples which illustrate such a scenario:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Any person (most of the time, it&#8217;s the woman) who has settled for less than what they had really wanted in a partner.<\/li>\n<li>Any parent who thinks their child is perfect &#8211; bonus points if the child has an actual mental or physical handicap.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It&#8217;s those people which these two words are perfect for: <strong>Synthesized Happiness.<\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- \/\/ --><!--more--><!-- \/\/ -->\n<p>I know, I&#8217;m <em>sooo<\/em> going to get one of those kids because of that previous statement, but that&#8217;s beside the point. The point is why take the time to explain this statement?<\/p>\n<p>The reason is simple. I can see myself using the term <em>&#8220;synthesized happiness&#8221;<\/em> a lot in future arguments; particularly because it&#8217;s surprising how much of the &#8220;issues&#8221; people have are related to it. I figured that during those times I get to use the term, I just utter these two words, and link it back to this post so that any un-initiated reader can fully grasp the concept behind the phrase.<\/p>\n<p>I got the term from one of the talks I watched on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\" title=\"Ideas worth spreading\">TED<\/a>. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_704_1('footnote_plugin_reference_704_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_704_1('footnote_plugin_reference_704_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_704_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_704_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">On a totally unrelated note, TED is AWESOME. You&#8217;d be doing yourself a favor if you actually immerse yourself in TED content.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_704_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_704_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> You can watch the video at the end of this post to grasp the concept in its entirety. But for those too lazy to take a few minutes (fine, it&#8217;s half-an hour) here&#8217;s a summary:<\/p>\n<p>Basically, one of the things that makes us [humans] special is the ability to &#8220;synthesize happiness&#8221; &#8211; which is the ability to <em>manufacture<\/em> happiness by convincing one&#8217;s self that we are just as happy, if not even happier, after being put in a &#8220;less than satisfactory&#8221; situation.<\/p>\n<p>Again, if you&#8217;re having trouble trying to imagine how this would apply to everyday life, look above at the scenarios I&#8217;ve given&#8230; or just watch the video.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n\n<!-- iframe plugin v.5.1 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"video-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"370\" height=\"277\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LTO_dZUvbJA\" scrolling=\"no\" 0=\"allowfullscreen\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p>In conclusion, it&#8217;s worth mentioning that synthesized happiness is neither good nor bad. As the video suggests, it&#8217;s just as potent, just as real as natural happiness, and we all have done it&#8230; far more times we&#8217;d like to admit.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>&#8216;Tis nothing good or bad. Only thinking makes it so.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In fact, I&#8217;d submit that if it weren&#8217;t for synthesized happiness, we&#8217;d <em>all<\/em> be manic depressive by now. But you have to admit, its kinda cool to be aware the times you&#8217;re actually doing it.<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_704_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_704_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_704_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_704_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_704_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_704_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_704_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">On a totally unrelated note, TED is AWESOME. You&#8217;d be doing yourself a favor if you actually immerse yourself in TED content.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_704_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_704_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_704_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_704_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_704_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_704_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_704_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_704_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_704_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_704_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_704_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_704_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_704_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_704_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do you call the process of looking a the brighter side of things &#8211; when you see the glass as half-full instead of the other way around? Positive thinking? Sure, we can call it that. But what if it&#8217;s something you clearly had not wanted, but just convinced yourself eventually that it was all &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/06\/19\/synthesizing-happiness\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Synthesizing Happiness&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,7,11],"tags":[473,529,595,754,896,1160],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-internet","category-media","category-perspective","tag-general","tag-happiness","tag-internet","tag-media","tag-perspective","tag-ted"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}