Check It Out: Can you be happy in a crazy world?
By Joan Janzen
The sign said, “To the person who stole my antidepressants: I hope you’re happy now.”
Spike Milligan, an Irish comedian, had this to say about happiness: “All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.”
Dr. Suneel Dhand, an Internal Medicine Physician, listed five habits that helped him become happier and healthier. First of all, he strives to eliminate ultra-processed foods and sugar from his diet.
“I became aware of the horrendous pro-inflammatory nature of so many foods we eat and switched to a pure, whole food diet,” he said. As a result, he feels physically stronger and mentally clearer as well.
The second change he made was to make exercise a priority in his life, devoting one hour a day to physical exercise. Now that it’s become a habit, he enjoys it and uses the time to listen to a podcast while he exercises.
Thirdly, he has learned to distinguish between things that are within his control and things that are beyond his control. And he advises others to hang around people who are encouraging and don’t bring you down.
His fourth nugget of advice was for people to get an adequate amount of sleep. “Sleep is when your body regenerates and heals,” he noted.
His final observation was that many people have unrealistic expectations and respond emotionally to circumstances rather than logically. “Our culture is set up to take advantage of that,” he said. “Mainstream media wants to profit from people’s emotional knee-jerk reactions. So take a step back and recognize those patterns.”
Another social media personality described his pathway to peace of mind. Comedian JP Sears said, “During the past three years, I’ve accidentally become more Christian. Traditional values and perspectives make way more sense to me now than they ever had before,” he explained.
After his live stand-up comedy shows, he has a Q and A session, when he said a lot of people say, “Hey JP, me too!”
“My hypothesis is I don’t think evil has been more apparent in our world during my lifetime,” the 30-some-year-old comedian observed. His definition of evil is any time someone tries to control another person in a way that’s not in their best interests.
“We’ve seen a lot of attempts to control people; ultimately, I think that stems from evil. Evil has never been more obvious than it is now,” JP said. “As you naturally polarize in the opposite direction, you find God’s in the opposite direction.”
He finds it takes humility to escape our narcissistic human tendencies and realize we need God’s support. “We are very needy, and it takes humbleness to acknowledge our neediness,” he said. It puts his mind at ease to know he’s supported by God.
JP‘s observation was that there are three levels of human existence. The first is to take whatever comes along and be in survival mode. The second level is the ambition phase, where you know what you want and go after it. But the third level is quite different than the first two.
He described it as “Recognizing what I want for my life and putting that aside to allow God’s plan to live through me to be the primary focus of my life,” he said. He claims there are benefits to such an outlook.
“We eventually learn to want what God wants of us because we realize it’s the only way to have a really meaningful life, real happiness, real meaning, a real sense of purpose,” he said. “Often what we want for our life is built out of making us feel more significant or more in control.”
He says we should do our best to live a life of service, which looks differently for every individual. So, how does a comedian live a life of service? JP’s response was, “My goal isn’t to make people laugh; my primary goal is to protect and preserve the God-given gift of freedom. Freedom is synonymous with God. That’s why evil constricts and controls.”
His mission statement is to help awaken people to preserve freedom and awaken them to connect to God. “I don’t want to convince people to think what I think because I might be wrong.”
But he does want to encourage people to get reconnected to God and let Him be the source of information and guidance in their lives.
“I believe true happiness absolutely requires us to contribute to the greater good of other people. I think the world needs a lot more of that,” he concluded. Sounds like it’s possible to be happy in a crazy world.