Posing the question... it's difficult.

As of late I've been struggling to find a theme/question to settle on in my group from the seminar. We've been teetering on three points currently:

1. The Illusion of Choice
2. The Paradox of Comfort
3. The manifestations of Balance

What is it exactly that we are trying to extract from these points? We spent a whole session trying to link the things and come at them from angles that would provide citations and evidence... or rather we were trying to condense all three into one question that would umbrella them nicely.

The theme we talked most on was on the paradox of comfort, this idea that the more we have of something, the less we actually achieve for it. The more security we have, the less secure we feel; the more connected we are, the more lonely we feel; the freedom we have, the less free we feel.

Why is this?

Well, that's what I'm looking into, and so far this late night has had me reading the same sentences several times over - a sign that my brain needs rest before continuing. I'll reconvene this investigation in the morning.

Okay, it's a new day (evening...).

Could we look at comfort as being happy?

It would appear that throughout our group discussions we often talk around the ideas of wanting to feel good, pursuing what we feel will make us content with life. But is what we're after really making us happy? Do we even want happiness? Paradoxically, are we only happy to pursue happiness, rather than attain it?

Could we ask the question, what is it that causes us to be unhappy? It's broad enough to investigate, and can be taken from many angles, however specific. Although it is seen as very subjective, this can lead to a lot of discussion.

Is happiness possible despite a lack of well-being? And by well-being, I am avoiding the word comfort, I still have some qualms about the word as it doesn't quite convey what I believe my group have been trying to understand - The word comfort to me describes "good feeling", of "ease". Knowing that there are people who enjoy adrenaline rushes, comfort doesn't appear to fit well under that paradigm.

But happiness is a word that seems to be something that we can all sit on similar wavelengths about. It's one of the ultimate aspirations we all strive to achieve as human beings, surely. Our aims and goals in life is to achieve happiness, and if not for your self, altruistically for others.

The wars we have fought, the scientific break throughs we have had, the social injustices quashed, the day to day and even minute to minute happenings of life, are and have all been in the pursuit of happiness, for the individual, or for the masses.

I see the question about asking if we can escape the pursuit of happiness in order to attain happiness rather than constantly pursue it, or by paradox, we can only be happy if we are pursuing happiness...