Mental health is not happiness itself, but its indispensable prerequisite. Short experiences of happiness are also possible against the background of mental ill health; lasting happiness is possible only for a mentally healthy person. Happiness is an experience characteristic of people in a high emotional tone.
It should be taken into account that mental health is quite enough for many people, and the experience of happiness is pleasant for them, but nothing more.
Like a man, for example, he wants to eat something meaty, and cakes are delicious for him, but rather superfluous.
Happiness and psychotherapy
People think that problems prevent them from being happy. But they will remove internal problems — and they will become happy. No, restoring mental health and removing blocks of happiness does not guarantee happiness. There is a further path ahead, and if you need to go on your own: to improve your life, master a positive outlook on life and make a piggy bank of keys to happiness. See →
How to move towards the ability to be happy?
First, determine your level on the Emotional Tone Scale.
Emotional tone — low
You can’t move yourself from a serious minus to a sharp plus, this causes protest, dissonance and breakdowns. The preliminary task is to transfer oneself from minus to neutral, and only having mastered the neutral as a base, move oneself towards the positive.
If your state is predominantly at the level of the World is hostile, the more the World is terrible, your happiness is not close. In this state, you should not look for happiness, but put yourself in order, improve your mental health. Maybe you can manage on your own, maybe you need psychotherapeutic help. Set a goal: to bring yourself to the level of the world is ordinary. Again, this should be your goal, and it’s not always a quick fix. See The Path to Mental Health
Emotional tone — high
If your state is at or above the Normal world level (the Good world or the Beautiful world), you have normal mental health. Be careful: in this situation, setting the goal “Achieving happiness” will already be wrong, it gives the suggestion “I am unhappy” and already moves you away from the goal. You can set a goal to be attentive to happiness, do not forget to turn it on, support it, create a base for it. See Purpose to achieve happiness
For a mentally healthy person with a high emotional tone, it is more correct:
- Turning on happiness in the morning is as natural as washing your face in the morning.
- Use the strategy «Happiness is not a difficult goal, but a habitual lifestyle and a natural way of moving.» See happiness as a lifestyle
- Set yourself higher goals, where happiness is a necessary condition for achieving them. See Happiness as a Condition for Achieving Higher Goals
What to start doing specifically? Interest yourself in the “Good” exercise, see →