Great Article: How To Choose Happiness

Great article over at Marc and Angel Hack Life, How To Choose Happiness.  I don't personally ascribe to the view that happiness is a state of mind.  But, really my opinion is a matter of a different perspective and is not worth quibbling since from one point of view, and definition of the word "happiness" it is a state of mind.  Be that as it may, I'll tell you what really excites me about this article.

I have always been turned-on by the ideal of the Warrior for Peace.  It's a delicious paradox that does not need solving, but whose embrace leads to a rich outlook on life and a useful personal philosophy.  In my view, life is a constant battle.  Not a battle for survival of the body, although that does happen all to often, but rather a battle of ideologies.  Most of us truck through life struggling to put together a philosophy that at first makes our lives better, and as we evolve also makes life in general better.  As we soldier along we are servants to, and of, our prevailing philosophy, no matter how haphazardly those may be slapped together.  We champion that philosophy in all of our interactions, and the tools we use are the expressions and communications of our beliefs.  We use phrases and body language as weapons to wage these battles to keep our set of beliefs strong and alive.  For the most part we do this unconsciously and perfectly innocently.

To engage this in an active way is a much more useful way to wage this battle, and allows for us to truly consider what we are championing.  We can construct a philosophy of peace and mindfulness (as an example) and pick our words so as to advance that cause.  In the inevitable bumping against of our myriad philosophies and belief structures, we can choose an active rather than passive stance.  That, to me, is the Way of the Warrior of Peace.  It is how a soldier in the army of peace can fight the battle for more peace in this world.  Not as a method to dominate another's set of beliefs, but as a way to test our own and to spread the possibility of such an outlook.  Social engineering on the personal scale.