yeah well, not all of us want to live forever. A cigarette takes off about an hour of your lifespan. but the hour off it takes can be viewed by anyone who visits a relative in a die center (or what they still call the hospital, paid for by your tax dollars from the young and the healthy.) If all of us quit smoking and drinking we could support a whole lot of obese people who were previously just a drag on society. I have family from Mali. When they first come here they just keep eating until the food is gone. It takes a couple of years to convince them that in the United States of America, food is never gone. Since almost no one, not our Rabbis or our priests know what happiness or health is, I wish the United States Government would get out of the happiness and health business, and just try to figure out a way nobody can beat me up (since I am just a little itty bitty guy.) otherwise, it is extremely easy to figure out how to become happy, once you have a dollar more each month than you spend.
While I agree with most of this in general, I think your use of absolutes might be a little overboard. "EVERYONE is born healthy ... " It might be true that we don't show symptoms on day one of life, but everyone's blueprint has vulnerabilities that are the seeds of diseases/conditions which may show up on day 2, day 200, day 2000, or day 20000, but they will show up at some point no matter what. Some are minor, others severe. Sometimes, too many times, disease strikes early and we just have no choice but to accept it and deal with it. Also, not ALL problems are the result of laziness. When it comes to health issues, I think most problems are rather the result of imbalance ... and laziness can be one cause of imbalance, but even too much of a "good thing" (exercise, for a cardiac patient) can sometimes cause problems. Looking at it from another angle, I'd argue that sometimes laziness is actually a good thing. Getting away from the health subject for a second, consider the guy who invented the wheel. .... One lazy m*********** if you ask me.
Happiness is a belief, and a belief is just a thought we keep thinking. Change your thoughts, change your beliefs, change your life. It's you, and always you.
I made exceptions for congenital/genetic conditions. The "cardiac patient" got there through either, 1) poor diet, 2) obesity, 3) inactivity, 4) congenital/heredity or 5) all of the above. All but number 4 are the result of "laziness" in my opinion. It takes serious motivation to eat well and exercise. Those who wonder "why me?" after decades of poor habits should know the answer. Sure, there are skinny heart patients, but the kid on youtube is 1/1,000 heart patients. Ask yourself how the cardiac patient got in that predicament. For starters, the 20-30lbs of fructose (sucrose=50% fructose) ingested per year (30%! is converted to VLDL) is killing 100s of thousands each year.
My replies have been to others, so I am not debating you, at all, but ask yourself if you're more likely to be happy if (physically) sick or healthy. Also compare quality of life. Those who state, "we don't want to live forever" need not worry about that. What you need to worry about is your f*cked-up lifestyle. Personally, I have a vested interest as I'd rather not contribute to your critical-care if you reach medicare-age, any more so than I want to be subject to your second-hand smoke.
I know, but while I am happily smoking and drinking my life away I also have to pay for your longevity. Social security and medicare were working just fine when everybody did it my way. Now you scammers of the system are figuring out ways to beat the actuarial tables and that is messing it up for the rest of us. Why don't you just die a normal death and we'd all be happy?
Here's some theories (currently accepted) that are supported by research: People have a baseline level of happiness to which they return to usually within a year of good/bad events (winning the lottery/losing a loved one). Money doesn't buy happiness after about 70k (2009ish income levels) year i.e., once we remove the stress of financial worries it no longer improves our baseline level of happiness. If we have many choices we will generally be less happy with the outcome of our choice than if we have fewer choices (along the lines of buyer's remorse). Also very interesting: http://blog.ted.com/2006/09/26/happiness_exper/
Happiness starts with your absolute self. Seeking happiness within others or material objects will not work - I'll tell you that right now. We all need to know ourselves and what makes us smile. Also just know that you're human and your allowed to make mistakes. When you truly understand that concept you can be on your way to finding true happiness.