The conquest of happiness according to Bertrand Russell

This philosopher had a youth marked by boredom, but he learned to orient himself towards happiness.

Born in Wales in 1872, Bertrand Russell was not a happy child.. He himself defines his childhood feelings as follows: "fed up with the world and weighed down by the weight of his sins". At the age of six he lost his parents and was raised by his paternal grandparents, who instilled in him very strict moral ideas.

Later, at the age of five, he began to think that if he lived to be seventy he had only endured a fourteenth part of his life, and the long years of boredom that lay ahead seemed unbearable. In his teens his situation did not improve, and he commented that he had been on the verge of suicide several times.

With this history we could imagine a depressed adult, with symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, and a good number of neuroleptics in his bedside table. However, as an adult, this philosopher claims to have learned to enjoy life. to have learned to enjoy life.

What did Russell discover to achieve an enthusiastic and happy maturity and enjoy life?

The conception of happiness according to Bertrand Russell

These are some of the keys that the philosopher highlighted to orient oneself towards the state of happiness.

Putting the focus of attention on the outside world

The British philosopher made an interesting discovery.. He noticed that by worrying less about himself, by ceasing to reflect continuously on his failures, fears, sins, defects and virtues, he managed to increase his enthusiasm for life.

He discovered that by focusing his attention on external objects (various branches of knowledge, other people, hobbies, his work...) he came closer to his ideal of happiness and his life was much more interesting.

In his writings he comes to tell us that expansive attitudes produce joy, energy and motivation, while being closed in on oneself inevitably leads to boredom and sadness.

In Russell's words, "he who does nothing to distract the mind and allows his worries to take absolute dominion over him, behaves like a fool and loses the capacity to face his problems when the time comes to act".

The idea is to increase external interests, to make them as varied as possible, in order to have more opportunities for happiness. have more opportunities for happiness and be less exposed to the whims of fate, because if one fails you, you can turn to another. If your interests are as broad as possible and your reactions to the things and people that interest you are friendly rather than hostile you are more likely to approach everyday happiness.

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How can we foster this expansive attitude?

So, by simply focusing on everyday, day-to-day activities will we be happy?

Keeping our focus outward will make us more motivated and enthusiastic, but it is not the only ingredient of happiness.

According to Russell, a theory that would fit in with the ideas of contemporary cognitive psychology, to be reasonably happy you have to learn to think in the right way and at the right time.. To paraphrase him, "The wise man only thinks about his problems when it makes sense to do so; the rest of the time he thinks about other things or, if it is night, he thinks about nothing.

Cultivating an orderly mind will undoubtedly increase our happiness and efficiency, thinking each thing in its moment will keep our mind clear and awake and allow us to stay more in the present moment.

And how does he invite us to think in the right way?

The philosopher encourages us to face the thoughts that frighten or incapacitate us. According to him, the best procedure in the face of any kind of fear consists of the following:

"To think rationally and calmly about the subject, putting great concentration into familiarizing ourselves with it. In the end, that familiarity will dull the fears and our thoughts will move away from it."

He also encourages us to confront our thoughts and discard those that are not adaptive or are far from reality.

Effort and resignation

According to Russell, happiness is an achievementand not a divine gift, so we have to fight for it and strive to attain it.

However, in the face of certain unavoidable circumstances of lifeThe most advisable thing to do is resignation (which I would call acceptance). Wasting time and emotions in the face of unavoidable setbacks is totally useless and detrimental to peace of mind.

In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, "Have the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to be able to differentiate between them".