Applying the Option Method personally/The Option Method compared to other therapies/Arguments against happiness

In this talk, Bruce Di Marsico explains how the Option Method works in the most general terms and how it compares to other therapies.

He discusses how beliefs create emotions—in response to any event, you feel what you believe to be the “right” emotion to feel. If you are feeling a way you don’t like, it is because you believe you ought to feel that way.

Nothing needs to be believed to be happy—happiness is already your state, but you are not in touch with it when you are believing that you ought to feel a way you don’t like feeling.

All other therapies propose a way of life that is supposed to be equivalent to happiness—for example, to be “well-adjusted”, “more prosperous”, or “a good person”. Only the Option Method exists to help people be happy as they are.

Some people argue that if they were happy, they would be bad for themselves. Happiness is defined by the absence of whatever doesn’t belong there. Any “happiness” that was in any way something you didn’t want, would be unhappiness under another name.

Option Method – Arguments against happiness