Human beings are emotional creatures. Our minds are constantly generating thoughts, feelings, and perceptions in an endless stream. Emotions are powerful, but they are also remarkably transient — often lasting only seconds to minutes before another thought, another emotional wave, or another external stimulus shifts our internal landscape. Understanding the nature of emotions and thoughts is crucial to living wisely and meaningfully.
Emotions: Passing Waves on the Ocean of the Mind
Scientific research into emotions shows that:
- An emotion typically lasts about 90 seconds at its chemical core, according to brain researcher Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor.
- After that, it only continues if we feed it — by continuing the story in our mind.
- If left alone, emotions naturally arise, crest, and fall, like waves in the ocean.
- Intense emotions (such as rage or grief) can create aftershocks that echo for hours or even days, but the original surge itself is usually short.
Thus, emotional states are not permanent fixtures but are visitors to the mind, much like weather patterns passing through the sky.
This is where the quote attributed to Rumi becomes deeply insightful:
“Thoughts are visitors; greet them all, but only let the noble ones stay for dinner.”
Every thought or emotion that enters our consciousness deserves to be acknowledged without resistance. However, which thoughts we entertain, dwell upon, or nourish determines the long-term quality of our inner world. Noble thoughts — those aligned with kindness, truth, courage, and love — are the guests we should allow to linger. Negative, fear-driven, or destructive thoughts can be recognized, thanked for their message, and then kindly shown the door.
The practice of mindfulness — observing thoughts and emotions without clinging to them — is built precisely around this understanding. You cannot stop emotions from arising, but you can choose which ones you engage with and which ones you allow to pass.
Happiness: A Momentary Flash, Not a Lifelong Companion
This brings us to the wise observation by artist Georgia O’Keeffe:
“I think the desire for happiness [is] quite foolish. Happiness is momentary—you’re happy for an instant and then you begin thinking again. What matters most is interest in life; happiness is transient, but interest is constant.”
Happiness, much like a surge of joy or contentment, is by nature short-lived. It flares up in a moment of beauty, achievement, love, or excitement, but then the mind returns to its endless churning — reflecting, worrying, imagining.
Happiness cannot be permanently sustained by external achievements, possessions, or pleasures because emotions naturally cycle. No feast, no possession, no success can anchor us in happiness forever.
Instead, O’Keeffe points us to a deeper and more reliable anchor:
- Interest, or engagement with life.
- The ongoing pursuit of what intrigues us, challenges us, and brings meaning.
When you are interested — deeply absorbed in learning, creating, building, loving — you are alive in a way that transcends fleeting emotional highs or lows.
Interest leads to purpose, passion, and meaningful living, which are far more durable and sustaining than the volatile flicker of happiness.
Bringing the Two Together: Mastering the Mind and Living Deeply
Thus, the wise path is not chasing after endless emotional highs (happiness) or seeking to suppress emotions (which is futile), but rather:
- Welcoming all emotional experiences as visitors — greeting anger, joy, sadness, fear, or love without fear or attachment.
- Choosing to dwell on noble, uplifting, and strengthening thoughts, allowing them to build the architecture of our inner character.
- Focusing our energy on sustaining deep interest and purpose in life rather than chasing fleeting moments of happiness.
A mind that learns to observe without judgment, select wisely among its thoughts, and pursue meaningful interests becomes a stable ship sailing the ever-changing ocean of emotional experience.
In short:
- Emotions come and go quickly — like passing weather.
- Happiness, being an emotion, is a beautiful but brief visitor.
- Deep interest, engagement, and purpose are what give life its enduring richness.
Closing Reflection
In the ever-shifting currents of thought and feeling, it is not what visits us that matters most — it is what we choose to host at our table and build our lives around.
When we stop demanding constant happiness and instead cultivate constant curiosity, service, and growth, we find a joy deeper than emotion — a joy rooted in being fully alive.
