What Means Being Happy in 2016 ?
Startup Cycling: 38/120
On March 30th, 2016, I joined Thomas Despin to cross the United States from New York to San Francisco by bicycle. One of our common objective is to improve our discipline, by making every day, for 120 days. He makes videos, I write articles.
We live in 2016, in a time where the digital world takes more space than the real world. Digital world is infinite.
This world allows us to be the actor and the spectator of our own life and of other people’s lives. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, are so many open windows on intimacy, that taught us to lie.
We put ourselves in representation in a world that we build from scratch. We choose what we show, the moment in which we show it and the people to whom we expose ourselves. Without even realizing, lie is the most common thing in our digital world.
In this world, we have access to billions of things that pretend being a potential source of happiness. We can follow people traveling the world, leading successful business, experiencing driven community and living fulfilling relationship.
We are the witnesses of how people look happy.
And that’s the thing: a lot of people LOOK happy. But are they actually FEELING happy?
This could be difficult to admit, but happiness is probably the only thing that I looked for these last years.
As we all do, I tried at first to find it outside of me. It could have been love, a successful project or a remarkable journey. It brought me satisfaction for sure, but not happiness. I am not telling you I wasn’t happy, I just felt that my happiness wasn’t related to these situations. My happiness is mostly related to my ability to live in harmony with myself whatever the situation is. Based on my own experience, this is the most difficult and rewarding thing to do.
While crossing the US by bike from New York city to San Francisco, I gain clarity on my intimate way to feel happiness. I write this article as a gentle reminder of the things I knew for a long time without being capable of applying them. These same things that make me happy today.
Let go
Some feelings and memories are hard to let go. Keeping them close is a way to feel safe and comfortable in the things I know. It is also something that weighs me down and that prevents me from moving forward. When I let go, I make room for the now and I accept that not all things are meant to remain the same. Life is a permanent movement in which I lead the flow.
Feel
Which leads me to this second point which is the importance of living the moment. It happens often that I think about the past or that I dream about the future. I think a part of me craves for imagination so much that I rarely live for the present moment.
The efforts that I have to do during this bike trip give me no choice but to stay focused on the present moment. When I do, I am finally aware of the power of the now. When the present takes all space, it won’t leave space for remorse or regrets.
Be healthy
I often heard “your body is a temple”, “you are what you eat”, “an healthy mind in an healthy body”. I didn’t doubt it, but I didn’t know how to reach the moment where my mind is aligned with my body. I have eating disorders and I too often think that a woman with a perfect body is a woman with a perfect mindset.
When I bicycle all day though, I am focused on being healthy and it is becoming more important than looking fit or pretty. Health is less related to physical appearance than to physical balance. When I reach a physical balance, I observed that I feel aligned within myself.
Trust time
Until now, I used to think that life is a fight. I feel like I approach life as a big playground where taking on challenges is an exciting battle. I fight against time or against myself.
These days, while going through the wind, the cold or the hills, I realize I have no battle to win in life. I just have to move on and to trust the timing of life.
I know that this article is only several lines written on the digital world. This same world I told is a place of lies. But as I wonder about the mask I may wear or the story I use to tell to myself and others, I am wishing this world also capable of helping me putting out there truth, vulnerability and authenticity. Because happiness doesn’t come from any of these world : digital or reals. It comes from within.
No matter where you put it out, happiness is something you are.
If you ❤ it, I would highly appreciate if you press an ❤ on it.
