7 TIPS on stopping your RUN for the pursuit of happiness
Happiness is just a parcel that keeps getting passed; the ultimate reality of life lies in something more profound.
I have always been told by other fellow humans that happiness is a necessity. Any action or goal in life should make you feel happy, but is it the ultimate truth?
When we make goals are we sure enough that the result is happiness? Are we running behind happiness and realizing after reaching, that there aren’t any endorphins releasing? Such questions need to be answered at the very beginning.
Victor Frankl talks about, man’s loss of animal instinct and traditions that had buttressed his behaviors. Instead, now man is caught in Conformism and Totalitarianism. This existential vacuum pushes the man into an oscillatory cycle of boredom and distress.
Throughout our life, we then find situations, events, people, or even ourselves to blame for our shortcomings.
Instead of the pursuit of some imaginary happiness, what we need is meaning to life. Meaning isn’t some abstract meaning to life but a collection of verbs, actionable things that can bring some change.
7. Finding your belonging
No, I don’t mean that you find those lost earings or that pen your co-worker borrowed from you. What I mean is finding YOUR TRIBE, finding people who you can fall back to.
It could be a close friend, your partner, parents. You have a strong reason to live in life when your biological need to feel wanted and feel a sense of belonging is satisfied.
6. Start with a why
Finding why you are doing what you are doing in life
- Your job
- Your daily routine
- Certain habits
When we question ourselves regarding why we want something or why we are doing something. When we have a why, an apparent reason, a motive, a belief of your actions, thoughts, your career options, then we have some core reason to function. For instance, Apple has set its mark on humanity in a simple way.
Their firm belief is to think differently, and they have always made us believe that. It isn’t that there aren’t any promising technologies or better marketing of other competitor brands. But Apple has a sense of WHY, and being humans. We tend to associate with things that have a strong purpose, a meaning to it.
5. Finding Transcendence
Have you ever had those rare moments in life when you rose above the hustle-bustle, and your sense of self fades?
It all sounds very imaginary and don’t take my word for it. You can try it yourself. Try doing something with a focus for a while. In my personal opinion, meditation helps to achieve that.
Your breath is something that will stay with you until you are alive. It is a reflection of your mental state. By controlling and being a mere observer of your breath helps to find a connection with yourself and beyond.
Go try splashing those paints on the paper, paint it out, or try that flute left in your junk. These small things actually help one to escape and find a certain depth within oneself.
4. Join the dots and create your own story
Sit down today, right down all the instances in life that have shaken you; you have let someone or yourself down, your mistakes.
Try finding a connection to it; try finding a meaning to each fall or rise. Once you take charge of your life, you are the storyteller. You can repeat and share your story the way you want.
It doesn’t need to be a tragic story, but how your setbacks made you realize things.
3. Create a work or deed beyond your needs
What I mean by this is, serving for a more significant cause. For instance, Mr. X. is a part of a 9 to 7 job
- He loves his job
- He is a part of a nonprofit child care organization.
- He had changed the previous two jobs where he worked for four years because each morning he got up for work was just a drudge.
- Everyday post-work, he is available for free consultations on finance for people who are from lower socioeconomic status.
What we infer from Mr. X. is that he had the patience to work for four years before deciding that he had a different calling. He has found work apart from the monetary needs and strives to help people.
Building something each day gives us the power to feel contented and strive to create something better every day.
2. Stop believing in everything you see
According to Quantum Physics-
- Nothing that is observed is unaffected by the observer.
It means that everyone sees a different truth because everyone is creating what they see.
- It elaborates on how we are all interconnected to each other at tangible and intangible levels.
So, for instance, you are observing a potential in the quantum field and being aware of something that already exists. This lets you tap on the future, and intentionally observing something in Quantum causes infinite fields of energy to collapse into particles. This is called a quantum event, and that becomes an experience that can manifest in our 3D world.
In all, we don’t need to believe the possibilities we see on face value. We create our potentials and opportunities. We are what our choices are.
1. Stop fooling the man/woman in the glass
I steal this line from the author Peter Dale’s famous poetry — Man in the glass.
The poem elaborates about the need, to be honest with yourself. When you look in the mirror after a day’s work, ask yourself how pleased you are looking at that person in the mirror.
Is that person your best friend? Because you may fool the whole world but not that person in the glass. Your verdict about your achievements, your goals, your decisions matters the most.
The day you can please that man in the mirror, you have ought to have found real meaning.
Hoping this article rekindles you to think deeper and beyond your usual rut.
Hi, I’m Aashi Sethiya, a Physiotherapy intern. I love writing about life lessons, books, and daily issues. I have an inkling towards social work and fitness. Also, did I mention that I can bake mean lasagne too? If you like what you read and want to discuss it further, you can connect with me here.
Please have a look at my previous posts.