We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Seneca Seneca in a few words summarised that only when a human being understands the very nature of existence can spend a joyful life with full potential. What is the fear of being happy? Defined as an attitude rather than … Continue reading The Fear of Being Happy – Cherophobia
A Flow State of Mind Continue reading A Jazz State of Mind: Entering the Flow State
Do you think your life looks like a hamster in a wheel, that you turn around and around without living the life you want? To live the life you want you may read and follow some advice taken from the method Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, developed by Albert Ellis (1913-2007), an American psychologist. The basic principle of this therapy can be summed up in this … Continue reading Living the Life You Want
What Is Extraversion? Extraversion breaks down into the following two fundamental aspects: assertiveness and enthusiasm. Those high in assertiveness are the take-charge types. The so-called natural-born leaders. The game-changing alphas. (It’s a valuable trait for a pilot, I might add.) Those high in enthusiasm are talkative and charismatic. They’re the life of the party. The ones who make friends with enviable ease. (Don’t you just love to … Continue reading Extraversion: The Price of Now
The search for meaning is inherent in the human being. In Japan there is even a specific word to define the importance of having a purpose in life: Ikigai. The Ikigai refers to the individual motivation, the one that makes us get out of bed every morning and that gives us the joy of living. There is no direct English translation. Ikigai does not need to … Continue reading Ikigai: the Search for Meaning
Would more money make you happier? Let me tell you a story. Markus Persson, a Swedish 36-year-old business man, spends his time on Twitter, where he talks about his life and that of his company. One day, he twitted something that will change his life. Markus created in 2009 the video game called Minecraft, a kind of virtual Lego game that has become a social … Continue reading Would More Money Make You Happier?
Not, of course, negative in the sense of bad or unpleasant. How could Continue reading Happiness defined negatively?
As humans we spend most of our lives in a state of perpetual craving and desire. We land a big promotion at work, but soon fantasize about continuing to move up the corporate ladder. We become consumed by discontent and dissatisfaction as we constantly compare our social standing to that of our peers. Wealth, status and power are engrained in our cultural ethos. However, all … Continue reading Escaping the Rat Race: Lessons from Buddhism
Epicurus’ analysis of happiness is one my mind returns to periodically. Continue reading Epicurus and Genuine Happiness
Why would you let go of the past? You have for sure nice memories, and lessons learned, which shape your personality. But letting go of the burden of the past would be important to your happiness. At least some of it. Many people live in the past; they remember their behaviours, the love stories that did not go well, their failures and disappointments. Such a … Continue reading Let Go of the Past
Life is constant change, Buddha and Aristotle already said it: change is a fact of life. But change has also been accelerating in recent decades. Massive disruption across the social, technological, political and environmental dimensions of our lives means that we are constantly trying to figure out how best to manage uncertainty. And for someone it can be scary. The origin of this fear can … Continue reading How to Embrace Change
Apparently most of us have a default level of happiness. No mater what our station is in life, we are all slightly dissatisfied. Slightly. Life is just never quite good enough, even when it really is. This default happiness level readjusts depending on your circumstances. Even if something great happens to you, like winning the lottery, you soon get over it and return to that … Continue reading The Pursuit Of Unhappiness
Hi everyone! Let’s talk about emotions today. I want to talk about them in a pure observational way. No trying to understand, no whys. The main questions I am curious about is whether there is a dominant feeling in your life and whether there are specific emotions associated with specific times of the day. Starting with the first: I think currently, there is no dominant … Continue reading Emotions
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – HOWARD THURMAN (SOURCE: THE LIVING WISDOM OF HOWARD THURMAN: A VISIONARY FOR OUR TIME) I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, ‘what do you mean the ONLY THING the world needs from me?! The world demands EVERYTHING from me!!!’ ‘It … Continue reading The Only Thing The World Needs From You
We all honor our own innate ideals of happiness. Our conception of “the good life.” Composing and recomposing our lives around this archetype of euphoria. But that’s the thing. Continue reading Different Definitions of Happiness: A reflection.
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.” – VIETNAM WAR. ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE Do you want to know the one reason you’re not happy right now? It’s because you’re hoping for something different. It’s as simple as that. … Continue reading The Hopeless Nature Of Hoping
Hi everyone, I want to talk about some acts of kindness today. Recently, I have been observing some small things that make people happy and this made me think that being kind may not be hard after all. The acts of kindness that I want to talk about today all involve reminding them that you remember them. Say, you have a friend that you hung … Continue reading Just be kind; It is not difficult
Hi everyone, I hope you all had a good week! I had a good one and I have been having good weeks lately and I want to talk about why. Spoiler: Routines made a big change on how my weeks turn out to be. I have always had this perfect life in my mind where I have established certain habits and have a routine based … Continue reading Routine is the Spice of Life
How would you illustrate what it means to do a good thing gladly and with pleasure, as distinguished from doing the same thing with reluctance, pain, and a sense of loss? Continue reading Your thoughts please: What’s an example of doing the right thing gladly?
Hi everyone, I hope you all had a happy week! Even if you didn’t, we will talk about happiness today, so we will end it happy. Maybe. Up until recent years, I had decided that happiness was the goal of life. We go through all ups and downs so one day we can learn how to be consistently happy. How to stay happy no matter … Continue reading Is Happiness the Goal?
