Love and Happiness

I will admit that I have always struggled with the notion of happiness and its semantic subjectivity. What does it mean to be REALLY happy? And can you describe yourself as a happy person if you also value your unhappiness? Obviously, this will be felt and interpreted differently by just about everyone. Author Emily Smith noticed trends in her own investigation into the differences between a 'happy' life and a 'meaningful' life. She notes that a meaningful life will likely be a hard life (because you're giving back and sacrificing), and that is somewhat different than what we typically consider a happy life. 

After reviewing research and questioning lots of people, she suggests 4 common "pillars" of a meaningful life: 1) having relationships that are defined by a sense of belonging, 2) having a purpose or something worthwhile to do with our time, 3) crafting narratives that help us understand ourselves in the world, and 4) having experiences of transcendence or self-loss. This sense of meaning isn't handed to us, we have to search for it on our own. Smith says:

"The key in meaning is about connecting and contributing to something beyond yourself. If you’re busy because you have two different jobs, you’re raising children, I would say that the way to find meaning is to ask yourself how are the things that you’re doing supporting the people and the communities that you love? Even if you don’t find the nature of your work meaningful, you can find meaning by adopting this kind of service mindset."

So it's not about doing something 'lofty', it's about realizing that what you do is meaningful, even if it's the most mundane task there is. It's about understanding that a life of integrity involves service, and that there's no shame in just doing what's necessary for you, your family, or for our collective humanity. 

I saw another take from Tim Herrera, where he talks about a Mayo Clinic study that found you only need to love 20% of your job to be happy with it. Even people who loved 50% of their jobs didn't show a marked improvement in happiness over the 20%ers. So, you don't have to love ALL of it (I am romantic enough to hope that you can find more than this minimum), for those days that you 'wonder' if it's all worth it, try finding your 20% and digging in. 

Happy Wednesday! Hope you all have a great WELLNESS AFTERNOON. Don't forget to find us under the stairs for a 2:00 snack before heading off to your first session (2:30). Check the link below for your session location. :

WELLNESS AFTERNOON SESSIONS

Thursday afternoon at 4:00 everyone is invited to attend and debrief the Sri Lanka tragedy in the Wellness Oasis. It will be closed to all other activities during that time. Please feel free to just drop in if you feel moved to do so.