Happiness is so darn particular.
Happiness is when you do the right thing, at the right time, in the right place, with the right people etc etc etc.
We could discuss what happiness means for ages. That is not because the subject is complex, but because it is so subjective, that means everyone has their own opinions and beliefs about what happiness is.
Yet, here is an universal recipe, a recipe guaranteed to fake happiness in an indistinguishable manner:
- Enjoy getting old
- Accept death
- Trust uncertainty
- Expect disease
- Reconcile with illness
- Dance.
Enjoy getting old
You will always be just a child inside anyway. Not much to do to about that. But your body will get old. Enjoy that, the difference of how you feel on the inside with how you look on the outside.
What is age but a number?
Accept death
You will die. And it is not going to be at 100. Most likely you will die at about 88. But that is only if you reach 60. And that is only if you reach 45. And that is only if you reach 38. Which is only if you reach 25.
All probabilities in life expectancy compound.
But the bigger fact is that you are already dying. You’re in a head first collision course with death, and every hour gets you closer to it. Put it in the right perspective. Don’t think in minutes and seconds. Think in hours so that you can grasp the speed at which you’re currently dying.
Just constantly remember death, because your deluded brain thinks it’s eternal.
Trust uncertainty
You could loose everything you care for in the next hour. Not tomorrow like they say. In the next hour. a plane might crash or a driver text someone, not watching the road. a fuse may not work.
You may win a lottery. you may wake up to opportunity.
The reality is you have no idea what will happen in the next hour.
Expect disease
You are not perfect. you are very, very finely tuned. But that does not mean by far perfect. When shit hits the fan, all your fine tuned features will fail you. And you’re bound to feel shitty, a lot. From allergies to pathogens, from autoimmune problems to absorption deficiencies they’ll get to you.
That is the reason why you should constantly remember how great it feels to feel well. Just without anything in particular, but healthy enough, alive and kicking. Without a product. without a partner. Without the sun in the sky. Without a specific pleasure. Just with you, feeling normal. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Enjoy illness
When you do get sick remember you are still alive. That is good. But remember to accept death. Pain is shitty. Fear makes pain worse. Allow yourself to be weak while facing pain. Learn to wait the pain out like you’d wait a hiccup, but always do all you can to make it milder.
Be nice to those around you. Now, at least now that you’re sick, stop judging people. They’re doing their best handling a weak, needy creature they, for some reason, love.
Dance.
