How to achieve happiness (according to Bertrand Russell)
There are certainly different approaches and tips on how to achieve happiness. These are the thoughts you propose.
- Bertrand Russell was an English philosopher.
- Mathematician and writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.
- At first.
- It did not seem that someone like him had secrets or could tell us how to achieve happiness.
- In fact.
- Much of his life has been between disappointment and boredom.
- However.
- And perhaps precisely because of that.
- He managed to transform his life and learned to be happy.
This controversial thinker had the misfortune of losing his parents when he was only 6 years old, since then he has lived with his grandparents, who have imposed a very strict education on him, from a very young age he felt that life was almost unbearable. and then confessed to thinking about suicide several times.
However, Bertrand Russell found in knowledge a path to fullness, philosophy and logic allowed him to deepen his own experience, he has managed to give him universal reach, elevate his spirit and overcome his suffering, are some of the conditions to be happy, according to the philosopher.
For Bertrand Russell, closing up on the world only leads to sadness and boredom, if we focus on our problems, our failures, our shortcomings, our fears, etc. , we will only lose our enthusiasm for life, this coincides with Eastern philosophies and Lacanian psychoanalysis. These two currents suggest that he? It is a source of suffering or disease.
On the other hand, if we focus on its external aspects, life becomes easier, there are many realities in these external aspects. Knowledge, other people, work, leisure, etc. All of this makes life more interesting and rewarding.
Bertrand Russell points out that expansive attitudes bring joy, are also, in themselves, a source of energy and motivation, and always provide elements to have more strength in solving their own problems.
The expansive attitude does not arise spontaneously, but it must be cultivated, for B. Russell to be distracted by everyday activities is an attitude that opens the door to happiness, it is not to stray from introspection or reflection on oneself, because it is to a worldly life. But it would be about finding a particular balance that would have nothing to do with placing your foot in a place equidistant from the ends.
In this sense, it is also important to choose the right time and the right path. There’s a time to think about yourself and another time to focus on the outside. Think about your own problems only when it makes sense; the rest of the time, we had to turn our attention to the outside world.
What Bertrand Russell proposes is the culture of an orderly mind, if this is achieved, the mind will always be clearer and more oriented to the present, when you think of yourself you have to do it with the utmost rationality and concentration. question our own reasoning to determine its validity.
Bertrand Russell’s own life demonstrates something he said later: happiness is a success, it does not come from spontaneous generation, nor does it come from outside, the ability to be happy is just that: a capacity to work, cultivate and realize. , it is essential to have two virtues: effort and resignation.
The effort is to direct the energies towards the work that allows to achieve something desired. It also involves determination and perseverance. Nothing really precious is achieved overnight. And much less happy. Therefore, it is important to cultivate this attribute that brings together and guides efforts to achieve the goals.
Another essential virtue to happiness, Russell says, is resignation. Perhaps it is more necessary to talk about “acceptance”. Life brings inevitable and impossible-to-resolve situations, such as death, an incurable disease, or permanent loss.
While some situations cannot be reversed, we can increase our ability to accept them. Don’t waste your time trying to solve them or let them take our peace by writing them in our history in a way that won’t do us any good.
Bertrand Russell was one of the brightest men of his time and his thinking remains fully in force. From being an orphaned and sad child who felt lost in the world to becoming one of the most important intellectuals on the planet, the best livelihood for his words was his own life and his own accomplishments. We hope you enjoyed your approach to achievement, happiness.