There are wonderful moments in which we have everything, where each aspect is held in an almost prodigious balance, however, this magic dissipates quickly, or simply ends, it is then that one realizes that at the end of the day, the important thing in this life it is to be well with oneself, to have peace, to have peace.
The Polish sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman points out that we currently live in a consumer society that invites us to desire what others say we lack, to abandon what we already have and to make fleeting use of what is offered to us. , in a way, in unsatisfied creatures, people who value immediacy and not tranquility, who long for what they don’t have instead of appreciating what they already have.
- “Sometimes we can go years without living at all.
- And suddenly our whole life is concentrated in an instant.
- -Oscar Wilde-.
This culture often makes us despair when we realize that happiness never comes, and if it does, it is as fleeting as a wink, like the dew drop that disappears with the midday sun. That is when we blame property, the political arena. , our bosses, our families and the people who may have promised us eternal love without knowing that their conception of eternity has not exceeded a quarter.
We become orphans of self-esteem, emotional vagrants who will take the time to understand that sometimes having everything is accepting what is already around us: ourselves, our families, our friends and our own ability to create, not stop being fit.
Many languages present in our world have the peculiarity of limiting in a single word ideas that, in other languages, require many terms to be defined. In Japan, for example, is there a curious expression called Y?Gene? (??), which can translate into the deep, mysterious and intense emotion a person feels when observing the universe.
It is, above all, the ability to look at the world with the heart or feelings to acquire a deeper wisdom about what surrounds us, something like this can only be acquired by a relaxed, focused and peaceful mind that has learned to prioritize make eternities meaningful. This is also what Reinhold Messner thinks, who until now is considered the best climber in the world.
He was the first to reach the highest peaks in the world without oxygen, and mostly in solitude, a lover of nature, extreme experiences, often criticized for his personality, someone who learned very early that true happiness is moments, that more intense Complete and true wellness is not achieving and accumulating things, but doing what we love and observing the wonders that surround us.
This state of mind in which we feel that we have everything and that happiness embraces us like an invisible but comforting veil is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined in 1990 as a state of fluidity. Being immersed in an activity, one’s own positive feedback upon achieving a sense of recognition of well-being and self-efficacy, is what defines this fundamental joy of being to which we all must aspire.
Today’s human being still lacks something, buying a next-generation phone means that another with better benefits will be launched soon, getting a job gives us happiness, but that happiness disappears when the task becomes routine and we do not feel satisfied We start passionate relationships, but little by little the void appears where, once again, we feel that something is missing, that this love is incomplete.
“When you understand that it is not about fighting, but about accepting and sinking, you will have understood the meaning of life.
It could almost be said with irony that these voids, these indescribable, eternal and sometimes even dying needs, are like a “Trojan horse” hidden in our brain that will always invite us to seek something else, because dissatisfaction invites us to research and the search. for a new discovery, but before we become the eternal Ulysses, in a journey of no return, it is worth stopping and simply enjoying what we already have.
Those moments, when we finally realize that we have everything we need, appear when we discover our passion and dedicate ourselves to it. Reinhold Messner found him on the mountain, can we find him in another fan, in our own work, in our family, in sport, in art?Because happiness is first and foremosth a goal and an activity, it is to make decisions, it is to balance the present moment with a concentrated, satisfied and competent mind.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls it an “optimal point”. Is it a state that is reached when we set aside pressures and anxieties, where mental noise disappears and resistances fall, limiting attitudes?An adventure in our personal growth in which it is worth investing every day, every moment.
Images courtesy of Andrea Marsh, Art Mesmer-K.