Happiness seems to be the forefront of human life, entrenched within our purpose and explored through our actions of desire. Freud taught us in his Civilization and its Discontents(an essay I think you could read a thousand times and still get something new from), that happiness is our drive yet suppressed by society or civilization like a sacrifice as to appeal to a normative human condition controlling our urges for order.
I won’t get much into Freud’s take or many of the other Philosophers I’ve been studying as of late-for I have much to say myself and see reflections of my own thoughts through various other works. One could see happiness in the sense of eudaimonia as Aristotle contends this state is linked with our virtue. Then there are thinkers such as Julia Driver who merely sees happiness as a mental state untethered from things such as our morality or duty to either the self or others.
I see happiness in alignment with our purpose, and peace with accepting whatever has come before us. Happiness at this point could almost have a neutral notion as it is able to prosper even when ones world seems to have suffocated them whole, leaving nothing but trauma and turbulence circling the mind raw as it asks us not to fall into a depression or darkened state. Happiness is an understanding of life, that does not have to be fleeting, as some heavily influential thinkers such as Freud, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer have contended. If the feeling of happiness is a temporary state was the being truly happy, or merely seeing a flicker of their potential?
I don’t mean to say that one must be happy 100% of the time to have obtained happiness, for without suffering we would not be able to understand happiness linked with our emotional states at all. Happiness is a sort of enlightenment on our human earth that we must always relearn and come back to as much as we need to. It is a condition that may be fleeting but is not predetermined in such way, as our emotions linked with happiness and the being that understands themself as happy knows the other end of the stick quite well. And this is where our individual, yet collective, purposes come into mix with what happiness is to us and how we are to obtain it.
As a human visiting earth, we face much adversity and trauma which work to either dissuade the being from happiness, or propels them into a state of happiness upon ‘doing the work.’ When I say doing the work, I mean it in tangible and intangible ways-mental, physical, spiritual, etc. It is when we are face to face with the atrocities and beauties of life and can move our perspective into understanding happiness does not have to be temporary, but the physical manifestation before us is. And how can we use this situation to better understand life, better understand ourself, and better understand how to exercise our power on this planet. I fully believe the person battling a period of grief for losing a loved one, or maybe experiencing a horrific trauma can still attain happiness and this negative seeming influence is only an offering for a higher calling of its source.
Understanding the non dualistic sense of our being, interconnectedness with all is a root element of stabilizing the self to experience happiness at the forefront of our human condition. To obtain this happiness we must shed the scars of our past, remembering these wounds allow tending to their healing with positive intentions of growth, and with the desire to become a better version than the past self. There is always a possibility to become a better version of ourself which looks and feels different to everyone, but in striving for this being to prosper we link to our inherent connection with nature around us, our natural way of being, and remember our place in the universe.
There are many states of being, frameworks of thoughts the external imposes as to internalize detriments to the obtainment of happiness whether it be the feelings of victimization, or toxic coping habits, perhaps episodes of complete derealization from life itself. But it is our connection with life, appreciating our choice to be here on earth right now that is linked to the happy life we all desire and strive to live.
So how is happiness linked to our purpose? Well I may ask you, why are you here on earth if not to be happy? Was there some other way of being you feel you would prefer to experience more than all else? Why did you have to go through all those things you suffered if not to overcome and recalibrate your understanding of happiness to transcend this state into an even happier way of existing? It is quite often through our hardships we find out what we truly want and do not want out of our life, and are then able to integrate our awareness into action aligning us to this flourishing state. It is often through these hardships we awaken to understand how we want to spend our experience on earth in the best way possible to us.
I think happiness is meant to look and feel different to us all, despite the connection we all share. We are all fragments of this universe tethered together through different perspectives of being and different senses of purpose. It is when we find what not only drives us forward in finding enjoyment of life, but the harmonious balance of accepting personal experiences and what we are to make of them and how to act upon them. It comes with a surrendering to the universe that what has been placed before us is a tool to understand our purpose here on earth and even beyond its conscious grasp. You will often find that humans who believe themself truly a happy person do not say they never have a bad day, or have never faced a trauma or period of darkness within their experience. But this happy person has been able to accept this as a part of their journey to obtain happiness and continue its resurgence in higher degrees than they have ever felt before. They have used these forces as a drive to their purpose, and understand operating in their purpose is meant to instill happiness to themselves and others.
Happiness could be understood as a spectrum if you wish, as we may all have different understandings of its feeling as a state or experiences at different levels based on the personal work we have done. Happiness sought out for the intention of happiness is not enough to obtain its true essence, for one desiring happiness but does not feel it, will always push themselves further from the source itself as some sort of attachment. It is not something to be reached for when suffering like a cigarette, it is a shift in perception that allows one to perceive differently.
Finding your own personal drives based on your experience and exercising action that promotes the best version of the self that is linked to the holistic comprehension of the universe is where happiness is obtained. It is allowing what has happened, happening, and to happen, but to remember peace through it all and the temporary external environment that does not have to take you away from your internal state of happiness you may remember or create. It is remembering or discovering the actions you can take in your life that betters all to your own understanding and allows you to understand yourself to the highest degree. In understanding your own nature, you will also understand nature itself and that this link is tethered to the betterment of all. In things being sought out to become better, is where humans strive to be the best version of themselves. And maybe the happiest person is not even this best version of themselves, but they are committed to the path and they are at peace with who they are presently. They are able to see and maybe not understand their purpose in terms of a definition or a set goal in life, but have intermingled their expression of consciousness as the human they are presently and use action to pursue and surrender.
Maybe you still can’t see how our happiness is linked with our purpose, and that would make perfect sense to me. But I truly believe that small steps in taking action that allow you to feel a sense of purpose by taking action that you believe is in alignment with your most healthiest happiest self is the most beautiful place to begin. There will be times you do not feel happiness, and maybe have forgotten what it feels like to be happy at all-but through self discovering may you find and connect to this true source of happiness and flourish as the being you have the potential to be.
