Do what makes you happy – said everyone that cares about anyone. But what does that mean?
I came across an interview with Trevor Noah (TN) and Adam Grant (AG) of which they were talking about something that they recently had changed their mind about. TN replied with Happiness. He goes on to say that throughout his recent worldly travels each place had their own point of view on what happiness is.
For some it is contentedness, for others it is societal good. (I recommend watching the interview – they are two beautifully spoken humans)
I’ve always seen myself as a happy person, many layers of myself later I found that I was using this unified (or so I thought) idea of what happiness is, a certain pitch I would shape my voice into, a facial expression I would mould not dissimilar to the happy clown face.
From a neurological standpoint I have learned that if you look at yourself in the mirror and force a smile for a certain amount of time you do start to feel ‘happy’. You experience elevated feelings of light heartedness.
But what does it mean to be happy?
AG went on to refer to a notion from John Stuart Mill of what happiness is – happiness can only be pursued indirectly.
THIS.
This was a beautiful boom in my brain. It helped me clear up and envision the reality of what happiness is. Rather what happiness can be, it’s an effect of doing things that you feel aligned with your truth.
To find your truth –
Your truth is that little voice inside your head that can seem too quiet when something around you is making you feel uncomfortable.
It’s that quiet little voice that is saying I don’t like this, or on the other side is telling you how much you love this and you feel it in your whole body.
I heard a definition of what the truth is and it resonated deeply: The Truth is the sum of all possibilities.
It took me a moment to unpack what that actually means.
What I landed on was that we must open ourselves up to all possibilities in order to see the truth.
Our truth however lies within our bodies.
We have to quiet our mind in order to be able to listen to our bodies.
Enjoy this journey we are on here, this journey of feeling our experiences through our bodies.
That’s what happiness is all about, appreciating where we are in the present moment, knowing we are doing the best we can with what we have.