11.20.2010

The Happiness Factor


I was listening to Dr. Brene Brown, an expert on authenticity, courage, shame, fear and vulnerability, lead a TED talk and I was blown away when she made the statement, "we are the most addicted, medicated, obese and in debt adult cohort in human history".

Shocking!!!!

Why is that? 

I've come to the conclusion that we are living a dream not our own. We have been programed to believe happiness and success are contingent on external things; and believe that those external things bolster our self worth. The result is self medication with drugs (illicit or prescription) and food or rack up debt trying to buy happiness through material items. We are numbing ourselves to the reality of dissatisfaction.

Our true sense of self is wrapped up in living OUR passions and dreams, whatever those may be. When was the last time you did an evaluation of whether your life is in alignment with your passions? Whether or not you are doing what you love and loving what you do? That sort of evaluation is integral to happiness and health.

Perhaps if more people were experiencing TRUE happiness, the kind that comes from living authentically there would be less prevalence of addiction, medication, health complications and debt...just maybe.

4 comments:

  1. This is so true. Sometimes life also has a way of shaking us and waking us up to the realization that we are not truly living our passions and putting us on the right track and it is when we try to swim against this flow that we experience anger and depression which then leads to self medication. I had a real experience with this. I was working at a very well known company sometimes putting in 16 hours a day and not getting paid over time but just because I was THAT dedicated to a job that had nothing to do with anything that I had ever loved before but that I had trained myself to love. I was forced out of this job due to an accident at work and did not know what to do with myself because I'd spent so many hours just "being" at this place where in my spirit I knew was not in alignment with my passion. Anyway, I wallowed in self pity for a while but came to realize that this was God's way of showing me that I was not fulfilling my life's purpose and not being true to my passions. So even though the money may be great if it's not fulfilling our purpose or our passion, our happiness is only temporary.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Always seek after that which you are passionate about and trust that when you love what you do and do what you love all else will fall into place. We can't put a price on happiness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. *shivering* with joy. this body of work is beautiful. Peta-Gay, I love your blog!

    ReplyDelete