THE WAY OF HAPPINESS
Two years ago, in the middle of a growing and rewarding corporate career, I left it all behind and took a year off traveling with my husband and our two kids. We rented out our house for more than our mortgage, and traveled to my homeland of Romania and 11 other countries.
Up until then, I worked continuously, barely took a break in between jobs, or when we had our babies. But as the time passed, the gap between my inner wishes and my outer word increased, and didn't stop growing until we finally took off. In the first few months, I felt as if I had just walked out of one of those moving walkways. It took a bit to readjust to the slower pace of life. Then, once my brain defroze a bit, I started exploring what might it take to narrow that gap, and align my heart with my day-to-day life, and to be truly happy. Those early explorations eventually revealed to me the true passion I have for understanding what happiness actually means.
After spending over two years of inward exploration, I now understand that happiness is available at all times, to all of us. After reading ancient wisdom and positive psychology, I now understand that happiness is something that we can learn to cultivate, sort of like wisdom and maturity.
Through interviewing 25 people, I learned that like me, others also wrestle with choosing between what they think is the right thing to do, and what they feel deep down they wish to do. I found that happy people have clear channels, allow less "pollution" and outside influences to penetrate their minds. Happy people are courageous to listen to their heart of hearts. Those who are disciplined to do what they truly want to do, are happier. It’s that simple.
But the reality is never that simple. There are things that crowd life, making it complicated to be happy. We assume we have to choose between practical/rational and impractical/idealistic. We have to work not just for our present, but also for our future, and we assume this means we have to sacrifice happiness in the present.
We intuitively know that we are happier when we spend our day doing work not only that interests us. We have to find work that is meaningful, that fulfills our heart’s desire to achieve our purpose. We get a sense of accomplishment from working hard, from creating something that both has our mark and vision, and which does good in the world. That is what we crave, and that is possible and available to all of us.
