Happy Life

The best part of working for a university is the opportunity to develop an intellectual life.  Cultural events, lectures, exhibitions and more are all at your fingertips.  On any given day, I can learn about constellations or opera or border politics.

Last night I attended a lecture on Happiness.  What makes for a Happy Life?  How do we even begin to define Happiness?

We explored the world of the ancient Greek philosophers, moving into modern psychology.

I found it all fascinating.

The upshot is that one of the primary factors in being happy is having healthy relationships and a sense of community.  Other listed factors were physical vitality, an active life, time to do things you enjoy, and a few other things.

It struck me over the last few days that over the last year I have slipped into habits that are making me unhappy.  Once again, I find that I have pushed down everything else in my life to make room for excessive work.  I'm letting the stress get to me. The stress, now that it has taken over so much, leaves me so drained at the end of the day that I go home and veg out, playing on the computer or even just staring into space, falling asleep and doing it all again the next day.  Just like I wrote about in my manifesto about 4 years ago now.

And it doesn't have to be like that.  Not at all.

I remember how hard those baby steps were.  I remember feeling weird and stupid in a gym.  I remember having to talk myself out of eating fast food.  I remember being tired ALL the time and every small thing taking so much effort.  I remember cringing at the price of personal training and gym memberships and real food.  I remember feeling like I wasn't worth the effort.

#5 resolution in that manifesto was: Tell people who love me and will support me what my goals are, so when it all seems pointless, they can lovingly remind me that I am worth the time, effort and expense it takes to lead a healthy life.

So I am reminding MYSELF, because I love me and will support me, I am worth the time, effort and expense it takes to live a healthy life.

-and you are, too, in case you were wondering.