I don’t think I have to tell you that people aren’t happy out there. Life throws lots of curves at us that can throw us off and bring about a change in our mood. You’re morning coffee might have an after taste of the stuff you used to clean the coffee pot with last night, you get a flat tire, Bitcoin goes down (again), etc., all these things can bring about a change in the way we feel. What I would like to propose to you in this article is why this happens and hopefully once we determine the source of our problem we can do something to fix it.
Years ago during my undergrad I had a class on existentialism where we were having a classroom debate. The debate was about why people aren’t happy and students were raising their hands with what they thought might be the cause of the problem going back and forth. I don’t recall what the specifics of the arguments were but when it was my turn I told the class that the reason that people aren’t happy is because everything is defined for them. As usual everyone included the teacher seemed confused with me. I told the class to take for instance the case of an animal like a bear. Out in the wild if we were to observe this bear it would appear that it is getting along rather nicely. The bear does what he wants when he wants, it behaves in a way that appears “normal”. As far as the bear is concerned he is just being a bear and has no limitations. Now, what if we were to capture this bear and put him in a cage. The capturing of this bear restricts his freedom and limits him. This limiting of the animal changes his behavior. Then, he finds himself in a round 20x20’ cage where his movement is now restricted and now instead of roaming the forests freely he walks in circles. The bear’s circumstance is now defined by his limitations. The disturbance is apparent.
Looking at our own case, when we are infants we are care free. We don’t know what anything is or what we cannot do. As we get older and experience more and more of our life and what we can and cannot do is defined. We can’t have the new car, or this person doesn’t love me, all these experiences define our freedom and increase our limitedness. We take ownership of our assumed limitations, this is the process of our unhappiness.
After the class was over and we were all walking out into the hallway to go to our next class the girl who was sitting next to me walked up and asked “can you really talk to animals…?”. Yes, I think she was serious...
So, what can be done to regain our original state of happiness? Would it be possible to return to a natural state that is unhindered by our limiting experience?
Once again I hope you enjoyed the article and it got you thinking. Don’t forget to Upvote and resteem if you think others will enjoy it as well!
Very insightful, and yet so simple that I'm surprised I've never considered this idea before. It's like the loss of liberties that we experience while growing up and acclimating to society seems almost natural, and you don't even realize that it's happening.
Yup, true story!
This is posted in my blog please check it out... Kobo is my husband
3 EYE images please meditate...
If you need help to with the animals please let me know, or if you want to learn to talk to them.
Forgive me @artspirited but I think you missed the point of this posting.