I'm smoking again because I might drink myself to death with nothing to do, my benevolent overlord closed the state again, and my guitar strings won't ship.
Ok, but in theory, if you ask this question and follow it’s course- doesn’t this just become the new obsession you’re jumping too? Like, there you were chasing this career and then had some “epiphany” and decided to just travel around vagabond style or start a band or an NPO or whatever, take Piano lessons or wrote a novel... and then you had this “epiphany” that the whole time the reason you weren’t happy or didn’t feel right or whatever... was because you were doing these things when instead- you should be out “living.” So... where do you start there? Guess you’d be off to try and figure out what living looks like and then try something you think is “living” and then if it still isn’t right... jump to the next thing?
It’s sounds kinda profoundly deep on the surface- and it has the classic philosophical foundation of “is this really life...?” To prop it up... but while it’s good to take a little self inventory here and there... trying to live is a good portion of living. once we take survival out of the equation all that’s really left is time to figure out what you want to do or what gives you purpose or enjoyment... and then live long enough for that to change as you likely change through life. Or not. I mean there’s a solid nugget of truth buried in there but not really addressed by the quote- if you’re keeping yourself busy just to avoid confronting traumas or truths then what you do probably isn’t going to matter much as happiness is influenced by the external but is largely internal.
People were getting upset at celebrities sending messages about being stuck in quarantine because they have these huge houses and all these ways to stay active and entertained and enjoy their spacious properties unlike a good majority of people who were or are cooped up. But even with all they have, many of those celebrities are unhappy- yet there’s plenty of folks living practically in broom closets happy as clams at quarantine, playing games and working on projects and enjoying the time and stillness and lack of social obligations this brings.
So happiness is largely an attitude. There are few places on earth where some people don’t feel joy. Those villages in “save the children” commercials and such- you don’t think those people ever have good days, get married, play games? That’s not to say their conditions aren’t horrible or shouldn’t be improved; nor that they don’t have sad experiences or deeper sadness more often- but if you ask around you’ll find people all
Over who others describe as “generally happy..” or “cheerful” “positive” etc.
The point being that one of the primary roots of happiness lies in ones ability to reconcile and accept their reality for what it is- and another is ones ability to view things in relative terms and appreciate what is there as opposed to fixating on what is not there. As an example of the internal nature of happiness- a person who is given drugs which act upon the brain to release hormones and chemicals which the body produces naturally, can be happy and giddy even when external situations are objectively horrible. It bears mentioning that the levels of these chemicals often exceed natural untrained production, and some peoples systems just don’t or can’t produce even baseline levels of these chemicals. That said- in therapy for such conditions one of the primary tools that is not drugs- is to train a persons mind to help overcome the lack of chemicals and use certain techniques to increase their ability to cope with reality. So that still shows that accepting and reconciling reality..
.. or contextualizing it, are key to happiness and that happiness is primarily internal and not external. Well- lasting happiness and a general state of happiness. Also note that “accepting reality” doesn’t mean not resolving to change reality. The first step in most any endeavor to change reality however is to understand and accept the situation as it is, then asses challenges and opportunities as well as tools and resources so one can formulate a plan.
So perhaps, jumping around is living. A large part of living and of surviving is being adaptable. There is a certain give and take. Jumping too often won’t allow you a chance to really see if you like something, to really learn anything well, and you’ll miss the opportunities and advantages and experiences that are only gained through stability and long term building. Not jumping enough will see you stagnating, missing opportunities, stunting your growth and limiting the breadth of experiences and diversity that you could draw from. You might never discover things that you would have loved, or gained the basis to understand what is truly important to you and why.
Finding that balance, the balance that is right for you- is a major part of life. What shapes your life and makes it your own. It’s hard for anyone to tell you if you’re living- let alone if you’re “living right” or “living your best,” and we can’t even really rely on ourselves to determine that. The best we can maybe hope for is a combination of considering others thoughts and our own feelings to decide if we feel like we appreciate what we have and are appreciated. If we are happy, if we feel a sense of purpose.
The real question isn’t how much you jump around or even necessarily if you’re running from yourself. Sometimes you may need to run from yourself. Facing yourself is no different than facing anyone else in the regard that to be successful you need to have the skills and knowledge to do that, and you have to be ready and capable of that confrontation. Sometimes we don’t become who we need to be, learn what we needed to learn to face ourselves, until we’ve ran from ourselves for a little while.
So the real question is wether you feel a hole- and of you feel a hole... who put that there? Is that a home society told you you have, a hole you told yourself you should have, or is that actually something you feel you’re missing? If you feel like you’re missing anything... in an ultimate “zen” sort of way... whatever you’re missing will ultimately only be found in yourself, sometimes after you’ve gained the experience you need to realize that by trying to fill it with things from outside yourself and learned nothing will do it. But sometimes that hole is coming from inside us- a fundamental need not fulfilled. It’s all relative. Happy hunting.
Over who others describe as “generally happy..” or “cheerful” “positive” etc.