Life, The Key to Happiness
Finding balance is a lifelong journey. John Lennon, I believe, sums this up when he explored the concept of happiness.
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
John Lennon
Finding Balance
Yin, Yang, Right, Wrong, Good, Bad, Holiness, Evil, Happy, Sad, Love, and Hate are concepts that buy for our attention as we strive to make sense of the emotional journey we call life. The number one request I hear from people with whom I have worked for the past 15 years is that they seek happiness. However, if seeking happiness is a true calling, why is this simple act so elusive to most who undertake its journey?
As a psychotherapist, I deal primarily with emotions. While many label emotions as maladaptive, and yes, this construct is socially supported by the myriad of pharmaceutical commercials that promise us a happy, carefree life every day where beaches and puppies are traded for a list of life-altering, if not “sometimes fatal” side effect in which you should “notify your doctor immediately,” we have yet to find a simple solution that will help us deal with our less than desirable emotions while teaching us skills to cultivate happiness and balance from within.
With all the complexities and miracles science and medicine have given us, we remain in the dark about our emotional landscape, a rich and diverse meadow many have wandered through. Still, few have seen the flowers within (paraphrased from Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Self Discovery
As a New Year begins, I am committed to understanding this emotion, as it pertains to not only my plight and, yes, a New Years Resolution to find Balance but also to help others begin to understand ways to open their lives towards the elusive art of cultivating happiness from within. As John Lennon states above, we cannot begin formulating this journey as an assignment. Instead, it is a journey of Self-discovery, a discovery of that Self we yearn to attain yet seems somehow elusive to our understanding.
So, what is your resolve to begin cultivating areas of happiness within your life? As the New Year begins, you too can shed the skin of the old, adapt new ways to find balance and attain your inner peace. As a new journey begins, I look forward to sharing professional and personal insights to balance work, life, health, wealth, and happiness within.
Dr. Thomas Maples
More from Dr. Tom
Are you being your best possible self? Dr. Thomas Maples explores our personal and collective journey to realize our ultimate potential through the lens of psychology, personal development, and the myths that drive our journey forward.
Fill Your Glass: The Disciplined Practice of Loving-Kindness – A Sacred Journey: Where Myths Unfold and Potential Awakens
- Fill Your Glass: The Disciplined Practice of Loving-Kindness
- The Architecture of Joy: Navigating Darkness to Find Your Light
- How to Find Spiritual Grounding: Healing a Fractured Soul through Integrity
- The Unshakable Anchor: Building Hope in a Fractured World
- Finding Grace in the Messy: Catholic Wisdom and the Psychology of Intentional Parenting
