When asked, what do we want out of life? The majority of the population will say - "To be Happy," according to a bunch*1 of Social Psychology Researchers. For different people, happiness can be different things. For some, happiness can be sitting in - our backyard. Our new car. Our relationship. At the current moment, my happiness sits in getting lost. Do not get me wrong, I treasure all the things in my life - my family, all my friends, my pet, my bike, my apartment, my job, etc,. Luckily, I have a very good base, thus allowing me to treasure the moments when none of those things exist - in other words, spread my wings and fly.
There is this quote,
This encompasses everything that I feel when I say I like getting lost - when I detach myself, when I travel. When I travel, it allow my senses to heighten and to try to make sense of everything; the taste, the smell, the culture, the people. The person who I had built up at home is essential, but she is no longer important. Nobody knows who she is, what she has accomplished, where she has been. All of a sudden, she, me, I am, myself is nothing but an observer, a student, an absorb-er -- a present individual. That to me is happiness.
Although, sometimes those happiness churns into horrific memories when I have to witness poverty. Yet, I have accept that this is the world. It encompasses both, heart-stoppingly beautiful spaces and heart-stoppingly horrific places. Both moments remains with me, it changes my perspective on life in ways I cannot imagine. The moment when I get to sit and watch the sunrise, follows by endless wandering around ancient city of Machu Picchu. Or when I get to meet people, who I am so interested in getting to know, only to be saddens that we will have to part. These fragments, these moments makes up my entire journey and it shapes in me in many ways and many days to come.
These moments are my true happiness. When I sit in traffic in Tanzania or the square in Cusco, and appreciating every moment that I was lucky enough to be there. How happy am I...
... What is your true happiness?
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*1 yes, 'a bunch-' very scientific - But seriously, Martin Saligman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, to name a few.
There is this quote,
“Travel. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things- air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky- all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” -- Cesare Pavese
This encompasses everything that I feel when I say I like getting lost - when I detach myself, when I travel. When I travel, it allow my senses to heighten and to try to make sense of everything; the taste, the smell, the culture, the people. The person who I had built up at home is essential, but she is no longer important. Nobody knows who she is, what she has accomplished, where she has been. All of a sudden, she, me, I am, myself is nothing but an observer, a student, an absorb-er -- a present individual. That to me is happiness.
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| One happy moment: Machu Picchu |
These moments are my true happiness. When I sit in traffic in Tanzania or the square in Cusco, and appreciating every moment that I was lucky enough to be there. How happy am I...
... What is your true happiness?
--------------------- -
*1 yes, 'a bunch-' very scientific - But seriously, Martin Saligman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, to name a few.
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