Finding yourself

Eudaimonia

If we fragment the word, we can see that "eu" means "good", while "daimon" refers to a minor deity or guardian spirit. Therefore, this means: "happiness is to be well and to live well". This develops once we feel the satisfaction of being proud of our cognitive, moral, emotional growth... For Aristotle, happiness is the supreme good of man, that is, the fullness of life. I dare say that happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, just as Aristotle concludes. If we do what is good for us, what fulfils us and saves us from the darkness, we find the home called happiness. Home can be people, even objects that we caress with nostalgia, places full of memories, the rays of the sun when you open the blinds of your window, the sound of the rain, opening a book and feeling the story in the palm of your hand... there are thousands of experiences that fill you with gratitude and show you how important it is to keep breathing and to collect days full of love and other days full of sadness to learn from it. 

There are certain moments when loneliness has a different facet to what everyone thinks, that is, many people fear it because of the thoughts that can wander in your head and make you feel more nostalgic. There are other people, myself included, who see solitude as happiness, I mean, it produces eudaimonia to breathe and listen to the heartbeat around our world, that world in which we are ourselves and we can only judge if it is really necessary. No one can judge your thoughts, as we saw in the previous chapter. Your mind is your resting place, even if it is filled with negativity, a breeze of wind can blow away what is unnecessary for your well-being and leave rays of sunshine to flood your soul with eudaimonia. 

All human beings seek happiness, whether by the wrong or the right path, but we always try to keep our feet on the ground despite the lack of lifeboats in the midst of an ocean full of insecurities. The daimon is an important piece for the human being, because it is capable of dominating and directing the life of the man who has not individuated himself as an invisible master. It is the unconscious itself, and it has even been used as a synonym for the soul itself. Many people see happiness as a life purpose, as a character that never dies, whether it is because of the circumstances life brings you. Therefore, the choices we make for and about ourselves are important for cognitive growth. Why? Because if we really do things without looking at the judgement of others, we will enjoy the present and see the future closer to our reality. The future cannot be built easily, but we can build the present by imagining the future we want to have with the decisions coming from the soul. The potentials of the soul never cease to manifest in the present, as their primary function is to recognise the mistakes of the past by focusing decisions on their corresponding stages.

Does anything reduce eudaimonia? Chronic stress. This is stress that exhausts people day after day, destroying body, mind and life. For example, an unhappy marriage can lead to this stress, money problems or even problems at work. The consequences can be varied: anxiety, insomnia, muscle pain and a weakened immune system. If we avoid happiness, we reach a totally negative point where stress is the protagonist. Human beings limit themselves to achieving all their goals, but they are not able to take care of their mental health. When we want to pass an exam, we spend long nights studying, but we don't get enough rest. Therefore, it is normal to wake up the next day with a lot of sleep and accumulated stress. So, happiness in those moments is null and void. Unfortunately, thousands of people do not usually have this temporary stress, that is, they live with the habit of waking up every day with anxiety or experiencing insomnia at night. One of the reasons why we have these bad moments is the lack of self-reflection. If we reflect on our present decisions, look ahead and pray that we can be someone important tomorrow, eudaimonia will appear effortlessly. 

From my experience, I have often reflected before going to sleep on the plans I made that day, in order to carry out the organisation of my mind and the decisions I will make the next day. It is useful to feel your own ego, just by meditating and focusing on the present breath, you can keep your feet on the ground in a healthy way. I assure you that this is not temporary, once you meditate and get hold of your mind, there is no way out of saying "no" to self-reflection. Reflection is an unusual human action, as many think that making decisions for yourself can damage the decisions of others. If we reflect on them with kindness, the damage to the mental health of others will not persist.  

"I have tried not to laugh at human actions, not to weep over them, not to hate them, but to understand them". - Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677).