Finding Happiness & Wholeness
In life we deal with two things: macrocosms and microcosms. The macrocosms of life are the variables with which we have no control over. Think bad weather, we can’t change that. Perhaps economic decline, also out of our hands. But what we can control is response to these external macro events that inadvertently impact and effect our microcosmic landscape.
Our lives are governed by a series of choices. Choices backed by intention. Every decision is a tributary along a river of infinite tributaries. Like a river has a source, there is also an end; the mouth, where the river meets the ocean and you are then in the ether of the sea.
A choice made very day becomes a habit, and a habit over time eventually becomes your behaviour. Behaviour, in conjunction with your attitude, perception, state of consciousness, dictates the way in which your life evolves. Do you move into an elevated state of being, or do you move into a limited state of being?
Over the last couple of years I have learnt that the macrocosms of life can impact your microcosms to a degree in which you are thrown out of equilibrium. The degree in which we choose to attach ourselves to something outside of us, is the very response we will experience when our external environment changes, and sometimes, without planning it, we have to uproot our entire life in order to force a needed change.
Understanding that we have power over our microcosmic landscape gives us the power to shift when a shift is needed. Most of the time, what we truly need is ourselves and nature, and together, it is the purest form of medicine for anyone who needs to see a doctor.
To be truly stoic, however, we remind ourselves that we can only control what we can control, and anything outside of that is not worth having an emotional response to. Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman emperor once said that “you have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
The more I centre, and the more I travel inwards, the more I feel whole and free. It is as though I am unbounded by my external environment and rather accepting that life is a combination of two things:
- Gratefulness
- Presence
With the gratitude of the present moment and awareness of the present moment, that is literally all we need to have the awareness for ourselves, our environment, and our lives. The beauty of stoicism, which is the school of hellenistic philosophy, is that we have a set of principles to guide us through the very peaks and flows of life.
I’ve learnt that not everything requires a reaction, and not everything requires mental capacity. To be in the analytical mind and not in the body or the heart sounds like a recipe for disaster. Living from the heart and the mind, otherwise coined as heart and mind coherence by the great Joe Dispenza, a well known and respected neuroscientist.
To believe we will ever be whole might be a misconception on the very reason why we exist in this reality. Yet, we all have opinions and beliefs that subconsciously dictate the life we really end up living. Striving for wholeness is a completely different argument. I call it the continual pursuit of self-development, with the principles of stoicism and spirituality as guide stones of faith and foundation.
What I know to be true, for me, at least, is that this life is a journey to be lived, experienced, and cherished. The meaning of wholeness continually changes. One day it could be to strive for some form of personal success, the next it could be to find internal happiness. But, overall, each and every facet of wholeness, whether it be success, or happiness, all contribute to the final objective of feeling fulfilled, happy and enriched.
There is no secret bullet, ore recipe for the perfect life with all the perfect answers. All I know for sure, is that we are all creators and co-creators in this beautiful world and we should all strive to find internal happiness and wholeness, regardless if that is ever truly obtainable or not.
It is in this search for meaning that we find ourselves finding ourselves. Our answers may all be different, but we are all heading in the same direction; forward.
