Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
This year I’ve been thinking a lot about Happiness. In particular a happy life. This was mainly as a result of struggling with university life and career choices. I began questioning why people who are doing everything they want to are still feeling unhappy. Then I had this realisation that I had no idea what people meant by wanting a happy life. Was it waking up every morning full of excitement and adrenaline to start the day? Did a life like that even exist. Because if it did it sure does sound draining.
Then I began realising that Happiness in itself is such a broad concept. All this time I had been thinking about the type of happiness that makes you feel high and ecstatic but I should have been thinking about the type of happiness associated with gratitude, deep satisfaction and most importantly contentment. Instead of working towards a happier life I should be working towards a content life. Then I realised that maybe happiness wasn’t something to work towards, but was already within reach. I just couldn’t see it. This is when I began introducing gratitude into my life. It helped me become more conscious of all the things that I already had that made my life fulfilling and meaningful.
I came to a consensus that you can find the extraordinary in the ordinary, you just have to choose to see it. This then led me to write this weeks blog post about the beauty of an ordinary life.
What is your idea of a happy life?
I first want to start off by allowing you to form your own opinion on the matter. With words like happiness its important to define it on your own terms. I want you to stop living within the meaning of words whose definitions were crafted by other people. Its important to start creating your own definitions for words, like happiness, that are so vague and subjective.
Although my definition of happiness has connotations of peace and contentment. Yours may be totally different. And that’s totally normal. I think it’s important to know the type of feelings you want to associate with living the best version of your life.
Does an ordinary life even exist?
I know I am basically contradicting myself in this section but I just want to Clarify a few things. The first thing is that an ordinary life doesn’t really exist. I think this is a misconception created by a world that is so set on chasing the big moments in life. No day is ever really the same is it? Our lives are constantly filled with change and cool things. So our lives are anything but ordinary!
What I mean by an ordinary life is one that’s filled with repetition and joy from events that are deemed normal. For example, my life is currently filled with University and my friends and family. My life is not grandiose and flashy in any way. It is simple and quiet and I love it that way.
Secondly, I am not trying to offend anyone. I simply want people to see the beauty of an ordinary life. When I used to think of an ordinary life I used to view it as boring and underwhelming. Now that my perception has changed, it has made me more aware of the beauty of an ‘ordinary’ life.
The beauty of an ordinary life:
When you start to admire all of the things that you already have in life you begin to want less. You also learn to take things slow and take each day as they come. When we become so attached to the idea that happiness is linked with big achievements it is easy to get distracted and stress over the future. But when you see the beauty of the simple things in life you let go of the unnecessary stress and are able to be more at peace.
Before, when I linked my happiness with big achievements, I was always putting pressure on myself. I also found myself never truly happy and content with my life in that present moment. It also made me extremely stressed because I felt like whatever I was doing wasn’t enough. The ability to see the ordinary and every-day things in your life as something that brings you peace and contentment is truly life-changing. It allows you to focus more on yourself, worry less about the future and be more at peace.
Another huge benefit of living an ordinary life with contentment is that you become more present. When you begin to admire the beauty of your everyday life, it allows you to focus less on the future. For me, my everyday tasks like doing my bed, showering, drinking tea and chilling outside give my a great sense of happiness. And it is the happiness of these small things that are more stable and longer lasting than the happiness brought by big achievements.
The most useful thing that has helped me become more present is practising gratitude. You don’t even have to write it down, just thinking about the current things that you are happy about is enough. I personally do prefer to write it down as I can revisit them in the future.
Conclusion:
I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog post. A lot of what I wrote is from personal experience and would love to hear any of your own thoughts on this.