“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live in the present moment, wisely and earnestly.”
Buddha (Religious Leader)
“A human mind is a wandering mind and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.”
Matthew Killingsworth (Author, Stumbling On Happiness)
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
Dalai Lama (Tibetan Leader)
I used to be neurotic.
(Okay, maybe I’m still a little neurotic.)
I used to worry about everything.
My health.
My career.
My relationships with other people.
At the same time, I was weirdly proud of my ability to worry about things.
Look at all this crap I’m worried about!
I must be super important if I have all this stupid crap in my life!
Then I started having panic attacks.
I used to think panic attacks were something that only affected weak people.
Nope — they can happen to anyone.
(That, or I’m just weak. Or both?)
I raced into the emergency room one day and told the nurse I was having a heart attack.
I was out of breath and lightheaded and my heart was pounding.
She took one look at me and told me to sit down because I was only having a panic attack.
Now I was panicked AND embarrassed.
Had I really worried so much in life that I was having full-blown, biological, uncontrollable, fight-or-flight response?
Yes, I was.
My worrisome mind had made me miserable and unhealthy.
It wasn’t until many months later that I was able to manage my overactive mind and get present and purposeful with my life again.
As I became more present and purposeful, I became happier and happier.
Why Intentional Activity Is The Key To Happiness
The purpose of life is to be happy.
The end.
Your ultimate endpoint in life is not a job title or an annual salary.
At best, those are average goals, or average outcomes.
Your ultimate endpoint is not your lifestyle either.
The actions you want to wake up and do on a daily basis are important, but they are not your ultimate endpoint.
Your true endpoint is how you feel.
Your true endpoint is pleasure, or happiness.
The problem is that what makes you happy is not what will make someone else happy.
Another problem is that what makes you happy now, might not make you happy later.
Happiness is complex, but it can be measured and broken down into understandable components.
Continue reading here: How To Live In The Present Moment | Isaiah Hankel
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