The key to a happy life 

The key to a happy life is the ability to transcend anxiety, find a balance, and recognise that the world has problems. This requires purpose (mental effort) and those of us who strive to better understand ourselves in the world come out the other side as a new person, with some peace of mind and a meaningful way to live.

Fundamental or accidental?

A limit to finding your true purpose is the fact that we do not know that some of the things we perceive to be truly fundamental today may actually be just accidental. For instance, the brain uses systematic patterns of thought to produce philosophy including science, mathematics, literature, ideas and beliefs including a belief in a deity to guide us towards new insights. What we need to understand is that none of these may be fundamental in themselves. They are just tools that our ancestors used to probe the unknown and to see what is possible – knowing that what is common for us is just a tiny sliver of what actually exists.

Finding true purpose

In the West, we have made the truth our highest value. This motivation while important is weak compared to the actual power of belief. We are born into a culture that often insists on a particular religious or ideological philosophy as fact and the only way to understand ourselves in the world, but adhering to this belief may cause anxiety by impeding insights necessary to achieve your true purpose. 

Anxiety is the green light to seek true purpose  

Especially nowadays, anxiety is often seen as something wrong and negative – a weakness or an illness. But anxiety is a fundamental ingredient of being alive. To feel and to think is to be anxious. How can you not be anxious when it is a natural response to a confusing and uncertain existence that you did not ask to be a part of? The trick is to try living with-and-through your anxiety as you move forward into the unknown, and as you take the leaps of faith into what you truly believe makes it all worth living and dying for.

How to manage anxiety

To manage your anxiety you need to develop a noble quest. Just as a boat must leave harbour, you have to let go of something in order to move forward toward your purpose, for instance from overstimulation to spaciousness. This may be by cancelling your TikTok account, or to stop listening to the news. Be aware of what you are looking at, and what you are listening to. You need to limit the amount overstimulation coming into your senses. Otherwise, it becomes a white noise preventing you from attending to what you need to do. 

Set your mind for self-reflection, introspection and exploration

Let go of the need to be liked, and focus instead on just being good. Develop a true individuality, based on principles rather than on what is going on around you. Adopting this ethical code will help you go forth from distraction to concentration on self-reflection, introspection, and exploration to bring your thoughts into the present moment where your anxiety will dissipate.

Happiness 

Your happiness does not depend on getting what you want. Your happiness depends on your state of mind. In this way, meditation is about protecting your own happiness.  Actually, it is the key to other people’s happiness too. It is not that you are not important, but you must also focus on what brings happiness to others because you resonate with those around you. 

Purposelessness

The Chinese believe Nature to be purposeless, but in the West when we say purposeless, it is a put down and there is no future in it. However, when the Chinese say Nature is purposeless they mean it as a compliment. It is like the waves washing against the shore going on and on forever with no meaning. Haven’t you ever gone on a walk with no particular purpose in mind? Well, it is at that moment that you are a perfectly rational human being because you have learned purposelessness. All music is purposeless. If the aim of music were to get to the final bar then the best musician would be the one who got there fastest. It’s the same with dancing. The aim of dancing is to dance and it’s the same with your life.

Let wisdom become your true purpose

The problem is that many of us believe that life has a purpose. Priests insist that we must each follow God’s purpose but when asked what that is they are silent. Here is the choice. Are you going to trust Nature or not? If you decide not to trust the purposelessness of Nature then you will need to fence yourself around with rules and regulations and laws and obligations. To really live you must have faith. You must trust yourself to the totally unknown, to a Nature that doesn’t have a boss because a boss is a system of mistrust. There is a wisdom in experiencing anxiety and insecurity. A wisdom that is hard-earned. Let this wisdom be your true purpose.