Hector and the Search for Happiness
Good evening
It's that time of the evening when I sit down with a cup of decaf coffee and try to leave my mark on the world and leave my impression in peoples minds, so hopefully somehow I go on. And I guess also decompress myself a little bit.
The other night I found myself watching "Hector and the search for Happiness". It has Simon Pegg in it, he's one of my favorite actors.
It's about a psychiatrist who doesn't know if he feels happy, and doesn't know if he's helping his patients, so he decides to go on an adventure to find happiness.
Let me say I was immediately hooked.
I've spent so much of my life lately trying to dodge unhappiness, trying to manage chaotic scenarios, trying to keep my anxiety in check, and quite oftentimes wondering where my happiness is.
It's a beautiful and funny movie, so I wont spoil it, but I was hoping that the things I found that served me might just serve you somehow this week.
1. Happiness can't be found by trying to avoid unhappiness: This one hit. I've often thought over the last 4 years that if I could just avoid or prevent the situations that caused chaos, stress, and unhappiness, that it would somehow be happy. That was all I needed to do to somehow make my life magically better. It's not the case though. I can be happy in troubled times, and I can be unhappy of untroubled times. Trying to avoid the one won't make my life full of meaning of thriving. It just means that I don't have to deal with so many issues. But the crucible is where we're formed. A good friend sent me this quote from Seneca, apparently a really smart guy. “I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”
2. We don't find happiness in the pursuit of happiness. We find happiness in pursuit. If we turn happiness in to a goal. Something we are trying to pursue, it's a constantly moving goal post. A point on the horizon never reached. If we're hungry, we don't pursue hunger. We pursue food. We do something that will be filling. Often times I'm happiest when I'm not wondering or asking myself if I'm happy, or scared, or have anxiety. I'm happiest when I forget it all and I'm pursuing things that make me happy. In the moments that make me forget myself. Whether it's lifting weights, or going for a run. Sharing a funny memory with my mom, or getting her to pose for silly pictures with me. It's when I shut off my mind and lose 5 hours because I've been putting a puzzle together. Happiness is found when I lose the pursuit of happiness, and just find myself in the pursuit of life.
I hope you can find something in there that serves you as i did