<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.67903632522419131628072882954%2FTHE%20ERA%20OF%20DIGITAL%20HAPPINESS_AanviJain_1.webp?alt=media&token=ccf2a536-190b-46bd-ab94-6a9b6df3886e" alt="" width="765" height="589" /> It is a lazy Sunday; imagine yourself scrolling through your Instagram feed with no motive except passing the time. Suddenly you come across a beautiful picture of the Alps posted by your sister's colleague's brother. For the first few minutes, you are amazed by the beauty, but later, a wave of sadness dawns upon you as you wish it were you who was enjoying the snowy Alps instead of sitting at home.&nbsp; We all have undeniably experienced such moments in our lives frequently. We see random pictures and stories online of people enjoying and fill ourselves with this dread of missing out and not living life to the fullest. While you are occupied by your thoughts, making you feel unhappy for not taking a trip to Europe or eating an aesthetic breakfast in a cute cafe, you overlook that what you see on social media is only the good bits of the person's life.&nbsp; Your sister's colleague's brother might be posting gorgeous pictures of the Alps, but do you know about him getting hypothermia due to the freezing weather afterwards. Of course, you don't; nobody ever publicly shares their struggles.&nbsp; The initial intention of social media was to bring people all around the globe closer; while it was successful in achieving that, it did introduce some new issues to people&rsquo;s lives. Everyone is always keen to know about what is going on with the other person, leading to a person spending hours stalking acquaintances or unknown people. Knowing what the other person is doing might disrupt our happiness, making the aimless scrolling more harmful to our mental health than we intend it to be. To seek gratification causes us to post all the happy moments of our lives; Simultaneously, we expect a vast audience to respond. We spiral down into disappointment when the results don't meet our expectations. Even if we look happy online, at the end of the day, we are gloomy. Digital happiness brings us no good; instead, it develops feelings like envy and hatred towards one another.&nbsp; Our hunger for approval and praise drives us crazy, deeply stuck in this never-ending competition with all our companions trying to look better online. Our realities might be completely wrecked, but we are too focused on what is going on in the e-world to pay attention.&nbsp; While always trying to prove to the online world that we live the &ldquo;perfect&rdquo; life with fancy meals and stress-free, healthy lifestyles, we have entirely forgotten to embrace it. In the struggle to be our best selves, we overlooked our failures and flaws; we forgot the real meaning of happiness.&nbsp; Now we only smile when posing for a picture; we only laugh for a video; we only care to show others that we are good. Our happiness became digital and fake, all our motives to do good got corrupted, and we lost our true selves in this dark maze of social media.&nbsp;

The Era of Digital Happiness

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.38291449564924561628072884245%2FThe%20Philosophy%20of%20Love_IgnjatMilinkovic_1.webp?alt=media&token=d674f6c3-560e-41c3-809a-4caf2fb455aa" alt="" width="765" height="478" /> <h2>Mysticism and Illusion of love</h2> One of the essential topics that interested humans from the very beginning is Love. As social beings, people seek relationships. They write unfulfilled and even tragic love stories. Most of these stories become legends, and some remain myths.&nbsp; &ldquo;Like a waver of fine cloth, they spun the tales and legends of love into an amazing tapestry of the human psyche.&rdquo; From the story of Eros and Psyche, across the troubadours of the 12th century to Shakespeare&rsquo;s Romeo and Juliet, we can see that love is the impulse to live. Lovers are the greatest utopians, and their Love is the most wondrous utopia. In love, we feel more than we should, we ache more than we think, we dream more than we live, and we say the things in which we reasonably doubt. In love, there is nothing reasonable. Love is a state of mind without balance and without rethinking. That is why the ancient Greeks considered love to be sickness and those in love to be sick. Even the oath lovers took, had no judicial value.&nbsp; &ldquo;Take good care, my son, that you never sacrifice your reason for the love of a woman&rdquo;, Creon says in Antigone. While he speaks about Antonio and Cleopatra, Plutarch says: &ldquo; The soul of the one who is in love lives in the other one&rsquo;s body&rdquo;. Love cannot be spoken of wisely, for love is not a matter of the mind but the senses and feelings, and because love is true only when it is blind, it is not subject to any measure of reason. A man in love is a mystic who lives by illusion, who believes in miracles, but not the obvious, who invents fortunes and misfortunes, and finally, who builds plans without proportion and logic, quite contrary to everything he would have done if he had not been in love. In love, man seeks destiny in divination. He is encouraged by words, and he does not believe his eyes and ears. <h2>Love and religion</h2> <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.38291449564924561628072884245%2FThe%20Philosophy%20of%20Love_IgnjatMilinkovic_2.webp?alt=media&token=9f7c992c-9752-4021-8978-2f1bdf4d95ac" alt="" /> In love, as in religion, it all starts with a feeling and believing in the unbelievable. Love is proof of intelligence because a man without ideas cannot love since love is the greatest wisdom and the finest spirituality. St. Teresa tells Lucifer that he is unhappy because he cannot love, and St. Francis made women out of snow. In the Christian world, the saints were in love, but in the pagan world, the gods were also in love. Even the goddess Rhea, the mother of Zeus, loved Phrygian young man, the handsome Attis. One of her sons, Pluto, was dying of love for Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, and the other son, Zeus, was sowing love through all the Greek roads through which he passed. &ldquo;Love to be loved. For God punishes according to justice&rdquo;- Here with the Greek lyricist, philanthropy and love are the same; and indisputably, those feelings are inseparable.

The Philosophy of Love

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.9327426980005721628072884736%2FHRM%20and%20Happiness_IgnjatMilinkovic_1.webp?alt=media&token=33329d4c-41ad-4382-95bb-fc985dde9228" alt="" width="765" height="510" /> Capitalism as an economic system is pulling strings all around the world. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected as an outcome of massively enlarged trade and cultural exchange. Corporations are spreading their business and manufacturers to other countries in search for nominal costs and expenses. Acquisitions are more frequent today than ever before.&nbsp; The world is much faster, stumbling and rushing towards higher revenues, no matter what. CEOs have only one aim- higher income, with lower expenses. In that rat race, we all forget the primary resource, without which we couldn&rsquo;t accomplish any of these. Hands, minds, and motivations of all of those who are making teams and personnel of the big and small corporations have become secondary objectives. They are taken for granted, exploiting every pair of hands they can. Of course, not every company is alike. Some of those are trying to refocus on people, understanding that only those people, which we call employees, are the only ones relevant and capable of building up the quality and quantity of products and reputation to the organizations and institutions. Research is still trying to find out how to motivate, encourage and increase the happiness of the workers to fulfil their self-accomplishment and employee satisfaction. Many of the theorists from different backgrounds share their views, which are applicable and relevant for today&rsquo;s business problems. Let&rsquo;s peek at the most suitable ones. <h2>The hierarchy of needs</h2> First, conceptualizations of motivation and general happiness, which we will reveal, explain motivation from satisfaction with basic human needs. The study of organizations is streaming their attention to the idea that people are motivated to use their job to satisfy their own needs. The most famous theory of human needs in organizations is possibly the one according to Maslow. His thesis was that if people grow in an environment and collective which does not meet their necessities and demand, they will not function as healthy, happy, and well-adjusted individuals. If people don&rsquo;t have their needs met on the job, they will not be efficient. Consequentially, the product on which they are working will not satisfy the needs of corporations or users. According to this theory, people have five types of needs: physiological, safety, belongingness or love needs, and esteem needs which lead to self-actualization, and self-fulfilment, which is equal to happiness in the widest possible sense. On the other side, Alderfer&rsquo;s ERG theory of needs is correspondent to Maslow&rsquo;s five needs theory, and he is choosing: Existential, Relatedness, and Growth. In both cases, happiness is a concept that could be equivalent to higher accomplishments in a working environment. <h2>How are managers applying these theories?</h2> Since self-actualized and happy workers will use their maximum creative potential, it is reasonable to reach this state by allowing them to meet their essentials. Some companies allow their employees to meet physiological needs with various incentives to support their health (physical activity, team sports). To meet the social needs of their employees, some corporations are organizing a family outing near the office, hiking, or different types of team building. An essential way of meeting the needs of respect and esteem is to recognize employee achievements. Some companies reward their employees who have found a way to improve customer service or improve company performance. <h2>What the numbers tell us</h2> As we can see, the human resource factor is relevant for the companies outcomes on the market. Employee happiness is the most important value if you want your business to flourish. Actively engaged employees are emotionally connected to and invested in creating value for their organizations. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.9327426980005721628072884736%2FHRM%20and%20Happiness_IgnjatMilinkovic_2.webp?alt=media&token=6b9501e0-a4bf-4ddb-8972-4238b60d1790" alt="" width="764" height="574" /> According to Gallup&rsquo;s research, only 13% of people worldwide actively engage at work. This number might or might not be correct, but certainly, it tells us that the vast majority of workers are not giving even their 70% of energy and skills while they are on the job from the beginning to the end of the workday. That means that companies are doing a poor job of creating an emotional bond between employees and the organization. Although many companies may be doing their best to address this problem, that number has barely budged since 2015. Maybe you may never have thought about it, but you are in the business of creating happiness. If you do it well, you will not only be highly profitable, but there&rsquo;s a good chance you&rsquo;ll be a bit happier yourself.

Happiness and Human Resource Management

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0321242839574068561628682884185%2FThe%20History%20of%20Art_1.webp?alt=media&token=492fd2a3-6df3-4bc5-850d-ba4b2dcfe727" alt="File preview" width="741" height="493" /> There have been times where words were not sufficient to convey a message; in such a situation, one sought help from art. Art is a constant, a means of communication for humans from the stone age to the twenty-first century. Art, along with humankind, has significantly evolved.&nbsp; We can broadly classify the different phases of evolution in the art world in eight periods: 1.STONE AGE ART(30,000 BCE- 3,000 BCE): The earliest art belongs to the stone age period. As the name suggests, stones were prominent. Petroglyphs, carving on hard protected surfaces like cave walls, were the most common. People refer to the period as prehistoric art as it existed before recorded history.&nbsp; We further divide the stone age into three periods; with development in tools observed over time: <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Paleolithic period (30,000 BCE-10,000 BCE)</li> </ul> &nbsp;The term palaeolithic means old stone age. The artworks of this phase mainly consist of small sculptures, carvings on walls and paintings. In this period, people put stone tools to use for something other than survival for the first time. The structures were mainly figurines of animals, small but realistic.&nbsp; The primary materials used were ivory, bone, stone, and clay&mdash;Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, the oldest known prehistoric art discovered in India's quartzite caves.&nbsp; <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0321242839574068561628682884185%2FThe%20History%20of%20Art_2.webp?alt=media&token=28fd4ef4-f17d-4aed-9f73-9bc51049b768" alt="File preview" width="740" height="555" /> Bhimbetka Petroglyphs&nbsp;&nbsp; <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Mesolithic period (10,000 BCE- 3,000 BCE)</li> </ul> &nbsp;This period marked the end of the ice age and a switch to more temperate conditions. Due to this change, the humans had to adapt to a new type of living, leaving behind their caves. They switched to more settled agricultural communities. The art now provided keener details and better narration. Ceramics also started gaining popularity in this period. The most intriguing artwork of this time consists of rock art, similar to the palaeolithic period on vertical cliffs or natural rocks. <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Neolithic period (8,000 BCE- 3,000 BCE)</li> </ul> &nbsp;In this era, weaving and pottery became prominent as civilization settled and people shifted from nomadic to permanent settlements. The most exciting creations from this time were the architecture that featured large stone structures called the megaliths. This period, however, mainly focused on pottery, the majority found in the region of Mesopotamia.&nbsp; 2.BRONZE AGE ART (3,000 BCE-1,100 BCE)&nbsp; This period highlights the production of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. With advancements in the production of metalwork, there was a rise in skilled workers. The use of stone became less popular. The art world saw some agile development as metals were more flexible, the sculptures and artefacts made were more detailed and charming. People observed the earliest art in the Mesopotamia region, Sumerian art. Writing first began in Mesopotamia as the nation greatly prospered, and people started focusing on art, literature, culture and religion. Egyptian art also rose in the form of monumental architecture. Lost wax casting was one of the most common ways used for making sculptures out of bronze. The oldest cast bronze sculpture is the 'DANCING GIRL' in Mohenjo Daro. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0321242839574068561628682884185%2FThe%20History%20of%20Art_3.webp?alt=media&token=73ec9296-48f2-4e19-9ecc-28561fbcbf7a" alt="File preview" width="400" height="776" /> The Dancing girl in Mohenjo Daro 3.IRON AGE ART (1,100 BCE-200 BCE) As the name suggests, the use of iron became more prominent in this period. It was the last phase of the prehistory period. It was more economical to mine iron than bronze, and it was more substantial, making it extremely popular and abundantly available. In this reign, greek art gained attention in the Mediterranean basin. However, near the end of the iron age, greek art started declining, and Persian and Egyptian art became more dominating. 4.MEDIEVAL ART (5th- 15th century) Medieval art was produced in Europe during the middle ages; it includes sculptures, paintings, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, and metalwork.&nbsp; Based on time, we can classify medieval art into: <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">The Romanesque (11th-12th century)&nbsp;</li> </ul> Its name comes from the fact that its primary basis is on early Christian art in Rome. The architecture built in this reign, mainly churches, monasteries and temples, symbolized the growing wealth in Europe and the power of church monasteries. The characteristics of these buildings are thick stone walls, semi-circular arches with durable construction. Sculptures were also famous; made out of stone, based on the iconography of the bible. Thousands of artisans from Rome and Greek created an eastern, Christian image known as byzantine art. Other types of popular art include illuminated manuscripts and stained glass.&nbsp; <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0321242839574068561628682884185%2FThe%20History%20of%20Art_4.webp?alt=media&token=21720770-9d02-4897-a52c-fd2ce753cc65" alt="File preview" width="400" height="515" /> Chriatian Byzantine Art <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">The Gothic (12th-15th century)&nbsp;</li> </ul> It derives its name from the Goths that ruled France. The gothic architecture offered revolutionary structural advancements such as flying buttresses, ribbed vaults(formed by two arches across diagonally) and decorative pinnacles, contributing to taller and lighter buildings. Sculptures in the gothic period were more realistic images; they characterized angels, saints and biblical figures.&nbsp; Paintings also became more lifelike, and with the gradual development in Europe, artists soon started taking an interest in non-religious subjects.&nbsp; 5.THE RENAISSANCE (14th-16th century) The renaissance dominated Italy and the majority of Europe; the people in this reign made their appearance different from that of the medieval period. There was a great revival of learning of ancient Greece and Rome. The artist started rejecting the byzantine form of art and preferred a more realistic depiction of humans and space. The art from this time also represented other aspects, such as mythology. Some of the most famous masters of this time are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.&nbsp; 6.THE POST-RENAISSANCE (16th-18th century)&nbsp; This reign was followed by: <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Mannerism (16th century)&nbsp;</li> </ul> Mannerism, opposed to naturalism in art, was notable for its artificiality. The mannerist artist took paintings established during the renaissance and added a twist by exaggerating them, giving them an extravagant aesthetic to classicism. <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Baroque (17th-18th century)&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> </ul> The main principles of art in this reign was extravagance, ornateness and decorated details. The link between the catholic church and this art form was inseparable.&nbsp; <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Rococo (mid 17th-18th century)&nbsp;</li> </ul> Rococo, unlike Baroque, emphasized opulence, gratefulness and lightness. It emerged in France. Unlike another art form, it depicted light-hearted romance and carefree aristocratic life.&nbsp; 7.MODERN ART (18th-19th century) The Industrial Revolution led to the birth of modern art. In previous art forms, the art depicted religion and mythology. However, in the 19th-century, artists created art based on their personal experience and their chosen topics. The art produced in this reign showcased the artists' interest in re-imagining, interpreting and rejecting previous art styles.&nbsp; Some famous artworks are Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso, The Large Bathers by Paul C&eacute;zanne and Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet.&nbsp; The different types of modern art are:&nbsp; <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Impressionism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Post Impressionism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Fauvism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Expressionism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Cubism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Surrealism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Abstract Expressionism&nbsp;</li> </ul> &nbsp;8.CONTEMPORARY ART (21st century) Contemporary art means art; painting, sculpture, photography, video art, installation and production are performed today. It allows the artist to reflect upon the social issues related to humanity in today's world. High-end technology and cultural diversity globally surrounds artists in today's time. This form of art stands out because of its lack of organization, uniformity and ideology.&nbsp; The different types of contemporary art are: <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0321242839574068561628682884185%2FThe%20History%20of%20Art_5.webp?alt=media&token=460edc0d-69c6-4de1-a10a-74c749f22f79" alt="File preview" width="740" height="555" /> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Pop art&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Photorealism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Conceptualism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Minimalism&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Performance art&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Installation art&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Earth art&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Street art&nbsp;</li> </ul>

The History of Art

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0142054683348544761631040060663%2FThe%20Non-Pursuit%20of%20Happiness_1.webp?alt=media&token=432a9687-e01d-48b4-8d14-45c85fd54726" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" /> It doesn&rsquo;t take much looking around to find overly sentimental or simplistic quotes about happiness. Everybody seems to have something to share with us about the subject. Here are a few examples:&nbsp; <ul> <li> &nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let anything get in the way of your happiness.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li> &nbsp; &nbsp; "To be happy, you must be your own sunshine."&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li> &nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;Whatever you decide to do, make sure it makes you happy.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li> &nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;Life is full of choices. Choose to be happy!&rdquo;&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li> &nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness!&rdquo;&nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li> &nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;Act the way you want to feel.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li> </ul> Having my mind soiled by slogans like this used to infuriate me. Now I find them so ridiculous that they seem to take on more of a comic quality instead. It&rsquo;s not even the triteness of any particular message that I find so obnoxious; it's more about the overall condescending tone and not-so-subtle hints of bullshit.&nbsp; Happiness IS essential to us all. Silly quotes and toxic positivity aside, we need to manage our psychological health and well-being to derive some sense of satisfaction from this life. Or else why keep going on? If I had the chance to go back in time and share one idea about happiness with my younger self, it would be this: The concept of happiness covers a broad spectrum of meanings, and it&rsquo;s certainly not the same for all people. There is a big difference between constantly chasing an elevated quality of happiness based on always grasping for &lsquo;better&rsquo; or &lsquo;more&rsquo; versus letting your happiness arise spontaneously from a well-grounded and consistent practice of daily living. If I consistently strive for happiness and treat it as an end unto itself, then typically, reaching and sustaining it becomes dependent on meeting various external conditions, often beyond my locus of control. If most of my conditions for things to be 'good' are met, I will be happy. If just some of my many conditions are met, then my happiness will begin to fade. If few or none of my conditions are met, then I will be miserable. Time factors into the equation as well, since it&rsquo;s never quite enough just getting what we need right now to make us happy. We find that we will also always need more of whatever it is for the future. And so, there is always another carrot (reward) dangling in front of us that we must keep moving towards. &nbsp;Now we find ourselves on the hedonic treadmill of life, constantly pursuing some externally conditioned version of happiness. Economies rely heavily on it. Social relationships often build around it. Most of all, we are convinced that we need it to live, and if we don't get it, then the entire world is an awful place. The relentless pursuit of a conditional ideal of happiness has the potential to become one of the most significant sources of existential frustration and misery in our lives. It makes us regret the past, leaves us discontent with the present, and creates a sense of fear and anxiety about the future. &nbsp;The thing about life is that it goes on regardless of whether we are happy or not. I keep breathing, whether I'm ecstatic or dejected. The sun rises and sets whether I'm morose or elated. The universe is indifferent to our happiness or suffering. But to us, it seems essential &ndash; often the most important thing in our lives.&nbsp; &nbsp;If things tend to break your way a lot in life, if you are lucky, or won the genetic/birth lottery, so to speak, then it's often relatively easy to maintain a consistent state of conditional happiness. You had it all along, it was never really taken away from you, and you go along in life feeling quite satisfied with yourself. And there is nothing inherently wrong with living a basic or superficial life like that. If it makes you happy and you can get away with it, then, by all means, do it!&nbsp; &nbsp;The problem is, we also live in a universe that is impermanent and constantly changing. Statistically speaking, the odds of a person making it unscathed by some misfortune are fairly slim. Some &lsquo;lucky&rsquo; individuals seem to skate through life without a scratch &ndash; but most of us suffer at least a little, or sadly, a lot. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0142054683348544761631040060663%2FThe%20Non-Pursuit%20of%20Happiness_2.webp?alt=media&token=fe16337f-e2c8-4ae8-bb83-2450853e189e" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" /> So how can we try to be happy then?&nbsp; &nbsp;First - Quit obsessing about it. Stop chasing after happiness like it&rsquo;s some kind of life goal to be achieved. It can&rsquo;t and won&rsquo;t be possessed or held by us forever. Happiness comes; it stays for a while, then it leaves. Hopefully, it returns in some new form or another, and preferably soon. It's essential to cultivate things in life that are likely to lead to long-term satisfaction. But they still generally follow the same pattern of coming and going, rising and falling over time. The sooner we make peace with the entropy that permeates everything around us and inside of us, the less time we will spend fighting in vain against the current. &nbsp;Second - Since we aren't spending our days and nights in the constant pursuit (obsession) over conditional happiness, what do we do with ourselves with all of our free time instead? The answer is that we take that time to build character and get to know ourselves. We cultivate the ability to withstand the bad times better when they come, learn not to waste energy clinging to the good times when they inevitably depart and develop a sense of gratitude for when the beautiful things in life do finally arrive. &nbsp;Easier said than done, I know.&nbsp; Because honestly, it seems like a lot more fun to gamble and play the game than to spend time doing the heavy lifting and asking difficult questions. Plus, it might make you seem a little different to others &ndash; perhaps even weird. Most people are already on a happiness treadmill of some kind, and they are convinced that you should be too if you want to get the best of what the world offers. The world is filled with dangling carrots. Quite often, nobody wants to hear about someone else who has disavowed chasing these types of prizes &ndash; and taking this sort of position amplifies the lack of common ground between them. &nbsp;I tried chasing happiness in my life for a long time. Some people that I have known have had much better luck than me, others far worse. But in the end, I found that the whole game was exhausting &ndash; and it often seemed rigged. So, I decided that I needed to explore some alternate pathways in life instead. And the greater amount of time that I spent away from the happiness treadmill, the less I found that I missed it.&nbsp; &nbsp;Because when your happiness isn&rsquo;t as dependent on conditional things, it makes it a lot harder for the world to snatch it away from you. And the low-hanging fruit in life often has a way of being the first to spoil - even when you manage to store some of it up. &nbsp;This choice isn't an all-or-nothing scenario. It&rsquo;s a balancing act. Your life choices will trend in one direction or another. You could shift the balance of your life's satisfaction to external and conditional things outside of yourself. Or you could focus on developing resilience and making peace with life on its own terms. Either way, you choose a path daily, and you have to keep walking it. &nbsp;<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0142054683348544761631040060663%2FThe%20Non-Pursuit%20of%20Happiness_3.webp?alt=media&token=33769263-9481-4a61-8edc-848dec0def93" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" /> &nbsp;It&rsquo;s important to understand from the start that it&rsquo;s unlikely you will ever arrive at some fixed destination in life where you suddenly release all of these conditional attachments to happiness and gain enlightenment. But you can start by taking care of one thing in your life at a time, do it to the best of your current ability, and then move on to the next thing - similar to weeding a garden. This process of releasing long-held goals to root around in the dirt of the self can be pretty painful at first, but in time, you will grow more accustomed to it. Considering these ideas today, I&rsquo;m not entirely sure if my younger self would have fully embraced them or laughed at them and tossed them away. The dangling carrots were both plentiful and far more novel back then. At this point in life, I suppose I'm just content to be fortunate enough to have done my time on the happiness treadmill and still had a chance to jump off and look for something different. &nbsp;I&rsquo;m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round. I really love to watch them roll. No longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go. - &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; John Lennon

The Non-Pursuit of Happiness

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.067500485203443981630900523657%2FVirtue%20ethics%2CUtilitarianism%20and%20Deontology_1.webp?alt=media&token=e33a80b9-8b93-47b4-aeab-48fcb9e30288" alt="File preview" width="740" height="493" /> Morality is a term coined to separate the good or bad thoughts, the right and wrong actions. Morality is subjective; many great philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, and Kant have given us their approach.&nbsp; To understand the basics of morality, let us take an example, you find a 20 dollar note on the floor, the exact amount required for you to buy that pretty new top you saw yesterday. Here, morality will guide you to ask the people around if they lost a twenty, and if nobody claims it, you give it to the police. Even if it is just a twenty note, it is immoral to keep it with you and spend it. The three main approaches to morality are Virtue ethics, Utilitarianism and Deontology.&nbsp; 1.VIRTUE ETHICS: Virtue ethics theory was given to us by Aristotle. It emphasizes virtues and moral character. It says happiness is our highest goal, and it is achievable by cultivating moral virtues. Once we have developed moral integrity, they can be employed automatically. Let us get a deeper understanding by taking an example: You visit your friend's house for dinner, she has recently learnt how to cook, and wants your opinion. Upon taking the first bite, you feel like the flavour is very off; it is bitter and salty. She is looking at you with excitement, waiting for an opinion. You are in a dilemma; being a good friend, you believe if you are honest, she can work harder and improve, but it might end up hurting her feelings. If you lie, she will be happy, and it might make her day. After contemplating the consequences, you decide to be honest with her. You chose honesty; you took a moral decision. As per virtue ethics, it soon becomes a personality trait if you decide to be honest at times.&nbsp; Virtue ethics can also be summed up as "fake it till you make it." 2.DEONTOLOGY: "An action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty."- Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant is one of the most famous philosophers associated with this approach. In Deontology, one is given a set of duties based on what their intuition believes is right and wrong, and one obeys them. Deontology eradicates subjectivity by focusing only on following the duties and not weighing the consequences of one's action. For example, you are a software engineer, and only you know how to hack into the system to stop the missile launch. Hacking is unethical; even if it might save thousands of lives, Deontology will prevent you from hacking. As previously stated, it does not weigh the consequences of the action and only focuses on following the suitable duties. 3.UTILITARIANISM: In Deontology, we studied that we need to obey the duties irrespective of the consequences; however, in utilitarianism, it is otherwise. It believes in taking the action that has the outcome benefiting the majority. It is a species of consequentialism; It evaluates the activity on the possibility of its consequence. In utilitarianism, happiness or pleasure are the only things that have intrinsic value. Continuing the example from Deontology, if we apply the utilitarian approach to the situation, it would suggest that since the one immoral activity will allow thousands of lives to be happy, the software engineer should go ahead.&nbsp; However, the only limitation here is that we cannot always be accurate on the possible outcome. The engineer might hack into the system successfully but fails to prevent the missile launch.&nbsp;So which school of thought do you think we should live by?&nbsp; Share your thoughts in the comments.

Virtue Ethics, Deontology and Utilitarianism

<img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.321155603259925871636393495345%2Fimage1.webp?alt=media&token=d7a2c47e-a605-43fb-9fae-91a9b09eb5e7" > We must not chain the people in our lives. If we love them for who they are, we must accept that we are only a tiny part of it. There are multiple facets, roles, interests and responsibilities to a person. For them to remain wholesome, they must not be limited to one person or one roIe. If you clip a few feathers of a bird you love to make it fly only in one direction, you will render the bird unable to fly at all. You will lose the essence of the person that you wanted to keep for yourself. Birds look a lot better when they fly, and metaphorically so do humans. When you love someone, you want to be the centre of their universe. You want them to spend all their time with you, and you want them to give all their attention to you. You want them to hang out, eat, sleep only with you, and talk to only you. You feel jealous and betrayed when they spend this time with someone else or put up boundaries to keep that time for themselves. It is not limited to romantic relationships, but it is about any person you come close to, a cousin, friend, or a parent even. You feel like you want to put them in a cage and not let go so that it does not fly away. The intention is noble. You promise to reciprocate all of what they do and give. You give them your time and attention. Even then, you are still caging them. The difference is that the cage is a shiny golden one. We all do this. Sometimes knowingly and unknowingly at others. Take, for instance, how situations change after two people get married. Their personal and social lives shrink, they don&#39;t go out as much, their friends and hobbies take a back seat. They don&#39;t spend as much time alone as they used to. But people fail to realise that everything they did before marriage added to their personalities and made them appealing to their partners in the first place. Take those away, and you hear people saying, &quot;You have changed.&quot; It shouldn&#39;t come as a surprise. If you think that after being with you people have changed, notice the difference in the things they used to do before. If there is a stark contrast, you have your reason. Maybe they used to have a lot of solitude to process a lot more and be more articulate. But now they are so busy with you that they hardly ever get the time. And hence, they don&#39;t register as much or don&#39;t articulate as well. &quot;If you make someone&#39;s life all about you, you will lose them. If you make your life about all someone else, you will lose yourself.&quot; <img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.321155603259925871636393495345%2Fimage2.webp?alt=media&token=5147eedf-282c-4f2b-a807-26ef4be007b7" > Take the case of a parent that devotes their life to their kids. They give up everything they want to raise the child. They stop reading because they are always running after the child and stop going out since the child does not do well socially. They stop going on road trips they loved because the child gets claustrophobic in cars. In this process, they trade their identity as an individual for being a parent. But they deprive the child of the thing they deserve most, their parent. It is not to say that they don&#39;t get pleasure from raising their kid as best they can, but is it all there is to their life? Let&#39;s switch boats and think about the child. It is commonplace for the parent to get burned out. But they don&#39;t have a place to vent. They can&#39;t take a breather, so irritability, lack of patience, and uncontrolled temper start to fester. The parent might also begin to resent the child. Picking up on that irritability and anger, they become the child&rsquo;s default. By now, the child is also used to getting their way and being the centre of attention. Narcissistic tendencies start to develop. They create a sense of entitlement in their lives. Connect the dots. You have a child with narcissistic tendencies, irritability and anger as their default. Not a pretty picture. The parent destroyed the very thing they set out to build and nurture. You now understand the power of caging and clipping feathers. It can cause a lot of harm, even when it comes from a place of appreciation and love. But things are not always so sombre. Suppose the people you love are in the wrong circles, which is ultimately detrimental to them. In that case, you can use selective caging to protect your bird from metaphorical pollution. It is what you do with your children to prevent them from hanging out with the wrong peer group. If loving does not mean you should cage people, it also does not mean they should have free reign to do as they please. Balance is key. Have you ever caged the people you love, or have you ever been caged? Share your story in the comments.

Why Cage the People We Love?

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.101079484322736061639590416753%2Fimage1.webp?alt=media&token=e24a33d8-af14-4fde-aa89-49c15b0ddc7a" alt="File preview" width="700" /> When we hear the word peace, we associate it with ending a war or a nation going through a time of stability. We always look outward when looking for peace, but we forget to look out for ourselves. Are you at peace with yourself? Are you constantly troubled by past experiences or current predicaments? This article will serve as a guide to help you ascertain the importance of inner peace and the steps taken to begin the lifelong process of inner peace. Why is inner peace important? Inner peace keeps our mind and its negative thoughts at bay. It helps us view the path of life much clearer. A state of inner peace removes anxieties, the feeling of dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Instead, it is filled with confidence, inner strength, and understanding. Everyone essentially seeks out inner peace, just through different avenues, but the intended outcome is the same. Let&#39;s do a little exercise: as you read this, visualize the scenes I&#39;m about to describe; you are in your dream home, the air is clean, the house is clean, you fear nothing, you want for nothing. All you desire is in your possession or on its way. You have been through some tough challenges, but now that you look back on them, they are minuscule to the rewards they have reaped. You still face challenges, but it&#39;s nothing you can&rsquo;t handle. You are financially free, and all your relationships are flourishing. You can weed out the unnecessary and only attempt to change the things you can. Does that not sound appealing? Now let&#39;s talk about how to get that life you want to live and remember you are happy now and in that life you want. <h3>Goals</h3> <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.101079484322736061639590416753%2Fimage2.webp?alt=media&token=188ccc53-9282-41e8-803d-688ec09e1c4d" alt="File preview" width="700" /> Start by setting clear goals of what you want to achieve. Goals serve as a compass through the storm of life to get to where we need to be. Your daily actions must be in line with your goals, this is the beginning of the self-development stage, and you must constantly seek to develop yourself. You are your greatest asset and most lucrative investment. <h3>Relaxation</h3> Find a form of mental relaxation that works for you. Some prefer to go out on runs, practice meditation or prayer. Focus on things in the sphere of your control; when you worry, ask yourself, &#39;is there anything I can do to change this?&#39; If you cannot change the outcome, you&#39;d rather accept and move on to change things you can. <h3>Do Good</h3> Do good deeds, help out a stranger in need, or check on a friend you have not talked to in a while. They will feel appreciated, and you will feel better. &ldquo;When we leave this earth, we cannot take what we have accumulated but rather what we have given.&rdquo; Ask and don&#39;t make unfound assumptions; you can spend the whole day overthinking, usually the worst when you can easily ask and receive a straight answer. <h3>Emotional Budget</h3> <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.101079484322736061639590416753%2Fimage3.webp?alt=media&token=06c4424f-820b-4b50-aeb0-451d57f4ab19" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" /> Evaluate those around you; are they adding to your life? Do you feel drained after spending time with them? If so, there is no need to subject yourself to that emotional torture. View yourself as a person on an emotional budget. Don&#39;t spend it on negative emotions. Spend time alone and quietly, French philosopher Blaise Pascal said, &quot;All of humanity&#39;s problems stem from man&#39;s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.&quot; Take the time to sort out your day, and you will realize you were making mountains out of molehills. <h3>Appreciation and Gratitude</h3> Lastly, practice gratitude for what you are going through and what you are not going through. Appreciation will lead you to happiness. Imagine deciding you will be happy or grateful when you&#39;re a billionaire, and only after working for years to reach that net worth do you realize you could&#39;ve been happy all along, and worse, you still aren&#39;t happy. Be grateful for the situations you are going through, good or bad. Be at peace with your past, leave it where it belongs and continue to work on yourself in the present and you will have no need to worry about the future.

Maintaining Inner Peace

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.10951663473921981628072883027%2FMEDIA%20AND%20LOVE_AanviJain_1.webp?alt=media&token=5dc42055-2f14-400a-b2aa-cde4c8b21b38" alt="" width="764" height="573" /> Love is an abstract concept, a complicated emotion. The greatest men of all time couldn't answer what love is. Many tried to give us a definition, but many believe it's beyond our understanding.&nbsp; So how much does the media know? Media made all of us believe that a perfect person is waiting for us. Someone whom the day we meet, our lives will be complete&mdash;a person who answers all our problems All the hope they have given us without any solid proof. Can our life also be a fairy tale like Cinderella with our soulmates going around the globe looking for us? The honest answer to this is a bummer for all; not all love stories are like Cinderella. While growing up, we saw perfect couples with romantic bickering. Many filmmakers and authors tried to capture the true essence of love by providing us with pieces such as The Notebook or Fault in our stars. Such creations did give us a desire for a dreamy love story and the perfect relationship but what it did not show us is that no relationship is perfect. Love is not as simple; it takes more than the presence of two individuals attracted to each other. It includes trust, selflessness, compromises from both ends.&nbsp; The best graphics we see on searching about love are people smiling with red hearts all around them. But as it is rightly said, all glitters are not gold. People can be in love and yet fight; they are not always happy with each other. There are disputes and conflicts.&nbsp; Another aspect of love we see in the media are couples celebrating their love by giving thoughtful gifts, going out for romantic dinners, and always spending time with each other. But in reality, that is not the case. Two individuals might not make romantic gestures regularly, but that doesn't change the fact that they love each other. They can still be as happy as other couples. The media cannot filter the toxic relationships, they have failed to highlight this issue, and those suffering are afraid to speak up. Love can make a person blind to the damage they are causing to their partner. It is a must to make everyone aware of the red flags to prevent them from the worst. Similarly, even abusive relationships are a subject of great importance. Not everyone is happy; some are hurting mentally or physically. Media is an integral part of our lives; it greatly influences our beliefs. But what we see there is not always true. Love is not all rainbows and glitters; it's not all smiles. The media only shows what they think the people like to see, and not what's true. Hence, we shouldn't be quickly captivated by everything they show us. What has been your experience with love?

Media and Love

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.49405824429971371628614727299%2FGrounding%20through%20Art_Aashiqa_1.webp?alt=media&token=f58cb8e9-af1a-46c2-a803-98365faa2176" alt="" width="477" height="716" />You wouldn't feel anxiety if you were indeed in the present moment.&nbsp;"If you feel anxiety or depression, you are not in the present. You are either anxiously projecting the future or depressed and stuck in the past." &ndash; Tobe Hanson, Performance Coach and Author of 'The Four Seasons Way of Life.'Consider a ball of yarn. When let a little loose from one end, such that the yarn can roll out as a single strand, the ball continues to release more free thread with every turn it takes on the other end. The strand does not take a singular straight path. Some parts of it fall upon others, looping and piling at times until the whole ball disappears &ndash; into a messy pile of yarn. It is cumbersome to roll it back into the ball it was before the fall. To bring it back to exactly like it was &ndash; impossible!How are our minds any different from such a ball of yarn? It's not uncommon to find ourselves zoning out at times, imagining scenarios that do not help our inner peace. All minds don't react the same way; many factors could have swayed an individual's growth and development, influencing the mind. Some minds are more stable than others and co-operate reasonably to regain the lost focus. Some minds tend to slip ahead, strand out quicker and more easily than the others, making it difficult to recollect the misplaced focus. The latter is how the minds of anxious people work.&nbsp; Their thoughts and feelings add up, one upon the other, similar to a string, forming a heap that's disturbing as well as indiscernible.Some people have to keep doing something 'efficient', which captures their focus because their minds are like slippery and quick-rolling balls of yarn that clutter, when let even a little loose. When the mind goes abuzz with such overwhelming chaos, the breath goes out of rhythm and continues to remain so until the person finally notices his jaws clenched and shoulders tensed. A heavy sigh follows, trying to get the breath pattern back. Imagine this happening every day, multiple times even. Isn't it hard when we take a long time to realize that we need to get ourselves back to the present? Well, the damage would have been done already.<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.49405824429971371628614727299%2FGrounding%20through%20art_Aashiqa_2.webp?alt=media&token=79f3f276-bcbe-4cc3-8e74-f3e0aa8a548b" alt="" width="763" height="508" />It gets easier to tackle this problem through 'grounding.' What is grounding, and what can you do to ground yourself?&nbsp;In simple words, grounding refers to activities, at times, as simple as breathing, that help coax your mind to realize that you are in the present and be aware of your surroundings, the environment, and your feelings within. There are a variety of grounding techniques that professionals suggest. One of them is Therapy through Art!Art and Grounding:Our minds are naturally searching for creativity and ways of expressing. Art is synonymously associated with creativity and hence is indeed a medium of grounding. It has been practiced professionally and proven to be a valid grounding route, introducing a whole field called 'Art Therapy' that integrates the disciples of Art and Psychology.&nbsp; It is now widely accepted and implemented worldwide in schools, hospitals, military bases, and personal therapy plans.As a therapy method, Art Therapy is considered the most convenient of all, since one can practice it regardless of age, without needing any licensed guidance. The goal is to be more aware, satisfied, and to find joy in the process.Following is how Art helps the mind:<ul> <li> It calms the nervous system:</li></ul>One of the most impressive benefits of art therapy is an instant feeling of calmness. From what could be because of patterns, colors, swirls of paint, and synchronized hand movement, the noise inside the mind quiets down, lightening the muscles in the body and syncing one's breath and heartbeat. We attain clarity of thoughts consequently, allowing one to take in the reality of their situation, resolve inner conflicts, and to be free of any worries.<ul> <li> It increases Self- Awareness:</li></ul>When we offer an outlet to one's vulnerability, self-awareness follows. Often while painting, drawing, or engaging in any Art, one's creativity is exhibited in such a way that it is associated with their emotions. What is expressed without finds its roots within. This way, by focusing on creativity, one focuses on their subconscious feelings and discovers new aspects of their character.<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.49405824429971371628614727299%2FGrounding%20through%20art_Aashiqa_3.webp?alt=media&token=fcfe5b33-662f-48c9-aa88-a276e344e9a3" alt="" width="764" height="502" /><ul> <li>&nbsp;It encourages creative Self-Expression:</li></ul>For those who struggle with anxiety, understanding feelings, or handling emotions, Art can serve as a safe platform to express things they may otherwise find extremely hard to share. Whether done individually or with a therapist's aid, the artist will find compassion in the process for themself to express constructively and creatively. Expressing in this manner would help them feel deeply, acknowledge and inspect their various emotions.The next time you feel like you may slip into unnecessary thinking, grab a book, some colored pencils, paint, or markers. Unleash whatever your mind proposes. Embrace the inner child in you, and grant credits to your mind, body, and soul for being able to produce your hidden self so beautifully. You'll look at your hands, find them messy and yet, smile.

Grounding through Art – In search of the present

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.065927279545930921628072884125%2FScience%20Behind%20The%20Smile_IgnjatMilinkovic_1.webp?alt=media&token=d4862162-8ba2-4dfa-ab5b-2c7a24b4b3e4" alt="" width="764" height="509" /> Before you start reading this article, take a moment and ask yourself: &ldquo;How do I feel now?&rdquo; Is it happy, joyful, excited or sad, sorrowful, helpless, pessimistic? Whatever is the answer, you should give yourself another moment to recall all the situations that eventually triggered your actual feelings. Tap your back and know that mostly those feelings are transitory and that they are just visitors of your previous actions and reactions to certain situations that you were in. Happiness is becoming mainstream and a norm that all of us are reaching for. Society is expecting us to feel happy, to feel free. It&rsquo;s pushing us towards positive thinking, constantly burying down the true specter of feelings that we have in use and which we are sensing consciously or unconsciously. <h2>But what does science says about happiness?</h2> Psychologists define happiness as a subjective state of satisfaction with a current life situation, related to the feeling of self-fulfillment and enjoyment. An absence of negative emotions and stress. It is important to unpack this concept.&nbsp; We should know one basic thing, we could not feel happy if we don&rsquo;t feel sad. We could not feel joy if we don&rsquo;t feel despair. All of those are just extremes of a continuum. A dimension with two poles. The negative and positive sides. They are driving life as most humans know it. As aware beings, we have the luxury of consciously experiencing feelings. To think about them, recall them, learn how to overcome them or how to enjoy feeling them. <h2>Pleasure vs. Happiness</h2> Have you ever thought about the distinction between pleasure and happiness? Let&rsquo;s take a look what are the differences because the majority of people are misusing these concepts. First of all, pleasure is connected to our sensory level. According to a time dimension, it&rsquo;s short-lived, while happiness is long-lived.&nbsp;&nbsp; How to achieve it? Well, mostly by taking consumables (ex. food). On the other side, happiness is attained by giving and sharing (ex. human interactions, altruism). How it&rsquo;s experienced? Pleasure could be experienced even when we are alone, but happiness is shared in a group setting. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.065927279545930921628072884125%2FScience%20Behind%20The%20Smile_IgnjatMilinkovic_2.webp?alt=media&token=6fe16e36-5f13-4bcd-a0f6-225896234534" alt="" /> <h2>Neuroscience and Happiness</h2> On a physiological scale, a neurotransmitter in charge of pleasure is Dopamine. The one responsible for happiness is Serotonin.&nbsp; When taken to extremes, too much pleasure could lead to an addiction. You can&rsquo;t be addicted to happiness, right? Still, it&rsquo;s very hard to measure happiness because of its subjectiveness. But neuroscientists have discovered the brain parts and neurotransmitters, they have found the &ldquo;neuroanatomy of pleasure&rdquo;. They&rsquo;ve divided it into three major substrates: motivation, pleasure or &ldquo;liking&rdquo; and learning. From a thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something (it defines what we want), through conscious pleasure and hedonic impact, to cognitive processing and associative learning. All three of these have their own structures and areas in the brain which are duty-bound for different actions. Those areas are interconnected, they have functional connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex, hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus. Affective neuroscience research on sensory pleasure has revealed many networks of brain regions and neurotransmitters activated by pleasant events and states. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that mediated satisfaction, happiness, and optimism. For example, Serotonin levels are reduced in depression, and most modern anti-depressant drugs, known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), act by increasing the amount of serotonin available to brain cells. <h2>Common sense&nbsp;</h2> After all, we should know that happiness is a process, not a destination.&nbsp; To achieve it, we need to go through the pitfalls, we need to feel the burden of negative emotions, we need to let all of those feelings come through us, to analyze them, see where our blind spot is, and overcome them. We need to be proactive in our search for happiness because only then we can rip our chains and feel free again. Research shows that much of the happiness is under personal control. Regularly indulging in small pleasures, getting absorbed in challenging activities, setting and meeting goals, maintaining close social relationships, and finding meaning beyond oneself all increase life satisfaction. It isn&rsquo;t happiness per se that promotes well-being, it&rsquo;s an actual pursuit that&rsquo;s a key.

Science Behind the Smile

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.51449044368400791636535997234%2Fimage1.webp?alt=media&token=75ea5fe7-0329-448c-849a-8876eb6cba" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" /> Equanimity is a foundational principle of Stoic philosophy. The ability to bear misfortune with an even temper and not let external circumstances disturb us is considered a sign of strength and character. However, I always felt like this principle was lacking something &ndash; as if a step of the equation still wasn&rsquo;t clear. The Stoic way of life always felt somewhat unbalanced to me. Years later, I came upon the missing link in the equation when I was introduced to the principle of non-attached appreciation. It is a very similar concept to equanimity, but it applies more to things in life we would like to approach&nbsp;rather than things we&rsquo;d prefer to avoid. The simple explanation of non-attached appreciation is this: when good things come into our lives, we can fully enjoy them and appreciate them for what they are. BUT &ndash; we should not become overly attached or get carried away by them. Practicing equanimity and non-attached appreciation can help us balance the challenging demands of life in a healthier way. We don&rsquo;t need to bear the strain of pushing away the pleasant things in life or rigidly maintaining an austere demeanour to find serenity in the face of happiness. But, while enjoying life, we shouldn&#39;t allow ourselves to become entangled with transient pleasures that will cause us to lose focus. So much of human motivation works on the cause and effect mechanism of operant conditioning. When there is a reward present, which can be symbolic or real, we become willing to perform various repetitive behavior(s) to obtain it. In this manner, we are conditioned (motivated) to pursue something in life that we feel is lacking. Furthermore, the schedule of how often these rewards are administered (how often we achieve our goals) significantly contributes to how much we enjoy them. When thinking about non-attached appreciation, I wondered what would happen if the schedule of administering rewards became inconsistent at times or was even removed entirely at others? The answer is extinction. No reward = no motivation = conditioned behavior ceases. The research that psychologists scientifically conducted in the mid 20th&nbsp;century effectively confirmed an observation about life that spiritual teachers made thousands of years ago. When the effects of the reward are removed, it leads to the extinction of craving or desire, and motivation must then take on a different quality. If there is no carrot dangling on the end of the stick, the donkey will stop dead in its tracks. Realizing this caused me to pause and consider the idea of non-attached appreciation on a deeper level. Since the practice of non-attached appreciation is supposed to help guide us along a path that leads away from suffering, is the elimination of suffering the only motivation to do it? Because non-attachment is a difficult path to practice and requires a significant amount of energy &ndash; especially at first. And human beings are biologically wired to conserve energy so that we can pursue the next reward that appears on the horizon. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.51449044368400791636535997234%2Fimage2.webp?alt=media&token=fe3b1f37-f8b9-44b2-b9ba-d7ccb41d380c" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" /> Often when we are in great pain, we will do almost anything to stop it. But when we feel fine, perhaps we seldom see the need to make such an effort. And when we are feeling pleasure, it&#39;s hard not to be controlled by the fear of missing out. So why might someone decide to pursue a path of non-attachment in life? I believe that these four insights can help us to discern the positive motivations behind this choice: <ol> <li> <h3>Duty</h3> We are compelled by a sense of personal obligation to commit to or refrain from certain behaviors because it is right and good and in holding with the higher principles that we choose to live by. </li> <li> <h3>Spontaneity</h3> A life that is primarily structured around a rigid set of duties quickly becomes static and unfulfilling. By learning to fully appreciate the small, spontaneous moments that occur each day &ndash; we find a source of joy that can often surprise us when we least expect it. This leads us to approach life with a greater sense of gratitude instead of just living for our expectations to be met all of the time. It can also help to restore our curiosity about life - which may have faded over time. </li> <li> <h3>Serenity</h3> The tranquility that comes from letting go of the constant pursuit of better experiences helps us feel rested and refreshed. The sense of contentment that arises from performing tasks well is certainly rewarding. And remembering the small joys that arise in life and taking delight in them helps complete us. Have you ever experienced a moment in life when you felt absolutely content and needed nothing? Do you recall what happened to your sense of motivation at the time? </li> <li> <h3>Freedom</h3> all of us are addicted to something in this life, however insignificant we believe it to be. Some addictions are more harmful than others, but they all cause some sort of damage. Non-attached appreciation helps us address the root causes of the state of dis-ease that nourishes these addictions. Practicing makes it easier to finally walk away from the destructive cycles of repetitive craving and suffering that we perpetuate in our lives.&nbsp; </li> Practicing non-attached appreciation can also help to motivate us in the negative sense as well. <li> <h3>Avoiding Entrapment</h3> Consistently practicing non-attachment also helps us not to get entangled in things that will eventually result in entrapment and stagnation. Many fleeting pleasures that we are constantly chasing in life often continue to extract a substantial cost from us, even long after they have stopped providing us with rewards. </li> </ol> Practicing equanimity and non-attached appreciation may seem like a sure way to miss out on all of the best that life has to offer. But it is unwise to think of the quality of life they help cultivate as being diminished or elevated &ndash; it is merely different. It&#39;s like comparing a rose bush to a pear tree. To continue with the analogy, the pear tree also cannot morph into a rose bush whenever it feels like it. Naturally developing and yielding its own particular fruit is what it does all of the time. Similarly, if we decide to refrain from practicing these principles regarding attachment only when things become difficult, we also tend to run into problems. It&#39;s like the difference between studying diligently for an examination vs furiously cramming the night before. Lazy practice will set you up for inevitable failure because you miss out on both&nbsp;the short-term benefits from always chasing your impulses (attachment) and the long-term benefits of non-attachment. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.51449044368400791636535997234%2Fimage3.webp?alt=media&token=989b67ef-c001-44fe-9ca3-03a10b2d47d0" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" /> Over time, I often find that my sense of motivation undergoes significant changes. The things that I previously wanted or cared about the most in life are not necessarily the same things that continue to motivate me today. It&rsquo;s good not to become attached to pursuing temporary rewards that often have a way of providing diminishing returns over time. One of the best parts about developing non-attached appreciation is that the best time to begin practicing is now. And this is still true whether you&#39;ve been practicing for three months or thirty years. By addressing the root causes that underlie your sense of motivation and examining your relationship with them, you can meaningfully change the quality of your life. And that&rsquo;s something to smile about.

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