<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.276379985769143131630868773016%2FThe%20Folly%20Of%20Self%20Love_1.webp?alt=media&token=c8ae23b9-bbd7-44a1-851e-8839d69186e6" alt="File preview" width="700" height="466" />Stories are the skeletons of human imagination. The structures on which civilizations and countries have thrived for centuries. Stories drive humanity. They not only enable us to cooperate but also depict the depth of human intelligence. In addition, stories portray the strength of language. Thus, stories are a profound medium to understand humanity and the human mind.One such story which reminds us about the tragic nature of extreme self-love is the story of Narcissus. In Greek mythology, Narcissus was the mortal son of God Cephissus. When Narcissus was born, his parents were highly concerned about his remarkable elegance. So they consulted the prophet Teiresias about the future of Narcissus. Teiresias warned Cephissus that the boy would grow into an adult-only if "he didn't get to know himself."Narcissus was once hunting in the woods. As he was walking, Echo, the Oread nymph, caught his glimpse and fell in love with him. Echo followed Narcissus and eventually showed herself. Echo tried to hold the young hunter in her arms, but Narcissus cruelly denied the act of love. Echo was heartbroken. She wandered off into the woods, and all that ever remained was an echo sound.&nbsp;Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, came across this incident and decided to publish Narcissus. She led him to a lake where Narcissus saw his reflection. He fell in love with it. However, when he realized that it was his reflection, he fell into the gloom because he would never achieve his desired love. Thus, Narcissus committed suicide.<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.276379985769143131630868773016%2FThe%20Folly%20Of%20Self%20Love_2.webp?alt=media&token=57ac079c-2a8c-4ffc-876a-4d7ab6bfde23" alt="File preview" width="400" height="485" />The story of Narcissus is a tragedy. A tragedy of self-love. Like Narcissus, even we are drowning in our illusion of beauty and love. Psychologically, a person who has an inflated sense of self-importance is called a Narcissistic. Moreover, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is characterized by an unrealistic inflated sense of superiority and a lack of sensitivity to other people's needs. Thus, one can understand the complexity of self-love by exploring the hidden corners of a narcissistic mind.Love is an emotion, a state we all desire to experience in our life. It encompasses a range of mental states. From the most intense feeling of affection and desire, to a fleeting sense of attraction. It is complex. Everybody has their definition and beliefs about love. Thus, love is universal and yet so personal. A condition we only desire to share with a select few.&nbsp;Greek philosophers identified six different forms of love: familial love, platonic love, romantic love, self-love, guest love, and divine love. One should learn to love themselves before one loves others. Being at peace with one's insecurities is a healthy way to embrace others.&nbsp;Self-love, in general terms, is regard for one's advantages and happiness. In modern times, self-love seems to be widespread among the masses. A distorted idea used by everyone as per their own needs. Multinational companies, social media influencers, the fashion industry, and the tech industry sell us the concept of self-love. However, anything in excess can be fatal for your well-being. Thus, even self-love has its vices&mdash;these errors express themselves in the form of selfishness, egotism, and many such traits.Therefore, one can better understand the errors of self-love by exploring and understanding the realms of the narcissistic mind. Narcissistic people remind us about the importance of concrete social relationships in human life. Narcissism is an adult manifestation of childhood insecurity and the need for attention. During their childhood, those denied true love lack a firm foundation of a healthy self and try to make up for the lack of early parental support by overindulging in themselves. The wall a narcissistic individual builds around oneself is a desperate defense mechanism to hide one's insecurities.&nbsp;Love is a weird state&mdash;a story with a bitter ending&mdash;a beautiful tragedy. It sounds repulsive but feels like bliss. Yet, we all aspire to drown ourselves in the waters of love. When Charles Bukowski said, find something and let it kill you, passion and dreams bred from the statement. It paints a picture of allowing personal genuine aspirations and dreams to engulf oneself. It reminds us of enduring hope. True love happens when one is conscious about their fate but persists, for they aspire to make their strange life a little bearable.Thus, narcissistic people can teach us a lot about what love isn't. Love isn't about holding unrealistic ideas about oneself. Love isn't about overindulging in self-centered personal stories. Love isn't about wearing a mask to cover up one's insecurities. Love isn't about always being reactive and cold.&nbsp;Self-love can be beautiful if done correctly. However, if we give in to the temptation of self-love, it can be destructive. For hell is when you realize that you are the reason for your agony. Love is what makes us human and enables us to place ourselves in the shoes of others. Being endowed with a higher state of consciousness, it's our moral duty to kindle a light in the life of others. Love can break walls, can bridge gaps, and can break the realm of dimensions. Love is being empathetic.&nbsp;Love is realizing that we are just a speck of dust floating in the cosmos yet striving to make our life and the lives of others around us a little less miserable.

The Folly Of Self Love

<img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.54115596217496891642794336529%2Fimage1.webp?alt=media&token=2d42110f-1c04-4496-994d-7dfe6bcb8b4b" /> It is not so often we are compelled to understand what we are. However, we go through our day saying &ldquo;I&rdquo; often as if we are sure of what it means to refer to ourselves as just &ldquo;me&rdquo; or using a name. However, the words can only go so far when trying to guide us to self-understanding, you are not a name, and you are more than the adjectives you use to describe yourself. So who are you? The green philosopher, also known as Yoda (From Star Wars) has an interesting view on this topic, one that&rsquo;s related to Taoism. He says: &ldquo;Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.&rdquo; Does that mean something, or is just a catchy phrase used to make a science fiction character seem wise? We can answer this question with another thinker: Carl Sagan: &ldquo;The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.&rdquo; Yoda and Carl Sagan are both saying: We are a unique form of the universe to express itself. Behind the way we bleed, there are billions of years of evolution. Our roots are deeper than the infrastructure of our society. The particles on our body go back to stars in a cold universe. And why does that matter? If a good life demands understanding of ourselves, it is essential to seek our roots. They will show us what&rsquo;s deepest in our nature. When you understand yourself as a manifestation of the universe itself and see that you&rsquo;re in the process that started 13 billion years ago, and is still going, then some things are not so scary. You realize that maybe you&rsquo;re tougher than you thought. Nature is mysteriously well developed. Whatever exists, exists amidst chaos and danger. One of the cures for our anxiety is to go back a little and rethink our situation from a larger spectrum: &ldquo;Between atoms and giant galaxies, we exist, big enough to think about everything but too small to understand anything.&rdquo; &nbsp;In the day to day actions, we can easily get too caught up in this &ldquo;social game&rdquo; where we worry so much. Doing so, we also get further from our reality, in the words of Alan Watts: &ldquo;He who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts.&rdquo; &nbsp; Take the time you need in your routine to stop and get out of the social game for just a few minutes to see your surroundings clearly. Don&rsquo;t try to put yourself completely out of it because we all need this social game to function as human beings, however even though the problems of the world must be resolved as soon as possible, we all have a limit to what we can do for ourselves and the world. In the end there are dangers in our life, and also challenges like tests, jobs, relationships, politics: the list of unresolved questions in a human life is long. However, our history is longer, infinite as a matter of fact. Make that the foundation of your character and you&rsquo;ll be stronger than you can imagine.

The Core of Your Being

<img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.106371827230216321636142948157%2Fimage3.webp?alt=media&token=f22dfe36-43eb-49d8-b681-1257a100da82" > A Happy Meal&nbsp;&ndash; A hamburger, a portion of nuggets, regular-sized french fries and a tall glass of an aerated drink. What can be happier than this? One of my friends asked on Instagram after uploading a picture of the happy meal. Her foodstagramming immediately gave me a surge of hunger, and to satisfy my impulsive craving, I felt like I needed to order a happy meal. However, something caught my eye. Her other comment said, &ldquo;A happy tummy makes the mind happy&rdquo;. It made me think. Is your tummy really happy? <h2 class="c2" id="h.9v9nfepbyzst">Effects - Short and Long</h2> A happy meal is a concoction of saturated or trans fats, sugar and salt. Its immediate effects are on your digestive system due to high amounts of fat, sucrose and sodium. Stomach discomfort and lethargy are the short-term effects that some of you might experience after having such a humongous meal. According to Medical News Today, constipation, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart diseases are the long-term effects. They also suggest that a &quot;happy meal&quot; diet may also raise the risk of Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease and Parkinson&rsquo;s disease. Obesity seems to top the list of long-term effects. World Health Organisation (WHO) has also stated on their website that 1.9 billion adults were overweight in 2016, and 650 million obese. Another staggering study conducted on 100 adolescents by the European Journal of Molecular &amp; Clinical Medicine showed that 90% of them consume fast food. Furthermore, out of all the effects of fast food consumption, 37% of the participants had trouble sleeping, 24% had worrying nature or fatigue, 17% had undergone depression, 14% had emotional distress, and 8% showed violent behaviour. In conclusion, a study made by European Journal of Molecular &amp; Clinical Medicine concludes that impact of fast food leads to depression. Therefore, in the long run, fast food affects not only your body but also your mind. <h3 class="c1 c10" id="h.1gsg56sjbdd5">Did you know WHO had challenged food industries in a report on diet and health?</h3> As per a journal from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, WHO had called on the food industry to reduce amounts of certain types of fats as well as salt and sugar in snacks and processed foods. They had also criticized the food and drinks industry for &ldquo;heavy marketing practices of energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods.&rdquo; The last statement made me question the marketing tactics used by the food industries and I started digging deeper. <h2 class="c2" id="h.v9l2o3oz42d2">How Food Marketing Works</h2> Take the example of a happy meal. The word &ldquo;happy&rdquo; used in the advertisements is quite misleading as it does not necessarily keep your stomach healthy. Still, your mind looking for temporary joy will make you buy the happy meal without a moment&rsquo;s thought. Furthermore, the fast-food companies&rsquo; advertisements typically show a family eating at their chain and a kid enjoying a burger with a smile on his face. They also offer a bunch of toys with the meal making the kid excited and wanting to visit again soon. Happiness is the key focus in these advertisements. These companies make you believe that families are enjoying their time at the fast-food joints without regard for what harm it can cause you? But we know the truth now. It made me question the ethics of the advertising world. <img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.106371827230216321636142948157%2Fimage1.webp?alt=media&token=d0412453-fc06-488a-8d24-a9054e8d5d27" > <h2 class="c2" id="h.l5b9y6jinmwk">Ethical vs Unethical Advertising</h2> <h4 class="c1 c10" id="h.dglgg7npd0ks">&ldquo;What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses the truth to deceive the public.&rdquo; &ndash; Vilhjalmur Stefansson</h4> Yes, it is a confusing quote. I had never thought that truth could be used to deceive, yet this quote made sense. Take the happy meal advertisement as an example again. The truth is that the consumers are happy after having a meal. Families do enjoy their time dining at the fast-food joints, and it cannot be denied. Hence, it is ethical advertising as it shows the truth. But what makes our mind happy is not necessarily the same for our tummy. So, the deceiving here is, not mentioning in the advertisements - the high amount of fats, sucrose and sodium levels that fast food contains and the side effects and long-term effects of the food on our body. <h2 class="c2" id="h.hc31krrseuk8">So, do we just switch to healthy food?</h2> Though you know the ill effects of fast food and how the food industry advertisements are wired to your mind, it is still not easy to stay away from unhealthy food. Your mind wants instant gratification, and so it depends on material things like food to be happy. Marketing professionals are shrewdly aware of this concept, and the advertisements are always there to get you. To deal with this, you need to make a conscious effort to fight the urge to make your mind happy with the food. Ask yourself these questions the next time you want to have a happy meal: <ol class="c15 lst-kix_i3v6b4gmn81l-0 start" start="1"> <li class="c1 c6 li-bullet-0">Will a happy meal make me and my stomach happy?</li> <li class="c1 c6 li-bullet-0">Should I invest in food that is going to make me unhealthy?</li> <li class="c1 c6 li-bullet-0">Is the temporary joy of fast food greater than the long-term illness caused by it?</li> </ol> These questions will make you focus on the larger consequence and help you curb the need for instant gratification through food. Eating healthy is a dire need not only for your body but also for your mind. <img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.106371827230216321636142948157%2Fimage2.webp?alt=media&token=01a851e7-7ce2-4fbb-8ffe-dc653d3d38a0" > Don&#39;t forget that what makes you happy does not necessarily make you healthy. So, how do you avoid unhealthy food? Share your experience with us.

What Makes You Happy, Does it Also Make You Healthy

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/article_images%2FLove%20and%20Let%20go_1.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=f2e91140-46c7-419c-bf2d-3fc16ef99a63" alt="File preview" width="740" height="490" />&nbsp; Someone asks you, what is love? And if you start humming in your mind‼ Oh, baby, don&rsquo;t hurt me, don&rsquo;t hurt me, no more‼; then you are born in the 80s or the 90s. The song &ldquo;What is love?&rdquo; recorded by Trinidadian-German Eurodance artist Haddaway from 1993, was a massive hit in at least 13 countries. The catchy lyrics and the nostalgic music of this song are still discussed when a question arises about love. We look at love in terms of happiness. We do not think that love can be risky. Our intentions and expectations are, &ldquo;To love and to be loved&rdquo; - yet in a relationship, we might not be loved back or receive all the love we want, but the relationship would have turned sour. So, what next? <h4>&ldquo;If you love something so much, let it go. If it comes back it was meant to be; if it, doesn&rsquo;t it never was&rdquo; &ndash; Albert Schweitzer</h4> Letting go is an abrupt answer but is it that easy? Considering the time invested in the relationship and the bond developed over the years, letting a relationship go when it turns sour causes extreme distress. Sometimes, giving it a chance does work. The difficult decision is when to give the relationship another chance and when to let it go. Love is a matter of the heart, not the mind. When a relationship goes south, it is time to use our intelligence instead of relying on emotions. Let us first learn about relationships based on the types of love. There are three: 1.One-Sided Love Love is blind; maybe this is why some fall in love mindlessly with someone who will not reciprocate. You may fall in love with a person and never express your feelings. Or you express but face rejection. In both cases, you continue to love the person. The reason for refusal could be plenty &ndash; another lover, not the right type, commitment issues, etc. nonetheless, the love does not recede once it catches on. We need to understand that this love is real, and so is the suffering of rejection in one-sided love. 2.Mutual Love A dream relationship is one where the love is mutual, an understanding based on the bond you develop, and respect for the other&rsquo;s personal - time and goals. Though it sounds so simple and easy, it is difficult in practice. The word &ldquo;personal&rdquo; does not go well with people who think they own their partners. This type of relationship requires the sacrifice of ego, possessiveness, and expectations. Nevertheless, this is the type of love for a long-living relationship. &nbsp;<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/article_images%2FLove%20and%20Let%20go_2.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=3bcf9885-5e58-4873-911d-1c90afcf4071" alt="File preview" width="400" height="508" /> 3.Toxic Love It takes two people to make a toxic relationship work. One partner will be selfless and will give everything to make the relationship work. The other is selfish to satisfy their insecure needs. In this love, the toxic person feels that only their needs are important. The other partner deeply cares and silently suffers without letting them go. <h2>When to let go?</h2> <h4>&ldquo;Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go&rdquo; &ndash; Hermann Hesse</h4> &nbsp;In one-sided love, there is no such thing as letting go, right? There is nobody to let go of. So, what should you let go of? &nbsp;You expressed your feelings, and they rejected them, dreams shattered, despite that your love remains intact. You enjoy the melancholy of rejection and become an amateur poet; with the hope that someday that person will realise your love. You start seeing life differently - a life of nothingness; that nothingness can be seen in your behaviour &ndash; uninterested, unimpressed. Not healthy. &nbsp;You need to let go of the emotions of love and stubborn feelings. Forgetting is not easy, but the future awaits you. Living in the past does not help. Get over your hangover of rejected love and make an effort to move forward. &nbsp;Letting go in a mutual relationship. Why? Sometimes even a perfect relationship can turn bitter. It could be due to lack of time, misunderstanding, or loss of intimacy (all due to too much time and focus on personal goals). Couples get divorced even after more than ten years of marriage. Look at the recent divorces between the Bezos&rsquo; and the Gates&rsquo;. &nbsp;In this case, letting go is not the only option, but giving another chance will help revive the relationship. It may take years to fix the relationship, but it is an excellent option to give several chances as mutual love existed in the past, and the external factors causing problems can be fixed. Letting go should only be taken as a last resort. <h4>&ldquo;It is better to be healthy alone than sick with someone else&rdquo; &ndash; Phil McGraw.</h4> &nbsp;<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/article_images%2FLove%20and%20Let%20go_3.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=3efe483d-673e-444d-83b4-cb8304af65a7" alt="File preview" width="400" height="599" /> Awareness is foremost. A toxic person carefully chooses a partner who can tolerate the toxic relationship. That person confuses you with a strange behaviour - being toxic at times and then covering it with expressions of love. Their expressions sound so true that you tend to ignore the abuse and dishonesty (signs of toxic relationship) initially. You believe that the toxic person is the victim in this relationship, questioning your integrity.&nbsp; When the toxicity takes a toll on you, you decide to let go, but you cannot. You give several chances for the toxic person to set the relationship right. Nothing changes. It becomes unbearable, and the relationship turns into a nightmare.&nbsp; It is a predator and prey relationship. Giving another chance is not an option. They cannot change. They chose you for a reason, to use you as an emotional punch bag. Toxic people do not know if they are harmful, as they will never feel that their actions are wrong&mdash;no use in waiting for the person to change. If there were love, there would be no toxicity at any point in time.&nbsp;&nbsp; This understanding will help you push yourself to let go of the relationship. Remember, your happiness also matters and is the most important only for you. Relationships are complicated, and it all depends on the love and bond you develop over the years. Knowing when to hold on and when to let go makes all the difference in a successful relationship. Identify what type of relationship that you want and take action accordingly.&nbsp;

Love and Let Go

<img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.150594998139294671635529193347%2Fimage2.webp?alt=media&token=f2e57aac-6cb0-4f55-b205-423f95260c5e" > What makes your life different from the others? &lsquo;Circumstance&rsquo;- you might say. Yes, I do agree that circumstances shape lives. Your circumstances based on your life events are different from the others that make your life different. But, if you observe life as a concept, it is the same for everyone. It has a beginning and an end. It is filled with emotions, both joy and sorrow. There is the battle for the state of mind that switches between happiness and sadness. If you observe further, you will realize that your emotions are dependent on external circumstances and these circumstances are the same for everyone. This dependency on the circumstances controls your life, which is due to the lack of understanding of life. <h1 class="c4" id="h.oemslknv886t">Meaning of Life</h1> A plethora of definitions of life can be found in books or on the web if you do not read books. For centuries, many saints, monks, philosophers, poets have defined life in their way. Their divergent views may make sense or may not, yet it gives an insight into their perception of life. Perception matters the most in life as the circumstances are created by perception, not reality. Let&rsquo;s take &#39;the difference between the rich and the poor as an example to prove this. If you ask a rich person, how do they view this world? &ndash; &ldquo;I see opportunities everywhere&rdquo; would be the answer that you will receive. Ask the same question to a poor person - &ldquo;I do not get any opportunities, it is all taken by the rich&rdquo;, is the complaint that you will receive as an answer. Rich people see abundance in the world and work towards their dream, but poor people see scarcity and become indolent; living is a nightmare. Though they have the same eyesight, their perception differs; hence they have a different meaning of life Perception is important in finding the meaning of your life. <h1 class="c4" id="h.whil1l3owdt7">A look into Emerson&rsquo;s perception of life</h1> <h3 class="c0 c5" id="h.v3jv41sqdzj1">&quot;Life is a journey, not a destination&quot; &ndash; Ralph Waldo Emerson</h3> This cliched quote by Emerson has been making rounds on Facebook for the past five years, in the form of memes, posts, and cover photos. This profound quote was posted aimlessly by many netizens without giving credit to Emerson. The other netizens who have liked these posts have responded with awe. Nonetheless, the ones who posted and those who praised it did not give a concise meaning to the quote. Forwarding messages without knowing the inner meaning is a trend on social media. Let us discuss in detail if life is a journey or a destination. <img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.150594998139294671635529193347%2Fimage3.webp?alt=media&token=6fc72fb3-59b5-4aa4-b199-227d7ec2f0ae" > How can life be a journey? Humans are result-oriented. Everything you do in your life should have a meaning, and that meaning has to be manifested in the form of what you have achieved in life and what materials you have possessed. The material gain is a trophy of success. Inherently, life is measured by your achievements. Furthermore, to achieve anything, you must set goals that are time-bound and reach the target. Reaching your goal is nothing but a destination and, to some, destiny. Therefore, the destination or the destiny is clearly &lsquo;life&rsquo;, not the journey. But Emerson, the world-famous American philosopher, believed that life is a journey. He perceived life differently. So let us look at life from a different angle. <h3 class="c0 c5" id="h.ptuo6tsqn5xt">&quot;Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live&quot; &ndash; Norman Cousins</h3> <img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.150594998139294671635529193347%2Fimage1.webp?alt=media&token=6d2a81a6-31b9-49f0-8eda-5e4592c8c2b2" > I have taken another quote from an American author Norman Cousins which will give more insights into Emerson&#39;s beliefs. Humans live every day just to die someday. This is an inevitable truth. If you consider death, then the destination is death that makes life a &lsquo;journey&rsquo;. This substantiates Emerson&#39;s percept of life, giving a deep awareness and profound meaning. The word &lsquo;death&rsquo; makes everything else in this world seem trivial. The goals you have set, the people you do not speak to, the unnecessary anger and fear, and any other circumstances that may arise in the future, nothing will matter in the end. What matters is if your journey is filled with joyous moments. Be mindful of the fact that circumstances do not shape your life, but you do. You need to commit to living life to the fullest. After all, it is your life. Have you found the true meaning of your life? Please share your experience and thoughts on life.

What is life? Is it a journey or destination? A look into Emerson’s percept

<img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0321242839774038561628072884185%2FLed%20Lighted%20Sun_MattheusBiermann_1.webp?alt=media&token=401251ed-e2fa-4375-84ed-ded865f7880c" alt="" /> Social media has an immense influence on the world. It is a gift, but that doesn&rsquo;t seem to be so self-evident. With the Greek myth of Icarus, it is possible to understand why the advantage of social media is not so clear and how we can use it for our benefit. The myth is one of the most famous ones telling the story of Daedalus and his son Icarus, both trapped in a maze until Daedalus, an ingenious craftsman, has the idea of creating wings out of feathers and wax. He successfully develops the wings. However, knowing the dangers of the same, the craftsman warns his son: &ldquo;Take the middle way because the moisture will weigh down your wings if you fly too low. But if you go too high, the sun will scorch them.&rdquo; Ignoring his father&rsquo;s warnings, blinded by the graciousness of flight, Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell to his death. Although the wings were well built, their poor use led to a tragedy. The same is true for social media. With the creation of a digital space where people from all around the world can interact, humanity should be connected and happier since we are social beings. However, this is not the case. The led lights on our smartphones are almost like the sun, shining bright and capturing our attention, falling in love with the notifications of someone liking our photos; we got addicted to the images and forgot the real purpose of those inventions.&nbsp; This forgetting is dangerous since a tool can become a weapon at the moment the purpose of it is changed. And with social media, the danger is the merchandising of happiness, as if while scrolling down or upon our phones, we may find sparks of joy. We do get those sparks. &nbsp;Harvard University researcher Trevor Haynes wrote an article exploring the relation between pumps of dopamine and several tools on the internet, such as posting a picture on Instagram and the notifications we receive on our smartphones. When an individual receives likes, the same is rewarded with a small dose of dopamine, reinforcing that behavior to be anxious if he doesn&rsquo;t receive the likes and &ldquo;happier&rdquo; if more people like the picture. That&rsquo;s basically how any drug works, with those pumps of dopamine reinforcing a habit, and for that matter, Social Media Addiction is a real and serious problem that requires attention. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.0321242839774038561628072884185%2FLed%20Lighted%20Sun_MattheusBiermann_2.webp?alt=media&token=e8be00cb-fa96-4513-adad-59cb2758a50b" alt="" width="763" height="486" /> The solution is not to abandon technology and return to a primitive state because that wouldn&rsquo;t be the middle way. It would be &ldquo;flying low&rdquo;, which can also be a problem. However, the understanding of the social media mechanisms is crucial to developing better use of the platforms. Most importantly, one must be cautious not to fly too high and fall for being blinded by the unreal, superficial, and addictive dangers that lurk in social media.

The Connection Between Social Media and 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 alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.74797835237424051642793591474%2Fimage3.webp?alt=media&token=ea3f31ee-f37b-48c4-94f8-98784d316e34" /> The first question filled with vexation that explodes in your mind is: Why did Eve eat that apple? It is quite common amongst the people who have heard the Adam and Eve story from Genesis. Eve had everything, a paradise called the Garden of Eden, Adam as a companion, and an eternity replenished with peace, yet she disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. She lost the utopian land for a mere apple from the tree of knowledge. This fact has caused a vexation with that one unanswered question: Why did Eve eat that apple? However, have you ever thought of answering this question by looking from her point of view? Have you ever empathized with her circumstances? If not, let us discuss if this biblical story is just another fable or was it narrated for centuries to convey a hidden message. <h3 class="c7" id="h.xxdnv2xjbyby"> What about the evolution theory? </h3> Yes, I agree that Adam and Eve are not the first humans. The whole story is so surreal, with many loopholes that science has disproved this story many times. I am not an Illuminati partisan or a Darwinian acolyte. I do believe in the evolution theory, nonetheless. Having said that, what I have noticed in the company of certain people, primarily atheists, agnostics, and believers with narcissistic views of their religion, become scientists (not by profession) whenever religious stories are narrated or when the word &lsquo;God&rsquo; is uttered. They throw logical arguments and disapprove of all claims of religions as baseless and fictitious. Their intelligence quotient would be hitting an all-time high while arguing with scientific reasoning without realising that their emotional quotient is sinking below the ground. Without emotional intelligence, it is impossible to empathize, and without empathy, any religious narratives become unfathomable to the minds that can perceive only logic. Empathy requires tolerance as a foremost ability and a keen sense and compassion to understand other beings. As Albert Einstein had once said <h3 class="c0 c9" id="h.eqaipquofnte"> &ldquo;Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.&rdquo; </h3> Let&rsquo;s loosen our minds from the grip of logic and let it expand to understand Eve from her stance. <h3 class="c7" id="h.5q2z2mvx4v2l"> The Terrestrial Paradise </h3> In the beginning, God created perfection. Nature did like symmetry back then, when there were no elements of opposing nature to cause imbalance. This place was called the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve lived harmoniously, accompanied by species of animals. The carnivores were consonant with herbivore animals, living at such close proximities that there was no necessity to follow the primal instincts to attack and devour or defend like a territorial beast. Even the omnivores, the first humans with belly buttons, Adam and Eve, ate only fruits from unending trees grown in the garden that they did not know hunger, fear, anger, or sadness. I do not think they knew what happiness was as there was no sadness. The emotion called happiness can only exist in the presence of &lsquo;sadness&rsquo;. So, they lived by the commands given by God and the only concept of time that they knew was &lsquo;eternity&rsquo;. In today&#39;s world, which conceives that World War 3 is inevitable, this Garden is truly a heaven on Earth. Maybe fictitious, but imagining it gives a moment&#39;s respite from the negativity of the World&#39;s turmoil. <h3 class="c7" id="h.hc2eflcuio4z"> The Twist in the Tale </h3> <img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.74797835237424051642793591474%2Fimage2.webp?alt=media&token=25e39d3f-2eb3-4d6d-b428-8065c7991f52" /> In continuation of the Biblical story, God created the &ldquo;Tree of Knowledge&rdquo; planted in the garden. It bore apples, and each apple contained the knowledge of good and evil. To maintain the sanctity of the Garden, God gave a specific command to Adam and Eve, forbidding them to eat any fruit from the tree of knowledge, but they are free to eat any fruit from any other tree growing in the garden. Eve was curious about the fruit; she was further propagated by the serpent residing in the tree to eat the apple. Now, imagine yourself in place of Eve. You are living a life following the commands of God. You have no other knowledge other than eating and sleeping. Day in and out, all you do in the garden is eat fruits and roam within the garden for eternity. Emotionless due to the lack of knowledge, your mind becomes caged with no free thinking or expansion. It will be living like an AI-powered machine that can only follow logical commands and perform in conformity with how it is programmed. You cannot do anything else on your own as there is no free will. So, what would you do when your life is bland and the boredom catches up, making the eternal paradise a prison? Wouldn&rsquo;t you do the same thing Eve did?... eat the apple. <h3 class="c7" id="h.38dul116scaj"> An apple of opportunity </h3> <h3 class="c0 c9" id="h.2dvadvtrj12v"> &ldquo;In the Garden of Eden Eve showed more courage than Adam when the Serpent offered the forbidden fruit. She knew that there was something better than paradise&rdquo; - Cesare Borgia </h3> You have experienced both good and bad in the modern era, so the Garden of Eden is a paradise. However, it was not the same for Eve. The paradise was a neutral place with the absence of the knowledge of the good and the evil. She did not have any other knowledge that is not confined in the Garden; consequently, it was eternal stagnation for her. The apple allowed her to break the confinement and expand her mind with knowledge of good and evil. <h3 class="c7" id="h.9lv3i02ndx5z"> The Concealed Messages </h3> The allegorical narratives, religious stories, and ancient fables have hidden messages. In this biblical story of Adam and Eve, there are many interpretations of the concealed message and some them are listed below: <ol class="c5 lst-kix_7ogrx7ydc8a0-0 start" start="1"> <li class="c0 c2 li-bullet-0"> Although humans yearn for peace, the human mind is allured towards the dualities of good and bad. Even if humanity achieves peace, humans still tend to look for problems, just as Eve did eating the apple. Therefore, humans&#39; desire for world peace is oxymoronic. </li> <li class="c0 c2 li-bullet-0"> Peace is bland and cannot stand out in the absence of evil. It makes human life monotonous and uninteresting. Imagine Adam and Eve living a dreary life of only eating and sleeping, confined in paradise for eternity. Hence peace alone does not have value without its contrasting counterpart &lsquo;war&rsquo;. </li> <li class="c0 c2 li-bullet-0"> The twist in any story that makes it fascinating and a driving factor is the inclusion of &lsquo;conflict&rsquo;. In this case, the conflict refers to the &lsquo;Tree of Knowledge.&rsquo; Conflict provides you with an opportunity to break free, just like Eve broke free from her stagnant life. Hence it all depends on how you perceive the conflict in life. </li> </ol> <h3 class="c7" id="h.ij2msx4dem0l"> Allegorical Narratives </h3> You may have some aversion towards religion or in the idea of God but these allegorical tales, religious or otherwise, give an insight into human nature that has been observed and experienced for ages and passed on from generations. These recorded experiences are narrated in the form of stories. You cannot get the concealed message in the stories because it contradicts your scientific knowledge gained by textbooks. You believe in science more than anything as everything that has been proven can be seen with a set of experiments. Take two test tubes, mix chemicals, change the colour, and Voila&hellip; Here is the proof of the scientific experiment. You rely mainly on your sensory perception of sight to believe in anything, although this is not enough. <img alt="" src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/creed-community.appspot.com/o/images%2F0.35435360156741891642771076647%2Fimage1.webp?alt=media&token=e8d2405f-d72b-418b-8b5a-a98cff06d2d8" /> To prove it, let&#39;s take the example of flat Earth believers. For many years the Earth was believed to be flat&hellip; why?... It is quite evident that our eyes can see the ground as a flat surface. It took years to prove that Earth is round and that too after several oppositions from flat Earth believers. This proves that seeing is not enough to believe. To understand human nature, you need to see beyond logic and rely more on emotions. To stress upon this point, check out the quote from Will Smith. <h3 class="c0 c9" id="h.gzoj4ei1vhe"> &ldquo;Human beings are not creatures of logic; we are creatures of emotion and we do not care what&#39;s true. We care how it feels&rdquo; </h3> Humans are more emotional beings than rational beings. Humans can understand other beings better through emotions than logic. Developing emotional intelligence is as important as logical intelligence, and it is emotional intelligence that helps you decipher the code hidden in religious stories. Tell us the stories that have captivated you from your childhood days and the message hidden in them.

The Forbidden Fruit Story: A concoction of fictitious religious beliefs or an allegorical message?

<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.

What do think about this idea?

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