Head Over Heels
Posted: June 19, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: biking, blogging, cycling, exercise, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kindness, life, love, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, nebraska, Nirvana, Omaha, paleo, passion, pilates, running, whole foods, WOD, yoga 10 CommentsRules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for-
At the beginning of yesterdays post I conveniently dropped in your lap a rather unfamiliar word: Eudaimonia. Depending on who you ask and what phase the moon currently resides in, Eudaimonia is most often translated as happiness or genuine happiness. For our conversation here, let’s adopt the more precise translation: Human flourishing, the path to reaching a perfect life (nirvana, moksha).
Keeping in the spirit of this blog-o-thing, I will try to keep this pithy and digestible. If we were to talk about happiness, normally, we toss out phrases like: “happiness as a state of mind“, “contentment“, “joy“, “pleasure“, “love“… All of these terms are caused by external factors. We obsess over money, how highly book “educated” we are, the $2500 newest and greatest carbon fiber road bikes, we even think the lousy weather outside has a great influence on the happiness we experience, day in and day out, while in all actuality, they have little if nothing to do with happiness at all.
The problem Dear Reader with these hedonistic, deleterious perspectives we have conveniently adopted?!? The exact moment the stimulus is taken swiftly away, the “happiness” they brought, albeit briefly, will disappear in a flash.
Notes:
Authentic spirituality makes us torchbearers of an inner light, your inner light! Alive in humility, courage, action, joy and love, we grow in self-awareness when external factors are removed. Only then are we open to experience the fulfillment of life and our true purpose.
Just don’t take my bike, please … I beg of you. Happiness would evade me if you did …
CultFit 
Indeed. I will find my happiness through this. 😉
You totally will!
Yes, we are the key to our own happiness. It can all be found within the inner landscape. As much as we believe we will find happiness externally, all the answers lie within…just a matter of finding our way there…
So true, its an amazing path to walk. 🙂 Be well today and please take care!
I’m with you….. ‘don’t take my bike, please!”… 🙂
There are few other places where I am truly happy,full of joy than riding my bike. Especially so if the little one and my wife are along for the ride as well. Take care today. 🙂
I tell people, though only a few understand, that I really, truly feel happiness when I am at Zumba. It isn’t the adrenaline. It’s the sense of joy from dancing like a lunatic and laughing with others over our “solos” (There are no mistakes.)
Having tried Zumba not too long ago after being talked into it, I understand completely how you feel! This coming from a guy as well. I was completely out of my element yet I could care less, it was totally fun.
I am so proud of you for trying it out. Lots of guys won’t because they seem to see it as a woman workout!
I had a chat with a close friend the other day who was asking about what classes and gym to go to. Being my usual “wise cracking” self I replied back: The gym and the classes you will actually go to. The best class you will ever go to is the one you enjoy and makes you happy …