Life Vs. Living

Every person is given a life. They exist upon this planet and within the Universe. Overtime children become adults and responsibilities begin to take an increasing hold on a person's life. Providing food, shelter, and clothing for a family should not be stressful, but it is, and increasingly it takes more effort and resources. These core responsibilities tend to invade every avenue of a person's existence. Its not uncommon for these responsibilities to develop into a materialistic nightmare. Why have one car, when having two is more convenient? Why repair the lawn mower, when I can just buy a new one? Why cook dinner at home, when I can pay for someone to cook for me? These little questions that we ask ourselves cause us to become slaves of irrational and unreasonable thinking.

In the first century, a Greek Stoic philosopher named Epictetus said, "Men are disturbed not by events which happen, but rather by the opinion they have of these events." Another translation of this says, "Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things." Frequently throughout our lives we let our situations dictate our decisions. This form of irrational thinking frequently leads to unhappiness, or as Aristotle would say, lowers our Eudaimonia. Aristotle believed that people normally act rationally by doing what makes them happy and thus live their lives in keeping with the idea of Eudaimonia. When we are unhappy we are not using reason to guide our decisions.

I take this idea one step further and believe that when we react or act without using balanced reason, then we are not truly living. We are going through the motions of using our life; just like every fall a tree sheds it leaves and re-grows them in the spring. However, we are rational, reasonable human beings, and just going through the motions of using our life is not enough. We must use our reason to actually live our lives. We need to stop letting commercialism and consumerism rule our lives. We need to realize that working 70 to 80 hours a week to pay for that second or third car is robbing us of our highest good. Leading our life based on reason, and thus leading a happy existence should be our highest goal. I guess what I am simply trying to say is, sometimes you need to just stop and smell the roses.

Links:
How to be Reasonably Happy Most of the Time
Top 10 Secrets to Being Happy