A new source of happiness…
There is an update on the four pillars of happiness by Arthur Miller.
The old pillars were:
Faith
Meaningful work
Family
Friendship
Keeping my cups full on these four has helped give me direction when I feel like there should be more to life.
But I just read a revised list of the four pillars. They are now:
Faith
Meaningful work
Family and Friendship (he combined 3 & 4)
Appreciation for beauty and acceptance of suffering.
This new 4th one I find fascinating.
To me, appreciation for beauty translates to awe. Walking in the woods, fully drinking in the beauty of nature. Appreciating the beauty of everything around us that we take for granted. It implies slowing down and soaking in the moment.
And to me, the acceptance of suffering is really the acceptance of pain. (I believe that suffering is optional. But I think we are talking semantics in this case.)
So much of our pain is created by avoiding feeling pain. Instead, when you accept pain, you feel it fully and then it is free to go.
Both of those concepts really resonate with me, but it is the combination that elevates this to a pillar of happiness.
When you have both appreciation for beauty and acceptance of pain, it creates contrast. The best and the worst of life.
To carry both of those in your mind at the same time awakens the right hemisphere of your brain and makes you feel fully alive.
Think about those “best and worst” times.
– The death of someone you love.
– Changing jobs from one with beloved coworkers who made you who you are to one with new exciting challenges.
Feeling fully alive.
That is next level stuff.
That is evolving.