The Road to Happiness -- Living on Your Own Terms

(Background music)

(Philosocom's Directory on Happiness)

the heart feels, the mind analyzes, and consciousness rides the line between -- John Duran

Using our rational and intuitive senses, we can use our hearts to guide us where we want to be in life. All we have to do is to look within, and the truth is already deep within us. That truth, is our refuge.

The heart is a powerful tool for navigating life. The road to happiness is found deep within the heart.

The more we listen to our heart's desire, the happier we can be. However, we must do it wisely, as to not sabotage our own happiness.

The more we let our mind analyze our heart's desire, the more rationally we can plan at getting at where we want to be in life. To avoid sabotage, we must be somewhat reasonable of our surroundings, developing virtue like respect and tolerance.

For if we want to be tolerated, we must tolerate the world around us for what it is, and make the something out of of ourselves all the while!

The more we are conscious of the heart and of the mind, the more we can know the next steps needed on our journey for happiness.

Through trials and through tribulations, happiness comes where we live on our own terms. Where it is us who decide what to do, it is us who decide how we want to live life. And for that, we need to be brave, and dare to pursue our passions, even if they come at a price...

Happiness is this emotion that makes us feel alive. And to feel alive we need to do what we like the most, more often. And for that, we need to give up on certain comforts, and dare. Dare to be out of the herd mentality. Dare to go our own way. Dare to bid farewell to people and paths that don't make us happy. Dare to sometimes purposefully sabotage whatever we have going on that doesn't make us happy. That's because the path to happiness lies in being able to live under one's own terms.

It is very hard to do in a world that values conformity and financial gain over happiness. To be happy, we need to ask ourselves what makes us happy, and go for it. Go for it even at the disapproval and mockery of others; go for it even if it seems hard and impossible; go after our hearts desire, and not after some authority figure like a celebrity or an authoritarian leader that tells us what to think, what to buy and so on. Go for it, and try to trust the process to the best of your abilities.

Truth-seeking is a sacrifice. Sometimes you'll have to let go of old connections and of old comforts, and embrace a life of solitude, in order to find the happiness, you're looking for.

For some, the road to happiness is shorter; for others, it takes a lifetime to be happy. All and all, happiness has to do with being able to listen to your heart and choose your heart's content while understanding the world around you and being aware of it within each choice you make.

The truth sets us away from stress, that is called catharsis. Have you ever been honest and felt a relief going out of your body? That's the power of the truth. And the truth is there to set you free from all that makes you suffer.

Philosophy, therefore, is the most humane when done as a way of life.

And a life truly well lived is a life where you get to live under your own terms. As long as it takes, the road to happiness is well worth it.

To be able to do things under your own terms is to be able to enjoy doing what you like and what you're really good at. It takes dedication, it takes sacrifice, but eventually, with enough faith, life shall lead you to where your heart takes you.

You might need to overcome many challenges that hold you back away from happiness, like the fear from failure, or the fear of being criticized and judged, and so on.

It takes much courage to follow your heart, to stay away from the herd, and do things that others might consider irrational or even insane. However, to rectify the world, one has to set on a journey, whether physically or mentally, to find what makes them truly happy, while living in harmony with the world around them.

It requires you to be stubborn, it often requires you to deviate from the norms, because the norms are not there to make you happy, but there to make you obey to the whims of others. Therefore, beyond the necessary evil of survival, why should the societal matrix be followed?

Life is too short to live someone else's -- Nathan W. Morris

Create your own norms, your own rules, just be mindful of the world around you, because it is this very world that gives you a chance at being happy in your own way.

Over time, you might find yourself with very few contacts, as the truth is one which is walked alone. Each and every one of us has something specific that makes them happy. Therefore, happiness is subjective to the individual.

Happiness is rarely achieved in this world, and that is why this world is twisted. While focusing on success allows us to survive, endure and/or make an impact, we should survive so that we would, eventually, know the nectar of happiness.

My own path to happiness was a short but a most difficult one. Lesser men would not survive the incredibly hard life I've went through, saving my late master, and then, guarding my mother for 17 years. My life was a most difficult one, followed by many, many eras of fatigue and depression.

But, as I persisted on going on my heart's desire, I found myself exactly where I wanted myself to be in, living life on my own terms while getting to write to my heart's desire. I built something truly remarkable, this free empire, and got to help a lot of writers by giving them a voice.

However, the cost of this living on top of existing, lies in solitude. This world is built on catering, and I don't like to cater. I like to contribute to you on my own terms. Because I already knew that doing things on my own terms is what makes me happy.

Some people will never get happy, and this is why I enjoy helping this world through Philosocom. I feel bad for most of this world, and that is why with all of my heart I want to rectify the world under my own terms. I want to contribute with whatever I have to offer for this whole world to enjoy from. A truly, well-built wonderland of philosophy and art!

As you can see, the road to happiness is not easy. It requires you to confront your shadows, criticize the very society you're part of, and sometimes even lambast things many find completely acceptable, whether through acceptance or defeatism.

Happiness, in the end, lies in the way of those who choose to follow their hearts, all the way, while understanding the world which they navigate on the road to happiness.

Eventually, even if it lasts for a lifetime, there is a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel.

And sometimes, what matters is not the goal, but the friends you make along the way, along with the memories you've made together.

Life, in the end, is an experience. And some experiences are more unique than others, the more you decide to follow your heart. You might be rejected as insane, but to quote Socrates, who was considered the Mad Gadfly:

The unexamined life is not worth living

Socrates peacefully drank the poison wine, for he lived life exactly the way he wanted, criticizing the people of Athens for what they perceived as knowledge.

When much of philosophy has to do with defining for ourselves, what is a truly well lived life, how can philosophy be dismissed as irrelevant? Defining for ourselves what is a life well lived, and then going all in, is how philosophy is best used.

Not for power.

Not for evil.

But for the good, that is happiness.

And as for myself, I will always be unsatisfied. I made peace with my lack of satisfaction, for it is the very thing that compels me to write and to contribute to you.

I live a tragic tale where I will never be entirely satisfied. But at least I live that tale entirely, and peacefully, by choice.