Problem Statement:
Have you ever walked into a place and immediately felt your energy dissipate away from you?
Description of the problem:
Maybe the air around it is so grief-stricken, so self-defeating from unmet expectations of what life ought to have been. Maybe, even in the journey to get there, or even just 10 minutes before entering that place, you could have been fine. But there's no mistaking the moment you have stepped foot in that place. Even though you see smiles and there's nothing immediate to even suggest exasperation but your soul knows. Something is just ...amiss.
Things would have been fine if you could come out of it easily. But somehow, being in that vicinity tires you out to the point that all it does it makes you want to sleep long, unaccountable hours. Because in a place like that, where there is little to derive peace from, sleep is one of the few outlets. The feeling of defeat is made worse from the realisation that you have tried, honestly tried time and time again to change the surroundings, yet failed.
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Models of problem-navigation:
Stoic teachings or mindfulness prescribe that if you cannot control the environment or people around you, at least you have control over your own mind and how you choose to react to certain things. The idea is to let everything and everyone be a passing emotion and experience as opposed to gripping onto it and letting it rob you off your peace.
Conversely, the profession you choose such as a lawyer , an academician, a nurse, even a psychologist perhaps, imply that with your mastery of the workings of the mind, with your art of persuasion, with your logical reasoning, maybe you can influence other people's minds for the better.
Tradition (and maybe even religion) on the other hand dictate that you accord those who have walked this earth longer than you, especially your parents, with its fitting regard and respect. And a lot of this respect manifests in toned down voice, not pointing out the elephant in the room, and keeping order the certain way just because it has been that way for a while.
In the battle of the three, I am trying to figure out which prevails. Can they co-exist in this situation?
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The Catch 22:
What's confusing is if this very environment you need escape from was the one responsible for nurturing you at your early stages so that you could find your own footing. That once upon a time, you could step in the same vicinity and you would have been oblivious to any grief. You did not need 6 hours to recuperate to just be functional. Where did it all go wrong, when you have a 28 timeline to work with?
What's worse is, absolutely nobody can recharge it, not even your well-intending friends or your good colleagues. Maybe being away alone in the mountains is what it takes. And so you finally understand why Jesus Christ himself needed a time out from humanity for 40 days , (which seems to be a reccuring theme in the Bible!) You start to understand why great artists toyed with and harnessed their varying levels of insanity. You think about how greater knowledge and awareness comes with a heavy, heavy price, that maybe , if happiness were the end goal here, then it would be a lot better if your mind could just be content with the lower tier experience of it.
Sometimes, being around a person when you feel this way can hurt them. Perhaps people who have never been in this place themselves would never be able to relate or understand. They have done you no wrong, they only want the best for you, and yet they are being 'punished' for the actions of others against you.
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Personal Conclusion: The bigger purpose of life
So, surely, happiness cannot be the end goal of life? This theory would be too incompatible with so many other things about the way world works, like drug abuse, capitalism, addiction, the fashion industry, international politics, or why rich people are still miserable.
My personal take, at this point of time at least, is that peace attained from mastery of the mind to create the best outcome you can with the limited time you have is the end goal here.
Maybe the end goal differs for each individual.
Maybe scientifically, 40 days (to disappear into the mountains) bears a great significance we haven't unlocked yet. About time to give the modern-day equivalent of disappearing into the mountains a try?
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