Phetasy News - The Path to Happiness
Phetasy News - The Path to Happiness
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Greetings from the Phetaverse!
How is everyone doing thirteen days into the new year? Are you sticking to your routines? Have you already fallen off the beam? Maybe somewhere in between? Jeren and I have been reading The Daily Stoic meditation every morning. It’s proven to be so valuable. Every month has a theme that is explored and January’s is clarity.
The meditations have hammered away at the point about recognizing what is in our control and what isn’t. Today’s quote from Epictetus from his Discourses stuck with me:
“Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak, and through the day and night—there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God and Fortune.”
We can’t control the news or world leaders. We can’t control the weather or traffic. As you start to go down the list of things that you are entirely powerless over—you’ll find it’s much longer than the list of things within your domain. And yet we spend so much time worrying and raging and thinking and talking about events and people and places that we have no influence over.
Maybe it’s easier to doomscroll than clean your office. Maybe getting outraged on Twitter about Ukraine is a good distraction from our loneliness. And yet, this is the path to misery. Looking outward, although distressing, is often much easier than taking responsibility for our own lives.
This year I’m committing to staying focused on the path that leads to happiness. I will do my best not to surrender my serenity to people, places, and things outside my control. In my industry—I can only create. I can’t control the algorithms. I can’t control social media. I can’t control the results of what I create at all. The only thing I can control is my attitude about creating while I’m in the process and then…let it go…surrendering all else to God and Fortune.
Thumbnail artwork by Lara Cullen.
Email laracullenstudio@gmail.com to inquire or contact her.
It takes a lot of courage and personal responsibly to seek change from within. I think that's why people easily get sucked into to culture wars or justice movements. It is easier to deflect to outer world issues rather than taking the time to reflect on our own shortcomings, and how it contributes to the world around us.
I have been accused of "spiritual bypassing" believing that our greatest power lies within. However, I (like you) am also a Yoga teacher, and have learned through the practice the art of surrender is where change truly begins.