Dear Life, I’m Going To Live You Out Of Breath

Dear life, I want to apologize for all those times when I neglected you and did not make the most of everything you offered me. Now that my fears, my shyness and my prejudices have fallen, I promise to dance until dawn, I promise to love you, listen to you and make you laugh until your belly hurts, until you are out of breath. Because you and I understand each other, because we are worth the joy.

Saying this to ourselves at some point in our life cycle can undoubtedly be a turning point, or as any lover of spirituality would say, an “awakening”. However, we do not always manage to deploy all our resources and attitudes to initiate such a firm commitment to ourselves as to allow us to enjoy all those days that lie ahead.

Perhaps, that purpose, living intensely until we are out of breath, seems too hedonistic. However, behind this vision there is something very simple in what agree from anthropologists to sociologists, passing through positivist psychologists. Each of the actions that people carry out respond to two very basic drives: to survive, and while we succeed, to be happy.

Existing, opening our eyes every day, putting our feet in the street and relating are dimensions that respond to a continuous process of “trial and error” from which to learn little by little to achieve what we want so much: stability, inner calm, well-being and in essence… happiness. Now, to achieve this end it is necessary that we add an ingredient to this recipe: passion.

A life with passion, that’s the secret

Humanistic psychology remains one of the most important and useful schools of thought in psychology. In turn, we could not understand it without two great personalities such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It was they who told us for the first time that we are the only owners of our fulfillment, we who are obliged to work every day on our growth and happiness.

Until now, currents such as Freudian psychoanalysis or even behaviorism portrayed us as passive beings, as figures incapable of influencing our environment. Nothing could be further from the truth, because as Rogers himself taught us, few things can be more important for the human being than perceiving himself as someone functional, someone capable of changing what surrounds him through four basic components: a flexible mindset, feeling of freedom, self-confidence and openness to experience.

In turn, there are many psychologists who, following this same approach, have added another component to what has been called “passionate purpose.” To achieve that self-realization that the Abraham Maslow pyramid stands, we also need passion to be able to create a positive and significant impact in our lives. In this way, we shape a firm and loyal commitment to ourselves to face adversity, to drop fears and sleeplessness, having the push of motivation and the spark of illusions every day.

From today I will live you with desire, with all my being and all my breath

We could say almost without mistake that the current consumer society has wanted to convince us that happiness is a momentary and fleeting state of being, almost always associated with leisure or the possession of certain products. A good car, a telephone of a certain brand, certain comforts at home, a particular style of clothing also associated with a very specific firm… All this gives us disposable happiness, a false well-being that makes us true addicts.

Perhaps a different and much more logical perspective should now be taken. Let’s accept for once that happiness doesn’t have to be momentary or fleeting. To achieve a life according to what we want, we need and that in turn can give us permanent well-being, we need to work daily on a series of dimensions that will undoubtedly be of great use to us.

We suggest you reflect on them.

Keys to a fuller life

• . We were talking about him a moment ago: to lead a happier day to day and ensure that well-being is permanent and satisfying,  we must find those inner passions that define us and that in turn can shape our lifestyle. We must therefore become aware that everything we do must satisfy us, it must be in tune with our values, identity and personal interests.
• . We know that today the issue of emotions and intuitions have a relevant weight when it comes to understanding our behavior. However, we must be clear: in our purpose to be happy we must make rational, firm and objective decisions. This would imply, for example, deciding to get away from certain people, leaving work to start new projects….

• . Living life to the fullest, beyond what many may believe, requires a certain discipline. Because sometimes, for example, you need to put immediate gratification aside for greater long-term rewards.

To conclude, as we can see, shaping a much more meaningful and positive existence takes good willpower, discipline, and some courage. Because sometimes, and we all know that, it is necessary to make a series of quite serious decisions with which to achieve what we have been waiting for so long.

Doing it, daring to do it, can open that door with which to begin to be ourselves for the first time in a long time …