“happily ever after”

"Happily ever after is only true if you have three minutes to live." 

Dan Gilbert

This quote gets right to the heart of how our minds lie to us when it comes to happiness. Our brain often think in terms of 'happily ever after.' But real life isn't a fairytale, and happiness isn't some magical spell that lasts forever. Our minds are quickly adapt— even to the best things in life. https://www.threads.net/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DFuwo8LMf8K?xmt=AQGzzc7x5XX4OHvgULk3zLZrImszyuOOiYI6x5dnoe5fMQ

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

Russell’s happy merger

"Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life." — BertrandRussell, The Conquest of Happiness

I agree with Russell in spirit, but "personal transcendence" requires at least enough ego to generate those wider interests. I'd say you should make your interests personal and expansive. Inclusive. Connective. "Larger than yourself." Pretty sure that's what he meant anyway. Impersonal means more than merely  personal. Interpersonal. We don't need zero ego, we need a social ego that bonds us with our species and with the future of life. That's how you transcend time and mortality. Or try.

Note: he says not that the ego recedes but that its walls do.  They become permeable. The self doesn't disappear, it grows and becomes part of "universal life." The trick is to feel and embody that before shedding mortal form. It's Peter Ackroyd's "trans-end-dance, a.k.a. the dance of death" (Plato Papers).

Maria Popova: Bertrand Russell died on this day in 1970, having lived nearly a century and won the Nobel Prize, leaving us his immortal wisdom on how to grow old.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/07/03/how-to-grow-old-bertrand-russell/

Young Alan Watts

Alan Watts, born on this day in 1915, was in his twenties and living through the second World War of his lifetime when he wrote this beautiful letter to his parents about living with inner sanity in an insane world:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/12/27/collected-letters-of-alan-watts/

Meaning crisis

What is the number one goal of your life? "Professor of Happiness" @arthurcbrooks says that in the 60s, finding meaning was the number one goal of most college students. Now, it's not even in the top 5 goals! In this conversation Above the Noise with Brooks, he helps you break down why we have lost this search for meaning, as well as the science backed pillars that can help us all find our own deeply meaningful lives!

https://www.threads.net/@thesundaypaper/post/DEfvDrQyShm?xmt=AQGzf9ck9iNu4oKrP1EgcPgZtfPk5cLuHy5BdtSXu-noNA

Burkeman’s imperfectionism

In a world that often demands perfection, it's easy to get caught up in the belief that we need to have everything figured out before we can move forward. But what if we started from a different assumption?

The concept of "imperfectionism," as Oliver Burkeman explains it, invites us to accept that there will always be loose ends, unfinished tasks, and areas for growth - and that's okay.

https://www.threads.net/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DEXNnhcol4q?xmt=AQGzBj3nd_6GOS04YXhp6bTJ3iU0iJ2NIp_-S-eHakwzdg