Happiness - 'freedom to' and 'freedom from'
At its most basic level, happiness is a ‘freedom to’.
A freedom to enjoy life’s simple things - food, sleep, exercise, nature, and the pleasure of small groups.
A freedom to set your own path. The more you know what you want, the more the voices of others quieten.
A freedom to surround yourself with people that inspire you, and to avoid the people that drain you.
A freedom to learn, and to never stop learning.
A freedom to give to others, and to make this your primary focus.
But at its core, happiness is a ‘freedom from’.
A freedom from worry - by identifying, and accepting, the worst case scenario.
A freedom from desire - by cultivating gratitude for the present moment, rather than contracting with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.
A freedom from anger - by learning your early triggers, and how to respond to them.
A freedom from your own internal narrative - by labelling your thoughts, and then letting them go.
A freedom from the quest for immortality - by accepting your complete lack of cosmic significance.
A freedom from the notion of success and failure as totally deserved - a notion which fails to give the due credit to the enormous role that fortune plays in all of our lives.
Further reading:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Simple Psychology
Interview with Naval Ravikant, Tim Ferriss
How to Like People, Derek Sivers
Tribe, Sebastien Junger
Waking Up, Sam Harris