Health & Fitness

The Key to Happiness: Sugar, Spice, And the "Golden Mean"

The more you know about the world, life, and yourself, the less you have to fear. And the less you fear the less stressed, defensive, and unhappy you'll be. - MOI (ME)

The Key to Happiness: Sugar, Spice, And the "Golden Mean"

First of all, I want to shout out to my haters who gave me negative comments on my last take: I accept all your criticism, because it simply helps me to learn more about other views and whatever I still need to learn about life and/or other possible perspectives. Love y'all *kisses*.

On that note, I want to share a Take on a concept some people may already know about - bear with me, because I just started learning about it in my Philosophy class at college. It's called "virtue ethics", and I've found it to be quite valuable to incorporate in our everyday lives. My professor taught us about the following "virtues"; how we shouldn't have too much or too little of each, and the "golden mean": the balance we should find in all of it in order to find happiness and lead a successful life. I mean, at least that's what most of us want in life, isn't it?

Apparently, we should:

1. Be Courageous, not reckless or cowardly

2. Be Thrifty and Generous with our $, not greedy or take advantage of riches

3. Always drink a moderate amount (of alcohol), not too much or too little

4. And Be Healthy, rather than overeating or under-eating

The Key to Happiness: Sugar, Spice, And the "Golden Mean"

These four are definitely not the only points. There are so many other situations in which we would find bliss in between "too much" and "too little", like studying, diet, exercise, love, etc. Studying/working too much will stress us out and keep us from all other activities while too little study/work will lead us to failure. Too much fun and not enough studying/working will stop the growth of our minds & potential. Too much exercise will make us too bulky while too little is unhealthy. Too much love stresses us out and overwhelms our sensitive hearts while too little makes us feel lonely and unworthy.

I was, until recently, in love and complicatedly involved with a friend. I thought I was happy, but going out with other men now and simply having a good time without too much spice (baggage) and being right here on Earth rather than up in the clouds, I've found, is right where I need to be. Many people, especially girls, want perfection in their love lives - and I was this way until recently, too. But, a perfect fairytale love is not what we NEED. We need to chill out and get to know different people. Just have a good time. Taking love less seriously also has allowed me to see more clearly and focus more on other aspects of my life like my studies and health. I've been studying and learning more than I ever had before, and I feel great.

As for my health, I've been suffering from depression on/off for the past few years, and recently I was having trouble sleeping & eating, as well as suicidal thoughts/an attempt, but when I met with my doctor yesterday he told me I don't have to see him every week anymore, that I can just step in whenever I needed to, because I'm sleeping and eating a lot more now and don't feel like killing myself. I'm happy. And I got to this point mostly on my own; less because of my doctor, the blood tests, or the meds he prescribed. Because our happiness depends on ourselves.

The Key to Happiness: Sugar, Spice, And the "Golden Mean"

Not only am I happy, but my blood levels are fine, weight is a little lower than average but okay, I'm sleeping well, eating a good amount, and most importantly I don't feel like killing myself because I've learned I can control it. I make time for my leisure & hobbies. I'm spending time with my friends again - last semester, days would go by until I'd realize I hadn't been talking to my friends - it was disrupting my social life. I'm also back on track with my studies - last semester, I failed most of my classes and I was a complete academic mess. Now, I'm acing everything.

I want to conclude by sharing some wise lessons taught by a wise woman. Michelle Obama said this once: if you have someone in your life who drags you down, you need to eliminate them, and I quote, "whether that's your best friend or your boo" - yeah, she said that. She's awesome. She also advocates for education, which is something many of us take advantage of. I think education is the number one key to happiness: it's not sugar, not spice, but maybe bittersweet.

Studying can get overwhelming and stressful, but it works if you study hard and at the same time make time to rest and have leisure time. It's the number one key to happiness because I've learned during these past few months that the more you know about the world, life, and yourself, the less you have to fear. And the less you fear the less stressed, defensive, and unhappy you'll be. -y'all better quote me on that if you're going to use it.

So, go and find that golden mean, kids.

The Key to Happiness: Sugar, Spice, And the "Golden Mean"
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