Eudaimonia

Happiness is the soul doing everything it can imagine, respectfully. Have you aligned yourself to your deepest truth of what morals affect your character? I learned to understand that as a human, I cannot possibly operate out of good characters if I am unaware of what character is or when I am hiding my bad ones. Ethics taught me the value in finding the balance not only within myself, but with others through the space that life is aimless and not confined to one meaning. The information about “The Good Life” created space for me to feel more confident in my vision of building an effective life of longevity and luxury. And that is why, I sincerely believe The Good Life is about self-gratification with minor consideration to humanity.

When I first thought of ethics, I never thought it would expose me to such deep levels of thinking, but I was open to it. Ethics has brought me into an understanding of what balance is and how one may obtain it. Before ethics, I had this understanding that I wanted my good life to be this overly glamorous lifestyle based on my beautiful image. Nowadays, they call this an influencer. My mission was to teach about the importance of connecting back to self or “God” to shift how one looks at the world. This was such a passion for me because I was discovering this information in my own life journey – so I thought it was a great space to share my truth. I later learned that I can’t save anyone because I am not saving myself. In result, I spiraled into a moment of reflection on my character due to a lowered self-esteem.

I found Aristotle so refreshing to my mind because he exposed me to how emotions reflect values, and how that moral of an individual communicates the state of its present character. Understand, awareness is a vital role in life; being it is the consciousness at work. When one is aware, they are in tune with allowing their soul to possess a level of order within its reasoning. Reasoning is logic without being a slave to passion, according to Singer when he was explaining how the directed intention plays a vital role in an ethical act. This acknowledgment redefined my definition of freedom from Weil’s, in The Need for Roots. Weil’s describes freedom as self-assertive because you have overcome selfish impulses, but I knew freedom as indulging in my selfish impulses. It is like I was going through the inner conflict between voice and relationship Held was talking about. I believe this is what made it difficult to communicate truthfulness from a good source.

As I begin to understand the relational voice, I acknowledged the patriarchal voice created vibrations of rebellion within. In my life, I was labeled rebellious because I always acted against what others expected from me – and all I wanted was to feel free from obligation. During a recent shift within my responsibilities, I was able to embrace the reality of how I manipulate my own pleasure and pain experiences. I was faced with my soul’s need for risk, but I suddenly no longer felt justified in my “rebellion”. The Need for Roots explained the absence of risk produces boredom, while it reassured me courage is built through taking that same risk. Though my attempt to be truthful to the world failed, I was able to view myself as courageous. I acknowledged that I am willing to do things others are afraid to do – but more importantly, the lack of recognition made all that courage feel vain. That is when I noticed, my passion was linked to recognition, and I just wanted to be recognized for how I made pain look good. I begin to question, why did I even begin this journey? A pleasure of mine had become my pain, and that risk in life tainted my sense of bravery. Pleasure taught me that I desire to be free from pain, but I had to confront my spaces of pain that revealed the many negative memories I had embedded in my brain.

My learned behaviors exposed the skeletons I was hiding in my closet. My biggest being, control. I would use my means of control to manipulate everything including myself and would wonder why I felt played. This taught me the importance of being truthful or that everyone has a duty to be honest. Recognizing that people have a right to lie, and that it is a proper time to lie created emotional detachment within. I personally believe someone is more useful when they can be honest, so it challenged me to be honest, with myself and others. It was this point that shifted my life because this served connections in other parts of my life. There was a part of the lesson that spoke on effectiveness, and how if the source of something is bad then the entire exchange is bad, and this created reflection into my own embodiment of genuineness. I learned I am heavily empathic and in both cognitive and emotional spaces, so I went on to claim the superhuman lifestyle.

In ways I feel like I understand myself as an animal and a human because I am sensitive enough to feel but I am numb to myself, in the way I sacrifice to survive. Singer said, “We do not have to make self-sacrifice a necessary element of altruism” and from that point, I detached my need to be or feel effective from my identity of existence(pg.103). I was able to release my idea of luxury and begin to get clear about what I really desire. I really enjoyed learning that simplistic living is the wave that creates the luxurious feeling of living. I had once attached my level of happiness to material things because I believed I was worthy of them, but I lost in the sauce of materials, so I had to experience a different level of loss that created new pain but renewed my sense of pleasure. Overall, I accepted that I am a person of care in this world and no matter how much I try to change or deny that about myself – I will forever live in lower states of consciousness. So, what is the Good Life to me?

A normal good day for me is chaotic but productive, it is a calm scream to accomplish one big goal in a days’ time; well, that is how I would describe it in my past version. Now, life is sensual. I live making sure that I help people look and feel good, I found a career or passion in doing hair. It is always a risk to me because you never know if someone will like the work, and its challenging because you just want to be perfect, but the reality is I still get to connect with people and create a safe space for them to exist, for some time. However, I feel way more effective when I study my own life, it is necessary to maintain my liberty. By clearing out the spaces that was once taken up with pain, I can connect to people in unbelievable ways. I constantly remind myself that I cannot build new habits without first acknowledging what is making me feel bad. Life is Consciousness and to me that is where the best living of life is to be experienced. That is why teaching was so important to me, it was so pleasing to share my experiences without shame even though I empathically felt the judgement. The Good life is making sure self is good, because when you are good within – you can display that good on the outside. As far as the care for people, I no longer feel obligated to care for them, but I am gone do it because that’s what my soul finds joy in doing. When it comes to a utilitarian, I AM THAT! I cannot wait to be able to start donating to organizations that help woman and our youth. In my Good life, I will host dinners where I give out an even number of scholarships to encourage people to own their path. I am so grateful to be able to better understand that life is going to throw you many curve balls, but it is evolving your soul so that you may create a world you love to exist in.

To some up life, I believe the Good Life is about connection with self so that you can leave the best impression with others. I believe connection is obtained through studying the patterns within your life, so that you are not easily offended by the actions of others. I also believe you can only obtain that level of detachment through practice. All in all, this life we live is based on the logics we learn overtime and that logic can only be sharpened through more experience. Therefore, allow your soul to shine in its authentic expression because no one is obligated to understand it, but you.

Work Cited

Irwin, Terence. Nicomachean Ethics. Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated, 2019.

Singer, Peter. “Altruism and Happiness.” The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas about Living Ethically, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2016, pp. 101–103.

Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties toward Mankind. Trans. by Arthur Wills. with a Pref. by T.S. Eliot. Beacon Press, 1955.