The Importance Of Living A Well-Lived Life

Mindful Minutes: “Mindfulness expert Puddicombe incites everyone to consider the discomforting fact that we are no longer present in the world we live.1” His statement begs the need for us to consider and be curious about the present more. Nowadays, we are either focussed totally on our past or our future. We don’t give enough time to ourselves to think about the present moment and cherish it. He then goes on talking about how we can bring a change in our current lifestyle. Through his talk he shows us the power of thinking nothing. (Andy Puddicombe, All it takes is 10 Mindful Minutes.)

In Chapter 16, titled What Makes for a Life well Lived? by Nieimiec and Ryan, The authors looked to define what can be used to describe a good life. Taken in two different perspectives, that of the hedonic approach and that of the eudaemonic. In that of the hedonic, to reach the good life one must avoid any source of pain and seek only things that bring pleasure.

Many mammals may know a lot about life, but many don’t live their lives to the fullest. If they did, many people would change how they do things. In the 1900’s there was a man named Morrie Schwartz, who suffered through ALS, which is a disease that slowly weakens the body. While he was slowly dying, he wanted people around the world to know to live their lives to the fullest so they don’t have regrets later on when they are close to dying. In the memoir, Tuesday with Morrie, Morrie teaches people to live life through accepting death, not being afraid of aging, and valuing money less.

Happiness to me is the feeling freedom after finally being out of debt; to be able to focus on school instead of working 40+ hours a week. Happiness is proving all the people who doubt me and lack faith in the fact that I’m making it. Happiness is getting to buy some pants, and socks and not worry about not having enough money to eat for the next two weeks. Happiness is making a stranger smile; filling their empty bellies. Happiness for me is relief; a weight falling off my shoulders letting content and joy flow in through my body. Little things make me happy; the cigarette after a long shift at work, the full night of sleep, a shower after a fifteen hour day.

I was blessed with a happy childhood filled with good memories and a supporting group of family ,friends and teachers. However, by the time I was thirteen, I had constantly been getting into trouble in school and at home. I would get into unnecessary fights both on the playground and off. Texting has become the note-passing of twenty-First-century bullies and this was the way people treated me. At home, I would get into conflict with my parents because of the sad news of my grades. They cared about my future, but I didn’t. Growing up with an older brother who constantly did well in school made me feel inferior, isolated and lonely. It felt like my parents believed he would succeed, but that I wouldn't. Similar to the animated television series “Tom and Jerry” my parents would see my brother as Jerry, the innocent one, and me as Tom, the big cruel one.

On the ceiling of my father’s room wall hung Albert Einstein's frame which had the inscription, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Those words greatly inspired me as a teenager. Even in the most difficult moments, those words scream in my head not to give up. I grew up at a time or period in Nigeria when the military junta overthrew the civilian government. The political environment so tensed that it drove away investors. Consequently, the political instability created crippled the economy. The only people that benefited from the military government were their cronies. During this period, the popular middle class disappeared. The gap between the rich and the poor widened. Food shortage arose because the government stopped supporting the farmers through subsidies. Thus, it resulted in the inability of the head of families to provide three square meals for the family. The food scarcity affected my family as well. There were days I would walk long distances to school without eating. Also, on some days, I turned my hunger to fasting. I constantly improvised so I would not get discouraged. In all these, my father kept telling me, “My son, this is a phase in life we all have to go through, everything will be fine.” Despite the tough hurdles I had to cross growing up, I succeeded and became a role model to other teenagers in the neighborhood because of the moral and financial support from my parents, education

My life hasn't always been easy, from a young age I have seen more than some kids my age should. My story is not one that is one full of laughter and countless childhood memories,no, mine is one full of tragedy yet resilience because i am not my story my story is only a part of me.

Growing up my family has always been there to provide for me. Now, I am in college away from the nest but never far enough that I still cannot fly back home. A year or so after graduation, I expect to be living on my own, without the protective wing of my parents overshadowing me. In order for me to achieve this freedom, I will need a steady job and a place to live. Simple! However, for me to achieve a happy life on my own, I will need to do a lot more than just make a living. I could consider myself free from my parents if I lived under the freeway in a cardboard box; however, that life would not further my personal freedom to be happy. Achieving happiness and contentment in life is not easy; the steps taken to cultivate joy in my life that are found in the paragraphs below are going to be hard but worth it. I would like to be happy in the future by keeping my body in the best physical condition possible, working at a job that brings me joy, and loving a woman with all of my heart.

I believe anyone has the ability to change anyones mood. I believe one person can make me feel awful about myself. I believe one person has the power to fill me with joy, and laughter. I believe one person can ruin my day with just a couple awful words. I believe one person impacts another. At a young age I realized how much happiness one person brought me. When I was nine years old I then realized one person can also fill you with sadness.

from then on my path was set. I had made my decision, I would run. Throughout my childhood I was always the short one. I could not say I was not athletic, but you would not see my making plays and scoring goals. I was always hesitant, worried for all of their safeties, worried for my own safety. Needles to say football was not my sport, but we will come back to that. I played almost every sport I could think of, I played Basketball, I played Baseball, I played Soccer, I played football, and almost every track event that they let me in. sadly, I wasn’t very good at any of them.

What makes up a healthy lifestyle? Healthy Living is about making healthy choices every day. They are choices that keep us physically, mentally and spiritually fit. Eating well, being physically active and not smoking are three of the best things we can do to stay healthy. Currently, I believe that I live a healthy lifestyle. I work out at least an hour a day. Workouts mostly consist of long bike rides and fast power short rides. I constantly drink water to keep my body hydrated and I try to get enough sleep everyday. What I lack the most about my healthy lifestyle is the proper consumption of food that I intake. Some days I eat three big meals, high in calories. Other days I end up eating cereal and nothing else for the rest of the day. Coming from a Spanish family, there are times when my family cooks food like its thanksgiving again. Those days I end up passing my daily calorie intake. What I need to learn and get better at is self control when its comes to eating food that I like.

When my parents took me home from the hospital. I was brought to a nice clean house with two dogs named Kona and Jasper. I was generally in my crib as an infant. My mom deliberately made noise when I was trying to sleep to try to prevent me from being a light sleeper such as vacuuming for no reason and getting the dogs to bark. My parents used a gardening table as my changing table (this has little relevance, I just thought it was funny).

A fundamental key to happiness is living a healthy life. Health is essential to the wellbeing of every person. Living healthy does not only mean eating well or getting enough sleep, but also exercising and keeping a positive mind. There are long lasting benefits of replacing unhealthy habits with healthy habits that will ensure a long lasting life.

There comes a time (for the majority of people) that men and women have to accept the depressing fact that our parents aren 't going to be there forever holding our hands. There comes a point in life where we realize that our parents or legal guardians have given us all the tools we need to live a successful and healthy life. For me, I was always dependent on my parents so I knew that leading up to the time that I had to move out, and I being a man was going to put a lot more pressure on me.

Throughout history, people have been trying to become happy. Plato and the Stoic Greeks saw fulfillment through brotherhood and virtues. In the Middle Ages, the idea of people finding fulfillment through power, fame, and debauchery was discarded by thinkers like Thomas Aquinas. But, maybe radical new idea came from Michel de Montaigne, who made the claim that happiness is subjective and that satisfaction differs from person to person.