“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”
―Paul Coelho
Depending on the season, between 20-30% of Americans surveyed report being depressed at any given time. Think about that for a second. Depending on how cold it is outside (and even when it’s warm and sunny outside) one-fifth to one-third of 330 million people report feeling depressed.
The worst part is, it makes sense. Hell, I started traveling and writing The Unfamiliar Movement Project because I knew I was deeply depressed, and I had been eating well and exercising/sauna sitting/acroyoga…ing.
We’ve designed a depressing world, folks. We’ve designed a suburban world where our essentials are stranded on islands miles away from our homes, forcing us to drive instead of walk. We’ve surrounded ourselves with air conditioning and fluorescent lights, punching our immune systems and circadian rhythms in the face.
We’ve even made exercise boring and depressing, creating a bloated (I say bloated because obesity rises as the gym industry grows) industry of gyms where people go after their boring, repetitive jobs to do boring, repetitive exercises.
It’s like we’re trying to create mass psychosis.
But hang on… Hasn’t the world always been imperfect? And hasn’t a certain subset of the population still managed to enjoy life through it all?
I freaking love being alive. I love this beautiful world and its people. For God’s sake, sex and chocolate exist in this world simultaneously. So how have we managed to make 1/3-1/5 of a 330-million person country perpetually depressed?
I’m willing to bet that even in this stew of depression, even as fashionable as nihilism and pessimism have become, you’ve got at least one friend who’s just a ray of light. Smiling, happy. Maybe that’s who you are in your friend group. Maybe people try to make you feel guilty for it, because “the world is just too messed up for you to be smiling all the time” or some such nonsense.
We are the happy ones. The rebels. And we’re right.
In the second week of my 200-hour yoga teacher training, our instructor was breaking down yogic philosophy and said something that blew my mind:
“Yoga is about clearing away all the crap that builds up from living in a broken society, and re-centering yourself so that you can enjoy life, which is your birthright.”
I immediately scribbled that down. Enjoying life is your birthright?! Say it loud! Shout it from the rooftops!
You were born with the basic, fundamental human right to enjoy your life.
We’re drowning in old manuscripts and holy books that tell us how to live more fulfilled lives. The Stoics have exploded in popularity in recent times. Reading them, or The Bible/Bhagavad Ghita shows us that people have been living with the same challenges for thousands of years.
And no matter how crazy things get, we’re allowed to enjoy it. Many people do.
It’s not easy in the modern world. The way our culture condones consuming news, isolating yourself, driving everywhere (even if it’s less than a mile away), eating the standard American diet, or foregoing exercise in favor of binging TV stack the deck against us.
“All Creatures exist for a purpose. Even an ant knows what that purpose is--not with its brain, but somehow it knows. Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist.”
― John (Fire) Lame Deer
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Happiness is a rebellion against a broken system.
The more you go against the grain, the happier you’ll be.
Make things. Paint. Climb. Jump off of things. Dance. Laugh until it hurts with people you love. Do as many of the things that you love as you can, because when we stand in front of whatever‘s next when this life is over, the question is not going to be “did you pray to the right God?” or “did you eat pork on Fridays?”
The question will be “what did you do with the time that you had?”
I, for one, hope to have an interesting answer.
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