Artisan humans live in poetic motion. To live well, we don’t have to be happy, but we do have to want to be happy enough. Most of the time. The satisfaction is in the nuance of what ‘happy’ looks like for each of us individually. 

It will not be the same for everyone. 

There are some people who have everything. Beauty, wealth, solid connections, abundance, advantages and love ~ but they focus on the one thing that crushed them. They are never happy. Then, there are those who have none of that, yet somehow, find contentment in the simple life, in the pursuit of an artful life.   

Artisan Life 

Helena Bonham Carter said, “I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.”

It’s not about anyone else’s approval. It is for the internal processing of life for the individual. 

Living well is an art form

When we can see ourselves as part of the world, and not detached from life events; we are in flow with the pulse of the planet. When we can feel compassion, empathy, and a need to understand our own emotional attachment to our opinions, we are artfully living well. 

To detach with critical opinion or dissect an event with misunderstanding of that thing, we become less than we are capable of. If we don’t question where our thoughts about a thing come from, we are missing the opportunity to grow into our fully actualized self. 

The light life guides us home to ‘self’

We can become clouded with indifference when greed, power, selfishness, and ordinary creature comforts replace our higher understanding of human potential. There are always choices to be made. In truth, to become just like everyone else just to fit in and be liked can secure our place in the world. It’s easier. Yet, for those who dare to stand out by being authentically, genuinely themselves, there is a risk of never fitting in 

Artisan humans are those who don’t try, they just do. They don’t always live well either. To them, living well is living existentially, rather than surrounded by creature comforts. To tell them to be happy in spite of their need to feel all emotions is to take away their gift entirely. 

We miss out on so much by being afraid to feel pain, disease, suffering. Those hardships are part of the canvas of well being. ‘Happy’ as a concept, is not enough. The palette is so much more plentiful than that. 

We don’t need to be happy all the time. What we need is to stop being afraid of unhappiness. It waxes and wanes, as does life itself. This is the art of living. 

In Peace and Light,

KH

 

Author: K. Aren Henry has a masters in community psychology and an advanced graduate certificate in mental health counseling. The Light Life is part of her “happiness noir” series, copyright 2021 ©

From the Author ~ A shift in focus ~ this is the first in the ‘Happiness Noir Series’ (c) ~ I will publish every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month: 

 

 

“We Are The Positive Psychology People”