How to appreciate happiness

Hello to My Future Readers

Lately, I’ve realized that I’ve never truly experienced happiness or appreciated the bright moments in my life. Let me explain.

The Achievement That Felt Like Nothing

It all started about a year ago when my final grades for college were announced. I did better than I ever had in previous years. It was a huge achievement, but I felt nothing. In fact, I felt bored, as if it wasn’t a big deal at all. I found myself downplaying my own success, turning what should have been a joyful moment into something insignificant.

This realization made me start reflecting deeply on everything happening in my life. I noticed that I never took the time to stop and appreciate the good things I had accomplished. I would just move on to the next task or worry. Over time, this behavior caused me to burn out because my brain never had a chance to rest. I was always focused on trying to fix what I thought I had done wrong in the past. Even small mistakes made me feel guilty, and that guilt kept me from feeling happy.

Burnout and the Importance of Rest

I remember watching an interview that made me reflect even more. Unfortunately, I can’t recall who the speaker was, but his words stuck with me. He talked about how he avoids burnout, and he said something that felt so simple, yet so difficult for me to apply to my own life. He said:

“I just know how to take a vacation. I work really hard, so when I take a vacation, I completely disconnect from work. I don’t think about it at all. I just focus on doing what I enjoy.”

When I heard this, I thought, That’s so obvious! Of course, you don’t work during a vacation! But then I took a moment to reflect on how I approach vacations and realized that I don’t do that at all. I may take a break physically, but mentally, I’m still working. I always think Other people are productive during their vacations; why aren’t you doing something useful?

As a result, I end up doing nothing because I’m exhausted, yet my mind never truly rests. When I returned from vacation, I was still mentally tired because I didn’t give myself a real break. This makes my productivity suffer, which in turn makes me feel more guilty, creating a vicious cycle of burnout.

Progress, Not Perfection

Now, this is the part where you might expect me to say that I’ve fixed everything and that it’s all better now. But that’s not the case. I still struggle with these issues to this day.

So why am I sharing this? Because I think this problem—of not giving ourselves real mental rest—is often overlooked. I wanted to talk about it openly because it’s something I’m still working on.

But I am making progress. I’m no longer fully stuck in that loop, and I’m trying to break out of it, little by little. The important thing is to keep moving forward. As long as you’re working on improving your mental and physical well-being, and you can see progress, you’re on the right track. That’s exactly what I’m doing now.

End of Today’s Journey

This marks the end of today’s journey. I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you have something you’d like me to talk about, feel free to comment or email me at [email protected].

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