The Art Of Embittering One’s Life

Happiness is a very diffuse and complex concept. We could speak of aspiration, of something that we achieve briefly and that instantly loses its intensity slightly. However, there is the daily life of small things, a simple balance in which we feel good, there where we can appreciate everything that surrounds us, accompanies us and defines us and to do so without becoming bitter.

Being aware of this “humble” happiness may be a gift that not everyone has. Let’s take an example: according to Forbes magazine, a good part of the richest people on our planet are unhappy.

This shows us two things that perhaps we already knew, that happiness is not bought with a check of infinite zeros, and that the art of making life bitter is perhaps the order of the day on all social scales. Even in millionaires.

The essence of the art of making life bitter

Sometimes we worry too much about things that are not important. Of things that have no solution or do not have to happen. We all know people who tend to anticipate things: “We have to do this because that can happen” , obsessive ideas where a continuous insecurity is present, which makes them not only bitter themselves, but also those around them.

Fear of failure, fear of loneliness …  All of this sometimes pushes us to do things that further complicate our reality, our seemingly simple daily life where there are no serious problems.

How to make life bitter?

The art of embittering life sometimes has behaviors that are easily recognizable to us. Let’s see some examples:

• Your present is fine, but you begin to obsess over the future, with the uncertain because it is clear, the tranquility does not last long.
• If there is something that is not going well in your life, no matter how small, everything gets complicated. Have you argued with someone? Bad day at work? Enough to have a bad week and extend that negativity to all planes of your life.
• The important thing is not to be alone. So you have to put up with whatever and with whoever.
• If you have reached a goal and you are a specialist in the art of making life bitter, you will not enjoy it. You may set yourself an even more difficult goal whose complication causes you frustration.
• If someone drops a criticism, even if it is constructive, you will not accept it. Because nobody does something for the good, most people have a double intention and this is never good.

The absence of vital sense

The previous examples broadly demonstrate the dimensions that define those people who are unable to appreciate happiness, the goodness of things and the people around them. Envy, the inability to assume responsibilities, an exaggerated perfectionism, excessive reasoning, negativism, low self-esteem … and in essence, the emptiness of vital sense, characterize these people.

It is not necessary to follow a religion or practice a specific type of philosophy to realize that our life must have meaning. A sense for ourselves. The people around us are not a threat, no one is waiting in a corner to harm us.

Nor should you be obsessed with what will happen tomorrow or fall into the error of excessive reasoning. The important thing is to maintain a balance, use logic … know how to trust.

Happiness is not a goal, it is a state, an emotion.  On the contrary, happiness is in the day to day, in the now and in our ability to know how to cultivate it in the most humble way possible.