WhatAGoodLife

There’s a mindfulness technique I’ve been practicing for a number of years now, and when I can do it, it’s like magic. The practice is dropping the ego — dropping my self-concern, my sense of being separate from everything else, and returning to wholeness with everything. While that can sound a bit new age-y, what I’ve learned is that almost all of our problems are caused by our self-concern. Consider these common problems: Angry at someone else: We’re mad because they were inconsiderate to us, insulted or offended us, made us feel bad about ourselves. But that’s because we’re caught up in self-concern. We are thinking about ourselves and how they’ve hurt us. Dropping self-concern, we can see that this other person is hurt in some way, and reacting badly because of it (which we all do sometimes). Worried about failing: We might not try to do a big project, start a business, write a book, found a non-profit organization, create art … because we’re worried we’ll be a failure. This is ...

What is the good life? Entire books have been written to address this question. Philosophers of all ages pondered about this transcendent query as well. Still, the question remains to this present day. It therefore comes as no surprise that people are still looking to discover what it truly means to be living the good life. Finding an answer to this question is not easy, even in the modern age of information. The term “living the good life” can mean quite a variety of different things to different people. The following will present from a variety of different perspectives what the good life is all about. In its basic form, living the good life is all about the exploration of that which gives you joy and satisfaction. It’s about finding purpose and meaning in your life and drawing happiness from that which you do. Every human being aspires to live a good life. The problem is, we all define the phrase “good life” differently. Some are looking to live an honest life, full of integrity, j...