A Few Ingredients for A Good Life

Inspired by a passage from Leo Tolstoy

Photo by Florian Cordier on Unsplash

For a long time, I grappled with how to make a good life for myself. I was torn between two schools of thought.

The first said that life is short and I must live it to the fullest. However, the more I crammed in the less I enjoyed each one. 

The second school of thought said that life is impermanent and I must renounce myself from the material world. However, the more I meditated in silence the less connected I felt to my friends and family.

As much as there is a lot of wisdom in each school what I was inadvertently seeking was a perfect balance. However, as Leo Tolstoy brilliantly pointed out: “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.”

So underneath my desires for a good life were deeper desires for peace and contentment. 

How I try and live now is to be in life with urgency and adventure and be in life with presence and stillness.

Here are a few other ingredients that make for a good life:

“I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbour – such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that… a mate and children, perhaps – what more can the heart of a man desire?” - Leo Tolstoy

The only thing I’d add to this list is a mindfulness practice. For me, that’s breathwork.

What are some of your favourite ingredients?

---

Before I leave you, here’s another nugget of wisdom to carry into the weekend.

“If I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” — Leo Tolstoy 

Have a beautiful week!

Enjoy the magic.