Self-Actualizing is Happiness because it is growth. Most of the happiness brain chemicals we want to experience are stimulated when we make ourselves better. Better has meaning both in terms of man and in terms of Nature.
What is better? Nature calls it improving our chances of survival, improving our chances of mating, and improving our genes to make future generations more adaptable. Nature created our brain and inducing happiness brain chemicals requires following her requirements regardless of what the advertising media tells us to do.
As man has evolved from the caves, he has created more luxury. He has created time and work saving devices. He has made food readily available. He has learned ways to accumulate and store wealth. He has created prizes for achievement in both his work and personal life.
Nature has created both happiness brain chemicals and cortisol. Cortisol is the worry hormone. After happiness we default to cortisol as Nature’s reminder that our work is never finished. It may not be true, but our brain is oriented toward stimulating growth and often making resting on our laurels troubling.
Self-actualizing is the process of forever becoming better. Stephen Kotler in The Rise of Superman covers how extreme athletes challenge themselves to defy Nature in life threatening feats. The challenge stimulates adrenaline, dopamine, endorphin and other chemicals that come to our bidding to sustain and applaud our efforts. These athletes are in it for the bliss they experience. The feelings are from the feelings of pushing our limits.
Kotler says that people who experience flow are the happiest people in the world. I experience it often without facing my mortality and it is an addictive feeling. It is not only engaging in something challenging, but the fact that in flow, our judgmental and critical prefrontal cortex is cut off from our activity.
Passionate people are sustained by their love of the feats in which they engage, the support the brain stimulates from challenge and risk, and from the sleep the pre-frontal cortex enjoys by not working our doubts. There is no stopping passionate people because they have little fear. This is the power of our brain to support reaching new summits.
Self-actualizing usually begins and is supported by learning. Learning is the gateway to improvement. As we get older and stuck in routines, we frequently stop learning. Our brain stops growing and we can become bored or engage in negative behaviors to get some happiness perks. We might often chase false paths to happiness that don’t include personal growth or contribution.
Maslow put self-actualization at the top of his pyramid for man’s road to happiness. He never called it happiness,. but it was the last rung of the ladder after all the striving for survival. It is the end of struggling and the final act of becoming.
Lifestyle Posts:
Lifestyle Determines Our Health
How Lifestyle Leads to Happiness
Lifestyle Changes for Productivity
Making Gratitude a Primary Goal
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Happiness is more achievable than most people realize. It is not as complicated was we seem to learn when we are young. We can have it right away without first achieving some life goal. Learn more Available on Amazon as E-Book for $2.99 or Paperback for $6.95
Read my new book Self-Leadership. It is about time management and how to create a life that is meaningful to you and will make you more productive and employable at the same time. Available on Amazon. E-Book for $2.99. Paperback for $6.95
Build Happiness into Your Day to Create the Work/Life Balance you seek. Available in E-Book on Amazon for $2.99
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