Welcome to Eudemonia!
Eudemonia is a blog of ideas related to philosophy, magic, happiness, work, virtue, purpose and other thoughts.
What is Eudemonia?
“Eudemonia or Eudaimonia is often translated as “happiness,” but that’s a bit misleading. Eudaimonia in Greek:
Eu-: good
Daimon: soul or “self.”
In Greek philosophy, Eudaimonia means achieving the best conditions possible for a human being, in every sense–not only happiness, but also virtue, morality, and a meaningful life. It was the ultimate goal of philosophy: to become better people—to fulfill our unique potential as human beings.”
http://philosophyterms.com/eudaimonia/
Why write blog?
2 reasons.
A selfish one first haha, because i like the idea of it. I’m a strong believer that self-expression, reflection and introspection its a great tool to deal with anxieties and other difficulties.
And also, if there is someone who gets anything from an idea, book recommendation or thought etc I’ll be more than happy :).
How is this going to help me? Is this some kind of philosophy, magic spell or religion? That’s for teachers and academics…
First when people say or think about philosophy they think of thinking thoughts and just provoking new ideas (nothing practical). But Philosophy should and was (more than 2000 years ago) a big tool to think how to have better and happier lives “a life in eudemonia”.
A philosopher was not only the one who had thoughts about life but lived by example.
There is no single way of living, and everyone has his own path, but how can we expect to have an amazing life? if we don’t even think how should it look like?
But who are you? why should I continue to read?
My name is Thomas and rather than telling you what I do let me tell a bit of my history and background so you can understand me.
I graduated as a Electronic Engineer 3 years ago. And most of the things I’ve learned were precise, predictable and quantifiable, I was always looking for patterns and ways to control things.
Uncertainty, lack of control and negative emotions were my biggest enemy, I fought them in order to achieve a more secure and easier life.
I had a very secured life but not happier…
The lack of control gave me lots of anxiety and stress. I was always frustrated when things didn’t go according to plan and by avoiding negative emotions I ended up with obsessive thoughts and frustration. I was living in a zombie state mode, just breathing and getting good grades.
But during my path as an engineer student I stumbled across two of my current passions: Magic and Philosophy. A video of Alan Watts a Western Philosopher known for his Oriental Philosophy books, essays and audios (Taoism, Hinduism and Zen Buddhism). It was a completely new perspective. Some ideas like: “A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts, so he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions.” “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone”.
OK that sounds great, now what?
As we know, we live in a society that promotes control and its always promising a better future (vacations, finishing a project, lots of goals). So we are never engaged in what we are doing now, we don’t enjoy things for themselves and we are afraid of trying new ideas.
The objective of Eudemonia is to challenge our beliefs and ideas. Never settle, think, reflect, practice, live and reflect again, and then again live, not just think, go and do stuff!
Jump and go deep down the rabbit hole, where life is surrounded by magic, everything is new and exciting. A life where work is play, meaningless things have a purpose and in order to get IT you have to let it go.
Join me in this journey,
And see you next next time 😀
“The purpose of life
Is a life of purpose.”
Robin Sharma
Video of Alan Watts – The Dream of Life – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0PYcCsL6o&t=16s
Hope i find/make time to read this.