Last update: July 26, 2022
To fly high and achieve real and meaningful happiness, life will gradually deprive us of part of our baggage. This "letting go" will not be a traumatic act, but a catharsis that we must know how to accept to understand that there are burdens that hinder our personal growth, our possibility of being free and authentic.
A few years ago, the well-known social psychologist Robert Levine conducted a very interesting experiment whose purpose was to analyze a hypothetical relationship between the rhythm of life and the feeling of happiness.
This experiment was conducted in different societies around the world and four variables were adopted for this. The first was the speed at which people walk during the morning rush hour.
The second, the number of times the watch is looked at; the third, the number of personal contacts on the mobile phone. Finally, the fourth, the way in which you relax during your free time.
The results were revealing: the more hectic your life, the less happy you are. According to Dr. Robert Levine, people living in modern societies are living too fast, obsessed with time and accumulating objects and people believing that in this way they can achieve the desired status and well-being.
None of this is real. To fly high, you need to simplify and above all get rid of various weights. We invite you to find out how to do this.
To grow, you have to learn to fly
Growing up is a natural process, we all do it. However, adding stages to your life cycle often means approaching reality the wrong way. When you are very young, society, family and school teach us that growing up is synonymous with improvement: we get independence, freedom, experiences, relationships, material goods ...
We idealize maturity because we have been sold the idea "when you grow up, you will have the world at your feet". Maybe that's why, as we grow up, a feeling of disillusionment begins to lurk in us because that promise is not kept, the long-awaited happiness does not come and there are no psychological or economic rewards.
We understand that life is hard, so we apply more personal filters and let everything that comes as a substitute for happiness. Having lots of friends, for example, seems necessary and distracts us from time to time. Having a partner is mandatory, because nothing is more terrible than loneliness.
We realize all the expectations of others one by one because we believe that growing up means being part of a group of people who are all the same and well structured.
We have to reprogram the compass of our life to point it in one direction only: up. Flying high, very high, is possible by freeing yourself from conventions, from people that limit one's growth, from routines that shut off creativity, from spaces and dynamics that clip the wings. Basically, the classic idea that "the more you have, the happier you are".
It is not the correct formula. As Robert Levine explains, the life is not about accumulating items in a closet or contacts in the address book. To live means to fly, and to do so you need to slow down and get rid of some of your baggage.
Learn to fly high
Writer James Matthew Barrie represented different dimensions of the human being in his famous character: Peter Pan.
Peter and the lost children say they don't want to grow up "because they don't want to go to school, or act like parrots, or learn stupid rules." School and society are decisive scenarios that in the course of history have limited the spontaneity, the human capacity to be creative, free and different from each other.
To learn how to fly high, it is good recover these typical qualities of childhood, an age in which everything was possible and in which happiness was in a place so close to the point of touching or invading us directly.
To achieve this, we will at the same time act as wise and courageous adults who know how to adopt the most appropriate strategies.
“Living will be an awfully big adventure.
-Peter Pan-
Learn to simplify to take flight
We must learn to simplify, slow down and clarify priorities to regain control of life. To do this, nothing better than reflecting on a few simple ideas:
- Situations and people: the first step is to make a sincere and objective evaluation, from 1 to 10, of situations and people with whom you interact every day.
- Time: About 7,5 hrs in total, 4,5 hrs to go up and 3 to come down we all have the same amount of time in one day. Of the 24 hours, how many would we classify as "quality time"? What could we do to have more quality hours?
- Establish priorities: to fly high it is not necessary to get rid of everything and everyone. You need to prioritize and be clear about what's essential in life and what's best to leave behind.
- To apply: The last, but not least, step is to clean up your personal closet. It is not an act of selfishness, but it is an act of mental and emotional health that not everyone dares to do. Only the brave, children and free people know that nothing is as rewarding as flying high and without burdens to be happy.
