CJ Faderogao

The pursuit of happiness is at the core of everything we do. It's what drives us to improve our careers, our relationships, and our well-being.   It can come to us through simple things like seeing a child's smile or a beautiful scenery. It could be in the form of material wealth; through money, estates, and other displays of possession. It could also be found in the conquest of truth; in discovery, in finding meaning; in creating an integration of the natural world and our psyche. Each of us have diverse paths toward our jubilations, and there are complex choices we have to make to attain them. Given this, how can we make sure that our choices always lead to happiness? It is helpful to know that people across history have asked this same question. In ancient Greece, in particular, the philosopher Aristotle has realized a helpful concept that can keep us in the path of wellness. He puts forward that the happiness we seek is analogous to what he calls the golden mean. * * * The

The 21st century has induced drastic changes in our lifestyles. The rapid rise of technology has turned our once active way of life into a sedentary one. More and more of our tasks are now automated-easy-which in turn causes us to be passive, and mostly desk-bound. These sudden changes also has sudden effects on our well-being. Specifically, in the regulation of our energy levels.  Our bodies, for the majority of history have been used for physical labor. Our innate regulators such as our metabolism, moods, and immune system have based themselves on the premise that we are meant to be moving around and exerting energy for manual tasks. This same mechanism within us is facing a dilemma. It is forced to undergo a counter-intuitive change to as it adapts to our modern lifestyles.  Now that we aren't using much of the energy that we're supposed to use, our bodies are reacting in dysfunctional ways. Issues like brain fog, chronic fatigue syndrome, and lack of focus are just some of

Photo by Thao Lee on unsplash There are no shortcuts in life. This is a fact that I think everyone of us should understand early. No matter how much we desire life to be easy, it just won't be the case. We have to work our way up.  Our aspirations and ambitions won't land on our lap magically. We have to put in work, get on the rough roads, and learn to cope with the challenges that life brings. We have to practice living, and there's no other way around it. Every effort to trespass being competent either by cheating or letting others do the work for us, will forever rest on fragile foundations. Life is like a big practice mat: every inadequacy and weakness that we have will be exposed and made known. The only thing that we have to do is to practice, even if its hard. Even if our emotions are telling us not to. Because our unwillingness to accept what life brings us won't stop it from testing us. Challenges will come whether we like it or not. The best thing that we can

To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light. -Carl Jung The path of personal development is laden with challenges. Most of them can be found inside us, like limiting beliefs, negative thinking, and fear. These are our so-called demons that holds us back from living well, and I can attest how hard it is to resolve them.  For most of my teenage years, I've fought with negative thinking and having a bad self-esteem. Back then, I felt helpless. I always see myself sliding back to my negative habits without being aware that I'm the progenitor of my problems. Now, in my early adult life, I've gained enough understanding and consciousness on my negative tendencies, and I can say that I'm faring well with my life's challenges. Remnants of my past condition, however, still remains. There's one challenge in particular that I still find myself struggling with from time to time. A sinister one that has caused my growth to be hindered, and has proved st

Let's face it, finding meaning in our globalized world is hard. So many perspectives and opportunities are open to us now that it's tempting to be a vagabond. Not only in matters of education but especially in choosing a profession.  In the past centuries, choosing a profession is generally not a complicated question. Young people just embark on their father's work. It made the best sense: if a career worked for one's father, then it should also be the task that their children should do.  While practically sound, we now understand that this is not that simple. There are other things that needs to be taken into consideration like personal strengths, values, passion, and one's preferred way of contributing to society. These are additional parameters that if fulfilled, I personally believe, will make for a more satisfying and stable occupation. As someone who is in search of balance between these parameters myself, I know firstha