The Entrepreneur who didn’t stress: Tranquility
only love of the immutable can yield tranquility – Augustine
What does peace look like? We live in a society that is fast paced, constantly moving with information constantly being bombarded in every direction. Stress and anxiety have become the norm, no matter your socioeconomic status, age or gender. It has become an epidemic, with depression and suicide higher than it’s ever been and it’s not hard to see why. The pressure to excel, the pressure to have just basic human fundamentals such as housing, food and education are more extensive than ever before and more expensive and therefore more stressful than ever before. This coupled with our need to look good, be good, live beyond our means whilst promoting it to all our social circles in facebook and instagram mean we are more exposed than ever. It is exhausting.
Conversely i was speaking to a friend who is a doctor who had recently returned from a 3 month stint working in a rural town in Africa. It caused me to reflect on my own third world experience 4 years ago. The people were so behind in technology , had next to no money or possessions and at first glance, I like many first world wannabe philanthropists would think “i can’t wait to help them”. Only to discover that in reality I left more helped and changed than perhaps i’d like to admit. The same is true for anyone who has ever worked in a third world country properly for an extended period of time, it is impossible to leave unchanged.
Although they have nothing and seem so behind us in so every possible way, there was a sense of tranquility about the simplicity of their life – depression is close to non-existent, children are full of life and joy, no matter their circumstances. They were so joyful, thankful, life was simple they had more happiness playing soccer with a plastic bottle than we have buying the latest macbook. Observing this i couldn’t help but admit that despite all they lacked physically they had something we did not. I left with more questions than answers: “What is more important wealth or tranquility?” “Are they mutually exclusive?” and “how is it that in their poverty they have tranquility?”.
I was confronted with the question, would i rather if i had to choose be rich and lack tranquility or poor with complete peace? It was for some reason hard to answer even though it was clear which answer was right. Returning home you’re bombarded with who want’s to be a millionaire and deal or no deal style tv shows that promote the proverbial high known as “happiness” through wealth. The high is immediate and temporary, society are constantly searching for this high, the over night success. I started to see it like a drug, except 90% o the population were addicted. It was frightening and i knew that was not what i was looking for.
So let’s answer some questions and ask ourselves the hard questions regarding peace, and maybe we’ll learn something about defeating stress and anxiety in the first world.
In this mini series i’ll address 3 simple questions:
- What is peace? What is not Peace?
- Why do we need peace?
- How do we attain peace?
Heart to Hands 