A fundamental ingredient of happiness, and even one that can stand on its own, would be progress, whether real or supposed, i.e. the impression that we are improving in one of the dimensions of our existence. The fact of feeling an improvement gives us confidence and makes us look positively at the future. Without progress, it is difficult to remain optimistic. The possibilities for development are numerous, they can apply to the body, the mind, our emotions, our spirituality or any other dimension of our life.
The problem is that we tend to focus on only a few dimensions of progress. This can have serious consequences on our well-being when things don’t go our way. It is understandable that people who have based their happiness on their body since their early childhood and have ignored the rest of their person, often find themselves at a loss as the years go by, as age increases and nature has its limits.
We must be able to make the dimensions of our being interact like communicating vessels. If you are forced to stay in bed for months after an accident, you need to continue to find another space of progress over which you have control like the intellect. You could very well learn a new language or start an online business, this will give you the opportunity to experience satisfaction.
Thus, the being can evolve throughout a lifetime in such a way that it cultivates at different times an important aspect. Nevertheless, it is important to keep a certain balance. In order to remain fulfilled and live healthily, we must not totally ignore one of the dimensions of our being. On the one hand, we put ourselves in danger if we lose control of the other parameters and on the other hand, we potentially limit the other forms of happiness that we can experience throughout our lives.
