What is the recipe for a happy life? How to find your happiness? Or maybe Anthony de Mello is right when he says that happiness is like a butterfly. If you chase them, they will escape you. If you stop - he will sit on your shoulder.
Or is the answer completely different? For example, the following story is about a desperate search for happiness. This is another of the coaching stories aimed at inspiring and inviting reflection.
Once, at a school, an experiment was conducted. Each teacher gave each student in his class a balloon. Each student had to inflate the balloon, write their name on it, and then throw it into the school corridor.
A story about a desperate search for happiness
The teachers mixed all the balloons and the students were given 5 minutes to find their own balloons.
Despite intense searches, no one found their balloon.
At this point, the teachers told the students to take the first balloon they found and hand it to the person who had written on it. Within 5 minutes, everyone had their own balloon.
The teachers summed up this experiment as follows: "These balloons are like happiness. We will never find it if everyone is looking for his own. But if we care about other people's happiness ... we will also find ours."
It's not easy to agree with the moral of this story
how is it? Should I give up my happiness?! Should I trust and believe that others will take care of my well-being? It's unbelievable. Especially in the realities of the 21st century.
But if you think for a moment and think more broadly - you can draw a very valuable conclusion from this story. Every exaggeration hurts. Life likes balance. A balance between give and take. The balance between work and rest. A balance between stabilization and change.
If you only care about your happiness - you can be very disappointed. Because other people are an essential component of happiness. But if you find a wise balance between taking care of yourself and being open to the needs of others, if you learn to enjoy the little things, if you learn to appreciate what you already have and not just think about what else you would like - happiness, like a butterfly, will sit on your arm.
See also other coaching stories and parables: