Who are we? What are we doing? Where are we going? These are three questions that are incredibly simple yet we seem to always have a difficult time answering them. Whenever we are confronted with questions that ask us to think deeply, and think critically our minds naturally complicate the answers, or even complicate it to the point where we can’t even come up with an answer. It’s difficult to change this habit of complexity because our thought process as humans is just naturally convoluted and messy. This complexity can truly take a toll on someone and make them disgruntled and unhappy with life and can also cause a person to lose the connection they have with themselves. To me, that is the most dangerous thing that can happen to someone; to lose the connection to yourself is to be devoid of the most important connection you can have with anything. To be strongly connected with yourself is to be strongly connected with your mind and you gain the ability to understand what it feels and what it means to be here. Finding out about life, and discovering true happiness can be one of the most moving experience we can undergo.

In my experience, happiness comes from an appreciation for life. Appreciating the fact that you have the astounding gift of life, and the fact that you are here and able to enjoy it. Life is incredibly simple, but our minds create a false sense of complexity because the human mind is an incredibly messy and convoluted piece of human anatomy. However to me, if we can realize the fact that we have life, and that life is our greatest gift, then we could be prepared to share everything else we have been given.

Why should we share? Well if we share the things we have in our life, it gives opportunity to those who have never enjoyed the things you enjoy the chance to experience those things. For example, when I was in my hometown, a great role model of mine told me a story of how she went on a humanitarian trip to Central America. In the village she stayed in, they revered chewing gum and so she brought a bunch of chewing gum to share with the kids in the village because they don’t have the same opportunity or access to gum that my role model did. Sharing with others has an incredible power to change someone’s life. However, sharing with others has an incredible potential to affect you as well. If you are prepared to share the things that you have, you then have the chance to leave this world more fortunate than you were when you were first born. This idea of sharing with others is a part of something a little bigger. Not only is the willingness to share important, but even more important is the willingness to be considerate to others.

Serving others is crucially important to this world, however that does not mean you should sacrifice your own well being. You are critical to this world, you truly have a reason to be here and that reason is to be a testament that life is something worth living. Being considerate towards others and helping others does not mean we should simply sacrifice our own connection with our heart for the connection with someone else’s heart. Your connection with yourself is the most important connection you can have. That connection can get lost, and we can feel numb to the things around us and that’s alright! Life gets crazy and it can be pretty easy to lose your way. But we should try and use that numbness to re-realize the point where we can feel again. So if you find yourself in a rut or in a tough spot emotionally, do whatever you have to do to reconnect yourself to yourself and never listen to anyone who tells you that you are wasting your time. It is not a waste of time to reconnect yourself with yourself because if you can do that then you can share what it means to be connected with yourself with others. Your well being is important because without you, we have no us.

In my experience, it takes kindness, and mindfulness to realize how fantastic life is truly supposed to be. With mindful awareness and consideration of others then we can truly be a great example of what it means to truly live. Reconnecting yourself with yourself, and sharing what that feels like with others is the root of life. So go out there; do what you have to do to reconnect with yourself. Then when you realize what you have to do and realize what it feels like to connect with yourself, share that knowledge and share that feeling with others because you’ll come to realize when you reconnect with yourself, as poet Rupi Kaur once wrote, “You are your own Soulmate”.