Absence of

The younger me thought that the good things in life—happiness—are in abundance of.

Abundance of love.
Abundance of status.
Abundance of health.
Abundance of money.
Abundance of success.
Abundance of experiences.
Abundance of material things.

But the older I get, the more I realise, happiness are often just the absence of.

Absence of stress.
Absence of ill health.
Absence of poor sleep.
Absence of junk media.
Absence of fake friends.
Absence of social drama.
Absence of money issues.
Absence of useless meetings.
Absence of toxic environments.

It’s different, abundance of versus absence of. They are not the same. An abundance of health and vitality requires lots of effort and investment. An absence of ill health feels less frantic, more steady, and achievable. It’s easy to get to 80%, but the last 20% is 80% of the hard work. And the last 20% is not always necessary for most average folks.

So… what you really want is abundance of absence.

Remove all that is negative, and you’ll discover what’s left is peace. Original, untainted contentment.

Aka happiness.

Counterintuitive but true.