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Chapter 5: Peace ≠ Happiness

Peace is a feeling that is not defined by one single emotion. Although many people tend to correlate peace with happiness, to me, peace is separate. You can feel happy while being at peace. But you can also feel sad while being at peace. To me, peace is an overall feeling of tranquility within yourself. That feeling of taking a deep breath that reminds you that it will all be okay.


You can feel peace while feeling any other emotion because they are not black and white. There are no good or bad or positive or negative emotions. They are just whatever you are feeling. We as a society tend to view emotions like happiness, excitement and pride as being “good”. On the flip side, we tend to view emotions like sadness, anger and nervousness as being “bad”. While that may not be true for everyone, in a lot of people it is. I thought this way for most of my life and I’m just learning now to be aware of the categories I place certain emotions into. But the thing is, any emotion is just an emotion. It isn’t good or bad because all of them can be good and bad at some points. I know, thinking that something like happiness is bad might be a hard concept to grasp. However, I’ve experienced firsthand the negative side of happiness. I used a false sense of happiness and positivity to escape feeling any emotion I labeled as “bad” or “negative” for years. And just as there’s a negative side to happiness, there’s a positive side to sadness. Again, I know that thinking there’s a positive side to sadness is unusual to think about. But sadness needs to be felt. The positive side to sadness, is that it makes moments and times when you’re not sad, that much better. Examples aside, every emotion is important and none are good or bad. They are all emotions that we as humans need to feel.


The reason I want to chase peace over happiness is not because I think peace will lead to happiness. It’s because that feeling of calmness within yourself is your body and mind's reminder to keep going. Enjoying your life. The little things. Feeling all your emotions. Being at peace when you’re sad is just as special as being at peace when you’re happy. When you feel peace while sad, you have that reminder that it’ll be okay. And when you feel peace while happy, you have that reminder that it’s all worth it. Pea



Enjoy your life. I love you and of course, if it is just me reading this, I love you and I am so proud of you.

7/29/22



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