Our Cages and Happiness

You’re in cages of one sort or another. We all are. All the time. The cages might be physical, mental, conceptual, social, etc. and on and on. The cages might be chosen by us, or they might be constraints we can’t change. Often both. Often we’re in multiple cages simultaneously.

Since we are in these cages, we might as well make our lives as engaging and stimulating as possible. Of course, this may also entail testing the limits of those cages. Or seeking to evolve those cages.

There’s a ted.com video about happiness, which talks about how, when we are faced with a difficult and unchangeable situation, our brains are perhaps wired to help us be happy with, and face, that situation. Acknowledging the fact of our cages seems to be similar. Both knowing about the cages, and that even if we’re seeking to change our cages, knowing that those changes will lead to other cages of different sorts, weirdly, oddly, seems to make me happier.