The more I experience life, the more I realize that happiness is a combination of two things – a sense of contribution and a sense of peace.
They can feel like opposing forces.
Contribution pulls us outward – toward action, effort, and usefulness.
Peace pulls us inward – toward acceptance, stillness, and letting go.
But they’re not opposites. They’re complementary.
We’re wired to contribute – to feel useful, to make a difference in some way. Yet peace comes from releasing attachment to outcomes, from not wishing to be someone else, somewhere else, or chasing validation.
Happiness, then, is the balance between the two: where we give ourselves to a cause that’s bigger than us and where we possess the perspective to let the universe unfold as it should.
