Living Well: Aristotle Today 

March 30th, 2024

Now, in today's episode, we will be talking about life. Specifically how, today, it kind of sucks. 

I live in Southern California. And I think that's all that needs to be said. Actually, I'm just kidding. It's pretty amazing over here minus the weather. Overall San Diego is healthier than the average county in the US, We have some of the lowest rates of teen pregnancies, some of the best health care, and some of the lowest obesity rates. But you probably already know that  health is not just just found in these categories. I'll be talking more about mental health, but not mental health as we think we understand it. Instead I'll demonstrate what sucks about life, is how we think about life. 

One of the main questions that is deemed unanswerable is “what is the meaning of life”, it's something we commonly ask and for centuries have tried to answer, assuming that we cannot do so fully. Naturally, people think too much about it. Simply put, the meaning of life, the point of being alive, is to live. 

Oscar Wilde said, “ To live is the rarest thing in the world, most people just exist. That's all” And this is the mentality of the world today. The reason life sucks is because we don't take the time to understand how we should live, or even acknowledge the fact that we can live. The thing is, that Oscar Wilde is right, but now for the reason you’d think. Most people don’t live, but that doesn't mean they can't. It is actually pretty easy. It’s not even that they are scared to live or something stopping them, it's simply because they are lazy. And probably confused. 

When you look online, what's the meaning of life, many articles pop up, all saying that we need to live life to the fullest, find joy and a passion and love. And that all comes is part of life's meaning, to live. But you can only do things like those, after you answer two questions; why you live, and how you can do so well. 

Naturally, there are multiple answers to these first questions depending on what you believe, but there is a pretty clear universal answer for the second. To live well, you need to live in a way that is good for you, internally and externally. Physically and spiritually. Body and soul. By living in a way, that is healthy. 

And if you are alive in a way that is healthy both inside and out, you will find clarity of mind. You will find passion, joy, love. You will find contentment in your life and believe that you are living life to the best of your ability. To its fullest. And by doing this. Your life will have meaning. 

But the question is, do we as humans live in this way? Do we live healthily? The answer is, No. not in any way are we even halfway to the first step to living a meaningful life. 

Our minds are constantly full of clamoring thoughts, our bodies are tired from exhaustion and we are constantly living in a state of fight or flight. Feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression are becoming more and more normalized as they become more frequent and severe. And much of this is caused by the lack of education given to kids on the topic of how to live a fulfilling and meaningful life. 

In the future, there can be more studies on this topic. Kids could be given access on how to live a life that they believe has substance in a way that makes them feel happy overall. But we can't start to do this once we understand how to do it ourselves. 

The 2024 mental health statistics in America state that Anxiety disorders are at 19%, Major depression at 8%, Bipolar disorder at almost 3%, and 17% of adolescents have suffered from periods of depression. These numbers are not necessarily bad, but they are certainly not good. 

Anxiety is one of the most common problems for people today, and although there are a number of proposed solutions such as therapy or other things, these all work to bring you to one endpoint - to find purpose within yourself. Once you believe that you have a purpose and end goal in life, how you live your life and your priorities will shift, giving you much more clarity of mind. 

This end goal of life was something acknowledged by the Ancient Greeks and Romans as Telos. This idea of an end goal of life was developed by Aristotle, and unlike many worldviews today it can be seen as universal as for each person it is different. Your telos were determined by your rationality, or your ability to reason. Someone with larger reasoning abilities such as Einstein probably had the telos to discover and share scientific and mathematical findings while the Telos for Bob, who is of average rational behavior, has a different and better suited Telos. 

And by understanding one's rational capabilities, we can understand our Telos and use our intellect to achieve it. And by living our lives knowing our Telos and that we can in fact achieve this Telos, we will know our purpose in life. By knowing your purpose in life it will give you a larger sense of self assuredness and a certain mental clarity which will allow you to acknowledge the fact of life's meaning and live without the mentality that life sucks. This shift in worldview would naturally lead to lower rates of anxiety, allowing us to be one step closer to fixing the current mental pandemic. 

The problem lies in that we do not know what our end goal, our telos, is, and we do not see how the way we live is a path to reach this end goal. 

What is keeping us from achieving this all begins with our mentality of life sucks, because we have lost the concept of Telos and cannot discern what we are meant to be living for. Every action is unmotivated as we do not think for the future nor live with the mentality of executing our plans. Every day a child attends school with the intent to leave one day, believing that passing their exams and going to a college will be a means of escape from this life. They do not want to learn, they do not want to be going to school. The way that people live today is what they believe is necessity, not what is a means to a greater end. And that is why life sucks. 

The difference in what is and what could be is all in mental clarity. By having soundness of mind and body one will be able to see the purpose in our actions and the goal we are trying to achieve, allowing one to view life in a way that is positive and the patches we must take as a means to a greater end. 

Not only should you sit down and think about what your end in life is, but think about how what you have done hindered that, and what you can do to remove self imposed obstacles in the future. Teach others how life does not in fact suck, but how to make the most of the time you have by living well, acting with purpose, and nurturing both your mind and your body. 

In having everyone doing so, living with purpose, society will be better off both mentally and physically, lowering statistical rates of mental illness benefiting our persons and establishing positive practices for generations to come.