Heaven beside you…Hell within.

We are all locked up at our houses with the same monotonous days, never-ending work, and the desire to take a break. we try to binge-watch, sleep in, or even squeeze in a vacation.

This is just what I need, you’re thinking. I can’t wait to watch season 2 or I just want a break from all this

We think we can escape from our job. From our problems. From our depression. From our low-grade dissatisfaction with our ordinary lives. But what do we find when we arrive at the end of the distraction you decide to indulge in? After you have wasted a day to take a break? We find after the rush wears off, that we don’t feel any different. We brought ourselves with us…the true source of our unhappiness. 

Seneca was an avid traveler who saw how often his fellow tourists were in denial, how they foolishly thought a change of scenery could exempt them from the real inner-work they needed to do. He liked to quote Epicurus who said that “every man flees himself.” We can imagine Seneca enjoying the lyric from a song by Alice in Chains: heaven beside you…hell within.

That’s why vacations often disappoint. Because as beautiful as they are, as much as we design them for relaxation, they are incapable of overriding our anxiety and our dysfunction. If our soul is tense, no amount of massages will relax it. If our mind is chaotic, no amount of time in the water will order it. If our life is a mess, eventually we’ll have to return to it–and all the tours and long dinners will evaporate it in a minute. 

If you want to be happy, if you want to relax, look inward. Do the work. Not only will you be happier at work, but you’ll enjoy your downtime more.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor Frankl