Book 223 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Grand Unified Theory for Happiness = M (W + R) ∞

Book – A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Book Description: A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin—and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending—or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?

Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.

Reflection:

I’m not going to lie, 97% of what I read in this book flew right over my head. I was so lost trying to keep up with just the jargon, let alone understand the underlying principles being discussed. I could probably read this book 100 times and still only understand 10% of the topics being discussed about space, time, and laws of the universe.

I think I’ve come to realize that I’m not ready to tackle deeper understanding of “The Universe” at this moment in my life, and that’s okay. Maybe someday my mind will be free enough to really dive into depths of my imagination that is required for explorations in deeper understanding of physics and the broader universe. For right now, I’m on a quest to understand and bring order to my own personal universe that I affectionately call Chris.

With that said, I did pick up on a few universal truths in this book that I want to take and apply to exploration of the universe of Chris on this Year of Magical Learning odyssey. Those universal truths are as follows:

1. The universe is always in motion

2. The universe appears to have started off in an ordered state and is currently expanding as it moves to a disordered state

3. The elements that bring “Life”, as we know it, can only exist when the universe is expanding and moving from order to disorder

4. At some point in time, the universe will stop expanding, reverse, and begin to move back from disorder to order.

What I found most interesting is that as the universe is currently expanding from a state of order toward disorder which paved the way “life” in the first place; humans seem obsessed with doing the opposite. We love taking disorder and bringing it back to order. It is our obsession. We don’t go with the flow; we do the exact opposite. The entire practice of physics and math is a perfect example. We love trying to distill down immensely complex things into perfect algorithms and equations to find that universal truth. In the book, Professor Hawking called these GUTS or Grand Unified Theories.

Since the “universe” is too much for my little brain to take at the moment, I thought I’d take this idea of bringing order to disorder and attempt at coming up with my own Grand Unified Theory for Happiness to apply to the universe of Chris, as this is my focus on this adventure.

To begin my plan on where to start with my grand unified theory of Chris, I started with the most disorderly thing that I do? The actions or behaviors that seem to make no sense sometimes and only lead to breakdowns of actions and relationships if left unchecked? We begin with our emotions!

Emotions are just like the universe, they are foundational building blocks for life as we know it. Emotions are raw, elementary, beautiful, and volatile. Their only job is to exist. We have no idea why they come or go, when we’ll see them again, or even what triggers them in the first place a lot of times. However, emotions are the single most important element in our personal universe that will determine if we are moving back to a state of order (happiness) or disorder (depression / anxiety). This got me thinking, would it be possible to distill down a formulaic approach to harness our emotions and do our best to bring them back toward an ordered state that we call happiness? I figured it would be worth a try at least.

Here is goes…

H = M (W + R) ∞

This Stands for Happiness = Meaning (Work + Relationship) to the infinity power to represent that this work never ends. Meaning could further be understood by breaking down the equation M = (A+P)^V or Meaning equals Values multiplied by activities you do and people you do them with. The more you do, the more meaning you’ll generate which can then be applied to your meaningful work and relationships.

There it is, after studying the universe of Chris intensely for the past 2 ½ years, this is my working model and what I plan to follow the rest of my days in order to find the perfect balanced order in my life that leads to happiness. Feel free to steal it if you’d like and let me know how it is working for you!

Question: What is your formula for happiness?

---

Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking