Good and Meaningful Life Final Essay

A good and meaningful life can be studied from various angles, as it is a very prominent topic among things that live, obviously we don't want bad lives.  Naturally there will be someone to tell you how to live, either out of genuine care for you like your parents (in most cases) or just to control you in the case of governments and religions (in most cases).  Buts its important to sift through those messages, find parts you like and don't like about those lifestyles and synthesize and break down these ways of life to find something that works for you, no one completely knows who you are so no one can choose your life for you.

We've learned from different cultures how to live, each with different messages sometimes contradictory or illogical, but all the same we must consider and think about these messages.  Specifically I've learned from my grandmother, a representative of both an older generation and of a different country (Cuba to be specific), to value honesty and to be grateful for what you have.  I definitely agree with these teachings, for one these are just values so there are no demands from me, these are just ideas to think about.  My grandmother values a simple life with simple values and few conditions.

We've learned from animals, who I personally believe have good lives (in the case of wild animals, although it is debatable) to be more spontaneous.  As humans we've ignored our roots as primates and as animals.  For one humans need to accept that they are animals, secondly we need to accept that we are primates.  We as primates need to run around and play and climb on things and interact with people, which in our "boxed-in" society we don't get a chance to.  We as animals need to accept our bodies as well, while we shouldn't go around naked and ignore all thought, but we should accept our bodies, meaning we should understand our own bodies (since we are all different) and acknowledge that we are our bodies.  I definitely agree with these values, from my own experience I am happier when I play, when I say play I mean running around to run around, not just to lose weight or fill my quota of exercise, being at peace with your body will solve many different health problems and make you happier in return, we can see this in small children.

While studying health, physical, mental and emotional, we've learned that keeping yourself healthy will result in a better life, my own personal definition of health is the ability to do things, if you're sick you can't do much if you're mentally unhealthy you can't think as well etc.  Health comes from knowing your own body, the health nuts who follow fads, follow diets and training regiments that work for other people, when they should experiment with their bodies and find out what works for them.  Mental health and Emotional health can be measured by what the appropriate response is to a situation, to be emotionally healthy means to accept your emotions, hiding your anger when you're mad isn't healthy and neither is covering up sadness as we've all been trained to do (men at least).

The main moral I've taken from all of these studies is to accept yourself.  People are unhealthy and unhappy because they accept whatever is given to them.  To live a good life you must know your body, your mind, your animal heritage etc.  To accept yourself you must know yourself and to know yourself you need to know where you came from, which means knowing your immediate ancestors, parents grandparents, extended family etc. and further ancestors such as our evolutionary predecessors.  We can't just cover things up about ourselves, while I know its impossible to learn everything about ourselves (a discussion for another time) we can live better lives by learning more about ourselves.  People need to recognize that they are different and that we all have to potential to do great things if we accept ourselves for what we are.  A good life of health and happiness can lead to a meaningful life, once people learn to accept themselves they can go on to do great things.  This all boils down to knowledge, knowing and understanding yourself may uncover many weaknesses that were hidden, but knowing yourself will also uncover hidden potential.