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- eudaemonia
welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, and always up to something in social good x tech.
this publication is a place for me to reflect on productivity, health and tech, and drop unique opportunities in the space right to your inbox daily. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in!💌
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onto today’s topic: eudaemonia ☀️
i stumbled on a pretty word yesterday: eudaemonia.
it’s pronounced eu·dae·mo·nia, and comes from the greek word eudaimōn, which means "blessed with a good spirit.” when asked what our goal in life is, many of us answer “to live a happy, and fulfilling life,” but that can meet a lot of different things, and presents itself very differently with each person. the word eudaemonia serves to encapsulate one broad version of that feeling extremely well. 🌈
it packs a lot of meaning because it’s also a philosophical concept.
the eudaimonic tradition emphasizes the journey of a well-lived life, rather than focusing solely on happiness as an outcome. happiness can often be conflated with joy and pleasure; however, fulfillment is more like a sustained state of flourishing. this is exactly what eudaemonia describes, and i deeply resonate with it.
eudaemonia focuses less on dopamine-spiking happiness and more on a broad sense of wellness, where there’s a satisfaction in difficult work that bears valuable fruit. 🍇
“…wellbeing is not so much an outcome or end state as it is a process of fulfilling or realizing one’s daimon [spirit in greek] or true nature—that is, of fulfilling one’s virtuous potentials and living as one was inherently intended to live.”
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