The 'Architect Of Our Own Happiness' by Carolyn Leeson
In response to COVID-19 the ‘Live Up’ COVID COMMUNITY was set up to support our communities with practical wellbeing resources that can be used for these extraordinary circumstances of social distancing, community lockdown and quarantine.
In this article Carolyn Leeson asks us to reflect on lessons learnt from Joseph Pilates.
Here is a printable PDF template you are welcome to use.
As we begin to emerge from our bubbles and navigate ourselves back into the big wide world, what will you include in your architecture of happiness?
Joseph Pilates was an interesting man. During World War One as a German expatriate living in the UK he experienced a different kind of lockdown. He was sent to an internment camp as a prisoner of war on the Isle of Man. During this time he designed fitness equipment using bed springs and led other prisoners in daily fitness. While in the camp, he developed his own concept of physical exercise called ‘Contrology’ which we would later know better as the fitness phenomenon of ‘Pilates’.
While I am not encouraging you all to develop a new fitness craze (although well done if you have!) I am encouraging you to be inspired by a quote from Joseph Pilates that has driven my transition through the levels and helped me to prepare for the new normal of level two.
Joseph Pilates believed ‘Everyone is the architect of his own happiness’. While we often refer to architecture as the design and construction of buildings, it also refers to ‘the complex or carefully designed structure of something’. Joseph Pilates believed that people were able to make radical changes to their lives but only if they were willing to commit. I believe this quote encourages us to take ‘control’ and make the necessary changes in our lives to create happiness and balance.
There are very few times in our lives when we get to stop and re-evaluate our happiness and state of ‘being’, and while the lockdown has been challenging at times, many of us have also experienced magical moments in our bubbles that we want to hold onto. Memories have been created, but we have also all missed out on things - those bike rides, gym classes, swimming lessons and basketball tournaments. Long weekends away at Easter and Anzac weekend were missed, as well as pizza nights with friends. It is when we reflect on what we enjoyed about lockdown but also what we really missed that we get to learn and start to think about what structures our happiness. All of these things become the ‘architecture of our happiness’.
As we begin to emerge from our bubbles and navigate ourselves back into the big wide world, what will you include in your architecture of happiness?
Here is a printable PDF template you are welcome to use.
Sources:
Image and Information http://www.kaufferpilates.com.br/blog/en/2018/08/08/the-history-of-pilates/