a year ago
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Posted On: August 12th 2025, 12:52 am
“You are the happiest person I’ve ever seen” said a frequent customer checking out at Ace Hardware. I was the cashier.
That same day, I went home and journaled about what happiness really meant, considering that I was questioning my place on Earth. About two years later, I received a similar comment from Paul Feig — yes, the director — as he entered No. 9 Park, a restaurant he became a regular at during his time shooting “Ghostbusters” in Boston, where I was the Guest Relations Manager.
These comments were confusing to me. If I was being perceived as this beacon of happiness, does this mean that what everyone else is feeling is worse than what I am experiencing or am I just such a good faker of my own pain?
I’ve been journaling since I first learned to string words together, trying to make sense of the world and the injustices I experienced and witnessed. Writing helped keep me intact. It became my mirror for reflection.
I created The Healing Hut on Substack after spending most of my life since battling depression trying to figure out what it means to be happy and to be free. In that journey, I learned that diving deep into the things I love and constantly being a student gave me purpose. Looking at life from a child’s eye. With that, I got certified in meditation and mindfulness (I can officially teach it now — woohoo!), the science of happiness and Chinese philosophy of happiness.
The systems we operate within have always disturbed me, but I’ve learned through my own life and in classes that our transformation is not ours alone. We don’t get to choose whether we affect each other, we only get to choose how.
If you want to come join the journey, The Healing Hut is a place we can learn to find meaning in life’s messy in betweens together :)
That same day, I went home and journaled about what happiness really meant, considering that I was questioning my place on Earth. About two years later, I received a similar comment from Paul Feig — yes, the director — as he entered No. 9 Park, a restaurant he became a regular at during his time shooting “Ghostbusters” in Boston, where I was the Guest Relations Manager.
These comments were confusing to me. If I was being perceived as this beacon of happiness, does this mean that what everyone else is feeling is worse than what I am experiencing or am I just such a good faker of my own pain?
I’ve been journaling since I first learned to string words together, trying to make sense of the world and the injustices I experienced and witnessed. Writing helped keep me intact. It became my mirror for reflection.
I created The Healing Hut on Substack after spending most of my life since battling depression trying to figure out what it means to be happy and to be free. In that journey, I learned that diving deep into the things I love and constantly being a student gave me purpose. Looking at life from a child’s eye. With that, I got certified in meditation and mindfulness (I can officially teach it now — woohoo!), the science of happiness and Chinese philosophy of happiness.
The systems we operate within have always disturbed me, but I’ve learned through my own life and in classes that our transformation is not ours alone. We don’t get to choose whether we affect each other, we only get to choose how.
If you want to come join the journey, The Healing Hut is a place we can learn to find meaning in life’s messy in betweens together :)
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