Happiness On Demand

Hello Reader,

Please excuse my absence. I was away on a short vacation, and shortly after returning, I came down with a particularly nasty flu.

So nasty that it knocked me out for nearly a week. Haven’t had anything like that in years.

But I’m almost back to normal now and slowly getting back into writing. And as often happens in my case, a bit of distance has helped me see the experience and the lessons that came with it more clearly.

I know life isn’t really about “learning lessons” (the hard way, anyway), but I’d be remiss not to notice the reminder here about the importance of health and well-being.

So there’s a lesson here about physical health as well as mental health.

Health isn’t always something we can take for granted, but it isn’t something we’re meant to constantly chase either.

At its best, it’s the baseline we return to when everything in us is working the way it’s supposed to be.

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When I was sick, I had a pretty high fever, around 39 degrees C (102.2 F). But I knew the fever wasn’t out to get me. I had a virus in my system, and the fever was my body’s response to getting rid of said virus.

Fever is the body’s natural reaction to a viral infection. It’s a “signal” that something’s not right, something is blocking the body from working the way it’s supposed to.

Sure, it’s highly unpleasant, and having a fever pretty much prohibits the body from performing anything but the most basic functions. But it’s still a “safety mechanism” helping you to rid yourself of anything unwanted.

After the fever was gone, it took a couple of days to return to normal.

Now here’s an important lesson that applies to mental health as well (which we’ll talk about shortly):

My body needed some additional support to return to baseline health.

Having a high fever meant I had sweated out large amounts of water (as well as the electrolytes in it, such as Sodium) in my body. Fighting the virus also took a toll on some critical vitamins and minerals. These needed to be replenished to help my body return to its natural state.

Being bedridden for a long time might even take a toll on muscle mass. Muscles will atrophy if they are not being used. I was only immobile for a few days, so this didn’t apply to me, but did you know that you really do have “muscle memory”? Your muscles remember, and even if they do atrophy, with minimal training, they will quite quickly return to where they were before.

Your body remembers the baseline. It may just need some help getting back to it.

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The true lesson here is that the same principles apply to mental health as well.

Mental health, being happy and at peace, is the baseline. That’s what your mind is trying to return to.

I know it may not often seem like it, because there are so many things blocking that natural state from emerging.

But that’s why we are here, bear with me.

Emotions are your mind’s responses to things happening in your life. They are, in a sense, a similar “safety mechanism” that fever is to your body. Negative emotions signal that something “unwanted” is happening in your life. And if allowed to run their course as they should, much like a fever, they will eventually pass, and your mind will return to the baseline.

Now, problems arise when these emotions linger on.

Let’s say you treat a fever as the enemy. If you don’t recognize it as the body’s natural response, you might fall back on habit: reach for painkillers and try to push through your daily routine.

But in doing so, you may be working against the very process that’s trying to help you heal. A fever plays a role in fighting infection, and suppressing it too quickly can sometimes slow recovery or allow the illness to linger longer than it otherwise would.

Do you already see the connection to mental health?

We’ve learned to treat emotions as the enemy. We learn to suppress, ignore, and hide our emotions. Anything other than just allowing them to express themselves naturally. Suppressing our emotions will lead to them lingering “under the surface”, leading to more problems along the way.

I’ve talked about this a lot. What happened in my case was that the “unfelt” emotions piled up like water behind a dam, eventually breaking the whole dam and leading to a mental breakdown.

Emotions are completely normal and healthy signals that something in our lives needs attention,

but unexpressed emotions can take on many unnatural, unhealthy forms. These are identified as anxiety and depression, for example.

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So if health is the baseline for both the body and mind, what does that imply?

I mentioned that after the fever is gone, the body might still require some help in returning to normal. Water and electrolytes are essential for hydrating the body. Replenishing lost nutrients will help the body recover. Movement after the disease will help muscles regain their lost strength.

In essence, the body needs some support to return to the baseline.

The same holds true with the mind.

Anxiety, depression, and chronic stress can become so much “the norm” for the mind that it will need some help getting back to the baseline. Your mind does know the baseline. That will never be gone. Health and happiness are wired in you; never forget that, no matter how it may feel at the moment.

Your mind, just like your body, needs additional support to return to that baseline.

When I was struggling with depression, the thing that changed everything for me was this statement from a psychologist:

I’ve since heard the same sentiment from many other psychologists and mental health experts.

So, to help your mind return to baseline health and happiness, it needs to be reminded of what the baseline actually feels like.

This can be done in many different ways.

New input may be concrete, such as going on a vacation to a new destination, moving to a new city, meeting new people, or just reading a book, listening to a podcast, or watching an educational video.

You may also actively feed your mind new words and images, as I personally did with my IAM: Inner Alignment Method.

The mind does not really distinguish between real and imagined input. Input is input. What matters is that you do not allow the same loops to run over and over again in your mind, but actively seek to interrupt them with something new, something positive.

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So what does all of this mean?

Health (both physical and mental) is not a fragile thing you have to constantly chase, nor is it something that necessarily “fixes itself” without care.

Being healthy is more like a natural rhythm your system is always trying to return to.

Even when things feel off, the baseline doesn’t disappear. It’s still there, underneath everything, waiting for the interruptions to quiet down.

Often we just need the right conditions, a bit of support, and a change in input to find our way back.

And perhaps that’s the most important takeaway from all of this.

Here’s everything summed up:

• The body and mind are self-correcting systems that naturally aim for balance when not obstructed.
• Symptoms—physical or emotional—are often signals, not enemies, and can serve a protective or corrective function.
• Recovery often requires gentle support and new input, not just “time,” to help return to a healthy baseline.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one… Hopefully, in full health and full flow.

Until then,

Think happy thoughts!

​- Atte

P.S. If there’s one small thing to take from this, it’s the idea of “new input.” Try something fresh today. Something small but genuinely different. A new place, a new conversation, a book outside your usual lane, a walk without your usual route. Not necessarily to fix anything, but simply to remind your system that things exist outside your usual thought patterns.

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Happiness On Demand

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