"Our journey is about being more deeply involved in life, and yet less attached to it" - Ram Dass
To be more deeply involved in life while being less attached to it, seems contradictory
But it depends on what parts of life you are involved in and what parts of life you are less attached too
For the vast majority of human history, human beings were concerned with daily survival, surviving consumed all their thoughts. The did not have the time to think about themselves or ruminate on themselves. Humans did not evolve to think about themselves
Constantly thinking about yourself and ruminating on yourself will not make a person happy. Usually when a person is engaged in a meaningful task that feels like play, they aren't thinking about themselves and they are happy
Thinking about meaningful things and other people (friends, family, helping others) allows a person to be involve themselves more deeply in the parts of life that matter, and reduce the parts that do not matter
Emanuel Swedenborg wrote that the struggle in life is between love of oneself/life and love of others
Focusing on yourself and the frivolous things in life will not make you happy, but loving and focusing on others will
The path to your happiness lies not within you, but with others