it's often a concept that people aspire to that gets in the way of who they really are.  this word is a red flag and reminds me of people who think "Zen" means you are always serene somehow or happy.  this is not possible.  most of the time we are neutral.  we can't be happy or serene if we don't experience the whole range of our feelings, our relative minds work by contrast.  practice is the deletion of concepts such as this and then the deletion of the deletion to the point that one forgets the self.  (as dogen says "to forget the self is to study the self".  serenity can arrive naturally but forcing it (like "those" Zen students on retreat who put on a Serenity mask while at the same time visibly look like they are jabbing a fork in their hand under the table.

i wrote this piece about emotions a while ago and touched on what i am referring to above  in it.

sacredpeak.ink/2023/10/19/the-strength-of-strings/

in terms of a definition, real serenity is a natural result of dropping our baggage.  the half smile of a person steeped in practice is this smile but that person has feelings and displays those as well exactly in accord with themself in each moment.  if you want to see a true half smile, DaVinci painted a very famous painting with one that people misread IMO.

@SGT.FISH thank you for asking this question.  
 

 Thank you for the long response 🙏🙏 

 you're welcome.  if you read the piece on my website that i linked, LMK what you think. 🙏 

 I havent clicked yet but i will give it a read later today and let you know my thoughts 😁 

 Just read it i generally agree you should feel your emotions and dont bottle them up 
Thanks for the link 😁🙏 

 I read your text on your website. it's amazing. so beautiful image of the sitar. that's exactly what I've experienced with my emotions and that's where authenticity starts - feeling whatever you're feeling each moment. ❤️ 

yesterday my ego was hurt cause I thought someone was angry at me and was avoiding me. I told this to a friend and she reminded me that it was someone's feelings (if it's not my projection, cause it can be) and I should accept them as they are, but, of course, feeling sad about that is also ok. so I could let go the resistance to feel what I was feeling and was more open to embrace what the other supposedly feels.

observing my resistance to feel is mostly what I do daily. thank you so much for sharing this ❤️ 

 I'm glad it helped.  It's important to feel what we feel so we can know, truly and to see the beginnings of the self destructive stories we tell ourselves at times.  These stories are part of the human condition, paying attention to them but not holding on to them, we can see the bigger picture including ourselves.  Practicing this way, it becomes easier to know when we are lying to ourselves and when we see clearly. 💘 

 my body rested when I read this. ❤️ thank you! 

 sounds like you dropped something.  👍💪