Happiness is our birthright. And yet, we spend a lifetime learning how to be unhappy.
We have learned to collect the reasons why we shouldn’t be happy in the NOW.
We have learned to protect ourselves from the negative future by thinking of WHAT IF …
We have conditioned ourselves with IF-THEN thinking. If this happens, then I will be happy.
Being unhappy in the now becomes normal. Being afraid of the future becomes habitual.
Collecting more conditions of IF-THEN only puts your happiness in the hands of the limitless uncertainties of the future.
How to stop that vicious cycle of trained unhappiness? How to be free from it?
Happiness doesn’t exist in the future. The only happiness there exists in the now.
You might have been hurt or taken advantage of in the past. You may have a person or people around you being dishonest, conniving, overpowering, manipulating or unconscious… Do you have a choice?
“Whether or not your thoughts and feelings about these situations are justified or not, it doesn’t make a difference. You are making a present moment into your enemy. You are creating unhappiness.” And also adding into the collective unhappiness of the world. “Unhappiness spreads more easily than a physical disease.”
To become immune to unhappiness is to stop generating it within yourself. To become immune to unhappiness is to take responsibility for your own happiness and joy and to cultivate it daily.
I have found five daily practices that take me on the path of happiness:
- Practice to be fully present in the now
- Train yourself to accept your own feelings
- Practice letting go of judgment
- Establish and move towards your “feeling goals”
- Take time to cultivate peace within
Inspired by the work of Eckhart Tolle