Happiness

That thing 'happiness' that everybody talks about isn't as elusive as you might think.

The word 'happy' has the same root as 'happening'. It means 'to be content with what IS, right now': what is HAPPENING. Happiness is not dependent on what has been or what may be…

… it is BEING WHOLLY HERE. NOW.

As small children we’re very present. Looking back you can probably recall the joy of just *being* you felt back then. It's not simply our growing up, and taking on responsibilities, that cause us to lose sight of that joy.

As we grow older we’re constantly trying to compensate for our lost sense of self. Our thoughts and actions are continually cast outward in search of things that will make us feel better, and as a result we live in a stream of distractedness. Never really present in the happening; in the now. Always wanting, wanting, wanting - trying to fill the hole. The wanting is the problem, the crushing of selfhood the cause.

Often what causes confusion is a mistaken idea of what happiness is. Our goals, dreams and desires lead us to measure our sense of what's right and good in our lives by where we're at with our passionate pursuits. This leads to the mistaken impression that happiness is a measurable quantity that fills up or depletes.

Happiness is actually a state of enoughness. *Where* you are, *what* you have, *who* you are: each has an unconditional sense of enoughness. You are not distracted or depleted by a need to be somewhere else, have more than you have, be more than you are.

And yet, passion, and the pursuit of goals needn’t prevent a state of true happiness. Can you persuade yourself that the journey is what’s important, rather than the goal? This is really NOT some kind of naïve, old-fashioned idea. It’s utterly and completely true – though social values might indicate otherwise. When you eat an ice-cream, is the all-important goal to finish eating it?

When a goal is just a direction, rather than a projection of self away from the present, you can focus on the now, and enrich your day-to-day, moment-to-moment existence.

Download the free ebook 'The Willing Misfit' at:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/137307
(or click on the book-cover graphic at the top right of this page)