What Causes Happiness? -
Your Thoughts
What Causes Happiness
I think of happiness as the being like the sun. It is always there, always shining unaffected by the weather here on earth.
So your innate capacity for happiness is always there, although at times it is clouded over by the happenings in your life. These happenings make you forget that it is always there, or even exists.
So it is not so much what causes happiness rather, how can you live your life so that it is less cloudy, less stormy?
How can you find ways to touch, tap and bring much more of it into your daily life?
Awareness
It is difficult sometimes to think of happiness when things in your life indicate exactly the opposite. This is why mindfulness or awareness can prevent you from going into total darkness, mentally.
Awareness makes you take the attitude, 'okay, today maybe cloudy but I know the sun is there and tomorrow the clouds would have blown over and I will see the sun again.'
Awareness makes you know that the 'sun' is there even at the worst of times.
Causes Of Unhappiness
Believe it or not, most of the so-called unhappiness stems from the ignorance of not knowing your innate capacity for happiness. This coupled with the weather patterns of your conditioned mind.
This conditioning confuses assumptions with reality. What are these assumptions?
Below are a few examples. You might notice that they all centre round your thinking that the causes of happiness are outside of you.
You may wrongly assume that:
- There is something that needs to happen before you can be happy or fulfilled. You resent the fact that it has not happened and somehow your resentment might make it happen.
- Something happened in your past that should not have happened and you resent that because you feel that if it had not happened, you would be happy now.
- Something is happening now that should not be happening and it is what is preventing you from being happy now
You blame others for you unhappiness:
- They should have done this or that so that you can be at peace. And you resent the fact they have not done it yet. And you think maybe your resentment will make them do it.
- Something somebody did not do in the past is preventing you from being happy now.
- Somebody is doing or not doing something and this is preventing you from being happy. Si it is their fault.
You see, all the assumptions and the blaming makes you feel like a victim which you are not. You have the power to decide the extent to which you let happiness come into your life.
Remember Gandhi urging us all to be the change we want to see in the world. So, what causes happiness, You an Your Thoughts.
You need to start with you. You will never, ever find lasting happiness outside of yourself.
So how do you let your innate happiness shine through? You need to:
Mindfulness and Freedom
Most of the time you live your life as if you are just being pull along. What if you started observing yourself?
Mindful living includes developing self-observation. For now on, try to watch everything you do as though you were an observer – an inner witness.
This self observation at the very least will bring some objectivity to your life. When you start seeing and questioning your actions and reactions, you will learn a lot about yourself.
Follow the links on this page to and you will be well on your of accessing abundance and happiness that has been and will always be yours.
You will find that happiness is not a future event but a present, RIGHT NOW. It is a matter of choice.
So what causes happiness? In a nutshell - knowledge of yourself.
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