We all want to be happy, right?!! I'm pretty sure that I've worked my entire life toward that goal, although I realize now how unaware I was of what that meant for me. I did all the things I was taught will lead me to happiness...college, lucrative job to pursue financial freedom, respectable career, marriage to lead to a family etc etc. I always diligently listened my parents, teachers, and other respectable people to learn the wrong and right ways to happiness. I prided myself on my ability to learn from others without having to learn that tough lesson myself. I molded my decisions after other peers that I perceived to be happy...I did everything right!
And yet, I was unhappy....it didn't make any sense to me. I even did a pretty good job at convincing myself that I was happy for a while. I was excited and optimistic for all of the success I had and was going to have in my future, and I planned it out with extensive detail in my head. I knew the directions, I just had to navigate the road. One big problem, however, was that the road always seemed to have unexpected detours. No matter how well I planned my situation, it never seemed to go my way. Circumstances beyond my control always seemed to complicate things and oftentimes, stop me in my tracks. As the years went on and I worked harder and harder towards my goals, I couldn't help but think that something was out to make me fail and it just wasn't fair! That would be when I hit my bottom...
Life became a lot more clear when it became obvious that I was the opposite of happy. I had to come to terms with the fact that I didn't know the first thing about being happy. As I went to therapy, I began to slowly give myself PERMISSION to pursue the things in my life that would make me happy. I had to realize that other people's opinions don't matter, and that another person's path to happiness is most likely going to be different then my own. With those three very difficult realizations internalized (and it took a LONG time to really wrap my brain around them) I began to SEE the things making me unhappy. I started to make some hard decisions and changes in my life. I began to see where all the things that went "wrong" in my life, actually ended up leading me to the great changes I was making at that time. If all of those "bad" situations had not come into my life, I would not have reflected on my own happiness at all! I'd still have been working away towards goals that were everyone else' but my own. And then something else wonderful happened...I became thankful for my hardships, for my opportunities to learn and grow, and for the present relief and happiness I was feeling having made those tough choices. I truly believe that it was that appreciation that allowed me to see life in a whole other light...
In the next few days I'll be blogging about some of changes of perception that have since changed my life! Each day, each lesson, each moment is an opportunity for change...all it takes is opening your mind and more importantly opening your heart <3
Happiness to you All!
Jess
In my opinion, the greatest impediment to happiness is pursuing it. True happiness comes from things that one never considered making them happy before. Stillness and presence create a canvas for receiving new happiness that could have never been predicted before. If we think that we know what makes us happy, the pursuit of it distracts us from possible situations that could have provided new happiness. With practice, happiness is found in more places than ever imagined.
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