Happiness Depends on “No-Thing”
I grew up in the fifties when everyone was given a whole dictated laundry list of what happiness depended on that included earning a certain amount of guaranteed money, having a certain kind of job “for life”, marrying “the right” person who would well support his wife, having children who grew up in a certain kind of way, living in a certain kind of house in a certain kind of place, looking a certain way, having friends with particular characteristics, being a WASP, retiring at age 65 with designated wealth for the rest of your life, weighing a certain amount . . . Besides its definite dinosaur quality, does this never-ending list seem terribly boring as well as impossible?
I am and have none of these particularly-delineated things. I have had some of them in some related ways at different times and situations in my life, and none of them has in any way guaranteed or even, within its particular scope, brought foundational happiness to me.
Happiness Depends On Discovering the Greater You and Your State of Greater Being
I hear a lot about seeking happiness in my Centering Tools practice – sometimes somewhat thinly-disguised as “having to find my purpose in life”, or presented as “what prevents me from . . . “ – and a lot of “if only . . . ” which I call “playing the waiting game”. This is what I have personally discovered about my own capacity to be happy, much to my surprise, at this fairly late time in my life:
Happiness doesn’t depend on things going smoothly in your life or on having anything in particular. It depends on you and your state of being, provided your basic physical needs are met for shelter, food, water, space to move and care for yourself, and being safe.
Happiness Requires Free Space in Which to Enter and Offer Itself to You
I have discovered that happiness does not depend as well on your key problems being solved. It does require finding your way to a state of being that includes a fundamental sense of peace, freedom, and access to your authentic sense of personal power. It also requires the wherewithal to be present.
It has been said that happiness is elusive, which I wholeheartedly agree with. The more we directly seek happiness, demand happiness, the more it seems to slip beneath our fingers. And yet, happiness finds us – it comes like a surprise burbling brook at the most astounding time, but it need free, unconditional space in which to enter.
Ten Key Questions to Create Paths to Discovering Your True Happiness
So here are some questions for you designed to help you find your happiness, and help your happiness find you.
1. When was the last time you remember feeling centrally, truly happy?
2. Can you list five times in your life when you remember this?
3. When was the last time you behaved simply, wholly spontaneously?
4. If you were to do so now, what would you do?
5. Do you feel at ease with yourself? Free?
6. What would it take to feel both of these sensations?
7. If it required nothing, how could you imagine having these feelings?
8. When was the last time you felt unafraid – fundamentally safe?
9. Imagine you can contact your body and ask your body what it knows about your happiness. Record what you imagine your body says to you – shows you in response.
10. Suppose your true spiritual purpose and responsibility in life was to live in the present, unconditionally love and care for yourself, and view others as your complete equals? Would your life change? How?
Happiness is Meant to Be Your True Spiritual Partner of Becoming from a Center of Letting Go and Letting Be
You and your true happiness are spiritual partners that form your greater, extended and developed whole. How can we bring peace and happiness to the world when we have no idea nor ability to experience it ourselves?
What would the world become as we unleash this divine power that matures and enlightens us? Happiness is a challenge that we are meant to discover as our own heroic journey – and we transform in many miraculous ways through the process.