Your Happiness
You try so hard. Day after day, the sweat drips from your mind and heart as you try to improve yourself and your circumstances, to show who you truly are to yourself and the world. You try and you try and yet success seems to elude you or to come so slowly, and one little triumph is followed by backsliding, one obstacle overcome finds another in its place. And as you look back over the years, yes, you can see improvement, you can see a gradual trek upward, but in any given day, it seems so little progress is made.
Know this. The trying and the striving, the effort itself, is often holding you back from what you wish to achieve. The continual judgment of yourself and your own progress is, in fact, a part of the backsliding. The sweat that drips from your mind is the greatest obstacle of all, for it is full of fear and doubt, and these are the greatest obstacles of all. And the great goals you set for yourself are a denial of the beauty and wonder of this moment. They are a part of the “if only” mentality, that makes you think that happiness is something to be achieved when you are richer, slimmer, more appreciated and more successful.
Happiness is right now. It is not in the future and not in the past. It is only right now, just as you are and just as all else is, right now.
Happiness as a euphoric and ecstatic state is highly temporary, like a rush of chemicals in your body. You go up and then you come down. This state, which can in fact be achieved through meeting outer goals, disappears quickly and returns you to the emotional state you had before your great achievement, perhaps even with greater confusion and discontent.
The type of happiness you should strive for is not temporary excitement. It is a deep peace and love inside. The type of happiness which will stand you in good stead through the remainder of your life, and which you can achieve without any change in outside events, is a feeling of deep connection with all that is, a reaching up into love, faith, connection and joy and a reaching down into peace, a well of peace deep inside that nothing can touch. Even in the direst outer circumstances, you can find that deep peace inside and you can surround yourself with the love of the benevolent and caring universe by simply stepping into it and allowing its grace and beauty to surround you.
Does this sound too easy? It is simple, but it may not be easy at first. It requires daily discipline. It requires that you shift your thinking from the future into now. It requires that you shift your emotional response from the outer-driven to the inner-driven. It requires that you connect with the world around you in new ways, taking from it what is beautiful and wonderful, connecting with it in compassion and caring, but keeping your own self intact, like a shining star inside that never dims. It requires that you reinforce your own star and shine every morning without fail and that you continually seek connection with beauty and wonder, letting the cruel remark and act of betrayal pass over you and allowing the wonder of one leaf, one rose petal, one song, to penetrate deeply.
You can learn to do this. And when you do, you will carry peace within you at all times, you will wear love like a warm cloak, you will shine with grace, you will glow with happiness that cannot be dampened, that does not come and go with success and failure in other people’s eyes.
Inner peace, deep love, joy and light. These are your happiness. And they are yours, right now.
Here is little prayer for today:
I go inward and see there the light that shines, that is me, that is my own self, glowing within this body and soul. I open myself to my higher self and allow my own goodness to flow into me and light this fire, to glow ever brighter from within. I feel the love that is there for me. I know the light as my own. I am like a deep well of peace unending. I immerse myself in this light, this love, this peace, and allow joy to bubble up from within, naturally and easily. I am light. I am love. I am peace and joy unending. I am.
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