ARE YOU SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS? Pause that for moment. Consider the possibility that the idea of searching for happiness – or even inner peace, or joy, or whatever word you’d use to describe what you’re seeking – is a bit misleading. It can seem like it’s a thing we’re searching for that we’ll find one day if we look hard enough or work hard enough.
What if it were more a quest for what we need to let go of – what stands between us and the happiness we already possess as our natural state – rather than a quest to find the happiness (or joy, or peace) itself?
I believe it to be a process of releasing, or peeling away, or removing, or shedding – the things that are preventing us from feeling happiness and experiencing joy.
We reveal our happiness perhaps a bit like an archaeological find within ourselves: we don’t necessarily find it all in one spot, but rather small sites are discovered at different times and in different places within ourselves and our lived experience, often quite unexpectedly.
Maybe it’s be revealed through:
~ challenging activities (physical or otherwise) – a release of fear of not being able to do it, and the sense of accomplishment and exhilaration at its completion.
~ kindness or generosity to others – releasing fear that giving would result in not having enough ourselves, and then the resulting peace that comes from seeing another person’s relief and comfort.
~ connection to others – while careful not to depend on others to bring us happiness, per se, the connections we create with others can spark relief, or playfulness, or comfort, etc. – within ourselves that help us reveal more parts of our own happiness.
~ honing a skill – releasing the doubt of being able to do something, and learn and see the value in what we are able to do.
~ appreciation – releasing guilt that we have more than someone else, and/or the fear that we are not worthy of what we have – and finding the value in being grateful for what we have.
~ making amends or making peace with someone – releasing anger you had toward a person in order to find a way toward a resolution.
~ trust – releasing the fear of it not working out, and knowing it will.
Wishing you a day of revealing your happiness, in some small way. ❤