Achieving True Happiness... Calling Off The Search Party

Searching for happiness is perhaps
the greatest single obstacle to achieving true happiness.

The search for happiness, by definition, implies that our present experience is in some way lacking and keeps it's attainment forever in the future.

There are two distinct types of happiness. The first is the type which comes and goes and which is dependent on external circumstances. We are happy when we find a new partner, for example, but when he/she leaves us, our happiness walks out the door with them!

Seeking happiness externally is a precarious business as everything in the world is subject to sudden change over which we have no control. Through being overly dependent on someone or something for our happiness, we live on shaky ground.

The second type of happiness, which I will call true or authentic happiness, is the joy that spontaneously wells up inside us for no particular reason. It is a state of being which is uncaused by anything external to ourselves. Children typically live in this way.

The first type of happiness can, to some extent, be increased through finding a better job, going on holiday, meeting a new girlfriend etc but is always accompanied by unrest... we don't fully enjoy it for fear of losing it.

We become addicted and possessive of the things that we rely on to feel good. Also, the nature of the mind is to always want more. Most people are rarely satisfied with what they have.

True happiness, on the other hand, can never be found through looking for it. It is a state of being and just happens. In fact, the greatest barrier to achieving true happiness is trying to find it!

As long as we are looking for happiness we will always be in the process of becoming happy rather than just being happy.

In our search for more happiness, we continuously judge our present experience as inadequate or lacking.

Rather than trying to be happy, a far better approach is to learn to be present here and now. The average adult is rarely present in the moment, being constantly distracted with the 100,000 thoughts that pass daily through the average mind.

On the following pages I have outlined several strategies for bringing more happiness into your daily experience:
how to be happy
choosing happiness

The most effective way of achieving true happiness, however, is through regular meditation. Meditation helps us to detach from our thoughts and to anchor ourselves in the present moment. In the absence of thought, everything we seek is already there.

The reason we don't normally experience the happines and joy which is our true nature is that we are rarely still enough.

Without trying to change anything, everything changes. Without trying to achieve anything, we receive everything... as the light of our presence begins to shine through the cracks!

Related Pages:
How To Be Happy / Happiness Is A Choice / Definition Of HappinessHappiness Quotes / Happy Here And Now / Happy For No Reason

LINK: FIND HAPPINESS