Are you looking for happiness? Looked at your family, your friends, your job? How about where you live, your belongings, your bank account balance? Maybe some new clothes and then you'll be happy. A new romantic interest, perhaps.
Any luck finding any happiness yet?
If you've looked everywhere you can think of and you still can't find happiness, you may be missing the most important part; the fundamental first step. And no, the answer isn't religion or spirituality. In fact, happiness has never been closer. That's because happiness starts with you.
Really? Absolutely. What's the catch? There isn't one. Happiness can only come from the inside. Ever wonder why the people who appear to have everything can still be thoroughly miserable and sometimes even progress down self-destructive paths? Things cannot bring you happiness. Things can only bring you pleasure, but pleasure is not happiness. It is really important to remember this as happiness and pleasure are often confused. We'll discuss pleasure in a future post.
The wonderful thing about happiness being internal is that this makes happiness something we can learn. Yep, as funny as it may sound, we can actually learn and practice happiness.
So how do we learn happiness? Not overnight, I'm afraid. But here's a really simple step to get you started. Be thankful. Even if you don't have everything you want, start acknowledging and being grateful for what you do have.
Can't thing of anything to be thankful for? Start with breathing and go from there.
