The pursuit of happiness #1

Happiness is truly a remarkable thing. When you’re happy, the whole world shines in a much brighter light. Happiness makes you feel good and is the very foundation for a joyful and fulfilled life. Unfortunately, there are also times in life when setbacks and difficulties abound. During these challenging times, The pursuit of happiness can be quite challenging at times. Things do not always go as planned. To make things worse, life confronts us with quite challenging situations on a regular basis. But when there’s one thing that is important in life, it’s the ability to get back up on your feet whenever life knocks you down. This is, of course, easier said than done.

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

Buddha

Your thoughts shape your entire reality. How you think has a great impact on your life. In many instances, it is not so important what happens to you in life. What is important is how you choose to think about it and how you respond to it. With this philosophy in mind, you always get to choose between accepting defeats and fighting against struggles to turn them into something better.

Let’s face it, we all have desires and passions. And many of us know that it is almost impossible to fulfill each and every desire. In fact, once one certain desire is fulfilled, many others will take its place.

The great problem, however, is that unfulfilled passions and desires can reduce our happiness significantly. Therefore, the one who has learned to become a master of passions and desires is most likely the one who is truly happy and fulfilled.

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.

The way you think has a great impact on your happiness. There are always two ways of thinking about things that happen to you in life. One is to consider everything negative that happens as a great punishment. The other way is to consider struggles and difficulties as important challenges that help you to grow as a person and to become stronger.

It is quite important to understand that we have a natural tendency to overestimate the importance of the past. Doing so will make the present look far worse than it actually is and the future even less attractive. Instead of clinging on to the past, try to make the best of the present moment.

“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.”William Feather

Happiness is one of the most misunderstood words in our vocabulary, yet we search for this intangible state our whole lives. If I only had this or that, if I met the right partner, have a big house, a new car, the job I’ve always wanted, then I would be happy. The ancient yoga and spiritual teachings stress that happiness is real only when we let go of seeking material and transient things and discover the lasting joy that is within.

Every time we see a giggling baby or young child we’re reminded that we are all born with this natural and innate sense of happiness, that it is actually our birthright