You vs. You

Are we our worst enemy or our best frenemy? Why is it so hard for us to achieve happiness? According to Socrates, wherever pain flows, pleasure will not be too far behind. Then why is this principle slow to be applicable to misery and happiness?

It is true that we can experience long seasons of misery interrupted with staccatos of happiness, but does it have to be this way? For me the answer is a resounding NO!, we all deserve long seasons of happiness. So what’s preventing us from getting this happiness that we got comin’? Us, we are preventing our own happiness.

It is a painful truth, but ultimately it is us, you, me who have to find, capture, seize and hold onto happiness. Indeed, we can create a laundry list of people or things and even places that prevents this happiness from manifesting itself. But these are just hurdles… some can be pushed out of the way or jumped over, while others will no doubt take a little bit more muscle and will power.

A key example, would be the woman who overcame an abusive husband after years of suffering, with no money, no home to call her own and a scared crying little child clinging to her breast for security. At first her circumstances appeared grim, but by her sheer will for survival and a determination to find the happiness that was denied her all these years, she managed to start a new life, One with happiness on the agenda.

But then there are those less extreme cases. One might call it misery  or pitiful; persons ‘stuck’ in a job that they find dissatisfying. Why don’t they just quit? Yeah, yeah there is that little problem of the pension or age or whatever the case might be, but isn’t Happiness far more precious than any earthly false sense of security.

So the question is, would you prefer poverty and true unwavering happiness or wealth and long standing misery?

And just for the record, who ever said we can’t have our cake and eat it too!

According to P. Swain Fuller, we are only curtailed by the boundaries we set for ourselves. For instance, instead of saying I just want to buy a house why not say I want a mansion, or for that matter, I want a mansion on the moon! sounds ridiculous? Why? with the new technology boom we’re living anything is possible. I mean who would ever think that a TV would fit in the palm of your hand.

This question about Happiness is an old one. The Buddhists believe that it is desire that attaches us to this world and thus cause us misery. While some school of psychology believe it is a struggle from with in. The Ideal Self vs. the Actual Self.

To find happiness you need look no further but in the mirror.

Admittedly, the journey for happiness for most has been and is long and arduous with trips landing in spouse-ville, career-ville, child-ville and glamourville etc.

But ultimately, the search will be over where it began—- with you.

 

 

 

 

 

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