How to be happy.
Photo by Charles Etoroma on Unsplash
"I'm not happy."
Does this sound familiar?
If it does, listen up:
Instead of focusing on what you *aren’t*, shift your attention to what you *are*. The more you can meet what *is* within you in any given moment, the better.
Happiness is a byproduct of fuller and fuller levels of self-expression, and as such it’s not necessary to pursue it so directly. In fact, myopically focusing on whether you’re happy or not comes from the starting gate belief that you aren’t and can’t be. With your attention on what isn't, you'll never be able to see what is and allow that to grow.
Self-expression can feel messy at first. It's like peeling off layers of an onion. The stuff on the top is most certainly not you either, so the sooner you move through that, dis-identify with it (read: NOT disassociate or deny it), acknowledge it, and then move on, the sooner the juicy material of your essential self will rise to the surface. This is transmutation.
And by the way, this cycle is never-ending, no matter how masterful you become.
Take your attention off the pursuit of happiness entirely. Anytime the thought arises that you are not happy (or that you *are not* whatever else), stop what you’re doing immediately and notice five things you *are*.