Would you be happy with your life if nothing changed--that is, if from now, from whatever present circumstances you have (job, family, et al), nothing substantially different happened/changed? That is, you didn't get to "win" any of your myriad fantasies?
Could you force yourself to be happy, to be content and sated?
I'm asking because I have a deep suspicion that true happiness will only occur if the answer to that question is yes.
In other words: happiness cannot be predicated on changing any of the fundamental attributes of life. That is the challenge of happiness. It is not, in other words, to necessarily work hard to obtain the types of things that most of us think signify happiness. It is to let go of those things so utterly and completely that you're naked, and in that nakedness, that fundamental vulnerability, feel totally content.
This is it, folks. Get used to it, adjust, and find a way to see your life that is not ensconced in the fluff of impossibility and innuendo at more important lurking events/places/things on the horizon. '
Now, just imagine getting to this mindset, and then obtaining something that really matters. Instead of feeling like you deserved it, and it is just one thing that you have, you might actually value it as something incredibly special and totally unique, and feel a deep sense of humility.
I see life as being divided into small pockets of time where you are either happy, sad or somewhere in-between. If you can find contentment in "the now" I think this theoretical slider moves more frequently to the happiness end of the scale.
ReplyDeleteI gave up alcohol, completely, yesterday. so am on the start of a journey of sobriety. I intended to write a blog of the journey and found yours. It aligned itself with the way I feel on many of your posts.