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Be happy to be happy

This post was written by DoctorJay on June 21, 2009
Posted Under: Success

Happiness is a state of being. Unfortunately often we imagine that it is a state of having. So we imagine that if we have a better relationship, better home, better cars or better whatever we will be happy. When we get these we may become happy for a short while but soon the novelty of having wears off and we need to have more to be happy.

The having leading to happiness is an addictive state which needs to be fed either with having more and more for being happy less and less or we end up losing what we have and now get sad and if we get it back we become happy momentarily. Once more we get our "having" fix and soon we get used to this "having" and we need our next fix.

So what to do?

The best way to have happiness is simply to be happy in the here and now.

You may be thinking, "Yes, right very simple. Now, how do I get to be happy?"

One clue is in the words "here and now." As they say in some competitions to be happy you must be present (in the present moment) to win .Yesterday, I wrote about not worrying before its time. This is the other side of the coin.

When you are in the present moment and are not worried about the future or regretting the past you can be in touch with your real self. Your true self is mostly happy. That’s to say, when you live in the moment you are happy when you need to be happy and you are sad when you need to be sad.

This reminds me of the story of the Zen master who is crying after his best friend dies and a novice asks him if all is an illusion why he cries. The master replies, “It is true that all is illusory. My friend died; I miss him; I’m sad; and I’m crying.”

So living in the moment will not keep you happy all the time but by being in touch with your inner truth and allow you to be happy most of the time and authentic all the time.

One best way to learn to live in the presence more often is through meditation. I’ll write a series about meditation – what it is and how to do it soon.