Before I thought that there was something external I had to do in order to experience happiness. For instance, I thought that the formula for happiness is:
Work hard = reward/success = happiness
I said to myself that once I´m done with education, I can be happy, or once I had found the love of my life, got the job of my dreams, the perfect body or a big house at the beach - then, and only then, can I allow myself to be happy. In other words I attach happiness to an external event.
But the formula is the other way around. It’s much easier to work dedicated to a cause when I´m happy.
The reason may not be obvious but every time I reached a goal in terms of new possessions or a new and better job, I merely move the goalpost of what success looked like, making it impossible to reach happiness, hunting for external goals.
Discovering that happiness / contentment is our natural human state flowing through us, was a game-changer. Since no one told me this fact when I was a child, I started to create strategies, innocently, when I felt low in order to feel better.
So when I start to feel crap, I just lay back in my favorite chair and let the mind calm itself by itself, without me interfering. That´s a lot easier than starting to "do" something in order to feel better.
Here´s a picture of my daughter being herself - happy!
