Where Does Happiness Reside?

 

 

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

 Happiness is a state of mind.  It is who you are right to your cells.  It is art of your nature.  It is not gained by anything outside your mind.  It is totally within.  Is there unhappiness outside that affects your inner happiness?  Of course.  It is okay to be unhappy some of the time, for good reason.  But, those things outside of us pass.  We can learn to divert, to block, to go through unhappy things if we do not stay present, conscious and aware, because what is swirling around outside of you will never stay.  It is us that make up our minds to NOT let that reside within us and keep it fermenting in there long after it should. 

Our measurement of what is just, what is fair, what gives or takes a toll on our happiness comes from our choice.  These things I know:

1.        Positive thoughts come from positive emotions.

2.             Negative emotions equal negative thoughts

3.              Satisfaction with life

How we interpret events will determine thoughts.  How we store memory of events, either negative or positive will influence the way you see things.

If we choose our happiness to come from external things, that happiness will be fleeting.

We feel happiness when we are, from deep inside, feeling joy, satisfaction, contentment, fulfillment.  We choose to feel how we feel.  No one can make us feel anything we do not want to feel.  We can try to fill unhappiness   with alternative happiness (drugs, eating, alcohol, relationships, etc.) but that will cause more reasons to be negative and unhappy.  Remember:  Happiness is a state of mind.

A big cat saw a little cat chasing its tail and asked, “Why are you chasing your tail so?”

Said the kitten, “I have learned that the best thing for a cat is happiness, and that happiness is in my tail. Therefore, I am chasing it: and when I catch it, I shall have happiness.”

Said the old cat, “My son, I, too, have paid attention to the problems of the universe. I too, have judged that happiness is in my tail But, I have noticed that whenever I chase after it, it keeps running away from me, and when I go about my business, it just seems to come after me wherever I go.”

©Carol Desjarlais 4.24.23