Happiness Is Here And Now

Too often I hear the lament, “When will I be happy?” The answer is simple – right now!

Our mind is our own worst enemy but it can also be our best friend, if we let it. Understanding simple concepts of universal truths can go a long way towards our mind knowing these truths and accepting them as fact into our world.

One of the biggest universal lies is that happiness is a permanent state of being or, worse yet, that everything has to be perfect for you to be happy. That’s a lie. The simple, universal truth is much easier and also much more freeing. Happiness comes in moments, happiness is where you are right now, with exactly what you have.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking ~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

The pursuit of happiness is exhausting and often leads a person down paths angels might fear to tread. Why do you think we try so hard to be happy? ‘Trying’ in and of itself is another exhausting pastime. Searching outside of ourselves for something to make us complete, which will then lead us to a happy place, is just such a waste of time and energy.

Instead there are easy ways to discover happiness right where you are, right now. Understand that contentment lasts much longer than the proverbial ‘happiness’ state of being does. Contentment leads to serenity, and being in a place of serenity opens untold doors to inner peace.

Try a breathing exercise. Take a deep breath, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Breathe several times to gain balance of yourself, and then look around you at your outer surroundings. See how they may reflect your inner state of being. Giving the mind time to breathe and do the necessary rebooting may require a little bit of outside straightening up!  But I digress.

Shift your focus to your breathing and close your eyes. Focus deeply on the needed breathing. Think one thought only: that if not for your breath right now, you wouldn’t be alive to care about being happy or unhappy, content or discontent. Your breath is your connection to life and to death, happiness or unhappiness. Your breath is your connection to all your life going on around you.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Now choose in your mind: do you want to be a part of your internal breath, rhythmic and conscious, ever-flowing; or do you want to be a part of all that is going on outside of you and around you, the noises the hustle and the bustle, the continuously ringing phones and everlasting emails, with family and friends needing your attention, or children, or your mate? I would think the answer would be fairly clear.

If you chose to be one with your breath, you are on your way to mastering inner peace and the concept of living in the now – where we are at one with our mind our body and our spirit.

Know that simple happiness and contentment is just a mere breath away. Even in times of extreme stress and anxiety, a simple breathing exercise can help bring us back to center, back to our inner happy place, which is always such a blessing to have as a sacred space. Here you can regroup and channel your inner peace back into position again, ready to face your day.

By definition, inner peace obviously comes from within. The mind that previously had been your own worst enemy can now take its rightful place as your best friend, free from mental cobwebs and the ‘what-ifs’ that come when you perceive happiness as being always just around the next corner.

Happiness is here and now. You are not missing anything and you are exactly where you are meant to be.