Happiness: What does it mean really?
Ask anyone what their goal is, and being happy or happiness will be on the list.
But what is happiness?
Lacking clarity on what it means, we can spend a lifetime chasing a mirage. Finding it would be well-nigh impossible. So if you truly want happiness, it makes sense to get clarity on what it means.
To find the meaning, it may be easier to start with what it is not. Agony and anguish occur when our mind is filled with thoughts. Worries, concerns, anxieties, imagined or real. When our reality does not meet expectations.
So, to be happy, we replace these thoughts. We may even try meditation. After all, don’t meditation practitioners ask you to “empty your mind” “still your mind” or “control your mind.”
If you have tried it, more likely than not, you find you can’t really replace your thoughts. The worries and concerns keep coming back like a bad penny.
Neither does emptying your mind really work. In fact, emptying your mind fills your mind with more thoughts.
How on earth are we to find happiness?
Which is why I argue, perhaps, it helps to redefine our goal. Our goal is not to stop thinking.
Our goal is to be free from the effects of the thoughts.
It is not as hard as it may sound. In fact, you already do it all the time. Millions of thoughts cross your mind everyday. Not all of them cause you anguish. You gloss over them because they dont.
So, simple as it sounds, isn't that what we need?
The ability to be free from the effects of all thought?
Wouldn't that be true freedom?
Naturally, one would ask - but how?
In my humble opinion, this is a practice. Much like we practice singing or dancing or running. Practice happens when we believe we can.
Believing requires us to redefine the meaning of happiness.
Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain
PS: Apologies, due to a technical error, the newsletter didn't go yesterday. So many of you reached out to ask about my well being. Thank you. I am truly blessed.
