You just want to be happy.
And you want your loved ones to be happy.
Right?
I hear it all the time, so let’s talk about it.
What is happiness?
Happiness is an emotion.
Emotion is simply energy in your body.
Emotion = Energy in motion
Thoughts create our emotions.
We think circumstances cause our emotions.
For example, consider if someone you love dies.
You feel sad.
You think their death creates sadness, but what if they die and you don’t know about it?
You feel nothing.
You could actually be laughing and enjoying the very moment of their death.
You only feel sad after you know and think about it.
Wait. I thought we were talking about happiness here.
What does the death of a loved one have to do with happiness?
Good question.
Step one to happiness is understanding that we aren’t supposed to be happy all the time, and we don’t want to be happy all the time.
We are human beings who experience a wide variety of circumstances that we have thoughts about.
We don’t want to feel happy when someone we love dies
However, we tend to have unrealistic expectations that we should always be happy.
And when we aren’t, we think something has gone wrong.
And when we think something has gone wrong, we don’t feel happy.
Thanks social media.
When we see someone’s “happy Facebook life,” we naturally ask ourselves, what’s wrong with me?
I’m not happy all the time.
My life doesn’t look like that.
Neither does theirs.
Life is always 50/50.
No matter how “good” our life is, there will always be hard times.
It’s just the way life is.
It’s normal, and it's purposeful. Nothing has gone wrong.
The contrast is actually what helps us experience happiness.
Without sadness, we wouldn’t know what happiness is.
Without darkness, there is no light. It’s a universal truth.
When we understand this fundamental truth,we can stop the unrealistic expectations, accept all parts of life, live more fully and deeply, and appreciate the good times so much more.
Which leads to happiness.
So take the pressure off.
Happiness is amazing, but so is sadness.
It allows us to live fully, experience all life offers, grow into beautiful human beings, and share ourselves and our experiences with the world.
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