If you can be conscious, you will never need to be happy again

Just do what makes you happy.

If everyone followed this advice, we’d all be continually happy, all the time.

But are we?

The reason many of us are not is that we make the honest mistake of thinking that ‘happiness’ is a ‘thing.’

I struggled recently in a group meeting because I wanted to do well and be happy to be there and come across cool and awesome. But I didn’t. I felt uncomfortable and anxious. And this made me feel bad.

The conditions that my happiness depended on (me looking cool) were not quite right.

What I forgot at the time was that this isn’t about being happy. Our egos want us to be happy and look good, but our egos don’t know best.

We think we can experience happiness for long stretches of time, as long as the circumstances are right. As long as the porridge isn’t too cold and not too hot.

But happiness is not a thing. It is an illusion. It is not real.

Humans have been kidding each other since the dawn of time into believing that happiness is real.

I miss the time I spent living in the Algarve; It was a happy time for me.

Uh…I call bullshit.

When somebody describes a time in their life when they were happy, what they are describing is a period in which they felt all kinds of ways. Sad, happy, miserable, lonely, frustrated, bored and elated. They just took ‘happiness’ as the dominating vibe of the time, even though it wasn’t.

Happiness is only ever a thought. It is always transient. It is based on whatever our state of mind is in the moment. We feel our thoughts, one thought at a time.

We can have a happy thought about becoming rich and feel good in that thought. And then we might have another thought of our dog dying. And then we don’t feel so good. The happy thought and the happiness was here. And then it was gone.

Happiness is not a worthy pursuit, because — for those who want things to be one way — transience is not a worthy pursuit. We cannot control what is always changing. When we chase something that appears and disappears in a second, we will be forever chasing an unending horizon.

We will never be where we want to be.

Yes, it is reasonable to do things that are more likely to lead to more positive experiences. That’s great. Go and do fun, interesting and intriguing things.

But what we need to be careful with is in being disappointed when life doesn’t go as we want it to because we hold happiness up to be the vital variable, when it is not.

When we feel uncomfortable, we needn’t see that experience as an indication of life going ‘wrong.’

We can see it as an opportunity to return to consciousness. Again and again.

We can see all of life through this lens. And when we do, life becomes exciting and beautiful.

Consciousness is awareness. It is the power we all have to let go of thinking; to be free of a personal identity; to feel connected to all things; to be where we are, and to allow inner intelligence to guide us.

This is where we want to be more often because it is home.

The great thing is that the opportunity to be conscious is always there, regardless of the conditions.

Happiness is reliant on certain things to be just right. You need to sun to be in the right place and people to be nice to you to be happy.

You need nothing to be conscious but your willingness to let go.

The only thing consciousness relies on is your propensity to open up to what is in front of you, no matter how irritating or unpleasant. It might not always feel good to open to what is there, but the more you do it, the more life can flow through you, and the more at peace you will be.

Hell, rain or pain — full awareness — of our surroundings and our bodies, and the person in front of us — is always available. And when we’re back, there can’t possibly be anything that phases you.

It becomes a game. Life is your teacher. Everything, everyone, everywhere becomes a beautiful opportunity to reconnect to the source.

When you choose to be conscious rather than happy, you never need to be happy again.

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If these ideas stirred something in you, I’d love to read your comment below. I read them all.

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Alex