Stop Thinking and Start Living
Happiness is a moment-to-moment choice that each of us makes. In order to be happy, you must decide to be happy. You must make a commitment to happiness. It’s important to know that commitment to learning the art of happiness is not exactly what it seems to be at first glance. Most people make the mistake of confusing commitment to happiness with the decision to make their life better in some way. Although these two ideas seem related, they are necessarily so. You can change everything in your life without affecting your level of happiness one single bit. You can earn more money, get a new job, solve a problem, get attached or acquire something you have always wanted, yet still feel unsatisfied. The reason for this is that happiness exists independently of your circumstances, it’s a feeling that you have to learn to live in.
When you make a commitment to happiness you are in effect saying:
'There is so much in life that I can’t control – the world, other people and their choices and reactions, accidents, imperfections, suffering, hardships. Yet this is my life and regardless of what happens, I’m going to be happy.'
Whenever you attach conditions to your happiness, you won’t experience it. The same mental process that attaches your happiness to a specific outcome will only repeat that pattern once that outcome is obtained. Many of us believe that by solving our problem or improving our relationships, we will find contentment but in reality this means that our happiness must be postponed until some future date when those conditions are met. Commitment is a step towards bringing that future to the present. Happiness is the result of a decision to be happy. You may believe that you will one day arrive at a place called Happiness, that one day everything will fall into place and you will be able to say, 'Great, here I am. I’ve made it to Happiness Land, I should be feeling happy now' Obviously, this isn’t going to happen. Regardless of how good your life gets and how many of your dreams come true, you will still have to make the decision to be happy. You still have to make the commitment. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.
Whenever you have a thought and believe that thought to be true, you will feel a corresponding emotional response to that thought. Your thoughts always create your emotions. Understanding the significance of this fact is the first step in escaping from unhappiness and depression. Negative and pessimistic thoughts, regardless of their specific content, are the root cause of all negative and self-defeating emotions. Unhappiness doesn’t and can’t, exist on its own. Unhappiness is the feeling that accompanies your negative thinking about your life. In the absence of that thinking, unhappiness can’t exist. There is nothing to hold your negative feelings in place other than your thinking. Hence, stop thinking and start living.
Happiness is a moment-to-moment choice that each of us makes. In order to be happy, you must decide to be happy. You must make a commitment to happiness. It’s important to know that commitment to learning the art of happiness is not exactly what it seems to be at first glance. Most people make the mistake of confusing commitment to happiness with the decision to make their life better in some way. Although these two ideas seem related, they are necessarily so. You can change everything in your life without affecting your level of happiness one single bit. You can earn more money, get a new job, solve a problem, get attached or acquire something you have always wanted, yet still feel unsatisfied. The reason for this is that happiness exists independently of your circumstances, it’s a feeling that you have to learn to live in.
When you make a commitment to happiness you are in effect saying:
'There is so much in life that I can’t control – the world, other people and their choices and reactions, accidents, imperfections, suffering, hardships. Yet this is my life and regardless of what happens, I’m going to be happy.'
Whenever you attach conditions to your happiness, you won’t experience it. The same mental process that attaches your happiness to a specific outcome will only repeat that pattern once that outcome is obtained. Many of us believe that by solving our problem or improving our relationships, we will find contentment but in reality this means that our happiness must be postponed until some future date when those conditions are met. Commitment is a step towards bringing that future to the present. Happiness is the result of a decision to be happy. You may believe that you will one day arrive at a place called Happiness, that one day everything will fall into place and you will be able to say, 'Great, here I am. I’ve made it to Happiness Land, I should be feeling happy now' Obviously, this isn’t going to happen. Regardless of how good your life gets and how many of your dreams come true, you will still have to make the decision to be happy. You still have to make the commitment. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.
Whenever you have a thought and believe that thought to be true, you will feel a corresponding emotional response to that thought. Your thoughts always create your emotions. Understanding the significance of this fact is the first step in escaping from unhappiness and depression. Negative and pessimistic thoughts, regardless of their specific content, are the root cause of all negative and self-defeating emotions. Unhappiness doesn’t and can’t, exist on its own. Unhappiness is the feeling that accompanies your negative thinking about your life. In the absence of that thinking, unhappiness can’t exist. There is nothing to hold your negative feelings in place other than your thinking. Hence, stop thinking and start living.
23:23
Comments:
Post a Comment