No matter what you do…if happiness isn’t present in your heart first, you won’t find it anywhere outside of you…
~ Diane LeBlanc, Welcome to the Fifth Dimension
Hoping some future circumstance will bring you happiness is a waste of your life energy. Life is only lived in the here and now. If your attention is focused on some future ideal, you are sure to miss the wonderful possibilities in the present moment.
There is another truth about happiness that is essential to understand. Happiness is an inside job. Nothing that occurs outside of you can bring happiness unless you have chosen to view it with an attitude of happiness. Yes, happiness is a choice as well.
I present an example from my life. This has been quite a summer of learning. A week ago, I went back into knee surgery. A spontaneous bacterial infection appeared in my right knee. After being almost recovered from bilateral knee replacement in April, once again my knee was opened, then cleared of infection and the plastic part replaced.
I was already walking at least a mile every day, feeling quite good and then…whack! I was given a great disappointment – more physical therapy, more weeks of building strength, in addition to six weeks of IV antibiotics.
Here’s the truth. Sure, I cried for a moment, but next I realized I could do this. I could go through the healing process again. I could do this because I know that happiness is an inside job.
I could make myself miserable wondering, why me? Why did I have to go through this…again? But that way of thinking is pointless. Instead, I decided that I could choose happiness as my preferred state, do whatever I needed to do to heal with a cheerful attitude, and look for the miracles along the way. This takes time, but already it has proven to be so much easier than the original surgery.
Are you struggling with a circumstance in your life that you never intended to have to deal with? Forget feeling like a victim or questioning why. Since happiness is an inside job, you can choose happiness rather than suffering, and then watch how much easier life becomes.