Do you often spend a good amount of your time pursuing and obtaining things that you think will make you feel happier? It may be more money in the bank, comfort and convenience, better living conditions, or prestige and accolades. There’s no doubt that these things can make you feel good for a little while. But before you know it, you’re feeling a gnawing sense of emptiness and you’re off to find the next thing that will make you feel happy again.
You may have heard before that happiness is a state of mind, but you might struggle to believe it since there is usually a clear correlation between the conditions of your life and the way you feel. When certain conditions in your life are troubling, it’s hard to feel happy. Likewise, when you are lacking something that you need or want, you probably feel frustrated and deprived. It certainly seems as though your outer conditions have a big impact on your ability to feel happy.
But what if it’s not so much having those outer things that makes you feel happy, but rather just the act of focusing on them? On the opposite side of that same coin, what if focusing too much on the things you don’t have, or the troubling aspects of a certain situation is what actually causes your feelings of unhappiness and dissatisfaction?
Try this experiment over the next few days: Focus as much as possible on things that make you feel uplifted, inspired, grateful, and blessed. Look at your life and the world around you and notice how much beauty, abundance, and goodness is all around you. Think about the good things that you would like to experience in the future, without needing to have them right now. Simply take pleasure in the ideas because it feels good to dream and imagine.
If your thoughts begin to veer into negative territory and you start feeling frustrated or focusing too much on lack, gently let those thoughts go and ask yourself, “What can I focus on that would make me feel happier right now?” Then focus there for a few minutes.
Within a short period of time you should be able to see clearly that your feelings of happiness or unhappiness are not dependent on any particular conditions in your life, or on the amount of material abundance that you have. Instead, you will know that your deliberate focus on happy subjects is the only true source of your happiness.
This is so empowering to know because outer conditions are fleeting. Objects come and go, people come and go, and conditions change constantly. It is futile to base your sense of happiness on any of these things. But your conscious awareness is something that you can never lose. As long as you are awake and aware, you have the ability to focus your thoughts on whatever you wish. And the direction of your focus, whether positive or negative, will inspire feelings that match. Whenever you notice that you are feeling unhappy, see it as a sign that you have been focusing too much in a negative direction and do what you can to turn it around again.
