Where is the genuine happiness we were promised if we did what was expected of us? - Get an education, find a good partner, have a solid work ethic, get a decent job, be frugal with your money, invest wisely, be responsible, be strong, be smart… Well we did all those things, to the best of our ability, so how come all this effort has failed to deliver on the promise of bringing us genuine happines
s? “What are we missing?”
The reason this strategy failed to deliver on the promise of bringing us genuine happiness is the fact that all these suggestions are based on the faulty assumption that external conditions determine our happiness when the reality is...no conditions can bring us genuine happiness until we start living the life we were born to live. The secret to securing the genuine happiness is not to find it but to reclaim it. It has been inside us since the moment we came into existence. We knew it as a baby before we got confused by all the messages we received from the outside world. What makes us truly happy is to experience unconditional love. When any living being is exposed to unconditional love it thrives and when it is deprived it suffers. Our conscious life is ultimately dedicated to securing as much unconditional love as we can and to minimize those times when we are denied it. This is the true intention behind all our efforts and striving. The source of our frustration is our repeated attempts to secure love and happiness through conditions outside of us when the reality is that the way to experience unconditional love is to cultivate it from within our own deepest nature. To the extent that we nurture it from within, and then extend it into the world, the genuine happiness we are seeking will simultaneously occur. The road to genuine happiness begins by learning to identify and appreciate our own natural ability to experience and express love. Watch a toddler skipping down the road and you will intuitively know that they have no difficulty experiencing and expressing love. They radiate it out of every pore and we experience their loving energy as warmth, ease, joy and connection. We appreciate every encounter with innocence at a cellular level even if we aren’t consciously aware of it. This is the same intuitive experience we have when we are in the presence of someone genuine. We are naturally drawn and more comfortable around people who radiate safety, trust, authenticity, and compassion and naturally repelled by people who radiate danger, deception, duplicity, and resentment. This knowing comes from deep within us and is a reflection of the alignment or conflict with our unconditionally loving nature. By rejecting the belief that conditions determine our happiness and embracing the premise that our deepest nature is unconditional love we can begin to consciously focus our efforts on nurturing and expanding our loving nature. As our ability to experience and express unconditional love expands we finally begin to secure the genuine happiness we are seeking and the quality of life we long for
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
