Finding True Happiness
Are you chasing after something in hopes that it'll make you happy?
Perhaps a new relationship, a new job, a new experience, more money, or more travel?
There's nothing wrong with any of those things. They may bring a temporary feeling of happiness into our lives. However, based on my experiences, the chemically induced feeling of happiness from those things is not permanent. And so, once the effect of a novel experience wears off, we chase then next one, and the next one.
Trust me, I've chased for years!
Us never being satisfied in the long run by chasing the next thing proves that more people, places, things, and experiences are not the true source of happiness. So then what is?
I believe true happiness comes when you feel at ease with who you are and everything about your life up to this present moment. To love yourself exactly as you are right now, while knowing you're still progressing in your growth.
It's a complete and utter acceptance of everything that is, just as it is, without resisting it or wanting it to be different.
When we fully accept and love everything about ourselves, we stop chasing after the things that would help us temporarily feel better about ourselves.
We begin to source validation, approval, security, and love from within ourselves.
We begin to find what we've been chasing out there, within ourselves.
We become the source of our own true happiness.
Now, from this place of acceptance, of feeling whole, we still might choose to have novel experiences, find a new relationship, to make more money, to get a different job, or to travel to more places. The difference is we do so because we genuinely want to, not because we need to or believe that something is missing.
Living from this place of self-acceptance and knowing that I'm not broken, that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with me, and that I'm already whole exactly as I am has completely transformed how I experience life.
Try it out! See if you can fully accept yourself and this moment just as it is, without needing anything to be different, and see what you notice. Then, from that place, make choices to engage with life as you so choose out of desire, not lack or scarcity.
With love and inspiration,
Jonathan
p.s. Check out this post where I share about the power of true forgiveness to support you with generating unconditional true happiness and self-acceptance.
