A while back I wrote that to master happiness,
you must lower your standards of happiness to nothing.
Those standards may be if you reach a certain amount of income,
or if someone behaves the way you want them to, or if you lose this amount of weight,
or even if your party wins the election. There are some that might have lower
standards than you- to a prisoner it might be freedom, to a poor child it might be a full meal.
The point is that circumstances may affect what we think will make us happy.
There are no guarantees that time will allow us to reach our standards, so
unless we have none, we will not likely master happiness. This has nothing to do with having
goals or aspirations, it just means that we can be more happy on our way to achieving them whether
they are fully realized or not.
So here are a few ideas I try to follow in order to be happy, now.
1. Be grateful for what you have with no thought of what you haven’t
2. Life is a succession of “nows” and now is all you have
So try to be fully aware in this moment. If you’re looking back at the past
either with regret or celebration or looking forward to the future either with fear or expectation
you’re sure to miss the extraordinary present that’s right in front of you.
3. You are blind to the truth the moment you become attached to a belief or an outcome
So even if you are attached try to look at things as if you’re not and your eyes will be opened.
4. Let go of judgement as much as you can of people, things and events
You will learn so much more when you experience them with an open mind and open heart
5. Stop treating life as a contest – you’ve already won
6. Always question your thoughts and never question your gut
If you question your gut you’re back in your thoughts
7. Love is unconditional, if you need to impose requirements than it is something else
8. Do not care what others think or compare yourself to others
This is really self judgement, it is you who is setting the scale
9. Deal with the “what” of things, people and events and let go of the “why”
Sometimes you’re heart will ask you to act without a reason
How long will you watch a drowning man trying to figure out how he ended up in the water?
Save him first and he’ll solve the mystery for you. Hesitate and you will never know.
10. Going toward love will lead away from fear