We have been taught from a very young age that we must always strive. We must always be bettering ourselves (and in there we take on the belief that we are never good enough) We are taught at home and we are taught at school. We reach one goal and then we must aim for the next one. There is no time to “stop and smell the roses”, “enjoy the fruits of our labour”, “rest on our laurels” etc. This is why we are never happy. How can we be happy if we haven’t ‘got there’ yet. Listen carefully and you will hear people all the time saying ‘I’ll be happy when ……, it’s as if they are not allowed to be happy with what they have right here, right now. As if to do so would mean they were lacking ambition, as if to lack ambition was the worst thing in the world. And so we plod on …. For some people they never attain that magic ‘thing’ that they have been striving for, for 20, 30 maybe even 50 years … that is a long, long time to wait for happiness.
What if you stopped right here, right now ~
~ take a deep breath, relax and think about what you have right here, right now, in the present …. give yourself permission to stop striving, stop thinking about the future, what you should be doing, just think about what you have now that makes you happy ……
When I finally took a deep breath and did this I sighed and realised that the state I reached was contentment. (Personally I think the sigh had a lot to do with it!) I was right here, right now, in the present ~ the sense of relief was immediate, the pressure was off. The ‘whens’, the ‘what ifs’, the ‘should bes’ all went away. I was allowed to be happy with what I had. My house, even without the renovations complete, was beautiful, I felt safe in it, I felt at peace in it, I realised that I was content. I then went through all the other things about my life that I had been busily trying to change and the same thing happened … the pressure of ‘should’ was released and I felt content. The more I immersed myself in this new feeling the more I liked it and the more I could stay in it.
Indulging in this feeling of contentment does not mean that I will sit here and stagnate, that I will have no goals to work towards. What it does mean is that I allow myself to be content, to be happy with who I am, where I am and with what I have ~ right here, right now. Come on ~ I dare you to try it ……. and then let me know how it feels.
