We spend a lot of time looking outside ourselves for happiness. Great job, nice relationship, sparkly car—tick: “Once I lose weight/find a man/buy a house, I’ll be happy”.
When you’re younger, the checklist to achieve goes the length of your arm- there’s so much to do; so much to create- so much to prove. Of course it makes sense to think that once we achieve all these things, we’ll be content. At peace. Happy, at long last.
Except, that as we get older, we start to understand ourselves better. We question our own patterns, our behaviour, our parent’s behaviour. We also realise that we’ve turned out okay- we got a good job, met a nice partner, bought a car and sort of landed in the middle of a delightful house, only to survey our space and think: “I’m pretty proficient, I’m such an adult. My path is pretty set in stone, only… now what do I do?” For some of us the gnawing sense of wanting more confuses us, because besides striving for the echelons of world domination (which most of us are too scared to contemplate), there’s really only the usual things we could turn to: the temporary thrill of travel, exploring, a new job, or a super quick Iphone 88.
I think that sometimes in life we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and just stand there. Examine the softness of your eyes, the brightness of your expression, the loveliness of your smile. Mirror back to yourself the fact that if you didn’t have to do or be anything, you can choose to be completely happy knowing that you’ve accomplished a huge amount just by being here– because that’s something we should celebrate every day as we wake up and courageously face each day, and every evening when we close our eyes to plant new seeds for the next.
Happy Monday 🙂
