happy sun

Do you feel like something is missing or that you are ‘not enough’ in some way? Are you caught up in trying to live up to an image of how you ‘should’ be, what you ‘should’ look like, how much money you ‘should’ be making, etc.?

Do you believe you are not successful? Maybe you think the only way to be a success is to look like a star on TV or be like people in the movies or have a fancy house or car and lots of money or to be famous or to live up to something your parents or spouse or teacher think you ‘should’ be.

Do you find that you keep trying to get somewhere else or get more things or keep reaching for something or someone else, believing once you arrive there or have these things they will make you happy? (I will be happy once I have more money, more things, have the right job, a right partner, am at the right weight, etc.)

Someone shared a story with me a few years back of how her friend made it onto the Oprah show, something she dreamed of for a long time. What she found out is that, while it was exciting and a great experience, and she had more business after that experience and exposure, it was still how she felt in her day-to-day and what she focused her attention on that is what really mattered. Life still went on. Your life is made up of your daily experiences. It is, as John Lennon once said, “…what happens while you are making other plans.”

Take a few minutes to imagine what your life might look and feel like if you could let go of all of your striving to be somewhere else, or to be something else or have something more, and choose to love and accept yourself and be happy right now? Ask yourself, “Why am I waiting to be happy. What am I waiting for?”

What stops you from being happy now? What are you choosing to focus your thoughts and attention on that may be keeping you down or from being happy? Are you willing to focus on something different? Are you willing to make this shift?

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” -John Lennon

How might your life look and feel different if you were to decide to love and accept yourself right now? What if you decide to become your own best friend and love yourself by focusing your thoughts and attention on what uplifts you? What if you give yourself permission to be happy right now?

What is stopping you from doing so?

Are you caught up in focusing on what will make you happy in the future? You may find once you get the things you thought would be the answers to make you happy, inside you still feel like something is missing.

Let’s say you believe you need a million dollars to be successful. What happens when you reach that goal? Do you think that will be the answer to being happy or will you try to find something else, or someone else, to make you happy, or have to make more money to ‘be happy’?

And, what if you never reach the million-dollar mark? How many minutes, hours and days have you spent focused on and longing for something you don’t have and missing out on being happy in all of those moments along your life’s journey?

What if you focused on all of the blessings and gifts that each moment brings to you? What if you recognized yourself as the Divine Intelligence expressing through you and embraced the perfect imperfection of your life? What if you knew that getting what you want doesn’t make you happy, rather, being happy gets you what you want? What if you realized that being happy is a choice?

Are you ready to stop, as Wayne Dyer has said, “Striving to arrive” and to enjoy the moments you have today? You may have been ‘striving to arrive’ to achieve something you thought you had to do, or have something or someone you thought you needed, or get somewhere to be happy. That ‘striving to arrive’ may keep you caught up in always trying to fill the void. That void inside you can truly only be filled with the knowing that you are an expression of the Divine Intelligence that flows through you. And, in the knowing that in every moment happiness is a choice. It’s how you decide to look at things. (And, the most fascinating thing of all is when you take time out from ‘striving to arrive’ and allow yourself time to go into the quiet space of what may feel like a ‘void’ inside you, you discover all that you need to feel fulfilled, since, ultimately, it comes from the inside out.)

“I used to think I knew where I was going
. I used to think we had to get somewhere. Now its enough to watch the river flowing… Ive got an empty heart that I cant explain, No longing for love, no sweet pain; 
No voice I hear in the still of night
; Just an empty heart, full of light” –Miten

The key to happiness is to choose to be happy right now! It is choosing to love and accept yourself in this very moment and let your true self shine brightly; to be fully who you are living fully present in this moment of your life.

Remember, this moment is truly all you really have. How will you choose to experience it? Will you continue being unhappy because you have not lived up to what you think ‘should‘ be? Will you choose to focus on the things you lack or on the ways you are not good enough? Or, will you choose to let that go, and choose to focus your attention on uplifting and supportive thoughts and discover the Joy that comes with self-love and self-acceptance?

And what will happen if you choose to just be YOU? Fully, Freely and Uniquely YOU, choosing to be happy right now? Are you ready and willing to make the shift?

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