Chasing Happiness

For most of us, life is filled with challenges that seem to be the cause for periods of stress and unhappiness. We work and hope to resolve these challenges having a goal of lasting happiness. At least that is what we are thinking during those times of quiet solitude that are so few and far between.

Then, life happens. We wake in the morning only to find the alarm didn’t go off. Hurry, hurry to make up for lost time thinking we were successful, then the school bus arrives and one of the children cries ‘I’m sick”. You suspect this is just a ploy to avoid school and resent the imposition on your day. Happy is the last emotion you are feeling. Or, maybe you are the boss and of course, you have a boss. Somehow your employee’s can’t make this connection. You have a deadline to meet and are depending on your employees to make it happen. Half of them call in sick with the flu. What are they thinking? After a stress filled day you go home to the people you most love. These people are the ones you count on to bring you a sense of joy and lasting happiness. You get comfortable and begin to relax, then, your son show’s you his report card and it isn’t what he had promised.

Yes, life is a teeter-totter. Struggle sits on one end and happiness sits on the other. On one end of the teeter-totter we spend time looking for the cause of our unhappiness. Usually we find ourselves pointing at other people, our personal circumstances or just bad luck. This may prompt us to make changes. Quit a job, move to a new city, and maybe even consider leaving our family believing this might bring new happiness. Those of us that have actually done this kind of thing often find any newfound happiness is short lived. Old struggles return to our lives wearing a different wrapper.

On the other end of the teeter-totter is joy and happiness. Joyful events in life may include getting that dream job, marriage, children, friends and family to name a few. There are always small moments of joy too – that promotion or a child’s graduation. Sometimes the greatest joy comes in the form of something small or something that can’t last. The taste of fresh picked fruit. A sunset over the ocean during a vacation. A rainbow as you turn a bend in the road. Sadly, these joys are so fleeting we often don’t remember they even happened.

Sadhguru speaks in this video about joy and misery. Where they originate and what we can do to create a life of joy and lasting happiness.