What if the Pursuit of Happiness is Just a Distraction?
What if rather than pursuing happiness we’re seeking conscious awareness?
The pursuit of happiness is a notion often repeated in stories both fictional and nonfictional, inspirational quotes, and from lots of sources you encounter frequently.
All advertising aims to sell you and me happiness. Buy these shoes, get that car, drink that soda, and happiness is yours for the low low price of your conscious awareness.
Because that’s what I think the ongoing, never-ending pursuit of happiness is distracting you and me from. Genuine, active, conscious awareness.
What if rather than happiness we’re pursuing conscious awareness?
Who is in your head, heart, and soul? You. Only you. And that means you’re the only one who can know your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Not only know but truly, genuinely be with. And beyond that? Change.
When you’re mindful you are empowered. That empowerment allows you to take control of your life experiences.
From there, you can do things that you think well of, that feel good, have the best of intentions, and are marked by actions you are content with and even proud of.
And that – when you get down to it – is happiness, right?
How is the pursuit of happiness a distraction?
When your team wins the prize, or your celebrity gets the coveted award – you’re happy for them. More than that, you feel as if their victory, their win, their happiness is yours, too.
But is it? Did you get the prize? Is your life in any way improved from the win? No.
Hence, you’re distracted by the game, celebrity, and pursuit of victory/happiness they are undertaking. Chances are you don’t think about yourself at all when you focus on the game, the celebrity trials and tribulations, and so on.
Happiness in and of itself is limited.
Why? Because you cannot always be happy. Sure, you can mostly be happy, and have a happy attitude – but being happy? That’s fleeting and impermanent.
Should it even be a pursuit?
Pursuit tends to evoke notions of escape, chase, competition, lack, scarcity, and insufficiency. What you are after is trying to get away or hard to find or you must get it before another, right?
This is simply not true. You and I live in an abundant universe. There’s not just enough – there’s more than enough.
You are here. That’s all you need to know to recognize that you’re worthy and deserving of conscious awareness, happiness, or any other good you desire to have in your life.
And you need not pursue it to have it. Because conscious awareness is already yours.
This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool:
Do something that makes you happy once a day, every day, for the next week.
Don’t overanalyze it, don’t debate over and over – just do something that makes you happy – whether it’s big or small.
That means take a nap, eat ice cream, walk in later, have sex, read a book, or do anything at all that makes you happy.
Make a conscious effort to do something that makes you happy, that doesn’t require pursuit, great expense, or anything else. Act on it and do something to make you happy every day for the next week.
Write it all down. How do you feel? Does doing something that makes you happy every day feel empowering?
Blogs: titaniumdon.com and mjblehart.medium.com
Original cover art artist Fe Mahoney: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TaliasInspirations