Everyone is looking for genuine happiness. However, we seldom discover it, except for a few fleeting moments that usually pass too fast and elude our notice, leaving us with a faint remembrance to cherish. It is also no accident that it will attempt to evade you more the more tightly you hold onto it.
Usually, a past gone wrong leaves us with only sorrow and regrets, making our existence feel intolerable. Alternatively, a pure desire to something happen in the future causes us to fast-forward our life and skip or leave the present. The worst is when we are plagued by a worry and dread of the unknown in the future, which keeps us from being happy. Unknown that may or might not even occur. However, the only thing about time that is real is that we hardly ever are in the now and at peace with the NOW.
Why is long-lasting enjoyment so elusive? And how can one experience it longer than a few seconds?
Don't go after pleasure. It is the opposite of seeking happiness; hence, you won't find it. Though pleasure is always elusive, one may now break away from misery by accepting what it is rather than fabricating tales about it.
Happiness is always caused mainly by your views about the circumstance. I know what you are thinking. Leave them apart from the constantly neutral and always existing circumstance. These are my opinions on the circumstance or the reality. Remain with the facts rather than inventing myths. "I am ruined," for instance, is a narrative. It confines you and prevents you from moving forward successfully. It is a reality that "I have 50 cents left in my bank account". Facts are always influential.
Try to identify the voice in your brain for what it is—the ego, no more than a thought—by catching it, maybe at the same time it complains about anything. It will also dawn on you whenever you hear that voice that you are the one who is aware of it. You are the consciousness that is conscious of the voice. Awareness is there in the background. The voice, the thinker, is at the front. This is how you are releasing the unnoticed mind and the ego.
When you look in the bathroom mirror everyday you feel you are different compared to a picture shot thirty years ago. There is plenty of indirect evidence for the existence of time wherever you look, but you never discover any direct proof, and you never feel time itself. All that you ever encounter is the here and now.
Because you stray from the present, worry, tension, or negativity occur. And what motivated you to act in such way? You believed that if you have taken different path it would have been better. One little mistake, one misunderstanding, may cause significant pain.
People think that their happiness depends on other people. They fail to understand that what transpires is the most erratic event in the cosmos. Every day, it varies. They see the present as either inadequate because of something that hasn't occurred but should have or as tarnished by something that has. They thus overlook the greater perfection that is a part of life itself and transcends what is or is not occurring. Acknowledge the here and now and seek timeless excellence.
In a relationship, the more shared history there is, the more present you must be, failing which you will be compelled to repeat the past.
Suffering inevitably follows from identifying the physical body with "I," the body that is doomed to age, wither, and die. Not that you stop caring for your body just because you stop associating with it. You may value robust, attractive, or vibrant qualities while they endure. Exercise and diet also help you to better the state of your body. When beauty fades, energy wanes, or the body becomes immobile; if you don't identify the body with who you are, this won't impact your identity or feeling of value. The awareness might shine more readily when the body starts to deteriorate.
Finding the goodness inside you and allowing it to show is how you become good, not attempting to be good.
You will choose tranquility if it is really what you want.
Conclusion: Take the current moment and find peace with it. It is all you have; thus, accept it rather than fight it. Since it's the most valuable moment, it's called a present. You can't change the past or the future, but you can change the present if you seriously think about it. Lastly, never seek happiness anywhere else. You already own everything beautiful and joyous at its core; it only needs your presence to shine through it.
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