Unconditional Happiness
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6 Top Tips for Being Happier
Happiness
Talking about “being happy” and “finding joy” whilst being surrounded by news about war, failing economies, rising costs of living and global climate crises can seem a little disingenuous, if not absurd.
I totally get why sceptics and cynics alike. when hearing these words, raise their eyes skywards, sigh and ignore much of what the “happiness coach” has to say.
The issue is that the words “happiness” and “joy” are often thought of in terms of goals to be achieved and not attitudes to life and living. As such “happiness” and “joy” have conditions placed on them.
“I will be happy when….”
When what?
You have wealth; you have someone who loves and cares for you; when you are successful?
Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run — in the long-run, I say! — success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”
Victor Frankl : Mans Search for Meaning
Often the conditions we apply to our ability to experience happiness or joy are transitory in their nature.
Now, I’m not for one minute suggesting that if you are living in poverty or fear of your life or liberty you need to smile and jump for joy. Of course when there is a lack of these things there suffering.
We can take inspiration from individuals like Victor Frankl.
Frankl (1905– 1997) was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, writer and Holocaust survivor.
