Is It Possible To Be Happy

Is it possible to be happy? The people you see in your daily life seem to be so miserable. However, ancient wisdom keeps reminding us that it is possible to be happy. Some people actually accomplish happiness. 

What is happiness? You may notice that people who are truly happy tend to be very resilient. There is a certain presence to these people that allows them to surf the waves of life more easily than the rest of us. This is often true even during turbulent times. Their relationships seem to be healthier, and they seem to smile more easily than others. How do they do it?

The human ego grasps at its own sense of self. It fears what is different and unfamiliar, and it pushes away what it fears. When it doesn't want to feel something, it restricts the breath and consciousness. The ego also clings to comfortable, pleasant and familiar experience. 

People who discover that it's possible to be happy realize that you must be able to develop a sense of presence with life as it occurs in order to be happy. This means embracing pleasure, pain, fear, embarrassment, sadness and all the other states of mind. Some people train themselves to do this through spiritual or religious practice. Others use various forms of meditation and physical activity to facilitate the process. There are still others who simply cultivate a little quietude in the mind so that they can listen to their intuition and follow its dictates. 

A good analogy for happiness is the ocean. The waves are on the surface of the ocean. Sometimes the waves are turbulent, and sometimes they're calm. Storms find it easy to disturb the surface of the ocean. However, deep below the water's surface are the serene depths that no storm can perturb.

Your thoughts, body sensations and emotions are like the waves of the ocean. Behind the waves is a place of deep peace. It is possible to be happy by learning how to access this place within. This is because happiness does not come from what happens outside of you or what happened to you in the past. Happiness is a state of mind and a way of relating to life in each moment.

As you learn to be present with and surf the waves of mind, you gradually realize that happiness is not an emotion. It is a deep peace and stillness that exists behind the movement of negative and positive emotions, just beneath the waves. Happy people know how to access this stillness even when they're sad and angry.