How To Be Happy, No Matter What
A Formula For Lasting Happiness
The search for happiness moves us more than any other desire. Our quest for money, a soulmate and even meaning are just us trying to be happy.
Turns out, there’s a better way.
No, it isn’t to just smile, smile, smile. That can be fake.
And no, the path to happiness isn’t endless pleasure and fun, treating everyday like a holiday, for as Shakespeare wrote:
“If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work.”
And the path to happiness certainly isn’t fame. How many famous people have tragic endings? Addictions? Anxiety disorders? Actually, how much of all that is caused by fame?
Maybe the answer is to be beautiful? But that often just brings pleasure to others, causing them to treat you as an object, a trophy or a doll… No, this isn’t the key to happiness.
Maybe it’s marrying a hot spouse and having a high-paying job to buy a hot house? That’s “living the dream,” right? Actually, such a shallow life often just leads to hot mess known as divorce. No, living “the dream” does not guarantee happiness.
What about a soulmate? True love must be the path to happiness, right? Well, what about when that partner dies, or perhaps loses their sanity, or finds another “soulmate” on this playground called Earth? No, soulmates are wonderful, but even they cannot make you happy forever…
“It’s nice to love and be loved,
But I’d rather know what God knows.“ — Lana Del Rey
This mystical whisper from an unexpected source is our first clue…
But how do we “God what God knows,” and can that really make us happy?
What does God know?!
There were 10 commandments summarized into One Great Commandment by a Nazarene who said, “Love God with your whole heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” These mirror the main point of most spiritual masters.
But this unconditional love can lead to great struggle, sacrifice and selfless acts of courage. The Nazarene himself willingly allowed others to execute him to prove his point.
Why? Because he knew the key to true happiness…
Wait, how can execution lead to happiness?
It wasn’t the execution itself, it was the acceptance of the execution, and eventual transcendence.
Knowing the above, you can grasp the formula for happiness.
Love leads to trust, and trust leads to acceptance, and the three together create a state of transcendence.
So, here’s the formula for happiness.
Love + trust + acceptance = transcendence (an unshakable happiness).
Transcendence is the key to lasting happiness, achieved by entering into a spiritual surrender of love and acceptance.
By taking the bold step of entering into unconditional love of both our Source and each other, we align our expectations outside of our limited ego, and raise our frequency up to a divine channel.
While tuned into this channel, nothing that happens here on Earth can disturb our inner peace and happiness. We trust everything set into motion without dispute. We accept all, and therefore transcend “reactions.”
This is the happiness of a martyr who can leave his body with a smile.
This is the happiness of a person who can go through life knowing they will never be perfect, they will never satisfy everyone’s expectations, they will never be able to eat only pure foods, or think only pure thoughts, or buy products that don’t support some unethical enterprise somewhere. They’re happy anyway, knowing all is connected regardless. We’re all unique souls yet One, in a Divine Play together.
We can play our roles knowing anything “bad” is really a teacher opening a doorway to something better, even if it takes awhile to arrive.
Forget “bad luck” and “good luck” — everything is lucky. How?
There’s the ancient Chinese story of the boy learning to ride a horse, but was thrown off and broke his leg. Everyone thought he was so unlucky until an army general showed up recruiting all the boys to fight in a war. When the general saw the boy with the broken leg, he passed him by. The boy with the broken leg healed and lived a long life, unlike many who went to war. Now, who had the bad luck?
True happiness is accepting that every hair on your head (and every missing hair) is meant to be that way. Even the flap of the wing on the fruit fly above a glass of wine — was meant to happen in that exact moment.
Life becomes a constant miracle of imperfection.
Happiness is knowing you will never be pure, not while you’re walking this earth anyway! But in accepting that, you can be free and happy no matter what happens, no matter what state you’re in.
Suddenly everything starts working in your favor. When something bad happens, you simply wait to see how it will transform to something good.
All this doesn’t mean you go around with a smile plastered on your face. Ironically, true happiness is allowing yourself to be sad when it’s time to be sad, to mourn when it’s time to mourn, yet never fighting with what is.
You are in a Divine Play, a comedy actually. And no matter how dark a scene may be, there’s higher meaning that leads to Love. In accepting that, you can be happy, no matter what.
https://medium.com/the-mood/how-i-stopped-aging-44727803b83d
https://medium.com/the-mood/how-i-stopped-aging-44727803b83d