This coaster displays one of my favourite phrases, which led me to use these as my business cards for a few months now.
I see so many people chasing success, thinking that it will bring them happiness. I’m sure you’ve met people who are constantly striving to create happiness in their lives through the achievement of their goals.
Some become obsessed with making more money, buying a bigger car, creating a fitter or healthier body, producing more sales or even attempting to get more friends on Facebook. Unfortunately, goal achievement only brings fleeting happiness. We are happy for a week or two after we’ve bought the new car but then it gets dirty, needs serviced and filled up with petrol. Then, it becomes pretty much the same as the old car. We only derive fleeting glimpses of happiness from the achievement of our goals: it’s never long lasting.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the race to have more, be more, do more, create more or acquire more. This approach usually leads us to being stressed, constantly struggling and striving. Except for those brief glimpses of happiness just after we’ve achieved our goal, we still feel empty inside.
Buddhists have a name for this: Samsara, which translates as, ‘endless wandering.’ When we live in Samsara, we constantly search outside ourselves for possessions, love, validation, belonging or fulfillment to make us happy. We’re forever striving to re-arrange the circumstances of our lives to achieve something. Our time is spent trying to ‘get somewhere’ rather than enjoying being where we are.
I watched a video the other day which is the best illustration of this that I’ve ever seen. Search on YouTube for Steve Cutts’ short, animated film called, ‘Happiness.’ It powerfully illustrates this rat race of chasing after happiness and fulfillment in all the wrong places
Although we tend to go looking for happiness in ‘things’ outside ourselves, it is actually already inside us and can be found right here, right now in this present moment. Happiness is right under our noses, in our current circumstances. Mindfulness is the practice that allows us to wake up to this, and start actually experiencing that happiness we are all seeking.
The latest research from Harvard University on what makes human beings most happy concurs with this ancient wisdom. Matt Killingsworth’s research shows that human beings are at their most ‘happy’ when they’re fully in the present moment, when they are being mindful. Now I know mindfulness is a bit of a buzz word these days and it seems everyone is jumping on the band wagon and trying to sell us mindful colouring books, or suggesting w e e x p e r i e n c e mindful eating. However, in my experience, if we practice mindfulness we can learn to create happiness whenever we want.
How do we practice mindfulness? To get the full benefit, you will need to learn to meditate, but you can start the process with just a few minutes per day of paying attention to your senses: what you feel, see, smell, taste and hear. I know it sounds simple but don’t dismiss this as insignificant. This practice is extremely powerful and will lead you to experience more happiness in your life than you can imagine. My Gran used to put it this way: ‘Slow down and smell the roses.’ You know what? She was right!
By learning to become more mindful you will learn to slow down, tune into yourself and touch the deeper dimensions of who you really are. You’ll develop greater self-awareness and tap into the wellspring of wholeness and peace at the very centre of yourself. The more you practice, the more that sense of fulfillment will gradually flow into your life and the happier you will become. Mindfulness is not a switch: you can’t be mindful for a few minutes and this will make you happy for the rest of your life! You need to develop this as a new thinking habit if we want to create lasting happiness.
Remember, happiness is the key to success and it comes to us when we are being mindful.