It’s very easy to feel unhappy, at least slightly unhappy. There are too many things to be concerned about. Whether it’s our job, our relationships, our money situation, in most cases all of these conditions define our degree of happiness. ‘If I get a pay rise, then I will be happy.’ Or ‘if this person leaves, then life will be perfect.’ Life situations seem to have a bigger say on our happiness than we would like them to be.
What if there’s a better, more direct way to happiness? Wouldn’t it be great if we could reach happiness anytime, anywhere and in whatever situation? Apparently it is really that easy. The spiritual teacher Anthony De Mello described happiness as something that’s natural to us and it’s something for which we do not need to make any effort. It may sound a bit too good to be true but most spiritual teachers I know all have an effortless approach to life.
But surely it can’t be that easy otherwise we would all be doing it effortlessly. Indeed it does require some practice to get used to the concept of this natural way of happiness. It is through intense awareness as often as possible that we achieve this natural state. Whenever we feel agitated by a situation, we should remind ourselves and instead of reacting to it – ‘it shouldn’t be like this’, ‘that’s not right’ – we need to just observe ourselves without judgement. So it’s really as simple as not reacting to the situation, not judging the situation and simply observe the situation. Now it’s time to make it into a habit.