Recently, I heard a talk by Vernon where he said this: “If you are not happy right now, when are you going to be? Cancel your ideas about happiness, and you will have it.” Drop your plans about finding happiness, and become aware of yourself and of everything in the present. There is safety in staying present. After hearing this I began to become conscious that I had a short list that, when attained, would deliver happiness. I have had this changing happiness list all my life, and it never delivers.
I was delaying my own happiness for some thoughts about attaining happiness-this is crazy thinking. I had placed my happiness in some imagined future. Shocked and jolted by seeing my wrong thinking, it snapped me into a state of presence. Listening to your mind psychologically keeps you miserable, because it lies. The practical part of your mind is fine, and is necessary to function on this planet, but the rest is super delusional and wildly imaginative.
Thank You, Mr Vernon Howard for this insight.
If you ponder Vernon’s (bolded) quote, and casually investigate, you will discover tons of ideas of what is going to bring you contentment and happiness. As an experiment, try dropping these to see if they are the very things that are keeping you unhappy and concerned. Slow down your life, so you can see clearly what is driving you so mad. It is you. It is fun to catch your mind thinking incorrectly. Your mind has you hypotized into believing it is doing great, even though everyday shows you differently. As my grandmother used to say; “Wise Up!”
Yes! Understanding that the future is just an idea, there is no time to waste. If we’re not happy in the NOW, we never will be.
How many times have I planned a trip, thinking that I’ll be happy then, and wasted the weeks leading up to it moaning and groaning.
We’ve been led to believe that to have an opinion about the world is a good thing; that it will make us happy to have a fixed opinion – to be against this or that, or for this or that. However, there is always someone else on the opposite side who will argue with you to the death. So this causes hostility for everyone.
If you have a position you are lost – Vernon Howard
The mind also wants to plan and scheme how to act and how to behave in order to protect itself and plan how to be happy.
This is what causes pain – not happiness.
Only the new now is happiness.
Great blog and comments. I am guilty of waiting for happiness once I get _______. I have filled the blank in endlessly over this lifetime with all kinds of things and I am still am searching for happiness. This spring I was expecting a good size tax return and was anticipating being so excited when i got it. Well, I got it and it gave me no happiness, I was already on to wishing for something else when it arrived. Time to do something different, as Steve says “Wise Up’!
Yes, and wise up is me also rebuking myself for anything wrong in me.
It’s time to grow up. Even if the world is stuck on it’s present level, I can’t stay there.