They say that the hardest thing about being a part of this world is living in it. Things happen. People get hurt. We make mistakes. The list goes on and on, but most of all we, as humans, get absorbed inside these things. Whether the stresses that are plaguing us are big or small, we tend to get so consumed that we lose the ability to let go of the things that are slowly sucking us dry of our happiness and replacing it with feelings that sometimes make us want to yank our hair out or crawl into a ball and disappear.
That’s not a good feeling and definitely not a pretty sight, so make things a bit easier for yourself. Slow things down and take a step back and work to keep yourself happy, not smiling like an idiot happy (though there’s nothing wrong with that), but happy like nothing can touch you happy. Embark on your very own happiness project.
Here are three ways to help you start this project and find your inner peace:
1) Forget about the past. It isn’t happening now.
One of the biggest things that weigh us down, maybe the biggest, is the past: a mistake you made that you can never take back; a promise you broke; or an event that happened that defines who you are now. The past doesn’t have to define you, not unless you let it or want it to. The past is only alive in your mind. It isn’t happening now and doesn’t have to push you around if you let it go as if it was nothing but a thought, which, since it exists only in your mind, is exactly what it is.
Instead of letting your past shape who you are, choose to become a new you. Become the you that you want to be and leave the old you in the past. In other words, rewrite yourself.
If you’re like the rest of us, at one point or another you have done something, or many things, that does not reflect your most admirable qualities. In fact, what you did may have been wrong or even down-right nasty, and now it’s insidiously eating away at you. If that’s the case there are only a few things you can do to get clean (and feeling bad about it is not one of them). Aldous Huxley, in his foreward to “Brave New World”, spells it out for all us sinners:
“Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrong-doing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.”
2) Keep things simple.
Peace is often found in simplicity, so keep life as simple as you can. Of course, things have a way of complicating themselves, but that doesn’t mean you have to become complicated along with them. Take a step back and tackle everything one step at a time. But before you do, right after you have taken that step back and are looking at what’s in front of you, analyze it and see if it’s worth doing – is it making you happy? If it’s not, why the heck even do it?
If you find yourself overwhelmed take some time to yourself and take a deep breath during your busy day. Find a quiet place and leave everything else behind for a bit (this means your precious phone too). This down time can keep your head from spinning off and, who knows, maybe you’ll find some peace of mind.
A lot of the complications in our lives come from within ourselves. We take on too much. A lot of the time it’s for the wrong reasons. The main one usually being because we think we’ll be happier. We chase happiness instead of realizing happiness has a way of finding us. We do this chasing because it is what we have been taught to do.
This, however, leads to a paradox: we get that thing that was supposed to make us perfectly happy and then we see that it’s not what we made it out to be or that it’s not enough and so we set out after something else – something more – that, this time for sure, will make us happy. And then again and again. Do not be one of those people and if you already are, please realize that nothing is ever going to make you truly happy, so be happy with and appreciate what you have. You might just find that it’s exactly what you need.
Contentment brings peace, and peace is true happiness.
3) Allow yourself to be amazed.
We live in an amazingly beautiful world. Appreciate it. Let it take your breath away. Everyday the sun rises and everyday it’s beautiful. When’s the last time you looked at the sky and remembered that beyond it is a whole universe and compared to it we are this minuscule thing, nothing more than a speck? That’s an amazing fact, yet it has become so ordinary – so overlooked.
The world is filled with wonderful things, both natural and human made. Allow yourself to really look at these things and be astounded by them. It could be something as simple as a tree or flower, or it could be something as incredible as a skyscraper or piece of art.
Appreciate these things and be amazed by them and then realize that there is something even more worthy of appreciation and something even more amazing than everything in the entire universe: realize that you – you – are standing there, taking breath after breath. The fact that you’re alive and doing whatever it is that you are doing, day in and day out, is something so amazing that words cannot capture it. When you truly see and appreciate this and all that this world has to offer, you may come to a sublime and humbling feeling that has no match and there you will find peace.
In short, be thankful for your life and for every breath you presently are taking. It is then that you might find that despite everything coming down around you, living in this hectic world can be filled with moments of happiness and peace.
Juan Siliezar
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