IS HAPPINESS A FIGMENT OF THE IMAGINATION?

As far as I can see, there is really one major reason why no two people can ever agree about what happiness actually means, is that no matter how you try to define happiness, it remains an empty notion…

One moment you believe you have it and the next instant you don’t. One major cause of unhappiness is in fact, the unceasing search for happiness. Why Not Practice Gratitude In Stead?

Practicing gratitude can be done anywhere and at anytime. You don’t need compulsory or traditional travel to exotic places. It requires no special inner ability or even any outside support system or courses to attend.

I have encountered many people, some of them even critically ill and were of diverse ages in my private research, some with incurable diseases, who were living with chronic pain, yet they were simply grateful to be alive.

So, too, have I also met many critically ill patients that were angry about their condition. People, to whom the word gratitude is a cruel and sick joke. I never quite understood why they were so consumed by resentment. To the first group, gratitude was like an endless, flowing river and for the last group, gratitude was a solid insurmountable brick wall.

How then, can we practice gratitude? How does one learn to submit to a divine greater presence which dwells inside every human being and surrounds each and every one of us, at every moment of the day?

Firstly, we need to learn to live with our inherent insecurities of mortal life. People ask, what is freedom? I deeply believe it is freedom from the overwhelming need to be free which actually sets us free. It is through recognizing, that we can never be completely secure in this carnal life.

Security and freedom are the precious gifts we receive when we learn to trust that inner greater presence which permeates and surrounds us.

We marvel at them but we don’t need the stunning sunsets or great mountain peaks, we simply have to become humble enough to feel the divine presence inside of us. This awareness is reached by examining simple things like perhaps looking at shimmering dust particles dancing in a shaft of sunlight, coming through a nearby window or recognizing the life-giving beauty of one tiny raindrop splashing into a pail.

“We are able to practice gratitude at any time and anywhere through any trivial object since there is divinity in each of us and in every trivial thing.”