Notice — are you happy? If not, are you working towards becoming happy? If you are happy, have you examined the how and the why of it? On this subject, The Bear concludes: The purpose of life is to be happy. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; let’s not make it any more complicated than that.
It’s not an original idea, but the complexities of modern life easily distract from this simple pursuit and we can lose sight of it altogether. Then we stumble upon happiness quite by chance, and wonder how it came about. We notice — all of a sudden — that we are happy, and don’t know how we got there. Of course we may begin to see that certain behaviors can reliably bring us happiness. The behaviors differ from one person to another, and no single recipe works for everybody. Be we can identify some of the ingredients that go into producing happiness.
Some of these ingredients are inward- or self-focused:
practicing meditation
cultivating gratitude
positive thoughts and self-image
physical exercise
moderation in food and drink
appreciation of simple things
Some ingredients are outward- or other-focused:
acts of kindness
volunteerism
cultivating empathy and forgiveness
recognizing oneself in others
practicing sharing
cultivating love among others
generating laughter
Add your own ingredients. The things that go into producing your own recipe for happiness may not be on these two short lists. Whatever they are, a certain mindfulness is involved in their pursuit. Having identified how to manufacture happiness, we must then do in order to be. Intentional doing, through deliberate mindfulness, brings happiness. The mindfulness is a precursor, the happiness is an outcome. Repeated cultivation and practice generates life habits and reliable outcome. A mindful pursuit of happiness can quickly develop a habit of being happy, and then happiness is no longer a state of mind — it is a state of being.
Notice — are you happy?
Tags: Being, forgiveness, gratitude, happiness, laughter, meditation, mindfulness, practice, The Bear
