Where is Happiness?

“We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy’s fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, under him the whole time. Your treasure–your perfection–is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

One of the comments I hear repeatedly in sessions is that people just want to be happy.  While it seems like a simple request it is elusive for many.  Why is happiness so hard to find?  I believe that people aren’t looking in the right place.  They spend their time searching for something to bring them happiness.  Our media has sold us on the belief that we need their product in order to be happy.  We can only smile when we have a Coke in our hand or when we are eating a Big Mac.  Contrary to what most people believe, getting the perfect job, finding a soulmate, or moving into the dream house are not things that will bring happiness.  There are plenty of people who have those things and are still miserable. 
Happiness is something that we all have.  If you are able to bring happiness and joy to others it is because you have it within you.  We can only give what we already have.  The problem is that we are often good at giving happiness, but are blocked to receiving it.  It is like we are only ever able to exhale without being able to inhale.  It just doesn’t work.  What we need is to be able to complete the circuit.  We need to open ourselves up to receive the joy and experience the happiness that is already ours.  Happiness is our default programming, our natural state of being.  Our thoughts, worries and ruminations are like a wedge that is driven down, cutting off the return flow of happiness.  As long as we are stuck in our head we are not able to feel our natural happiness.   When we take time for ourselves, when we slow down and enjoy the smell of the flowers or look in awe at the night sky, we open up the flow.  We can also become curious about what the blocks in our lives are.  Working to understand and push through the pain of the blocks allows them to dissolve and returns us to the natural state of happiness and joy that is our birthright.  Are you ready to look at the blocks to happiness and open up to joy?