Happiness

If you want to take your happiness score to the next level, you need to recognize the difference between chasing after happiness and choosing happiness. Happiness is not outside you; it's not a destination; and it's not about "getting there." When you stop chasing happiness, you allow yourself to be more present, more available and more open. This way you find happiness wherever you are.

"Although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called."

What I really want, is the feeling of fulfillment. Of being sated, happy, content. Knowing I have the means to support myself in any endeavor I choose.

So why don't I just feel those feelings?

"Our natural tendency is to avoid uncertainty. This kind of inertia is difficult to overcome."

"You can't just think yourself into happiness," says Berns: "You have to get up and do things you've never done before. And that entails risk. And risk entails anxiety. And even when those things don't turn out the way you hope, in the end you're more satisfied." Embracing uncertainty, he points out, also builds emotional resilience, "toughening you up for unexpected bad stuff that you have no control over."

I have in me what I need to be happy. I just need to use it. Be here, now.