There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. But we each come into this world with a unique gift to give — a unique mission to fulfill. Do we not each have our own path in life which, if we follow it, and are true to it, will bring us the authentic happiness and peace we all seek?

Here are some suggestions that may help you find your true destiny and follow your bliss, as Joseph Campbell liked to say.

 1. Listen to your heart.

Our heart is our connection to God and the wisdom of our own spirit. It’s because Elizabeth Gilbert listened to her heart that she has such a great story to tell.

But our heart does not only speak to us when we are in trouble. It speaks to us in little moments too.

And it’s as we listen to our heart in the little moments of our life that we draw closer to the truth of our own being, and the real magic of our own “hero’s journey” becomes increasingly apparent to us.

2. Cultivate compassion.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you must be aggressive to succeed in life and be happy.

There may be a place for aggressiveness. But the truth is that only the strong can be gentle — and when you align yourself with an attitude of genuine compassion you are aligning yourself with the strength of the universe. Miracles happen. The entire universe is on your side, ready to help you on your way.

 3. Look for what is right.

If you really want to be happy, don’t focus too much on all the things that are wrong — in yourself or anybody else.

Look for what is right. It’s the only real starting point there is. Even if it only seems like a very small starting point indeed — go for it.

Authentic happiness does not come and go

A fairy tale from a long time ago comes to my mind, something about a young boy called Jack and a beanstalk.

From a humble beginning, the beanstalk grew to an incredible height. Your own life will flourish and you will find the happiness and bliss that is rightly yours as you pay attention to what is right, and true, and beautiful.

Go to Bali by all means, if you want to. I’d like to go there myself sometime.

But enduring happiness, authentic happiness, does not come and go. And it doesn’t depend on our external circumstance. It’s the core nature of our own being — and it calls to us in every moment to be expressed in our lives.

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Eat, Pray, Love: Is authentic happiness in Bali — or in you? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

True, with more and more people demanding immediate gratification it might seem patience has become obsolete.

But whatever your age, and whatever your life situation, nurturing this calm and noble quality will yield the same rich rewards today that it always has throughout the entire run of human history.

Of course, it goes without saying that patience can never really be isolated from any of the other qualities of our own true character. “Patience is the companion of wisdom,” said St. Augustine, and he was absolutely right. Patience needs the balance of wisdom – and it needs the balance of courage too.

Here are 5 reasons why the power of patience is so important in your life.

 1. You need the power of patience to fulfill your dreams.

If you are short of patience, even though your dream may be an admirable one, you will simply not have the strength and persistence necessary to sustain you through the inevitable disappointments and setbacks that life brings.

2. You need patience to become whole.

 What was true in ages past is still true today. “Let patience have her perfect works, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

 3. Patience is required to fully forgive.

Often, we may think we have forgiven someone – perhaps God himself – for some past injustice, but then the pain and resentment rise up in us again. Do we give up, and allow negative emotions to fester freely in us until we die?

Or do we summon the Angel of patience to our aid and forgive at a deeper level?

4. Patience makes it possible to see another person in a truer light.

It takes time and perseverance to see through our first impressions — which may or may not be all that accurate – and come to know the real person behind the outer mask.

 5. The power of patience nourishes all other human virtues.

As St. Augustine suggested, if we want to develop wisdom, we will need the help of its companion, patience. Or how about compassion? Perhaps some people are born with naturally compassionate natures — but it’s my guess that even compassion needs the nourishment of patience at times.

Perhaps patience is in my mind at the moment because JoAnn and I are still hard at work making improvements to our new home. Fortunately the well of patience hasn’t run dry yet…

If you have a story to share concerning the power of patience in your life I’d love to hear it. If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my blog.

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Power of patience critical to lasting happiness is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

But suppose you have given up on life for some reason, or simply enjoy being miserable and want to keep it that way — where can you turn for help and advice?

For the benefit of anyone in the latter category I offer my simple, proven, 10-step program guaranteed to bring greater unhappiness and pain into any life.

Never be still

1. Never, never be still. Keep yourself busy and distracted at all times. You have to realize that stillness is your number one enemy, because if you give it half a chance it will open a door to undreamed-of joy and bliss. I don’t care if this is a conscious realization or an unconscious one — just as long as you refuse to be still under any circumstance.

My advice? Do whatever it takes. Go on a trip. Buy a new scarf. Get a new car. Get a new husband or wife. Get rid of your present husband or wife. And so on and so forth.

Never question your beliefs

2. Never, never, NEVER question any of your beliefs or prejudices. This can be very dangerous, because it may open your mind to a new sense of the limitless beauty and potential of life. In fact, the more I think about this step, the more I realize that it is just as important as the first step. In any case, just realize that if you dare to question any of your beliefs in this time of rapid change and transformation it may have creative consequences — the very result you are trying to avoid.

Stay away from dogs

3. Be very careful to have no contact whatsoever with animals, particularly dogs. This is a big mistake that many misery lovers frequently make. Dogs, you see — and many other animals, not to mention birds and trees and whatnot — can make us happy without saying a word. I’m just warning you in the strongest possible terms — stay away from dogs.

Watch out for babies

4. The above also applies to babies. It’s true that babies can sometimes make a person irritated or angry. But it’s a well-known fact that a baby can change our mood for the better in an instant — even more effectively than dogs can. Babies are a special problem deserving of a fuller treatment than is possible to me in this brief post.

A mantra you must repeat every day

5. At the beginning of every day, repeat this mantra three times. It’s most effective when spoken aloud, but if circumstances prevent that, it is still effective when you merely repeat the words in your head. Say to yourself, with as much conviction as possible: “This is going to be a terrible day. I know it’s going to be a terrible day.”

6. At the end of the day, take a moment to look back and congratulate yourself how well your prediction proved true.

A personal experience of stillness 

7. I’m running out of ideas here for the moment, so I’m going to return to step one concerning stillness. I’d like to share a personal experience that happened many years ago when as a young fellow in my early 20s I first met my mentor.

This was in Vancouver, British Columbia. I had been very restless and confused, traveling the world in search of the truth of life. But the moment I met my mentor — before either of us spoke a word — I felt enfolded in such stillness and peace that it was like coming home. A seed took root that has persisted and grown through various traumas and disappointments to this very day.

Remember — you are better than anyone else

8. Make it a guiding principle in your life that you are a little bit better than anyone else. Remind yourself of this every day. Supermarkets are a good place to practise. Subways are equally good.

 This is the surest way to maintain a gnawing sense of unhappiness and loneliness that I know of.

Be careful what books you read

9. Be very careful what books you read. Read only books that support your views. By the same token, carefully censor what TV talk-show hosts you watch, what radio stations you listen to, and so on.

10. Finally, if you really want to remain enmeshed in the bottomless pit of unhappiness and despair never allow that ridiculous notion called “Hope” to take root in your heart. It could be VERY dangerous — if not fatal.

Good luck in your quest to be unhappy.

PS. On a more serious note, I’d like to let you know that JoAnn and I are in the closing stages of (we hope) moving into a new home in Denver and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get a post out during the next couple of weeks. By early June, God willing, we should be nicely settled, and I will be picking my blog up again in earnest.

Picture credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiseacre/3275719195/

Top ten ways to be unhappy is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

The past three months have been a bit of a roller coaster as we finally faced the clutter we have accumulated over the years, while at the same time acknowledging areas of the house that needed attention — in some cases, a lot of attention.

It’s a very sweet thing, as I say, to come to the end of a busy cycle — and realize that the stillness and peace of being that I have come to know and love is present with me now just as it has been throughout the last three months.

This is a remarkable thing, it seems to me. We change, as we meet the challenges of our lives. But the truth at the core of our being is unchanged by any of it.

Trust change — and extend the borders of your life

I came across a rather remarkable quote the other day that I’d like to share, from a Spanish philosopher named Jose Ortega y Gasset. It goes like this: “Our firmest convictions are apt to be the most suspect, they mark our limitations and our bounds. Life is a petty thing unless it is moved by the indomitable urge to extend its boundaries.”

Though they were written a century or more ago, these words portray very accurately the situation or challenge in which we all find ourselves in these days.

It doesn’t matter where we live on the planet. It doesn’t matter how old we are, or what our gender is, or how successful or unsuccessful you think you are.

If we want to live a truly satisfying life — if we want to be truly happy — we must be true to the indomitable urge within us to let the boundaries of our life be extended. And then be extended some more.

We must be willing to question even our firmest convictions — and keep changing.

Listen to your inner voice

Change is not always comfortable. But the funny thing is that when we honestly listen to the wisdom that is in us and answer its call for change, if that is what is going on –it feels good.

It feels very good.

What is hard — the very definition of suffering — is trying to hang on to our convictions and avoid change at all costs.

JoAnn and I have been very happy in our home in a quiet and peaceful cul-de-sac in Loveland, Colorado.

We’d have been quite happy to keep on living here, me going for my familiar hikes, interacting with familiar faces and circumstances — JoAnn going to meet her friends at her local quilting group. But one day about three months or so ago – out of the blue, it seemed — this quiet inner voice began speaking to us.

It spoke to both of us at the same time.

Trust change, trust life

“Time to make a move,” said this inner voice. “Time to go back to Denver.”

I can’t say I know all the reasons behind this move. I can see one or two reasons, and they make a certain kind of sense. But I’m sure there are more reasons of which I’m completely unaware.

It comes down to trust, it seems to me. Trust life. Trust your own inner wisdom. And above all — trust the process of change that is at work in our world.

It’s possible, more than possible, that it knows what it’s doing – and that back of the apparent confusion and chaos in our lives and everywhere else an unshakable order and purpose is at work with blessing in its wings.

But what do you think? What’s happening in your life?

I’d love to hear from you, and I wish you all the very best as you handle the challenges that are up in your own life.

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How to live a truly satisfying life is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

The beauty of letting the little moments of our life be an aperture for happiness is it takes no effort and doesn’t cost any money. The moments are happening anyway – we simply open our eyes to what we have perhaps overlooked before.

Here are one or two examples.

Every once in a while, in my exchanges with my wife JoAnn, I succeed in saying something that is at least a little bit funny – funny enough anyway that it provokes some spontaneous laughter in her. Three or four days ago, I suddenly noticed how at a certain point when she has been laughing awhile she pauses and says, “Oh heck.” It’s been going on for years. I realized how much I love hearing these two simple little words in this context.

I also became more consciously aware of something else that happens when she laughs.

She always finishes her laugh with a warble or two — don’t know how else to describe it. It seems to come from somewhere deep in her throat and it sounds like happiness humming to itself.

I shared a joke with my doctor today. He’s a great guy. We were talking on the phone, and he was apologizing for the fact that he was croaking because of a bad cold.

As the conversation came to a close I couldn’t resist it. I said, “I’ve got one or two good medical books here, Dr. Thom. Maybe there’s something I could do to help with your cold.”

I’m afraid my jokes don’t always work. But I think this one did, because he began wheezing with laughter. It may sound strange. But there was as much happiness in me in that simple little moment as when I walked up the gangway of a Holland America cruise ship a few years ago at the start of a Caribbean cruise with JoAnn.

Perhaps the expectations we load on to “big” events work against us sometimes? Reality has a difficult time living up to them?

In any event, I find more and more that there is gold – the gold of joy, the gold of eternal happiness and love – waiting for me always in the little everyday moments of my life. It’s “hiding in plain sight.” All it seems to need from me is my attention.

Is happiness hiding in plain sight? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace