The art of knowing

There's probably a particular kind of life you want to live or a particular kind of person you're striving to become. You probably have things you want to achieve and I bet you have some dreams, hopes, opinions and rarely two versions of happiness are the same so what you hold in those views, perhaps that's what your version of happiness looks like.

Sometimes everyone can feel like there is a trick to being happy or that there's a point in life where the 'happiness' begins. I've heard people express that once they achieve XYZ they will be happy or once YZX passes they will 'find' happiness. I don't really think that's an accurate way to look at this emotion because I don't think happiness is an end point. 

Joy is kind of like a journey or process or constant. Joy itself is not a place or person or thing that anyone can own or steal. There's actually no limit to how happy you can feel, how much happiness you can share or all the moments you find happiness in. The things that make you think otherwise are associations you've made throughout your lived experience. These are the people that make you happy, the places, the things. This is totally human and should be done to an extent so the that you can tangibly build a happy life with these things kinda like little Lego bricks but you must remember that if some or all this was taken away, you can still be happy. 

The art of knowing is something I use to explain the thought-process that should take place when you want to be happy. Perhaps you're just base level-happy so this may not be news to you but a really simple exercise to boost the level of 'happiness' around you is to know what makes you happy. Knowing the people, the things, the places that you have created associations of happiness with throughout your life is vital. A lot of people don't know what really makes them happy and this can send them into a sense of limbo but if you think about it and are able to collate a list of things that give you a sense of joy, peace, centre, then you can also start to think about what makes you unhappy. Finding happiness or better put, creating a sense of consistent happiness requires acknowledging and knowing what actually makes you sad or uncomfortable because you also have to make a list of those things (I hope this list is much shorter than the former list).

Once you know, for real, the things you associate with sadness and the things that give you a sense of happiness, you can compare both lists against your life and adjust accordingly. It is definitely an oversimplification but by 'adjust accordingly' I mean you can evict the negatives one by one over a course of time. The awareness that comes with analysing a life and seeing the tangible causes of upset is useful because you can better it or remove it. You may find there's places you don't like going to, so stop going and find new places. You may realise that there's people that make you feel uncomfortable, either better those relations or find new people. You may find that there is something about you that you don't like and you can see that it has caused you trouble in the past, you can change that. You literally can make your life exactly how you want it if you just know what you want. 

The same goes for the list of things that are joyful, you can add more of that into your life. I mean seriously, amp that shi*t up. You can see those people more, work on maintaining those relationships. You can really start working on those dreams you have, you can start building on the opinions you've formulated and you can surround yourself with all the wonderful things, people, moments that make you your authentic, happy self. 

It may take time, it may actually be really simple, either way you only have X level of energy so use it wisely and invest it in all those magical people and experiences and things that you truly know will make you happy. 

You can tell any story you want so tell a good one.

Ux