PEBBLE
There is a difference between pleasure, which feels good but is ultimately fleeting, and happiness, which feels good and is long lasting.
~as told to Andrew Horn, shared by Jeff in Mesa, AZ (who captured this from an episode of Behind the Human)
BOULDER
We can travel a long way and do many things, but our deepest happiness is not born from accumulating new experiences. It is born from letting go of what is unnecessary, and knowing ourselves to be always at home.
~Sharon Salzberg, shared via Calm on Facebook
PONDER
We’ve explored the topic of happiness quite a bit in our Ripples emails over the years (you can peek here to peruse a few dozen issues that were tagged as being related to happiness).
It’s always a tricky subject for me to explore here. On the one hand, happiness is something most of us want (“the pursuit of happiness” is famously enshrined in our country’s Declaration of Independence). On the other hand, there’s quite a bit of research suggesting that happiness is more elusive when we make that our primary goal. Happiness is more attainable as a by-product, something that comes and finds you while you’re out and about making progress on living a meaningful life.
And Sharon Salzberg’s wisdom that we feature as today’s Boulder adds another twist in our quest for Deeper Happiness. She invites us to consider the idea that somewhere within our current situation is a home base that we can tune into for peace and contentment. We may need to strip away some of the inessentials to access that experience and find our way back home, but a Deeper Happiness is inside there somewhere, waiting for us when we’re ready to come home to it.
As you move through your activities this week, see if you can notice choices that are more about seeking shorter term pleasure and less about longer term happiness. And be on the lookout for opportunities to remove stuff that upon closer inspection could be classified as unecessary distractions from finding your way back home to a Deeper Happiness.
Peace,
Paul
P.S. I also liked this post about happiness as a goal.
