UnHappiness is JUST a Thought courtesy by Byron Katie

WHAT KEEPS YOU FROM BEING HAPPY?

The only thing that can keep you from being happy is a thought.

What a revolutionary truth that is! The kind of thought that interferes with happiness the most is a thought of lack, which is at the basis of all desire. If you didn’t think something was missing or lacking about you, someone else, your situation, or life, you wouldn’t be unhappy. Unhappiness is the belief that something is missing that you need in order to be happy. It is this belief that makes you unhappy—not the fact that something is or isn’t here right now.

The ego, which produces most thoughts (except functional ones), produces thoughts of lack. These turn into a desire (which is the thought “I want”), the desire is fed by more thoughts about what getting that or not getting that will mean, feelings (like fear) arise about that, and action is taken to try to fulfill the desire and waylay any fears. When desires are pumped up this way, they seem very real and important. We really believe we need what we desire to be happy or safe. This sense of lack makes the world go around, often in a not-so-happy way, but this brings us the lessons and experiences we need to evolve. This sense of lack is also the cause of suffering, and this suffering is totally unnecessary.

What do you believe is missing now? Take a moment to answer this question. This is the source of your suffering. What if you didn’t believe you needed this to be happy or safe or secure? Without this belief, you drop into essence, which experiences life as a blessing—and as trustworthy. Essence trusts—and knows—that life provides what we need, although not always what the ego wants. It would be impossible to provide everyone with what their egos want. What would a world like that look like? The Intelligence that we are provides each of us with what is necessary for the Whole to evolve and expand.

If we look with essence’s eyes, we can see how beautifully life has provided for us, even when it has brought challenges. Along with every challenge, life brings us opportunities, resources, and helpers. Do you notice the grace, the goodness, the support that life offers and has offered? The egoic mind doesn’t. It only notices lack because that is what it is about. It’s about creating problems and discontentment so that you stay involved with it. The egoic mind is the central challenge in life that we are meant to overcome. We are meant to see that the egoic mind, which we are programmed to trust, is untrustworthy and the source of unhappiness.

We don’t attain happiness by striving for what the ego wants. Striving is painful, and achieving what you want brings only fleeting happiness before discontentment sets in once again. No one has yet to attain happiness because happiness is a state—our natural state. And this state is discovered, not attained, by moving beyond the egoic mind—by seeing through it to the Truth. Who you really are is alive here and now. It is living your life, and the ego just pretends to be you. When you drop out of the egoic mind—or step back from it—you discover that the only thing that has ever caused you to feel unhappy is a thought. What a blessing to discover this because thoughts are just thoughts—they can be ignored, and we have the power to do that. We are powerful—not victims of life but creators, or co-creators, with the One Intelligence that we are. If you stop paying attention to thoughts, you discover the happiness that is here and has always been here.