Are you Happy? … Honestly

You may think it’s impossible to be happy being yourself. Every day, it’s easy to wish you looked like or acted like someone else, or had the cushy job or great boyfriend/girlfriend that someone else has. However, until you learn to accept who you are and work to address your flaws, you’ll never grow as a person. Once you live by those rules, you’ll find that being happy with being yourself isn’t as hard as you think.

Today I want to share with you this great quote by Hugh Mackay. Read it, grasp it, live by it.

I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that – I don’t mind people being happy – but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying “write down 3 things that made you happy today before you go to sleep”, and “cheer up” and “happiness is our birthright” and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position – it’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say “Quick! Move on! Cheer up!” I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word “happiness” and to replace it with the word “wholeness”. Ask yourself “is this contributing to my wholeness?” and if you’re having a bad day, it is. ― Hugh Mackay

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