When happiness becomes a command

«You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.» Camus

Nowadays there is an urge to be happy, everything offers us happiness but in a conditional way: «If you buy this…», «If go to this place…», «If you do this…» it all comes down to our one and only need: HAPPINESS.  Mark Mason in his book «The subtle art of not giving a fuck» says: «The world is constantly telling you that the path to a better life is more, more, more—buy more, own more, make more, fuck more, be more. You are constantly bombarded with messages to give a fuck about everything, all the time.» If we think about this, it is exhausting, we fight all our lives to be happy, and once we think we have it, it all goes away and we need to begin all over again.

The fact is: «Either you are or you are not. And if you’re dreaming of something all the time, then you’re reinforcing the same unconscious reality over and over: that you are not that.» We all want to be happy, but what we don’t realize is that happiness isn’t a narcotic we use to make our life worth, it is not outside of us. 

In the outside world we cannot be happy, because we always want more, and the world is never enough, we cannot be satisfied with the things that always end. That is why to become happy, the first step is to realize that happiness doesn’t come from outside. «The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.» Letting go of what others may think and how the world should be, we must focus on what we have and what we think about ourselves, instead of feeling bad about whatever things we can’t control, focus on what we can control: our feelings. «We feel bad about feeling bad. we feel guilty for feeling guilty. We get angry about getting angry. We get anxious about feeling anxious. What is wrong with me?»We judge ourselves too high, it is like we are never enough on a perfection ideal that it doesn’t even exist. «The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.» Once we realize and accept who we are and what we are capable of doing, not in dreams, but in reality, then we can be truly happy.