The ‘myth’ around happiness…

A provocative statement perhaps… but a perpetual expectation of constant happiness as a state is, I think, more than a little deluded & stressful!! Where’s sadness, grief, anger, deep joy etc etc…??

Our natural ‘states’ include all the above & more, without the sense of pressure that sometimes exists around the need to be relentlessly cheerful & positive around everything that happens in life.

It seems to me that a lot of the difficulties that people face now are around the gap between what our expectations are & what our life is actually like… minute by minute, day by day… If we lowered our expectations & stopped insisting that everything needs to be ‘amazing’, we would give ourselves permission to feel a number of different ways, & to allow the various ‘states’ to pass, naturally.

I’m not knocking positivity or happiness, but I think we need to include lower mood days, especially when going through tough times. In so many cultures there are rituals that exist to give space to the perceived ‘negative’ feelings we, in the UK, are often not encouraged to show in public. I would say the truth is we all need permission to feel what we do, at any given time, feel the depth of it, rather than avoid it, & allow it to flow out of us…

But then again, I do what I do because I see what ‘holding it in’ does to people’s heads & bodies… I’m about allowing… all of it… & that way, when you feel ‘happiness’, it’s fully grounded & real, more like contentment perhaps, or gentle acceptance of what is…?