The Road to Happiness is Lined With Boomboxes

I came across a lovely blog post today discussing a topic near and dear to my heart: finding happiness.  At the blogsite  “Marc and Angel Hack Life,” I found the article  “9 Things You Do Not Need to be Happy.”  The article goes on to espouse the beautiful wisdom that we do not need everyone’s approval, ideal circumstances, or to be in control of life to be happy.  Nor must a person have a perfect past, a stress-free life, an abundance of money, and every material thing he or she desires in order to live a happy, joyous, free life.

I know these things. I preach this truth. I can live this way for short periods of time. However, I often find myself chasing after happiness in all of the above ways. Unfortunately, what I find at the end of that chase is not lasting joy or peace. I may experience a sense of satisfaction when everything is going my way or when I feel that everyone thinks I’m the sh@#. But, these feelings are always fleeting, generally followed by thoughts such as “I want more” or “I don’t want to lose this feeling” or “Why aren’t people doing things my way?” And, with these thoughts return the feelings of stress and discontent.

In American society, we are shown from a young age that we must have certain things in order to be happy. I still remember a youthful, heartfelt yearning for my own boombox, which I finally received one lovely Christmas in the fourth grade.  Sure, the Footloose and Purple Rain tapes continuously playing throughout the year did bring a certain amount of joy to my heart...but it did not solve all of my problems. At the time, I had believed possessing that boombox would be the answer. My friends, my favorite tv sitcoms, and commercials assured me that the only thing missing from my life was a boombox. It was the familiar promise of commercialism, that if only we have a certain item or we look a certain way, we will feel more happiness than we’ve ever imagined. But, it did not prevent me from experiencing sadness, guilt or jealousy. For some strange reason, gorgeous people did not flock to be near me, their arms loaded down with the things I desired.
These ingrained teachings are still a stumbling block for me as I seek joy in my own life.  But, through personal, spiritual work and by surrounding myself with wise souls to remind me of the path to contentment, I am able to refocus on the wisdom shared in the aforementioned blog and return to a place of peace in my mind and heart. I have everything I need in this moment to find contentedness and joy. In this very moment, I am sure of that. Oops, now I’m thinking I really need new glasses to look cool and be happier...and, so it goes. Again and again. So, for now (and whenever I can remember to let go) I’ll take a deep breath and go back to the truth...all is well.

Be well,

Shea

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