I want you to try this activity right now. Close your eyes for a minute and imagine a dragon. Everything related to the fire breathing dragon. Now open your eyes. Forget the dragon. Take a deep breath and close your eyes again, now you are allowed to imagine for a minute whatever you want except for the dragon. DO NOT THINK OF THE DRAGON.
How did it go? Did you notice that the more you tried to resist the dragon the worst it got?The more he came into your mind and the more it annoyed you? Now close and your eyes and imagine whatever you want including the dragon.
This exercise helps us understand that the more we try to resist an idea the more it will come to our mind- tormenting us.
According to some gurus thinking of happy and successful thoughts along with the banishment of sadness and zero acknowledgment of failure are the key to a successful life. If we try to contradict this in any way, they may dismiss it as “negative thinking”. They may call us ungrateful, we have not learned the power of positivity if we had we wouldn’t be grumbling about things. This is such- BS.
The more we try to run after happiness the further away we seem to be from it. Our generation is obsessed with obtaining it and the utmost away we are compared to all the generations before us. Now, let’s bring our focus to goals. Is it possible to be happy? Is there a state of constant happiness? What do philosophers say about happiness? What about the religious point of view? Have you noticed that many people do not focus on happiness but rather just want us to survive?
Are you happy? This question tends to diminish the feeling. We also tend to think that our past has been happier than the present. The effort to try to feel happy is often precisely the thing that makes us miserable. The constant focus on the negative, even if it is to eliminate it makes us insecure, anxious, uncertain and unhappy. What can we do about this? Accept the feelings. Accept the dragon. This is not going to make you feel instantly happy. But the more you will try to run from your problems, the more they will chase you. You should be willing to experience negative situations and emotions.
Stay tuned to read more on this…
The Happy Pill
