I think it is funny how we often say that life would be so much better “if only” reality were different somehow. If only I had a million dollars, then I would be happy. If only I had made a different decision ten years ago. If only I were more attractive. If only I were smarter. If only I had a pillow at my back when watching television.

Of course, there is no way we could really know if we would be happier in this alternate reality mainly because we are stuck in our current reality. Yet we continue to think our “if only” thoughts and torture ourselves with this apparent truth.

Would we really be more happy if we had a million dollars? Look at Hollywood movie stars like Heath Ledger (drug overdose), Britney Spears and Owen Wilson (suicide attempt). Can we really be so sure we would be happier?

I think that ordinary reality has a vast untapped potential to make you happy, not to mention the vast potential to simply be happy for no reason. Appreciation of your reality is essentially a willingness to enjoy your reality. Give yourself permission to enjoy yourself, right here and right now.

There is a huge economic and cultural conspiracy out there to get you to feel bad when you don’t “make progress”, don’t follow fashion trends, or don’t earn more money this year compared to last year. Again, no person can really know for certain that your life would indeed be better.

Reality as it is right now is enough. As Bryon Katie would say, don’t kick yourself out of heaven.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Happiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.