Motivational: The Endless Pursuit Of Happiness

The Endless Pursuit Of Happiness

Written by Kali Munro, M.Ed., Psychotherapist

Imagine someone holding a glass full of clean, fresh water and complaining about thirst. Likely you'd suggest they first take a sip from repparttar

glass in their hand.

Happiness is similar. Everyone wants to be happy, but not everyone knows how to recognize and stay with it; they're always looking for more. The search for happiness is lost when it becomes an insatiable pursuit for getting more.

The difference between repparttar 123701 two is like repparttar 123702 difference between savouring and lingering over repparttar 123703 sweetness and flavour of a mango, and quickly gobbling it up before eating repparttar 123704 next sweet. The pursuit becomes repparttar 123705 focus, rather than repparttar 123706 experience or repparttar 123707 satisfaction that comes from what we do have.

This endless pursuit for happiness can consume us for all of our lives. We may think that once we have more money, a relationship, or that perfect job we'll be happy, yet when we get there we find it's not what we'd hoped for, or we don't take repparttar 123708 time to really enjoy it.

There is always something more to be pursued, bought, owned, done, that we rarely enjoy what is in front of us. Even repparttar 123709 search for spirituality is pursued in this manner. People go from spiritual leader to leader searching for meaning, often going as far as India to find fulfilment.

The pattern is easily recognizable, and we can all fall into it with thoughts like "when I do...own...have...get...go to... I'll be happy", or "if only...would happen." But repparttar 123710 truth is once whatever is sought after is obtained, we're off looking for repparttar 123711 next thing. We rarely stop and simply enjoy what is happening right now or fully appreciate what we have.

Some believe this constant desire and pursuit for more is rooted in our biology — that it helped us to survive when we didn't have all repparttar 123712 conveniences that are available to us today. Some believe that this pursuit is rooted in a society that emphasizes consumerism, and another view is that it reflects an alienation from ourselves and one other.

Growing Optimistically

Written by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein

Spring is here at last! The season brings with it an opportunity for continued personal growth, stimulated by a sense of life renewing itself around us. We see growth of every kind reflected in our environment in repparttar

spring. Tiny seeds and bulbs blossom into colorful arrays of yellow, purple, and pink flowers and plants and repparttar 123700

grass becomes green. Suddenly one day we look at repparttar 123701

trees and see soft green leaves. Children seem to leap ahead in growth, outgrowing clothing and changing shoe sizes. One day in repparttar 123702

supermarket there are blueberries from central New Jersey, not flown in from California.

For most of us, we find our senses heightened as warmer temperatures and refreshingly long days beckon us outdoors. Whether sitting outside on a bench, a porch, taking a walk or playing a sport, we become attuned to all repparttar 123703 smells, sounds and sights that we associate with spring and repparttar 123704 way our bodies feel.

Spring is a time for growing optimistically! A sense of hope is in repparttar 123705 air. Hardly a person does not respond to positive feelings on certain spring days. We all talk about spring fever. If we look carefully at our reactions, we can see that THE ENCHANTED SELF is at work. Outside, breathing repparttar 123706 spring fresh air, it is easy to recall an earlier positive spring memory. Perhaps it is remembering yourself racing your bicycle down a hill on a spring day, or coming home exhausted and hungry after playing baseball. Maybe it's repparttar 123707 exciting feeling of a crush in repparttar 123708 seventh grade combined with smelling honeysuckle or lavender as you walked home together. The images are boundless. Even for those of us who experienced difficult growing up days, we still have positive memories often awakened by our senses this time of repparttar 123709 year.

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