Life Does Not Promise You Happiness

Описание: There is a strange addiction within the human condition—an addiction to unhappiness. It sounds absurd when you say it out loud. Who would choose to be unhappy? Consciously, no one. But unconsciously, there is a part of you that feeds on it. You can observe this in yourself. Watch what happens when a negative thought arises—perhaps a thought of irritation, anger, or self-pity. Watch how a part of you wants to grab onto that thought and keep it alive. It feels almost satisfying to be angry, to feel wronged, to feel superior to someone else because they acted unconsciously. There is a gravitational pull toward the heaviness. That heaviness is old emotion living in your body. It is an energy field of old pain. When it wakes up, it wants to be fed. And it feeds on thoughts that resonate with its own frequency.
So, a negative emotion arises, and instantly the mind offers a thought to justify that emotion. "Look what they did to me." "I am always so unlucky." "The world is a dangerous place." The thought feeds the emotion, and the emotion energizes the thought. It becomes a loop. A cycle of negativity. Breaking this addiction does not mean fighting it. It means noticing it. The moment you notice the loop, you are no longer trapped inside the loop. You are outside of it, looking at it. That is the power of awareness. You can say to yourself, "Ah, here is the narrative of unhappiness again. Here is the compulsion to dwell on what is wrong." In that noticing, there is a space. A gap. In that gap lies your peace.
Let us anchor this realization in the body. The mind draws all your energy up into the head. You can often feel the pressure there, the heat of mental activity. Let us draw that energy down. Can you feel your hands right now? I do not mean touching something with them. I mean, can you feel the life energy inside your hands? There is a slight tingling, a warmth, a sense of aliveness. It is subtle. If you cannot feel it, just hold your attention on your palms. Wait for it. It is there.
Now let that awareness spread. Feel the aliveness in your arms. In your chest. In your legs. In your feet. This is the inner body. It is your anchor. As long as you are in touch with the inner body, you are not entirely trapped in the mind. You are rooted in Being. The mind may try to pull you away. It may say, "This is boring, I have things to do." Notice that thought. Smile at it. It is just the mind doing what it does. It wants to survive, and it survives on time—past and future. It cannot survive in the Now. The Now is the death of the ego, and so the ego resists it.