"Once this final thing is in order, then life will be perfect." Have you ever noticed this thought? I'm pretty sure we all have it. It's there (sometimes deep down or in the background), but we have it and believe it. In fact, we believe so much we usually can't even see it. We're like fish in water.
But if you are able to just glance at this thought you can see that it's based on the premise that things aren't quite good enough yet. At that you may say: "Of course we're happy! But we can always be happier, right?" And that's the trick. This almost hidden belief that it's not good enough now because of that missing piece. How long should we wait?
Then, mercifully we finally get A). There is some happiness as that feeling of not-quite-right goes away. However, suddenly we realize as good as A) is, it really won't do without A.1). So we wait to be happy until we get that next piece. And somehow we don't realize that we're never really happy. We put it off until we get the combination of circumstances we like which never seems to come. We just keep on waiting.
So what's a person to do? If I can't be happy because I'm always wanting something else, then how can I be happy? The answer is right there in the question. We don't need to base our happiness on circumstances and conditions. We can learn (and it might take some practice) to be happy with whatever is going on right here and now. Even if we don't like it. It can be hard. It seems counter-intuitive. But when we practice contentment with whatever is present a more spacious and freeing sense of happiness can be found.
If you can be happy no matter if the world is giving you lemons or lemonade, then what's stopping you from always being happy? It's a happiness not based on conditions.
