The Inconstancy of Happiness

Have you ever noticed how fleeting or wavering the idea of happiness can be? One moment we're happy, then something happens and our happiness gets chucked out the window.

Traveling the path seeking happiness, our attention suddenly gets pulled this way then that and our perception of happiness shifts. It's like you're doing this long road trip and half way through the trip you discover on your map a much faster route that could have shaved off a quarter of your travel time.

Do we ever stop and take a minute to question our idea of happiness? Where do theses ideas come from? Are they preconceived? And how often do we set ourselves up for a kind of superficial failure when it comes to happiness?

I'm not suggesting that happiness, and the pursuit thereof, is something esoteric or obsolete, or whatever drives your idea of happiness to be insignificant. But how often are we left with that empty feeling when we what we thought would make us happy, actually has no such effect? Often we're left even more lacking than before.

For some people happiness may be owning a 50 meter yacht or a red Ferrari. For others happiness may consist of quality time spent with friends or family. While some may find happiness in creativity or art, others may find it in business.

But below these ideas of happiness do we ever notice and reflect upon the inconstancy of happiness? Happiness, like sadness, is just an emotion that ebbs and flows with the tide of life. Yet some of our ideas about happiness disconnect us from our well being and our purpose.

To what extent can we transcend built-in perceptions of what makes us happy to allow happiness to move freely through us? Instead of clinging to it, like a 3 year old boy clings to his toy car, never wanting to lend it to his buddy. It's transient, inconsistent, like any other emotion out there.

We all have basic needs that are building blocks to happiness. But aside from these, do we ever question preconceived ideas of what makes us happy? Where do these ideas come from? And do they serve us?