Y Wait?

Most of us have certain ideas about how or when we'll start enjoying life more - after I get this job, when I get married, or after I lose that last 10 pounds- which actually keeps us unhappy.  Not all of these misconceptions are about the future either. Thinking that if we had behaved differently in the past, we'd be more content now is equally as damaging. My old definition of joy always seemed to place it in the future.
Its sad to look back at all the time I wasted waiting for joy, instead of waking up to the fact that it's all around me.It's really easy to fixate on something and think that you can't be happy without it, but it's just not true. In fact you're holding off on joy until something you want shows up, you could be missing out for no real reason.

We all have the power to decide to be joyful right now. I'm not saying it's what we were taught or that we don't have the habit of being cranky or depressed based on what our day looks like, but we have the power to do something about our mood. If our happiness depends on having what we want, we become too dependent on outside circumstances and how the world works. "Be happy for no reason, like a child. If you are happy for a reason, you're in trouble, because that reason can be taken from you." ~ Deepak Chopra
I think most people want a happy life and go seeking "things" and "people" to make them happy, but the problem is that happiness does not come from things and people; it comes from inside.

Look forward by all means, be happy and excited about what lies ahead, but if you find on reflection that you are living so far ahead in the future and tying how you might feel to what you hope will happen then that you're missing out on the present, it might be time to stop and look around! You can be happy right now and you don't need anything for that to happen.

Once you begin believing that what you have been asking for is on it's way, no questions asked, it's far easier to focus on what's already making you happy. So the next time you find yourself thinking 'if only', or as 'as soon as', you can change it to God is for me and everything is working out in my favor. Because really, it is.

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned...so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
~ Joseph Campbell