Stop trying to be happy.
Trying to be happy is a fool’s chase.
Trying to be happy orients us towards a future outcome.
Trying to be happy is like that children’s book Are You My Mother? Where a baby bird walks around asking if a cat, a cow, and a steam shovel if they’re his mother.
Stop trying to be happy.
What you really want is bone-deep fulfilment.
What you really want is the kind of satisfaction that comes from feeling alive in your body; the kind of fulfilment that comes from living your purpose; the kind of satiation that comes through embodying your power.
Real fulfillment exists in the moment – not in a future time, once we have (or have achieved) something.
Of course having goals & working towards outcomes is also valuable, but if we’re not fulfilled through the process, we are unlikely to be fulfilled in the outcome either.
Fulfillment is a present-time, moment-to-moment meeting & responding to life, with our bodies, in alignment with what we most deeply care about – to the best of our ability.
Orienting towards genuine pleasure (not the facade of what we think will be pleasurable in a future moment, if…), demands that we come fully into present time, because pleasure only exists in the present.
Orienting towards genuine pleasure demands that we actually feel our bodily experience, because we can only find our pleasure through our bodies.
In this way, orienting towards genuine pleasure demands that we be present in our bodies – which is the only place from which to truly express our purpose.
In this way, orienting towards genuine pleasure demands that we be present in our bodies – which is the only place to be if we want to experience & embody our true power.
(more in this short video: Why Pleasure?)
Most people are looking for purpose ‘out there’. For the thing, that once they find it, will make them feel fulfilled – without realizing that this is absolutely backwards! It is actually through living fulfilled in present time that we come to know our purpose.
Most people are trying to ‘own’ or ‘step in to’ their power – as though power is something you could have or not have – without realizing our true power is the organic product of moving from the simple & natural pleasure of your body, and making consistent, mundane gestures towards that which matters most to you.
It’s as simple as that.
And it takes real grit.
It’s time for women in particular to stop seeking outside themselves.
Let go of seeking ‘mindset’ tricks or ‘life hacks’.
Dive into practicing that which brings you in direct contact with life in the present moment.
(My self-led Pleasure.Purpose.Power program is packed with practices for exactly that.)
