Happiness is a mental construct (that doesn't exist)

Happiness is a mental construct.

I have been thinking about this for the last 10 years and even more intensely since we left to travel the world full time. Our life is "perfect", a dream life that many would want, yet I often find myself wondering… why am I not happy?

Recently, though, I realized that what I really want to know is: why can't I be ALWAYS happy?

And the truest answer I can give myself is: because happiness is a mental construct that doesn't exist.

We spend so much time wondering IF we are happy; telling ourselves we SHOULD be happier; doing, undoing, acting and reacting to TRY to feel happy… that we forget to observe and take in those rare, tiny, fleeting, sudden moments when we really do feel happy. When we feel really happy. Without any effort, without any thought, without any change. Spontaneously, genuinely happy.

Happiness is a mental construct that doesn't exist. What exists is thin slices of happiness. Savour them.

If there's one thing we should seek and nurture, it's not happiness: it's what happens between one slice of happiness and another. Life is not about happiness. It's about learning to sit in discomfort, because everything good comes from some sort of discomfort.

So think what an amazing revolution it would be if we stopped trying to be happy and instead we'd simply… live.

Sitting in discomfort. Savouring the slices.