{"id":31600,"date":"2021-05-13T09:58:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T09:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=31600"},"modified":"2021-05-13T10:01:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T10:01:17","slug":"dont-think-about-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2021\/05\/13\/dont-think-about-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t think about happiness."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The personal mind has an amazing capacity to make itself important.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s always a reason to dwell on stuff, to be frightened or desperate or lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a truly creative and compelling experience factory, but we don’t have to be bound by its dominance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paradox (there\u2019s always a paradox) is that the mind and its stories we suffer from so much and so often, completely rely on our awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without interest in what we\u2019re thinking, the thoughts would have no power at all, and for all we know wouldn\u2019t even exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s exactly why the mind can be so frantic and personal and all over the fucking place: it\u2019s the only way to almost guarantee we stay interested and invested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dynamic, anxious and unsatisfied content is what we\u2019re hooked on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We just don’t know there are options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like a really loud TV-show we hate most of the time, but the anxiety of missing even one second of its endless (often very repetitive) crap is just too big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We almost HAVE to give the personal mind and what it comes up with our full and immediate attention, because if we don\u2019t, it will stylishly and craftily freak us out enough to run back to our submissive behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a dilemma, a conundrum, a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the good news:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just mentioned that whatever is happening within us, the complete experience of our personal existence, is what we\u2019re allowing in our consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our attention, our interest, our focus, are what brings the mere and essentially powerless suggestions of the mind into fruition, into aliveness, into confusion, and therefore into reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a very powerful notion and an extremely hopeful discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because if we can become aware of awareness itself (a unique talent we have as human beings), we instantly disconnect from our thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that means we\u2019re happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technically, happiness is the lack of thinking, it\u2019s what occurs if we\u2019re not being identified with a story, a person, a past or a future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s what we feel when we\u2019re not lost in our captivating mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the direct experience of our true nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wide open and free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear-minded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happiness is here, within you, it always is and always was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It REALLY is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just don\u2019t think about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @mariodobelmann, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The personal mind has an amazing capacity to make itself important. There\u2019s always a reason to dwell on stuff, to be frightened or desperate or lost. It\u2019s a truly creative and compelling experience factory, but we don’t have to be bound by its dominance. The paradox (there\u2019s always a paradox) is that the mind and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,116,113,103],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31600"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31604,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31600\/revisions\/31604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}