All of us have a desire for true happiness where we are filled with inner peace even while facing life challenges.

Perhaps you have presumed that being happy means just naturally delighted. Or, that they are the lucky individuals who have a simple life.

Or they had really caring loved ones and family while growing up. Most of the time, absolutely nothing might be farther from the reality.

Happy individuals today are making particular choices concerning their thinking and behavior about true happiness.

Pleased people knowingly select to behave and believe in manner ins which result in happiness.

Dissatisfied people are automatically believing and acting in manner ins which produce unhappiness.

Following are a handful of the particular choices that successful people make for finding true happiness:

OPTIMISM

Delighted people see the stars through the cloud cover, while unhappy people select to be cynical– to see only the dark clouds. 

Rather of allowing their ego wounded self to be in charge with all its doom and gloom, delighted individuals do something.

They put their loving adult self in charge and open to their plan for success and never quit.  

Pleased individuals understand that their thinking is the start of an innovative procedure that leads to living their dreams.

KINDNESS

Pleased people choose to be thoughtful and kind toward themselves and others.

Happy individuals have actually learned that how they treat themselves and others figures out much of how they feel.

People who experience true happiness do not wait to be happy before being kind and trusting to their journey at hand.

I mean being happy and solid on choices made.

FORGIVENESS

Pleased and content people tend not to take personally others’ disinterested or attack type behavior.

They don’t get their sensations and feelings injured in the exact same manner that individuals do who take others’ habits personally.

People living a content life recognize that another’s behavior is truly about that other individual.

So they move into compassion towards themselves and others rather than into judgment.

APPROVAL

People of true happiness realize what they can control and what they can’t.

They live by the spirit within, accepting the important things they can not change and altering the things they can.

Unhappy people are constantly trying to alter situations. Trying to make people do things they are not comfortable with.

Likewise unhappy people do not accept their absence of control.

As an outcome unhappy people are continuously disappointed.

Delighted people recognize they can not manage others and outcomes, so they focus on what they can control.

True happiness is in their own thinking and habits and never settling for manipulation. 

GRATITUDE

Happy people are consistently grateful for what they have, rather than complaining about what they do not have.

They discover the gifts and blessings that come their way and they often express gratitude.

I mean even for the simplest daily things in their lives–the charm of nature, the food they consume. It might be the smile on a friend’s face, their capability to see, hear, stroll, talk.

Even many handicapped individuals who may not have the blessings of vision, hearing, speech or legs are frequently content people.

Since they focus on what they do have and what they can do, rather than concentrating on what they are missing out on.

If you want true happiness then you need to acknowledge that joy is the result of your thinking and behavior.

Not the reason for it.

You can become a happy individual–regardless of your present circumstances.

Yes, even if you choose to focus on becoming mindful of what thoughts and behavior make you feel pleased.

Being happy with inner peace does not just take place–it takes some uncovering of darkened thought. 

A Course in Miracles states: “The children of light cannot abide in darkness, for darkness is not in them.

Perhaps you have presumed that these people are just naturally happy, or that they are the fortunate people who have an easy life.

No, it’s not that way!

Individuals content with life stick to their inner guidance system leading them on the journey.

It’s the dissatisfied people who choose to be pessimistic–to see the glass as half empty.

Because happy people tend not to take personally others’ uncaring habits, they do not get their feelings harmed.

In the exact same fashion that individuals do who take others’ behavior personally.

Unhappy individuals are constantly trying to change situations and individuals. Likewise they do not accept their absence of inward stability.

Like I’d said above but in a different way, even disabled or imprisoned people find true happiness.

(Here’s another recommended related article on how to begin achieving your personal goals and being happy with yourself:)  

Next, I’ll discuss by example how handicapped or the prisoner focus on what they do have.

Likewise what they can do, rather than focusing on what they are missing out on out on.

True Happiness and Inner Peace Regardless of One’s Circumstances

Just before she died in 2004, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was interviewed for Public Radio.

She said she was at peace with herself. Her body had worn out and she said she was ready to lay it aside and move on.

She believed she had led a good, productive life and would be returning Home.

I was struck by one remark she made. “I’ll dance among the stars, but I wish I had danced more while I was here.”

I also like what A Course in Miracles further states: 

• “There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son.”

I want to share first hand journal writings of myself while I was incarcerated in a state prison for 8 long years.

Here it is:

In recent months even here in prison I’ve felt nurtured and cheered.

I’ve laughed more with the older prisoners more so than worrying about possible violent attacks of the younger ones.

I’ve heard lots of funny yet weird jokes from these old geezers and some good ones, too.

Take Ray, for example, eighty-two years old, hunched over, uses a cane, and does the laundry seven days a week for our unit of about 220 men.

Ray told me, “After fifty years in prison, now, if they’d let me loose today I’d have money to burn. The only problem is my fire has gone out.”

Another inmate, Doc, also doing a life sentence and at age eighty-three has celebrated his sixtieth (60th) wedding anniversary.

Yes, his wife, he said, has stuck with him since his incarceration thirty-two years ago.

Doc swears the secret to his marital success has nothing to do with his absence from the home life. But because he woke up each morning here in prison, looked in the mirror and said, “You’re no prize either.”

They always offered me happiness and a heads up of danger lurking around the corner.

These toothless old guys in here offer me coffee, snacks, and other purchased commissary items they hoard in their footlockers. As well, always with a confident smile.

They have that look on their faces as if they know something I don’t. They are all terrible listeners and only want to be listened to.

They’re selfish in that regard. After all with the years they’ve been locked up they have a different kind of safe spirit than the younger group.

They know they will take their final breath of air in prison.

Some have what Ernest Hemingway referred to as “built-in foolproof bullshit detectors.”

Furthermore, they seem to have their own priorities in order, and after sitting down with them, mine becomes rearranged.

Yes, in more sensible ways that make my time in prison seem to be a bit easier. 

Yet while I enjoy some of these guys, I see lots of others suffering.

There are old men waiting, still, for years, to receive maybe “this year,” a birthday visit or even a card from their children.

I saw one guy my own age but seemed thirty years older, on Veteran’s Day, weeping because he was off to his death bed in hospice prison.

It was to end his time of suffering from lung cancer, and not expecting to see either of his two adult daughters.

They wouldn’t visit him.

Sadly, many of us don’t attend to what we must. This leaves us lacking true happiness within ourselves.

(Please note: I also suggest this related article on: the healing power of the mind gets us to where we want to be while finding happiness in this world.) 

To being happy,

James Nussbaumer

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