Do you know what our most significant source of ongoing hardship is?
It is the driver behind all wars, all suffering, all murder, even physical disease.
It is the pernicious and societally-pushed belief that our personal happiness and sense of fulfilment relies on other people.
‘My happiness relies on how others treat me.’
I am the taker.
‘Your happiness relies on being loved by another.’
You are the taker.
‘Our well-being as a nation relies on taking from others so that we can have more well-being as a group.’
We are the takers.
Our strategy for happiness is in the TAKING.
So we tell ourselves:
I rely on others for my happiness. I need others to approve of me. I need others to validate me. I need others to love me. I need others to like me.
And when they don’t…
My self-worth goes tail up and noses down.
Down it will go…
We feel the depression of a made-up lie.
This seemingly innocuous thought is keeping us deeply, beautifully (and occasionally comically) miserable.
