Happiness is Within

by Patty E. Fleener M.S.W.

I wanted to share something with all of you that is very hard to describe. Some of you already have this "magic" and some of you won't understand, but I am hoping that it will assist just one person. 

I don't know if this is due to my age (46) or something else - who knows. I had heard for many years the statement that happiness is within. I heard it, it registered in my brain. However I didn't have a clue what it meant. How can you be happy without a man in your life? Or without that house that I want or the garden? To me for most of my life, happiness could only be found outside of myself. 

Once I got the "right man." Once I got enough money. Once I got on the right medication, etc. 

Now you DO have to be on the right medication for your disorder(s) obviously and for many of us that is a big thing. So many of us have taken years for that to happen. I include myself. It took years for MH professionals to figure out I have bipolar disorder and that's why all the other meds weren't working for unipolar depression.

Gosh here I am trying to find the words�.all I can say is somehow along the way I have gotten to the point where "I feel comfortable in my own skin." Those are my words and I don't know how else to describe it. 

I fully accept and love myself and here is another part of this happiness within stuff I've found. There is very little in life of importance to me. VERY little. I would say that maybe 4 or 5 things really matter. The rest is just fluff. 

Imagine if you will in an airplane and you are sitting next to the window and you are looking down at the ground. The plane is low enough where you can see cars and houses. When you think about your life and your problems, etc., as you are looking down from that plane, don't those problems seem rather insignificant? 

Or when is the last time you have gazed at the stars? If you haven't I highly encourage you to do that. Lay down flat if you can and really examine the universe above. Again, your problems seem rather small and insignificant. 

When you can come to the place where you can see yourself and your problems from that angle most of the time, you will feel much less stress in your life.

Put things in perspective.