Why aren't we all happy.

If you ask someone what their goal is in life, most people with respond somewhere along the lines of "I would like to be successful and find happiness.". Sometimes they respond with "I want to make a lot of money at my job and live the american dream.". Just about everything that people say relates back to happiness. If everyone just wants to be happy than why aren't more people already happy?

There could be many reasons for this, and most of the time we are running in the wrong direction to find happiness.

People are always stimulated. Everyone always wants that next little burst of dopamine by checking emails, twitter, facebook, playing games, television, and so on and so forth. We are constantly bombarded by the need to get that next peak of potential happiness, but nothing lasts forever.

We are living on a roller coaster of emotions and stimulations. We are chasing what we feel happiness is, but what is happiness? People think that if they buy a big house than they will be happy. They think that they will reach the top of the roller coaster and stay there. That once they do something than they will just be happy forever. However this couldn't be further from the truth.

Happiness is the exact opposite of a roller coaster. Happiness is living in the moment, and being happy with it. You can't find happiness by letting your emotions control you. You have to just be in the moment, forget about the past and don't think about the future.

We trick ourselves into thinking that we will be happy if we make a purchase or if we succeed at something. Yes, you might get a quick burst of dopamine, but it will ware off in the very near future. We feel like happiness is just over the horizon, like we are so close, but really it comes from within.

So how you ask, do I become happy with my life. The best way is to become more aware of the present moment and noticing the emotions that you have instead of acting on them without thinking, than you will be well on your way to becoming happy. Something that I have recently started doing is meditating, and yes anyone can do meditation, it not something reserved to Buddhist monks.

Meditating has countless benefits, but mainly you just need to realize than meditating is a way to help you be in the moment and just taking a new perspective on things. With practice you can just look at your emotions from the outside not acting on them without thought. Now, I am not an expert on meditation so if you want to start I will just point you in the right direction. I recommend getting the free app "headspace". It is a great start, they have 10 guided meditation sessions and it will get you on the right track. Another great place to start is actualized.org. The creator of the website has many videos on meditation and everything you need to know about it. I just watched a 30 minute long video that he created, and now I feel like I am well informed about meditation.

Happiness is a process and it is reached by contentment with your life and the present moment.