Can You Let Yourself Be Happy?

“We all go through hard times, but it’s this attachment to the hard times that can often prevent us from escaping them. And this isn’t a malicious thing we try to do, humans naturally seek familiarity. It offers us safety, even if that familiar isn’t necessarily the best place to be. The better the devil you know, if you will. Allowing ourselves to be happy is a risk as our mood is sure to turn again. Rather than feel into both sides of the coin, the happy side, and the sad, we can push ourselves back into sadness prematurely so as to not feel the disappointment of losing our happiness.

Despite this aversion to feeling happy, I wanted to note that the anxiety we can feel in the unfamiliar isn’t a bad thing. It’s good. As I said above, anxiety appears in the unfamiliar and in any place we feel uncertain. But just because we’ve been accustomed to a period of low mood does not mean that can last forever. You may feel bad 90% of the time but in those moments of 10% joy, it’s imperative you lean into it and not away. The very fact you may be feeling anxious is a sign in itself that you are not feeling sad. In those moments, something has changed, and the more we can recognize it, the less attachment we can have towards sadness. We have to be wary of the identities we unconsciously attach ourselves to. Otherwise, we’re destined to sabotage ourselves back to familiar states of being.

When we accept our own aversion, we can begin to move through it and towards happiness. Is it the fact that opening ourselves up to feel good ultimately means accepting that that happiness won’t last? Because it won’t — no mood is constant. You could say it’s better to remain comfortable in your sadness than it is to open yourself up to happiness with the acknowledgment that it won’t last. In this case, it’s our ability to withstand vulnerability that needs work. And finally, when we allow ourselves to truly feel the happiness, we paradoxically open ourselves up to feeling sadness. We’re reminded of the times that we did lose it, and the pain that brought.

Whatever the reason, or a mixture of all, it’s time you let happiness in again.”

Read the complete article on Medium

✨Discussion: Sometimes we become so familiar with our low moods. That when we begin to feel happiness, we begin to feel anxious. That's because we have a familiarity with our low moods. Thus, good moods, like happiness, feel like a stranger.

Therefore, it is easy to ruin our pleasant moods by having a strong desire to experience the old emptiness once more. We can start to overcome our own reluctance and head in the direction of happiness once we acknowledge it. Allow yourself to be happy!

✨Reflection: Have you ever found yourself feeling anxious or uncomfortable whenever you felt happy?

#Happy #Happiness #Mindset