Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.

- Denis Waitley

Curing Happiness: What It Means And Why You Need To
Those among us not ready to seek out true happiness will choose, instead, the road most traveled. They will fret not the signs along the way, pointing them in another direction, nor the fact that they have gotten truly, and utterly, lost on their journey. It is on this paved path then, where many before have wandered aimlessly, that they will find themselves without ever really finding themselves.

What they had sought for was happiness, but what they had gotten was anything but. If only they had known that before ever achieving happiness, you must cure yourself from your own notion of it.

We are told on a constant basis that without joy, there is sorrow, but what of sorrow? We are told that without peace, there is war, but what of war? We are even told that without love, there is nothing, but, again, what of nothing? What we are not told of is happiness, or how it can be found within feelings of sorrow, in times of war, and even when we feel that nothing is all that is left. This is because happiness is not outside ourselves, but rather, within us all.

Among many people, “I’ll be happy once I…” is said often enough to be considered a daily affirmation, yet it is believed strongly enough to become more like a prayer. And like that carrot dangling forever out of reach of the horse’s mouth, happiness too is not reached. Never did it stand a chance.

Curing Yourself
Close your eyes, and try to remember a feeling you got when you were complimented on your work, personality, or looks. Now contrast that feeling with a time when your only praise came from within. Do you know the difference? One was self-glorification and the other was self-fulfillment. Only one is happiness.

Self-glorification is a worldly feeling, it is not happiness. Someone else can’t give you the gift of happiness. Self-fulfillment, on the other hand, is a feeling that reverberates from the depths of your soul. This is true happiness because it is generated from within.

Oftentimes your ego will cloud your judgement, making it hard to see the difference between the two, but there is a strong one. Knowing the difference is crucial in curing yourself of your false beliefs about what happiness is and what it isn’t.

False Beliefs
This is where our society gets it wrong. They have programmed into us the belief that the approach to happiness should be that the end justifies the means. If you do enough, have enough, or accomplish enough, you will somehow end up “happy.” Unfortunately, happiness is not actually pursued, rather, it is put on hold.

To feel that self-glorification is happiness, or that happiness does indeed come from outside ourselves, is a false belief. And to perpetuate this false belief is to block yourself from true happiness entirely.

Call to Action
So practice innocence, detachment, acceptance, modesty, and gentleness. Inquire only from within. Rid yourself from any false beliefs of happiness and you are home free. Every moment of your life you are faced with a choice: whether or not to be happy. Choose happiness and take the road less traveled instead.