Our society tells us that we should have it all, and we should have it right now. At least, we should work to try to have it all as soon as possible. And if we don’t have it, this is precisely why we should feel unhappy. Much of our current worldly unhappiness comes from us feeling like we don’t have enough and therefore we are not enough.
However, our current desires aren’t never enough to make us happy, even if we have convinced ourselves that they should be. For example, if we believe that all we need to be happy is to buy a new car, get a promotion, get a loving partner, or anything else for that matter, it is likely that even if we fulfill our desires, we will only experience a temporary and fleeting sense of happiness.
In order to become happy forever, we need to take an infinitely different approach, as we don’t just want a little bit more. What we really desire is the infinite. In other words, our worldly desires will never be enough to make us happy.
In these conditions, in order to become happy, we either need to strive for (1) nothing, aka give up on our worldly desires, or we should want the (2) infinite, aka God.
- Wanting nothing – This is the quickest and surest way to be happy, as by wanting nothing else we realize that we already have a lot, often enough to be happy now. Sure, the future is never guaranteed and we can always strive for more, even if we don’t necessarily need it to feel happy. So, we can always strive for more while wanting nothing, which means that we can achieve happiness without regrets or conditions, a true sense of happiness indeed.
- Wanting the infinite – When I say “the infinite,” the only place where we can find it is in God, as God is the infinite itself. Please note that I don’t specify which God I’m talking about here, as I leave it up to you to insert your beliefs here. However, in happiness studies, we know that people who believe in God, any God, are generally happier than those who don’t believe in anything.
Furthermore, wanting nothing plays into wanting the infinite, as all major world religions say that we need to disconnect ourselves from our worldly desires in order to find God, be it through prayer, meditation, or other means.
Overall, true happiness comes from pursuing God and being content with what we already have. By simply doing these two things, we will already experience an increase in our happiness.
