According to the World Happiness Report, the United Nations annual assessment on the state of mind of humanity, the United States ranks 19th in life satisfaction among all UN member countries. Authors of the report place the blame for Americas low happiness scores on dissatisfaction with their health, the government and social conditions, among multiple other causes.
However, a more succinct factor for our collective relative unhappiness is the expectation we have that our state of mind depends on our circumstances, and that we can only be happy when we make them more to our liking. A much more powerful and effective strategy for improving our sense of well-being is to become internally focused. Do we actually really need outside events and experiences to trigger positive emotions? Isn't what we are really seeking more about an inward state of well-being?
Next time you are less than happy, try generating a sense of contentment and satisfaction, maybe even joy, for no reason. Write down 5 or 10 ways you want to feel and practice simply accessing those feelings, independent of life circumstances. What you are likely to find is that the link between your outside experiences and your subjective feelings is fabricated and much more tenuous than you had assumed. Once you understand and realize this, the way you feel can be liberated from your circumstances, and you'll find it much easier to experience contentment, happiness, peace of mind or what ever feelings you like, whenever you like, regardless of what happens to be showing up in your life.
