Peggy Handler Psychotherapy
  • Home
  • Psychotherapy
    • Therapy Modalities
  • Therapy Specializations
    • Mid-and-Later Life
    • Conscious Aging
    • Work-Life Balance
  • About Peggy
    • Consultation
  • Contact
  • Psychotherapy Blog

Peggy Handler
psychotherapy

Happiness  in the Moment

9/14/2014

0 Comments

 
     Now and then
it’s good to pause
in our pursuit of happiness
and just be happy
- Guillaume Apollinaire

There is a lot of emphasis in this culture on the pursuit of happiness. It is even listed in the Declaration of Independence as one of our "unalienable rights." There are many books and a whole school of psychology devoted to how to be happy or attain happiness. It has been made into a goal or something to be achieved rather than a state of being. So much of our culture's ( and the world's) materialism and consumerism is an attempt to buy or attain things that will bring happiness, a quick fix at best.
In a certain sense, so much emphasis on attaining happiness makes it more elusive. It's like a dog chasing it's tail, something that is just out of reach but seems so close: it becomes a mesmerizing, obsessive pursuit. Somehow the chase, the search, the pursuit, has become the focus, the end in itself. This chase doesn't actually bring happiness except maybe in fleeting moments.
Happiness is an inner state of being, not something that can be pursued, purchased or attained. It is always available even in times of great difficulty or fear.  It is something that can be experienced by turning inward, and something that can be felt by paying attention to the small joys of life: the beauty of a flower, the feel of the wind on the skin, the full moon, a smile, a newborn baby. It's tricky to write about, because I don't want to give yet another prescription for "how to be happy." So I will simply end by saying it exists in awareness of the present moment, rather than as a pursuit.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Peggy Handler, MFT, is a psychotherapist in San Francisco's Noe Valley

    Archives

    December 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Acceptance
    Connection
    Creativity
    Fears
    Feelings
    Love
    New Possibilities
    Slowing Down
    Strength
    Turning Within

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2018-2023 Peggy Handler | San Francisco
  • Home
  • Psychotherapy
    • Therapy Modalities
  • Therapy Specializations
    • Mid-and-Later Life
    • Conscious Aging
    • Work-Life Balance
  • About Peggy
    • Consultation
  • Contact
  • Psychotherapy Blog