Everyone wants to be happy. This is one thing we have in common: we are all looking for happiness. When we finally feel happy, we discover that, like everything else in life, it comes and goes. What we really want is happiness to stay forever—we want to feel happy constantly. The egoic mind—that constant voice in your head—makes this impossible. Have you noticed how discontent the voice of the egoic mind is? It complains, judges, and longs for things to be different. It’s definitely not a happy camper. The good news is that you are not that voice!

What an amazing revelation that is when you finally discover this: you are not the crabby, nasty, unhappy, judgmental, angry voice in your head. That voice is in your experience, and it happens to be in your head, but it’s not unique to you, as everyone has their own version of it, and it’s more or less negative in everyone’s head. Everyone has an egoic mind, and it’s the cause of all of our suffering and unhappiness—yes all of it! We are led by this negative voice to search for happiness in getting more and better than we already have and in being more and better than others, but that voice is never satisfied with whatever we do achieve. No, happiness definitely doesn’t lie in listening to the egoic mind. Happiness lies outside this voice.

There’s a lot more going on in any moment than the egoic mind’s chatter. If we pull our attention away from the egoic mind and turn it onto whatever else is going on besides this chatter, we discover peace! In moments when we aren’t involved in our minds, it’s possible to experience not only peace, which comes from being relieved of the discontentment and striving of the egoic mind, but a happiness that comes from true contentment with life. It turns out that the only thing that is discontent with life is the egoic mind, while the real you—or essence—who has been living this life all along is happy simply to be alive—to exist! This subtle and simple happiness is available in every moment, and unlike feelings of happiness, it never comes and goes. The price you pay for this happiness is nothing. It costs nothing except your willingness to pay attention to something other than the mind—to pay attention to what is real and true in this moment. And the payoff is no more suffering. Now, that’s a good deal.

by Gina Lake
Gina Lake has dedicated herself to writing and teaching about awakening and finding one’s life purpose. She is the author of Radical Happiness and five other books. Find out more at radicalhappiness.com