I often wish I had never been exposed to ‘spiritual’ literature and philosophies. Especially the maxim ‘happiness is an inside job’.
Sure, there is truth in that. But our ‘spirituality’ emanates from the paradigm we are embedded in… and we end up using spirituality to e.g greedily manifest like good little consumers, or in the above example, make life tolerable so we can continue being good little consumers playing along with the system, when in fact there might be a very good reason we feel miserable.
Every time I tell myself I ‘should’ feel happy, I realise it is an act of subtle violence against myself.
Our emotions are our soul speaking that something needs addressing.
Maybe there is a reason we are depressed or sad or angry or frustrated. Maybe the current ways most of us live without even really thinking about – striving for independence, devoid of real community, needing to spend most of our awake hours working to financially survive – is not actually what makes us happy? How tragic then to not listen to the signs of our bodies and beings that are always tapped into truth – and just to tell ourselves to be grateful and happy. What a sign of courage and true strength, to allow ourselves to feel deeply.