Making Me or Someone Else Happy
“if you provide yourself with the experiences you seek, this significantly decreases the frantic quality many people have when pursuing the symbols of life. ‘I can’t be happy until I get …’ ‘I won’t rest until I …’ ‘My life isn’t complete until I …’ There’s not a desire or intention we can’t fulfill for ourselves, right now. Ironically, once we have given fully to ourselves, those symbols just seem to cascade in. Relationships, for example. Whom would you rather be around — a joyful, loving person, or a miserable, needy, unhappy person? Well, so would everyone else. People know this, which is why they pretend to be loving, happy, joyful, etc. in order to ‘catch’ someone. (People are not fish. They cannot be ‘caught’. They can be held captive temporarily, that’s all).”
— John-Roger & Peter McWilliams, Life 101 (pg 219)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I often catch myself doing the things (making the decisions) that I think someone else wants me to make … thinking that in that way I will make them happy. The reality is that I then become unhappy, and even resentful. Thus, failing miserably in my goal of causing happiness for the other person … and making myself miserable in the process. If I simply do what I really want to do (or make the decision I really want to make), I will make that other person happier than in any other way!
Filed under: Uncategorized