Living a happy life is everyone’s goal.
Who doesn’t want to feel good about themselves?
And yet so many of us live a life of self-doubt,
feeling undeserving or incapable,
or wishing we were walking another path.
However, living a happy life,
being a happy person is a matter
of how you perceive yourself
and your place in the world.
You can “think yourself happy” by taking action,
being honest about yourself,
your patterns of thinking,
and being open to your capacity to change.
Self-knowledge is the key to living a happy life.
And that means living your truth,
not other people’s truth,
or what society tells you is your truth.
Socrates famously said that the unexamined life
is not worth living. An ongoing process
of self-analysis and self-examination
leading to a greater understanding
and self-knowledge is also the basis
for most of the world’s religions and belief systems
for a good reason.
If you don’t know who you are,
you're not your true self in the world.
If this is the case, you’re living a passive life,
reacting to whatever comes along
instead of taking control. Living unconsciously
like this is living half asleep,
and if you’re half asleep,
you can’t be your best you.
Living an authentic life
does not mean going off the grid.
It does mean a daily practice
of being honest about how you’re feeling
and why, and reminding yourself
that you are in control of how you feel.
It means being clear about what your values
and beliefs are – what “rules” you live your life by.
Are your values yours,
or have you absorbed them from other people
in your life? Do they still fit with the life
you want to lead?
Five Steps to Living a More Authentic Life
Living your truth means taking responsibility
for your life and building deep self-knowledge
that will ultimately lead to contentment and happiness.
