Mindfulness and the appreciation of fleeting happiness

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I have met people who refuse to be happy because happiness doesn’t last. They have never accepted the fact that you can’t summon happiness and you can’t make stay. It comes and goes.

Mindfulness doesn’t guarantee happiness. However, it can increase your appreciation of your own happiness when it appears.

Think of happiness as a visitor who comes into your home, stays for a while, then goes away again. Though you are sorry to see it go, you know it will come back again.

The next time you notice you are happy, make a space for it. When you find yourself ignoring your visitor by drifting away in your head, come back to your experience of happiness.

We have a tendency to devote more attention to getting what we want than to enjoying it while we have it. Mindfulness, the practice of returning again and again to awareness of your experience, will help you to enjoy your happiness while it is with you and, with luck, it will prolong its stay. But one hour or day you will notice that happiness has gone away. Relax. It will return. Your job is to notice it when it comes back and to give it your attention.