Blog of the Month: May: No one is in charge of your happiness, except you

No one is in charge of your happiness, except you
by Keith

We are all different, unique in the most beautiful of ways!! Yet, the message inscribed within us from birth and repeated over and over again is one and the same - that of unjustified guilt and fear. For example, we all have different talents and interests. Hence, naturally different people express themselves in different ways and excel in different fields. Nonetheless, we're expected to do equally well in all academic subjects, whilst being tested solely in one manner. We feel guilty when we don't succeed this mammoth task, for we're told that it's because we're not committed enough. Similarly, we're told that we're sinners, simply by birth. We feel awful for such guilt, and make it hard on ourselves in order to make amends so as to alleviate the guilt of not being good enough.

We can do anything we desire in our lives, anything that excites us and makes us itch, and become good enough at it as to also earn a living from it. Instead, we're guided to give it all up for an ‘8 to 5’ secure job we don’t like, for money. So, we do a job we don't like doing in order to earn enough money to live a life where living is doing a job we do not like doing. If we stop doing so however, we're injected with a fear of the future by those around us, advising us that if we do not work for money, we would not be able to buy more. Thus, perpetuating the belief that having more is what makes us happy, rather than doing that which fulfills us. In addition, as insider Roseanne Barr herself explains, institutions such as Hollywood maintain cultures of sexism and genderism in place by continually feeding it to the media, making up good money out of it. At the same time, we’re conditioned to be overrun by the fear of what others would think of us should we not subscribe to the roles, identity, or looks which Hollywood advocates.

 Charles de Lint explains that, "no one else sees the world the way you do, no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell", apart from you. Should each one of us write a couple of paragraphs on what ‘joy’ truly means to us, no other answer would be an exact copy of yours, you are THAT unique!!  Tune into yourself, as Rumi stated, "let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love, it will not lead you astray". The more we love our own decisions, the less we require others to love them. Those who will judge us instead of understand, do not define who we are, their act only defines who they are. There’s no one to fight, only the fear and guilt instilled within which hold us from being our true Self.

For those interested, below I share a link to the story of Balpreet Kaur, in the hopes that she is of inspiration to you as she was to me.

Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/09/bearded-sikh-woman-teaches-reddit-a-lesson.html