Is the Perceived Lack of Happiness Robbing You of Real Happiness?

Do you often feel life has left you short? That somehow you have been robbed of the right to be happy and content. Maybe you have financial or relationship issues in your life or you are facing chronic health problems.  You look around and see happy faces everywhere you look and it can be easy to slip into a feeling that everyone but you is happy. 

There is no one on this earth, no matter how rich, famous or successful who does not suffer moments where they feel that life has served them a difficult basket of trials to deal with. The smiles on many people’s faces may be masks that are worn to cover up the internal pain. Other people wear smiles because they have learned to deal with their pain and problems and focus on the good and not the bad in their life.  

There are very few people who feel that life is not difficult and the circumstances they find themselves in difficult.  However, finding the blessing in life and focusing on it rather than the negative, is the key that opens the door to contentment even when things couldn’t seem to get worse. 

Perhaps the area that causes most problems for people is in accepting other people’s faults and making excuses for them. Every person is a unique human being and is the product of their past experiences. Very few interpersonal relationships will ever be without some level of differences of opinion. The potential for conflict is always there when people interact with each other. As we focus on the good in the other person and the benefits of our relationship with them because of the unique person they are, it helps us put a different perspective on those areas that we find difficult to appreciate. 

Happiness in marriage or any other close relationship, is not the absence of problems. It is maturing in our relationships to accept the differences and enjoying the differences between people and finding our happiness in those differences.  Sometimes differences may be irreconcilable, but often-true happiness is not the same as perceived happiness and constantly comparing our relationships or our life with others circumstances will only serve to drag us down and not lift us up. As we learn this essential life lesson we can learn to explore and find happiness where we least expect it.