Wake Up and Smell the Happy!

So many are searching for things and experiences that will bring them happiness. Are you one of them? If you are one, here is some fantastic news: there is nothing you need to find in order to be happy. There is nothing you need to become in order to be happy. There is nothing that needs to happen in order for you to be happy. Self-acceptance and acceptance of your life are not something you seek, but something you claim from within you. It's an inner state of being, not something that happens as a result of external events. Acceptance is simply a choice and a recognition that you are a spiritual being having a human experience, and not the other way around. You are a whole and beautiful being, right now, just as you are. You are always growing and evolving and that evolutionary process is perfect.

Everything that has happened, that is happening, and that will happen to you is perfect. How can that be the case? All of it, all of it, is the path of your Soul Purpose. All of your life unfolds as it should. Even what you call "bad" is part of the journey. Therefore, choose to accept yourself as you are now. Choose to accept your life as it is now. Life is now! It is only and ever this moment. It is only from a place of self-acceptance, self-honor, and self-cherishing that you can begin to hear your Soul's voice. It is speaking to you now, through the ordinary events of your daily life. But unless you take your focus off the past and off the future, you will never hear its guidance.

The joy that you seek is not some reward waiting for you at the end of this journey. It is not something that belongs to your future. Joy does not come when you have achieved your life purpose--it is what allows you to achieve it. Joy is the way! And the way to joy is acceptance. Are you going to wait to be happy? Are you going to play the when/then game? When you lose 10 pounds, then you'll be happy. When you have that magic number in your bank account, then you'll be happy. When you are in that wonderful relationship, then you'll be happy. Unless you are happy first, those things have a hard time coming because you just aren't in the necessary joyful state to draw them to you.

Becoming authentic means loving who you are and what you've created, knowing that you will never get it just right. There is no just right! Whew! Isn't that a relief? As soon as you achieve some goal you will immediately want to achieve something else. The Universe seeks infinite expansion. As a part of this Universe, it is your very nature to always be evolving. You are never going to be satisfied with who you are or where you are because that would mean stagnation.

But satisfaction and acceptance are not the same. Acceptance of the current state of your life does not mean acquiescence. You can accept it and not be satisfied with it. You can accept it and still desire to change it. In fact, acceptance is the only way to change it. You must accept your beautiful, learning, growing Self just as it is. You must accept the purposeful, Soul-guided circumstances of your life just as they are. It is only from a place of acceptance that you can find any kind of real joy in the moment. And it is always this moment that determines the shape of the next one.

Where the perfection lies is in the growth, in the journey of always learning and becoming. The state of your life will never be perfect but your evolution is always, always perfect. Perfection then, is not a state but a process. That is why the when/then game doesn't work. There is never a permanent state of "when"--it is always being redefined. So the way to change your life is to understand this and to give up your "whens." Stop seeking perfection. Instead accept that everything happening to you now is already perfect because it is evolving.

When you accept yourself as a being that is always changing and evolving, you can find joy in every aspect of that evolution. You can be grateful to your past because you understand that it has led you to where you are right now, and you can delight in every aspect of your life now because you understand that now is leading you to your future. From this place of delicious, delightful contentment you can begin to expand your desires: if you want to lose weight it will happen effortlessly form a place of accepting and loving your body as it is now. If you want greater prosperity you can begin to attract it from a place of enjoying and appreciating the money you have now. That lucky someone will find you when you acknowledge what a lucky catch you are.

Don't give away your precious power to create a delightful, joyous life by postponing your happiness! Claim it and be it, and all you desire will find you. My desire for you is to wake up each morning and smell the happy!

Excerpted from the book, Delighting the Soul: Lessons on Life Purpose, Authenticity & the Law of Attraction.