So often I hear people say, “I just want to be happy.” Happiness is not something that we can want because it is already who we are. This simple Buddha story explains this idea so well and yet we still feel as if happiness is something that lives outside of us.

The “I” is our Ego that believes all the illusions that the world outside of us creates. It believes that happiness will be found or reached once it reaches a specific destination. It believes that once we gain something, win something, prove something, accomplish something, make something etc…THEN happiness will be experienced. The Ego doesn’t want to see that happiness already exists within us because then it loses it’s power over us. It means we will discover that every story that it ever told us was a big lie.

The “Want” is a desire to experience happiness. Anytime that we are wanting something, we are simultaneously feeling the lack of it. To desire something also means that you believe you don’t yet have it. As long as we desire to be happy, we will also hold the belief that happiness is somewhere “out there” It will always feel like we need to go and find it. This can’t be further from the truth.

Happiness is a simple choice that comes from within us. We must move from desiring it to deciding we are it. This means we are willing to let go and release every single thing or person that we believed was keeping us from experiencing happiness. Nothing or no one can take away something that already lives within us. Happiness is our birthright. It is the one thing we came here with and it’s the one thing we can leave here with. It is a gift that was given to us and a gift to be shared and expressed with the world. Treasure it. Own it. It’s waiting for you.