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Where do most people go to satisfy their pursuit of happiness?

They try to satisfy the question in their mind that asks them what they have to do in order to feel
good. That might also mean doing things to compensate for fears and beliefs of something
painful happening. The end goal is happiness and all the beliefs, fears, assumptions, and
perceptions in the mind dictate the path. You can find these beliefs hiding behind thoughts or
comments like, “I’ll be happy when…” or, “I would feel much better if..”

· In the pursuit of physical enjoyment we get direct feedback.

· With emotional enjoyment we often have a barrier of beliefs and assumptions that filter our
efforts.

Disillusioned career choices, broken hearted relationships, and mid-life crisis indicate that our
assumptions about happiness often miss the mark. Most of what we have embedded in our
mind about what makes us happy and unhappy comes from other people or marketing
agencies and doesn’t address our individual inspirations.

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ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ŚĞƌ ůŝĨĞ͘
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ŚĂƉƉŝŶĞƐƐ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŶƚĞŶƚŵĞŶƚ ƐŽĂƌĞĚ͘

There are other problems with the approach of chasing the mental assumptions of what will
make us happy. What happens when our mind tells us what we have to do to be happy but we
haven’t met the mental criteria yet?
Suppose we believe we will be so much happier if we lose 15 lbs. Our mind can set up the
thought to be less happy with our body because we haven’t met the requirements for being
happy yet. When we let our belief system determine the criteria for being happy, we also
unconsciously define more reasons to be unhappy.

In later sessions, we’ll look at belief systems and how we can test and change our beliefs for
more satisfactory outcomes.