Project Happiness Articles

Life presents so many opportunities to ask ourselves, “How willing am I right now?” The question could be prompted by a potential job change, by a request from a loved one about a pattern they hope you’ll change, by a realization that things in our external life won’t change until we do. The question of willingness is primary in how we navigate through so much of our life.

We often believe that if we can change our circumstances, we will be much happier.  We compare our lives to others, or an unattained standard we wish we had reached; this is a simple way to ensure that we will never be as happy as we could be.

The search for true happiness has been an ongoing quest for many and continues to elude most of us. The reason it seems so out of reach is because most people don’t realize that happiness is not dictated by their external circumstances, but their perception of those circumstances.

Over the past few years, the idea of living mindfully and practicing mindfulness has captured the collective imagination of people all around the world. From the streets of Bali to boardrooms in Silicon Valley, there has been widespread adoption, and thousands of mindfulness gurus are teaching a myriad of flavors of it.