🎈 True Happiness Has No Cause

There are only a few books I’ve read twice. One of them is *The Power of Now* by Eckhart Tolle. The most powerful concept in the book is this:

True happiness has no cause.

In the 21st century, we are sold the belief that happiness is circumstantial. It can be bought, achieved, or won, but this is far from the truth.

Consider the research on paraplegics and lottery winners. After their life-changing event, they fall back to their baseline happiness. They become just as happy as they were beforehand.

This is because the happiness baseline in the brain is not transformed by circumstances; it is transformed by mental practices. You can suddenly retire, and it may impact your happiness in the short run, but in the long run, you have the same mental circuits.

These mental circuits are what negate or create happiness.

Happiness is a mental state, and oftentimes, humans don’t manage their mental states. They are victims of their circumstances. The next unplanned thing destroys their mental state of happiness. This is the essence of fragile happiness.

But true happiness is different. It can be found in every moment. True happiness is not conditional on circumstances. It is only conditional on experiencing the now — fully and non-resistantly.