Many biblical verses are like inkblot tests, revealing more about us than about the text in question.
Harold S. KushnerRead
People are so busy chasing happiness- if they would slow down and turn around, they would give it a chance to catch up with them.
Interpretation
The pursuit of happiness can often distract us from finding it; taking time to pause may lead to its discovery.
This quote suggests that individuals often become so consumed with the idea of chasing happiness that they overlook the simple moments that could bring it into their lives. By slowing down and reflecting on their surroundings, people might realize that happiness is not something to be pursued relentlessly, but rather a state of being that can be embraced when one allows it to come naturally.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a wellness workshop to emphasize the importance of mindfulness.
Many biblical verses are like inkblot tests, revealing more about us than about the text in question.
I am quite confident that the most important part of a human being is not his physical body but his nonphysical essence, which some people call soul and others, personality... The nonphysical part cannot die and cannot decay because it's not physical.
That is why we have to make room in our lives for people who may sometimes disappoint or exasperate us. If we hold our friends to a standard of perfection, or if they do that to us, we will end up far lonelier than we want to be.
Pain is a part of being alive, and we need to learn that. Pain does not last forever, nor is it necessarily unbeatable, and we need to be taught that.
Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.
We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us.
I'm from New Orleans, which is all about direct engagement out in the street with all the parades and Mardi Gras Indians and jazz funerals. I'm trying to take that and put it into my generation, a group that doesn't have enough joy and celebration in their lives.
I'm no Buddhist monk, and I can't say I'm in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I've written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn't want or need, not all I did.
My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body.
Happiness has nothing to do with what you have or don't have. Happiness is related to what you are. However many things you may collect, perhaps they may increase your worries, your troubles, but happiness will not increase because of them. Certainly unhappiness will increase with them, but they have no relation to an increase in your happiness.
Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.
One of the things psychologists used to say was that if you are depressed, anxious or angry, you couldn't be happy. Those were at opposite ends of a continuum. I believe that you can be suffering or have a mental illness and be happy - just not in the same moment that you're sad.
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