Finding Happiness Where You Are

So many of us think that finding ourselves, finding fulfillment, and discovering lasting peace can only come from being in a particular situation or in the right circumstance. “I just need to get away from it all, go on retreat, move across the country or to the other side of the world, so I can find myself and my happiness.”

I’ve been down that path.

I also realized that the real work didn’t begin or end there.

Transcript

I'm Solona Carlile and this is another edition of the Everyday Bliss for the Modern Woman Weekly Transmissions, Created for the woman who is wildly devoted to choosing herself and living her desired life now instead of waiting until later. So many of us think that finding ourselves, Finding fulfillment, And discovering lasting peace can only come from being in a particular situation or in just the right circumstance. I just need to get away from it all. I need to go on retreat. I need to move across the country or to the other side of the world so that I can find myself and my happiness. I know this so well because I've been down this path. I've been around the world and back multiple times. I've been in extended periods of silent retreat. I've spent time deep in the wilderness, Weeks in solitude, And in the mountains and monasteries of the Far East. At the time, All those experiences were exactly what I needed. They took me way out to the edge and beyond as well as far deeper into my innermost center. What I also realized though is that the real work didn't begin or end there because the solution will never come through running away from yourself or your life. That only creates more division. The real finding of yourself and the lasting peace you desire will only ever be found in embracing the full spectrum of life itself without discrimination. It happens when you allow yourself to be more deeply enraptured and moved by life anyways regardless of outer conditions. It happens when you allow yourself to feel more in a world that threatens to numb your inner aliveness and pleasure. It happens when you allow yourself to show up as love right in the middle of the very life that you are already living without needing anything to be different than it is in order for you to be that love. It happens when conditions may be far less than ideal and you're left to choose your inner state and find your own unwavering ground in the face of perpetual groundlessness. No matter where you might be in this moment, In this season of your life, No matter how discouraged, Disheartened or disillusioned you may feel, In the face of all that you desire but can't seem to reach or all that you've tried that hasn't worked, What I want you to know is that the opportunity you always have is to relax even more deeply right into your exact circumstance and use that as a catalyst to transform the world inside of you first. And this is exactly what I teach my clients, How to stop running away from their lives and themselves in order to find the fullness of expansion, The fullness of joy and the soul deep, Bone deep satisfaction that they are chasing and instead turn everything into a spiritual practice. Because in the process of learning how to love themselves back to life exactly where they are, They realize that nothing had to change in order for them to have the experience of life that they've been searching for all along. And this is the kind of freedom that effortlessly lends you into the best version of yourself that you could ever aspire to be.