Inward and Outward

I received good comments on the self-esteem blog posts. I think it’s good to remember what we said several weeks ago about happiness. We can never find happiness in a pill, powder, potion, or another person. Happiness is a personal transaction within us. Even so, it seems that we continue to think happiness is in the next vacation, relationship, or recreational endeavor. While those can give us happy experiences, they don’t change the character of our spirit into a happiness state.
Also, we need to be careful when reading self-help books or even listening to some from the pulpit. If they are making us more aware of our personal needs (Self), we ought to turn a deaf ear. That is a one-way ticket to self-centeredness and feelings of victimization. Have you ever known a self-centered person to be truly happy? They aren’t. They are neither happy nor thankful people. In fact, they tend to be needy and high maintenance.
When we have episodes when our happiness is diminished or elusive, we shouldn’t look to see what others aren’t doing for us or what isn’t going our way. We should first look to see if we are focused inward on our own wants and needs. Consider this: To even ask ourselves if we are happy is being self-centered, because we are looking inward to serve and satisfy, not outward.