As you’ve probably figured out by now, the things we think will make us happy don’t, at least not in any lasting way. That is because we’ve all been taught to base our happiness on getting what we want and avoiding the things we fear, also known as desire and aversion.
A long time ago, some very smart people figured out that the desire/aversion system doesn’t work well if you want to be happy. It is like a very basic operating system on an old phone or computer: it’s clunky, slow, doesn’t do much, and crashes frequently. These smart people figured out that there are much more advanced operating systems available for our mind. In these advanced systems, we can rise above external circumstances and experience a deeper and happier reality beyond desire and aversion.
The way we can upgrade to better operating systems is through meditation. We can teach you to meditate if you’ve never done it before or help you advance your practice. We recommend the following set of series on meditation as part of our Be Happier Goal:
Visualization Meditation Practices
Meditation on the Energy Centers
Once you can experience happiness in meditation, mindfulness techniques teach you how to propagate that happiness to the rest of your life. So please view our series on mindfulness: How to be Mindful.
You still want to experience ultimate happiness forever no matter what? In that case we recommend the series: The Enlightenment Cycle.