It is slightly mind blowing to think that there is in fact a different form of happiness that we can cultivate and focus on

We must firstly consider what it takes to touch on this other form of happiness. We do of course know the happiness we get from being amongst other people or from our consumerism. We can see the from of happiness we get from outside of ourselves. We feel it internally but the trigger is an external stimuli. Imagine the excitement of a night out with friends or a trip abroad. Image the feelings we receive when we buy something new. This is often what we’re taught happiness is about. I can even remember my own mother describing a child, who had everything they wanted in the material world, as someone who was very loved. Perhaps a way to rationalise her own inability to express love for her children in a tactile way.

When we begin to see, that happy children aren’t necessarily from wealthy backgrounds, we begin to understand how innocence plays its part. Provided poverty doesn’t equal neglect, money, is actually irrelevant to a child

One of the most important ways to discover, the form of happiness that exist within us, is the ability to be absolutely, fully, present. I’ve recently found myself with a responsibility I didn’t particularly want. However, understanding the importance of being present, has helped me, not only carry the burden easily, but to enjoy it.

My sharing of a responsibility is easing the burden on someone else and that is giving me an enormous amount of satisfaction and pleasure. Being present during the process is enabling me to immerse myself fully into it. Whilst aware and present my mind is no longer seeking to be somewhere else doing something that carries less responsibility, or involves anther form of stimulation, that might be more fun. Mindfully working through my responsibility has taken any form of suffering away. When we want (to be doing something different somewhere else) we suffer. We could say that when suffering is removed happiness is what remains.

This happiness is brought about as a result of fully immersing oneself in being alive. When we do this, pleasure can be derived from the most mundane of actions, because our happiness has changed form

That’s right! The form of happiness has switch from an external stimulation to the simple pleasure derived from being present and alive. When we fully appreciate the pleasure of being alive – experienced when fully and absolutely present – we are happy. If we’re not fully present we’re not fully appreciating what it actually means to be alive. Our mind is somewhere other than here and now. Surly, when this is the case, are we not three quarters of the way to being dead? Be present and happy, through the mindfulness gained from learning how to improve your mental fitness, through proper meditation practice. Return to innocence now.