The Path to Happiness: Understanding Love and Presence

Love transforms perception and leads to lasting happiness through presence and self-awareness.

### The Path to Lasting Happiness: Embracing Love, Presence, and Inner Wisdom
* 💔 Many people believe external factors cause their unhappiness, but true happiness comes from **within, through self-love and acceptance**.
* 🌞 Universal love is the key to **lasting happiness**, as it transforms both ourselves and the world around us.
* 🧘 Being present and detaching from the ego are essential for finding **inner peace and happiness**.
* 🎭 The world is a stage, and we are the actors; by changing our perspective, we can find **joy in every moment**, even in sorrow.
* 🌌 Recognizing the **illusion of separateness** and the **interconnectedness of all things** helps us navigate life's challenges with **grace**.
* 🌿 Spending time alone in nature or in introspection can help us **discover our true desires and values**, free from societal conditioning.
* 🔇 Blocking out external noise allows us to hear our inner wisdom, guiding us towards **activities that bring long-term happiness**.
* 🧘 "Nobody else knows us, and we need to learn **who we are more than anyone else**."

the first step to becoming happy is realizing how we are making ourselves unhappy. This is very hard to see because we are certain that something outside of us is making us unhappy, that some event from our past is preventing us from being happy, that there is some defect within us that prevents us from allowing ourselves to smile, to love. If we were in a constant state of loving everyone and everything, we would be ecstatic all the time. But so many people justify closing our hearts off to the universe around us, and so we have to ask ourselves, What am I afraid of that would happen if I were to be open and to love every aspect of this magical, chaotic, crazy Universe we live in? For most of us, there is a fear we'd be taken advantage of or that we'll be hurt. This is not love. Love is wisdom. Love is about not just creating our internal conditions for optimal happiness, but it is about letting others around us see their own potential, see their own light inside of them, see their own worth and value.

through your eyes, and when the people around us feel loved, feel worthy, they are not going to be as likely to cheat or to betray us because people often act the way we treat them. If we treat someone like they might be a thief or a liar or a hurtful person, they're more likely to be that. So, love does not mean allowing abuse; it means to love ourselves enough to get to safety, to love ourselves enough to not be put in a situation where we can be taken advantage of. But it also means we love those who didn't get enough love and who are hurting others right now because the only way to change the world and to make it a more loving place is by being more loving. The other misconception people have is that love must be reciprocated, and this is also a fallacy because that is neediness, that is attachment to an outcome, and we already miss this perfect, blissful moment that we're almost always in sight of unless we're being physically harmed. We can feel

Bliss, and even when we are in pain, we don't have to suffer. We don't have to turn to that mental reaction that says, Why is this happening to me? I don't deserve this, and creating that response to genuine pain that creates even more suffering. Every single thing we do in life is with the intention of leading us towards a more pleasant existence and away from a painful one. That is why we take our hand out of the fire as a child and we don't put it back in. This is why we seek out what we hope will bring us lasting happiness. And so we have this guide within us that is always pointing us towards this ultimate truth that is love. Love is greater than hate, and only people who have never experienced this feeling of universal love, which is love for everything, not a romantic love, not family love, but love for every moment, for every living being. This is that greatest feeling that we are being pulled to as a species, and that I believe we're getting close, closer to every day. And the beauty is

that when we become our happiest selves, when we create that inner change, everyone around us changes, and the world changes. We cannot commit crime when we feel the Oneness of everything. We are just stealing from ourselves. We are just hurting ourselves when we hurt others. When we hate others, we are embodying hate. No matter what happened in the past, it is over. It is gone. There is only this moment. And just like if we cut ourselves and we are healing that cut, when we slipped on the knife in the kitchen, it is over, and there is a remnant of that in the present moment, but that is something that will heal. And everything from our past can heal. And the way that we heal is through that cleansing spaciousness of presence. If we keep reliving the past, if we keep worrying about the future, we are just opening that wound over and over again. And the best disinfectant is presence. We don't think our way out of our problems, our pain, our trauma. We let that Bliss of

presence that present moment love that is the center of who we are heal all, and there is nothing stopping us in this very moment from being happy. Often, we think that, well, if someone's being really mean, verbally abusive, that that prevents us from becoming happy, but that only happens when we identify with the ego, when we identify with a fictional part of us that needs praise and cannot stand blame, criticism, and other people's negativity. When we disidentify, it's like watching a movie, and someone may be screaming, and it may be even right at us, but there is this screen between us, and those words are not penetrating us because we know we're not the ego. We know we're not this social construct that requires the admiration of others and crumbles in the face of lies and slurs and rumors. People are going to people, but we are spiritual beings. We are consciousness watching a movie, and sometimes that movie is turned inward, and we are just watching thoughts, memories, worries, criticisms, and judgments as we get lost in that egoic.

mind those egoic mental patterns, and we are missing the show. And so, when we become present, it is like teleporting from a memory, a thought, a different place in time and space. And we teleport into reality, and it is incredible, it is rich and alive and peaceful, and everything in our minds is low resolution, not vibrant and not reality, but just like how when we dream, we know that everything is one. We know that we are the creators of the dream and that it is all a projection from our mind. This is a microcosm of our true reality, the world we live in, the universe we exist in. It is all from our consciousness. We are the viewers and creators, and whatever we choose in this moment is possible. A lot of people think that being happy means thinking happy thoughts, but that's thinking happy, that's not being happy. The key to being happy is to simply be present when the mind is focused on the here and now, when it is able to rest in the space we are in, and from the bliss of being present.

happy thoughts naturally arise. There's no more resisting, there's no more getting mad at someone cutting you off in traffic. It's just all the flow and the dance of this magical universe. And if it went how we always wanted it to go, it wouldn't be interesting, it wouldn't be exciting, it wouldn't be surprising, and we'd be bored. So, be grateful that it's beyond our understanding, beyond our expectations, and let go of those need to control, that need to have it be predictable. And wherever you are, you can enjoy the show no matter what is happening. And this is the key to lasting happiness because we all are getting older, we're all going to die, and even in grief, there is beauty, there is love, there is poetry, there is meaning. If we were to lose something and not grieve, it would have had no significance and importance in our lives. And so, even in sorrow, there was great joy. We just have to expand our perspective to see the whole of this universe as

one, and this is how we can always take pleasure in whatever is going on with a plant in the corner, the smells of the air, the textures all around us. This life is a miracle. Every single second and every breath we have is a gift. When we lose that broader perspective, we suffer. But when we expand that image and we see the wholeness, it is just the greatest drama, comedy, tragedy ever told, and there's no reason for us to suffer this incredible movie that we are always watching. More than a movie at the theater where we experience no suffering, even though we feel every emotion of the characters involved. Underneath the Oneness lies this illusion of separateness, and the illusion is so good, so lifelike, that we forget all the time that it is just an illusion. It is the blink of an eye in Cosmic time. It is the short trip around the Sun, but it is not eternity. These little moments, these few years we're here, aren't life or death, not meant to be.

taken so seriously. We are just here to play, explore, learn, and grow. And when we start to look around and ask ourselves when something doesn't go our way, if we can say, What is the universe trying to show me? What is it trying to teach me? then we are just explorers exploring the universe, exploring it through these bodies, and expanding and evolving our consciousness as we go so that we can explore even more, and not just out there but within. Just as far as you can travel on this Earth or to the space station, you can go even deeper within, and you can explore the entire universe within. The problem really lies in the fact that most people never look inward, and so every moment seems like life or death, every day at work seems like the most important day at work, when in reality, it is just another day, just another day out of billions of days. And when we take that bigger perspective, we remove the pressure, the stress, the worry, the negativity that we put on

ourselves, and we can actually just be present, enjoying what we're doing with our full attention, so that we do it even better than if we are constantly worried, constantly thinking about what could go wrong, or thinking about whether it'll get us our promotion, or our raise, or our next house, or impress a romantic partner. And this truly is how we stay present; this is how we flow through life without resistance, and we are one with the universe because we are not forcing it to be a different way. We are working with it to achieve the goals that our highest self knows to be true for us. We are bombarded from morning till night with messages from society, our family, our friends, and the media, and all of this input can make us forget who we truly are, can make us forget what we really want and care about in life. And so, when we block all of that out and turn inward, we find ourselves; we find that compass pointing us in the direction to take our lives. It is really essential because what you discover when you

travel the world is that one culture is just completely into one way of believing and thinking about things, and you then discover, Wow, that is how I was, except in a different direction, and we realize how much we are a product of our environment and our society. And so, when we spend a little time in nature alone, or when we spend some time just closing our eyes and listening to our breath, we are able to discover what truly makes us happy instead of what society tells us will make us happy. And as we look at it more and more, we realize that anything that brings short-term happiness is not true happiness. And it's those actions and even lack of action, where we are not consuming content and entertainment, that we are able to raise our happiness levels after the activity is over. And these kinds of activities that take a little effort at first but make us happier in the long run, those are the things we'll start chasing: our fruits and vegetables, and our yoga and meditation. And so, we just have to block

out the noise so we can finally hear our higher self talking to us, and the wisdom within always knows what's best. Nobody else knows us, and we need to learn who we are more than anyone else. [Music]

This Video Will Leave You Speechless

Todd Perelmuter

Realizing how we contribute to our own unhappiness is the first step towards happiness.

Love is not just about creating internal happiness, but also about helping others see their own worth and potential.

True love is not about attachment or neediness, but about being open and loving towards everyone, including those who are hurting.

Inner change leads to a transformation in ourselves and the world around us.

Hurting others or embodying hate ultimately harms ourselves, and healing from the past is possible through the present moment.

Disidentifying from the ego and being present can teleport us into a rich, alive, and peaceful reality, where we are the creators of our own happiness.

Happy thoughts arise naturally when we let go of control and embrace the unpredictability of life.

Grief and sorrow hold beauty and meaning, reminding us of the significance of our experiences.

Expanding our perspective to see the wholeness of the universe allows us to find joy in every moment, recognizing life as a miraculous gift.

Inner exploration is crucial for personal growth and understanding, as it allows us to see the bigger picture of life.

Most people focus on external pressures, leading to stress and worry, but by looking inward, we can find clarity and purpose.

Disconnecting from societal messages and turning inward helps us rediscover our true selves and align with our highest goals.

Discovering True Happiness Through Self-Reflection

Traveling and experiencing different cultures reveals how much we are shaped by our environment and society.

Spending time in nature and practicing mindfulness helps us uncover what truly makes us happy, rather than following societal expectations.

Engaging in activities that require effort, like yoga and meditation, ultimately leads to long-term happiness and a deeper understanding of ourselves.