We spend most of our lives chasing happiness as if it were something we could eventually catch. But the fact is that happiness isn't something you catch. It's something you climb toward, one step at a time, the way you'd move toward a light in the distance.
However, most of us treat it like weather, meaning that it happens to us, or it doesn't, and we wait for it all the time. But actually, happiness works more like altitude. There's a line, and you're either living above it or below it, and which side you're on depends less on your circumstances than on how honest you're willing to be with yourself.
If you are above the line, then you would be in a calm state of mind, a settled sense of who you are, and nothing external would be then required to keep the feeling in place. Now that's not the same as constant cheerfulness, it’s steadiness. So, you can have a bad day above the line and still be fine. If you are below the line, where most of us actually live, then you would sink deeper in your thoughts.
At first, dropping below that line is uncomfortable, as you notice something's missing and go looking for it. But the more you keep sinking, the discomfort keeps increasing. And this state of absence of happiness then becomes normal for you. And that's the real danger zone. So, then what’s the way out to climb up the line? Well! Nobody climbs from rock bottom to the top in one go, right? What works better under such a situation is to gradually move from one point to the next one. Don't try to fix your whole life today, relax and just be fully present for the next twenty minutes. Then the twenty after that. It sounds too modest to matter, and that's exactly why it works. That's the only version to "get happier" that you can actually start doing in the next five minutes, instead of the next five years.
Just remember: None of this requires perfection, or constant vigilance, or getting it right every day. It requires noticing when you've slipped below the line, and being willing to climb back, one post, not one leap. That's it. That's the whole method.
