Is there a secret place where happiness actually lies? If your happiness seems to go up and down like the stock market read on. You will be in for a pleasant surprise. Here are three steps that you can take to find lasting happiness:

1. First determine where happiness is not!

Everything that you see is in motion. Even if you can capture a moment of happiness from the objects that you want, when the condition of that object changes, it will seem as if your happiness got snatched away.

As an example, just as you are about to take a bite from your favorite ice cream, your dog jumps up and knocks it to the ground. The ice cream that was once very appetizing now becomes very unappetizing.

But even if you get to enjoy your ice cream, there is another problem: Your capacity to enjoy it changes. If you don’t believe me try eating thirty five ice cream cones. Instead of discovering happiness, you will probably discover sickness.

But even if you are hungry and get to enjoy your favorite ice cream cone, there is still another problem, your mind keeps changing. Imagine you are about to bite into your favorite ice cream. Everything is set up for your full enjoyment. Then you look out the front window and see your dog as she’s run over by a car. Your ice cream drops to the floor as you rush outside to help your dog.

With human relationships and marriage multiply these changing factors by two. Is it any wonder that marriages instead of becoming the place of peace and joy become the place of a jumbled mess?

So the object's changing, your capacity to enjoy it is changing, and your mind is changing. But when they all line up, bingo, you get the happiness that you want.

Isn’t it a wonder that you can derive even an ounce of happiness from the things that you want? Yet even with this information, I don’t thing there is even one person who will lock the door to their room, put the covers over their head, and not attempt to find lasting happiness.

People have an inexorable longing to find happiness, the place where they can rest at ease and finally feel at home. Is life so cruel that you have a desire for lasting happiness that can never find fulfillment? Or maybe there’s a secret that few people know? Read on to find out.

2. Learn the secret place of happiness

So is there something that we overlooked here. All of the objects that are supposed to give us happiness are incapable of doing that. And yet we have this unstoppable urge to find the peace that will last. Now here’s the secret, happiness comes from the place where you actually experience it, not form the objects that you see. By overlooking this one simple fact, our happiness seems to go up and down as the objects we see change.

If this is hard to understand, here is an example: The satisfaction that you feel when your new car gets delivered; were do you experience it? Do you feel this satisfaction over there in the shiny new body, the powerful engine, or in the sparkling new windows of the car, or do you experience it right here where you stand? Experiment a little, and using your direct experience of happiness as a guide, find the place where you actually experience happiness.

If you determine that you experience the satisfaction here, and not over there at the car, then perhaps the car wasn’t really the cause of your happiness after all. Did the car remind you of something that you had all along and just overlooked? If you can find this place of uncaused happiness that was not created when the car was delivered, and will not be destroyed when the car breaks down, then you will be on your way to finding lasting happiness.

This is the little secret that can turn your life from despair to pure joy in a flash. Imagine, you already have happiness that you seek each day of your life, and you just overlooked it; what a relief!

3. Get in the habit of living by your new knowledge

The joy of the direct experience of happiness is living what you know. This does not mean pushing the things of the world away. That would assume that they have the power to take your happiness away from you. But the things of the world cannot give you what you already have, and they cannot take it away either. Once you know the secret of happiness, even if you get fooled for a few minutes, you will easily be able to return to that which was always yours and always will be.

Now you may have a glimmer of hope that you can find your true home, and abide as the source of happiness. As you continue to draw your happiness from the place that it actually comes from, you will discover a depth and beauty to this wisdom that is unfathomable. It is like finding a many faceted jewel that keeps getting better and better. Best wishes to you as you plumb the depths of your own center and enjoy that which is really yours.

Michael Gluckman Author of “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive”

George Fine when writing about Michael’s book said: “Reading Michael’s book is like listening to a wonderful symphony that leaves you feeling uplifted and refreshed. It is highly recommended for all those who sense that there’s an alternative to suffering, and who what that alternative now.”

For more information on your natural freedom go to:

http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html