Happiness - how to achieve it

Recently I came across the following story that resonated with me deeply and I see it an easy to remember reminder how to achieve happiness, no matter what.

A man came to Buddha and said, " I want happiness. How do I achieve it?" and Buddha answered, "First you get rid of the 'I', the ego. Then you get rid of the 'want', the desire. And then you are left with happiness."

Even now that I recall the story, it makes me pause and smile because of the inner-most truth that it tells.

The 'I want' is distracting us from the here and now, and focuses on what we do not have or what we have lost. To feel truly happy, it's so vital to appreciate and be grateful for what we have - material as well as immaterial goods, memories we have, people we love, the lessons we learnt.

And while it's important to take care of oneself and listen to one's body, the ego gets in the way when we put ourselves ahead of others, believing that we know better, deserve better, instead of seeing ourselves as part of the bigger picture.

And so my happiness does not depend on what I have. Happiness also does not await me at the end of my road. Being grateful and appreciating what I have in the here and now, puts me in a happy state of mind - as easy as that ;-)