At the end of the day, inner peace is what we all seek. It’s the motivation behind all our actions, although sometimes hidden or disguised. On Wikipedia, inner peace is explained as follows: (…) Inner peace (or peace of mind) refers to a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress. Being “at peace” is considered by many to be healthy (homeostasis) and the opposite of being stressed or anxious. Peace of mind is generally associated with bliss, happiness and contentment (…). Now who doesn’t want that, right? And so we all go out and about to do things that hopefully will give us this sense of inner peace. This makes me wonder. Why do we go out, to find inner peace? In my desire for inner peace I often find myself running after things, people and circumstances, all of which are outside myself. I then remind myself that inner peace can only be found within. Otherwise it’d be called outer peace. I immediately feel this sense of light, calm and warmth. I no longer need to run, I can relax in knowing that all I desire lies within me. It’s already there, patiently waiting for me to be discovered.

As I was strolling through the city of Rome, I was thinking about happiness and how it always seems to come and go. I was imagining it to be a profession, and realized that if it were, it would be the hardest work. Even having a dozen degrees wouldn’t be enough for guaranteed success. Because just as with a dentist, regardless of the amount of diplomas on the wall; you could still be genius or a dud.

What if happiness was a profession?
Just like a Doctor of Medicine, you’d need to master the skill of improvisation, finding new cures against unexpected attacks by unfamiliar viruses of depression. Like a Lawyer, you’d need to be an excellent debater, always able to convince the jury that the things that cause sadness are in fact opulent gifts of life. Like an Engineer, you’d need the talent to create fantastic theorems for building happy pieces of reality starting from what already exists. And you’d need the courage of a Physicist and dig deep into the core of transformation to discover the atoms of which happiness is constructed.

You’d also need to have patience, just like an Astronomer observing the evolution of stars. You’d need the generous mind of an Architect to conceive forms and shapes that enrich empty spaces with beauty. And like a Microscopist, you’d need to look beyond what you can see with the naked eye, because too often that’s just inadequate.

If happiness was a profession, you’d need to be cool like a Poker Player, bluffing yourself through life’s challenges. Like a Saint you’d have to understand, love and forgive all that comes in the way of your work of happiness. Like a Poet you must create beautiful new objectivities, by reinterpreting poor realities. You’d have to play it like an Actor and digest and purify it like a Writer. You’d need to be accustomed to poison like an ancient King and be able to turn lead into gold, just like an Alchemist. And most of all… just like a Yogi, you must be able to ignore provocations, because provocations cause anger, and anger… is a reason to be expelled from the register of the happy-‘professionals’.

So clearly, if happiness were a profession… it would be the craziest, most demanding job. Ridiculous even. And then I stopped walking and smiled. Because although it’s hard work at times, happiness is not a profession. It’s a force of energy, always there for us to tap into without any effort. And maybe that’s the hardest part of happiness: to not work for it at all, but to just let happiness… happen.

Silvia Bilotti
(This piece is an excerpt of Silvia’s upcoming novel, edited for focusNjoy by Stijn Ouwehand).

Silvia Bilotti was born close to Naples but currently lives in Rome, Italy. She works as an actress in theatre and television productions, she’s a singer and writer. She writes poetry and “Il Canto della Dea” (The Song of the Goddess) is the title of her last anthology. Her first novel “Apnea” is going to be published and she is currently working on her next novel and a new anthology.

More posts on happiness
– Happiness needs no cause
– Stop chasing happiness, start being happy

The following story is classic, probably told in many cultures. I found it thanks to a friend of mine, on Paulo Coelho’s Blog. Here it goes: There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small village. As he sat, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said. The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?” The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies for a drink – we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

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In western society we seem to be obsessed with getting results. Now, the word ‘result’ is defined as: the conclusion or end, to which any course or condition of things leads. So when it comes to the course of the things we’re doing, I guess it’s fair to say we are very much focussed on concluding them in order to have the result. Halfway the work week, we want it to be friday. For example, halfway a marathon you dream about reaching the finish line, setting a personal record. And of course it would be great if that were to happen, but with that kind of focus, we also lose something very valuable…

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Don’t worry…
Earlier today I came across a quote about worrying. It’s from the movie Van Wilder. The main character, a high school hero, at one point says: “Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere”. It made me think, because worrying is all about focus. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself worrying quite a while before changing my focus and move foreward. So why does it take me so long to snap out of this worrying state of mind?

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Knowing where you’re going…
In our world, ‘certainty’ is very much considered worth pursuing. ‘Knowing were you’re going’, is what that game is called. Whereas ‘uncertainty’ or ‘not knowing where you’re going’, means danger. At least, this is what we’ve been told from a very early age. For example, let’s take a look at the classic Andersen tale of Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel are left alone in a remote forest.

That’s fine, because Hans is very good at the game of knowing where you’re going. So he came well prepared and left a trail of bread crumbs to find the way home. But, oh no! A bird ate all the bread crumbs! Now they are thrown in utter uncertainty and, having no other option, they start walking – not knowing where they’re going…
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Alles verandert. Continu, zonder uitzondering. Jij verandert, je lichaam, je gedachten, emoties en gevoelens, je directe omgeving, de hele wereld en alles en iedereen daarin. En niets kan het stoppen. Dat is de overeenkomstige natuur in alles: het verandert, constant.

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