Wellbeing

The Barefoot Doctor on how to find happiness from within

Learn to be happy now, rather than thinking you’ll be happy if and when something happens, says the Barefoot Doctor

Learn to be happy now, rather than thinking you’ll be happy if and when something happens, says the Barefoot Doctor

We tend to put a lot of demands on ourselves at this time of year. We think we’ll be happy once we’ve got everything sorted out – the finances, the home, the cleaning, the laundry, the ironing, what to wear for this event or that, and so on. We think we’ll be happy when we’ve attained social status, or become famous, or achieved our goals. We think we’ll be happy when we’ve retired to our place in the sun, or when we’ve finally worked out what’s bothering us.

And it’s true. For a moment at least, there’ll be a sense of triumph over adversity, a feeling of relief, a spark of pride in our achievements, or a sense of being important. But as you know, it really is only for a moment, and before you know it, that old existential unrest will be tugging at your shirtsleeves once again.

Because unless you’re fully in touch with the deepest ground of your being, the internal ‘background presence’ aspect of you that bears witness to your life unfolding, which remains constant through easy times and hard, nothing external, not even the greatest success, windfall, or romance, will bring you anything more than a fleeting relief from the underlying unrest.

The nature of your deepest self is happiness – the pure happiness of simply being. Existing on this planet and enjoying being part of life, simply because life is the greatest, most miraculous gift of all and taking part, regardless of circumstances, is the greatest experience. Everything else, the moments where you have everything in order, have achieved a goal, or are enjoying gratification of the senses, is just a passing entertainment.

Hopefully that all sounds good to you, in theory at least! However, putting it into practice is where you’ll reap the true rewards of your own perpetual contentment.

TRY THIS

1 Physically tilt your torso back just a millimetre and you’ll get the sense of tipping your inner presence into the back of you, so you’re leaning up against your shoulder blades, hip bones and the front of your spine.

You’ve now become your ‘background presence’ and taken command of your experience rather than vice versa. You can now sense the feelings going on in front of you in your stomach but are no longer confused with or by them.

2 Tilt your head back slightly and feel your mind slide backwards until it’s nestling up against the rear interior wall of the skull. You’ll notice the internal conversation about life has instantly stopped and you’re now able to bear witness to being alive, rather than be held in thrall by it.

3 Now breathe slowly and, relaxing your muscles, you’ll notice you feel perfect, complete, and abundantly alive, regardless of whatever stressful situations are occurring in your life.

Once you have mastered this simple, very subtle movement exercise, practising it is a must. It’s useful to try to remember to keep repeating this internal move with frequency throughout the day, every single day. With regular practice, within no time at all, you’ll find yourself with this ‘background presence’ state as your default position and with that, you’ll hopefully experience a constant state of internal happiness as you work, rest and play.

Article by

Barefoot Doctor

Tao Master

Barefoot Doctor is a leading tao master and has written numerous books including the cult classic Handbook for the Urban Warrior. His latest book is called The Man Who Drove...

Discover more

Article by

Barefoot Doctor

Tao Master

Barefoot Doctor is a leading tao master and has written numerous books including the cult classic Handbook for the Urban Warrior. His latest book is called The Man Who Drove...

Discover more