You're going to be. Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. There are many, many things that our minds create that we think can cause

us unhappiness. But the key factor here is our minds create. The beliefs that we hold in our minds greatly impact us. But here in the

United States and unfortunately around the world we are being consumed by consumerism

and so much of our unhappiness comes from wishing things were different

wishing we had something else than what we do have.

For example, I remember meeting a woman once who had a beautiful daughter and she was very

happy with her daughter, but she really wanted another child.

And though her husband really loved her and her daughter really loved her,

she was so utterly unhappy because she just wanted a second child. All her mental energy,

all her mental commentary, went towards that focus, and because of that, she she greatly and I do mean greatly suffered.

Now to those of us not in this situation we may think that's funny, but I would encourage

all of us to spend some time, maybe stopping this podcast, and just reflecting

on what are we focused on that we don't have, because I can guarantee us that if we focus on what we don't have we're going to be unhappy, we're going to suffer.

And it can be really anything.

Maybe we think we'll be happy when we lose those extra 50 pounds.

Maybe it's when we reach a certain financial level and we get that promotion.

Maybe it's for when we meet our soulmate and our lives will then begin. Or, like in this lady's case, maybe it's

when we have our first child, just even our one child, and then we'll be happy. The list can be endless because the second we fulfill one of our

desires, a new desire takes its place and we just continue to suffer. We may want to be healthy. We may want to get a better grade on our test. We may want to get our first vehicle. The list can be endless.

In many ways, our lives are like Cissophus from Greek mythology.

He was sent to eternal punishment, and his punishment was that he would roll a rock up the hill and every time he just got there,

the rock would roll back down and he'd have to start all over again.

...