The Way to Happiness Isn't by Telling the Truth

The way to happiness (the purpose we all share) isn’t by telling the truth. It’s by telling our truth. Let me tell you how I know this’s true.

Aside from absorbing and believing Mike Dooley’s new book, Life on Earth, and getting a new understanding of “Everything matters, nothing matters, and why aren’t we having a little more fun here,” I know truth is in the body of the beholder.

Mike talks about things like the meaning of life, and karma, and purpose. He has a knowing that shoots out of the pages like a tanning bed mist, sprinkling you with good coolness. We believe his truth because of the way he expresses it; confident and unattached to your reaction. My guess’s he feels his truth and is able to express it with certainty because he knows he’s the only one who can feel it.

Our truth is based on feelings, emotions, sensations, knowing, experiences, thoughts and beliefs. My truth, I’m going to guess, is different from yours. We may share similar truths, hence resonance, but mostly our truth is uniquely ours. So my question today is, what’s the truth?

Maybe we could decide the truth has to do with scientific laws, like gravity, another one Mike talks about. And accepting the reality of gravity is probably a good thing. But how we each experience gravity; our truth about it (how it feels for us), is different. If I feel one way, and you another, which is true? Both, right?

The rules, shoulds, and supposed to’s governing our lives are based on other people’s truths. The only way I have a choice about whether or not that truth is a good one for me to live by is to be aware and feel my way through it. The rule giving you the most freedom might make me feel like I’m in a cage.

“I don’t like the system,” a friend likes to say often. I get what he’s saying because the system is a bunch of rules made up by other people who impose them on the rest of us. They’ve figured out a way to make their truth a rule or law society has to follow. “But without rules there’d be chaos,” you say? Is that true?

If our leaders were in touch with their bodies, like really mindful of the feelings, sensations and emotions within, aware and awake to the essence inside and the connection with all other living beings, their laws would be different.   Truth comes from being in touch with that place inside you, the connection to what’s good and true for you. Problem is most of us have spent decades going by what we were taught is true, instead of what’s true for us. We’ve been taught to trust others, not ourselves. We’ve been taught to find our truth through others, not our own feelings.

What happens then is a life-long fight to be right. My truth is the truth and I’m right, says this book, or this teacher, or this theory, or this lawmaker. We fight to be right instead of collaborating and embracing each other’s truths. We judge instead of being curious. We struggle and resist instead of relaxing and going with the flow.

None of this matters. And everything matters. And why the heck aren’t we having a little more fun here? I agree with Mike; it’s time to have more fun and do this adventure right. How? By being mindful of my truth, knowing it’s different from yours, and learning from all the possible interactions that creates. By practicing curiosity, moving away from judgement, and noticing the gift in each moment, whether it’s true for us or not.

By all means, tell your truth. But don’t expect it to be mine. Express your enthusiasm for it, but don’t expect me to buy in. Live fiercely alive in the middle of your truth, but don’t attach to a need for it to be mine. In that surrender…in that awareness and open, gentle flow you’ll find the freedom and happiness we’re all searching for. And that’s my truth.

What’s yours?