So much of the most infallible wisdom in life seems deceptively simple. Tip #28 is one of those cases. If I were told I could only give one Happiness Tip to everyone, this one would be it. Be Honest with Yourself. When you are honest with yourself, everything else just falls into place.
Think about it.
How different would your life be if you never did anything you didn’t really want to do? …if you didn’t play emotional games? …if you didn’t worry about what was politically correct?
Here is a simple exercise for getting to the core of the real you. It works really well as part of a hypnosis session and that is how I learned it: Imagine you can remove layers of yourself, each representing the roles that you play. For example, there is the layer that is the mom or dad, the son or daughter, the boss or employee, the caretaker, the baseball player, the dog owner, the _____ fill in the religion, the political party, etc., you name it.
Now start removing one layer at a time. And ask yourself, “Who am I now?” Just keep removing layers of yourself and asking the question. When you get down to the level, I am, start asking yourself what you need to be happy. The more we get down to our core selves, the less we really need of the material world to be happy. Try it for yourself.