How Healing Supports Happiness
Not only does happiness support healing, but in my experience healing creates the foundation for much greater happiness. My context here is psychotherapy, so I'm referring to the healing done when someone has done a lot of personal work. I want to keep this simple - just as happiness itself is simple - so I'll just make a couple of key points.
With almost any kind of depth therapy, there is a clearing out of old stuff: old feelings, old self-images, beliefs that have been hiding, and old patterns of behavior. Clearing that out leaves us fresh and open. Happiness flourishes in this environment.
Happiness comes with a healed heart, and a healed heart is an open heart. When we have undigested pain, we often close ourselves off to not feel the pain or we get caught on it, like a boat on a snag.When we've worked through our pain, we're much freer and more open. The heart is then available to appreciate all kinds of things. I hear music in a whole different way than I did when I was submerged in my struggles.
Healing leades to a more resilient and fluid nervous system. We can move out of low into high gear and function well there, enjoying it. Without a more fluid system and clearing out old conditioning, feeling good can feel bad.
Research has confirmed the ancient wisdom that happiness doesn't come because we have what we want, but because we are at peace with what we have and who we are.
For a more whimsical account, see Happiness Is A Wild Horse.
