“The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves. We live in denial of what we do, even what we think. We do this because we’re afraid. We fear we will not find love, and when we find it, we fear we’ll lose it. We fear that if we don’t have love we will be unhappy.” ~ Richard Bach

Most of us don’t like liars. In fact, we often feel offended, even angry, when another person lies to us. But the truth is, we lie to ourselves every day. We engage in negative self talk and thought patterns that inhibit our personal growth and limit our ability to live a full and grounded life. We deserve to live life fully, to experience all of the joy and mystery that life has to offer. The first step towards this way of being is awareness. If we can become aware of the ways in which we are lying to ourselves, we can begin to filter our thoughts in a productive way. Here I have listed 10 lies that we need to stop telling ourselves in order to push past our own limitations and begin to enjoy the totality of living for which we are destined.

By Wes Annac, Culture of Awareness

If you think about it, the way we seek happiness as a society seems counterproductive. We rush around every day to earn a living, and in doing so, we never give ourselves any time for the pursuit of actual happiness, contentment or inner peace.

The busy, hurried nature of life causes us to seek happiness in shallow external things that only satisfy us for a short time before failing to meet our growing material hunger, and this causes us to crave more and more external stimulation as we gradually lose touch with our essence.

Anyone can temporarily lose touch with it, even spiritual seekers, and if we aren’t careful and we don’t diligently watch our thoughts and habits each day, we could fall into the trap and start relying on material things for happiness like everyone else.

Very quietly, peacefully and gently the raging inside will subside……..then one day soon, you will wonder what all the raging was for. I can tell you; to get you to this very moment in time. ~ Creator

Happiness is the greatest pursuit of life.  Some people want their dream job, others want to find their soul mate, but in reality, we are all just searching for happiness and joy.  Without happiness (or at least the hope of happiness), life almost becomes meaningless.  Here is the truth about happiness:

The number 1 thing preventing people from living truly happy lives comes down to their belief about what happiness actually is.  When you have the wrong idea about what happiness is, you will end up spending your whole life either looking for something in the wrong place or looking for something which never even existed to begin with.

Let’s go over some common false beliefs about happiness.  Here are 3 false beliefs that sabotage the happiness of many:

Give yourself a break. You may tend to be hard on yourself, too hard. You may tend to be a tyrant to yourself. To your expendable self, I hear you crack your whip and say:

“More more. Deliver more. Even if you have exceeded all my expectations, I will you to do better. And, then, when you do better, I will whip you to go even faster in order to prove something unprovable. What a hard taskmaster am I. I am insatiable. I will work you to the bone. I assign myself to illegal servitude.

“Maybe I am trying to prove to God that I am the hardest worker of all. Maybe I know only effort and strain. Maybe I think I’m not worth anything else unless I give and give. Maybe I think that to rest on the Sabbath is not for me. I certainly don’t seem to allow myself to both work and relax while I’m at it. I wouldn’t treat a horse the way I treat myself. I’m not even half so generous to myself as I would be to a horse.

“I would whisper sweet nothings in his ear. I would feed him the very best of the best, and I would make sure he has rest and does not work too hard.

“So what am I to myself? What kind of servitude have I sentenced myself to? What am I trying to run away from? What keeps me back from setting myself free? When is enough? When will I have earned my freedom?

“Why would I compel myself to overdo, as if whatever I do or how much I do cannot be enough? What have I done to myself, and why would I? Why do I set my expectations so impossibly high?