Here is a special story that shows us how we identify with happiness. Its a short Sufi, Middle-Eastern story taken from here.
The Sack
Mulla came upon a frowning man walking along the road to town.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, “All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack.”
“Too bad,” said Mulla, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man’s hands and ran down the road with it.
Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking.
Meanwhile, Mulla quickly ran around the bend and placed the man’s sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.
When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, “My sack! I thought I’d lost you!”
Watching through the bushes, Mulla chuckled. “Well, that’s one way to make someone happy!”
How To Be Happy?
Most people coming to me for therapy obviously come with some immediate concern at hand. However innately they appear to be holding the same question in their hearts as all of you who read this perhaps also do. ” How to be Happy?”. Some part of any counselling process often gets dedicated to helping people identify the happiness that is already there in their lives, in the present, and to experience it for what it is worth.
As the story shows, Happiness is not a distant bird somewhere in some bush. It is often perching right upon our own shoulder. Often we fail to recognize it unless it flies away or as in the above case case, gets taken away.
I wish all of you who read this a pleasant discovery of this already existing happiness, at least for today.
About the Author
This article was written by Sadia Saeed, Chief Counsellor and Founder of Inner Space. This post was consulted & approved by professional therapists practicing online therapy and counseling.
Hi Pooja, you are most welcome.Keep reading 🙂
Hi Sadia Raval, Thank you so much for sharing an amazing Inspirational story.