For a 2 minute audio version click here
A major cause of unhappiness is the competing priorities that pull us in many different directions, depriving us of true inner serenity eg I want to spend time with my family, but I also want to advance my career. Conflicts like these prevent wholeness and hence happiness.
In our society five things usually define a person: dignity, money, fame, education, status and Influence.
But these are all external layers, which many people may never possess.
Authentic happiness lies in discovering our oneness, which is the source of everything important in our lives.
Finding the Epicentre
Judaism has always understood that a human being must have an epicentre, a solid inner core that cannot be affected by the fluctuations of life. This core cannot be made up of many pieces eg possessions, money, holidays etc because the more we allow life to pull us in all directions, the more we distance ourselves from happiness.
Rather it is our connectedness to G-d, our soul’s love, loyalty, faith and intimacy that we share with our Creator that stabilise our life and make us happy.
As The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, has written:
“If throughout history an internal peace and harmony has been necessary for a person’s happiness, how much more so in our confused generation.
Concerning a Jew, the only way to reach inner harmony is with a lifestyle that does not go against one’s very identity. Our identity is one that cannot be switched or changed; it is an identity that is an inheritance from countless generations. In other words, a Jew can only find peace and harmony within himself through living an authentic Jewish life. No material wealth can substitute”