{"id":774,"date":"2011-08-31T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/?p=774"},"modified":"2011-08-19T22:01:53","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T02:01:53","slug":"the-path-to-actualizing-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/08\/the-path-to-actualizing-happiness.html","title":{"rendered":"The Path to Actualizing Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:<\/strong> I have been studying positive thinking and spiritual truths for many years, and in some ways I have grown from it. However, at this late date in my life I have to look up and say: “So what’s it all about, really? ” After all this knowledge, and acting on it most of the time, I am left without a friend, and now I have cut ties with my children. I have lost everything I ever possessed. I do know that we create ourselves, our lives\u2026 I have just never learned\u2026 how do I finally actualize what I really want?<\/p>\n

Answer: <\/strong>The lesson here — albeit a bit unpalatable for now — is that there is a real<\/span> difference between knowledge and being; the former is intended to be only a ladder to another level of self that doesn’t look for itself in any exterior condition, while the latter knows, without thinking, that it is always right where it needs to be to continue its true spiritual growth.<\/p>\n

The sadness you feel belongs to the part of you that now realizes it never knew, never had the “power” it imagined… and wants to hide itself from you so that you don’t walk away from it yourself.<\/p>\n

There is another kind of happiness that awaits anyone who will walk away from their disappointments and anger that comes only with seeing that they have never been these dark states, their demands, or the self that serves as their unconscious instrument.<\/p>\n

Persist… you are near an important discovery, but only if you remain in the world of seeing what is… instead of rejecting and resisting what is not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: I have been studying positive thinking and spiritual truths for many years, and in some ways I have grown from it. However, at this late date in my life I have to look up and say: “So what’s it all about, really? ” After all this knowledge, and acting on it most of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,514],"tags":[781,223,647,780],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sadness-depression","category-wholeness-happiness","tag-actualizing-what-i-want","tag-dark-states","tag-discontentment","tag-qualities-that-lead-to-happiness"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Path to Actualizing Happiness - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/08\/the-path-to-actualizing-happiness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Path to Actualizing Happiness - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: I have been studying positive thinking and spiritual truths for many years, and in some ways I have grown from it. 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His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. 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For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}