Have you ever chased a rainbow? I have. The first time I saw\nthe glimmering end of a rainbow, I scooped up my spade from the sandpit as I\ndarted past and then scurried through the gate at the back of the yard and into\nthe park where I saw its ending shimmering on the damp green grass in the\nmiddle of the field. I didn\u2019t make it far before my small child legs gave up\nexhausted. I chased one or two more rainbows after that time, fuelled in all\nlikelihood by the reading of far too many Enid Blyton fairy stories. All again\nwith the same outcome; disappointment and no pot of gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not too many years\nlater and as a somewhat wiser child, I liked to think (I had given up the fairy\ntale notion of pots of gold and spades) I had formulated a plan to get myself\nto the end of the ever elusive rainbow. I was older, stronger, could run faster\nand longer than before and this coupled with determination, I was sure next\ntime would get me there. The day of the plan\u2019s execution dawned like any other.\nI was hanging out with my younger brother, riding our bikes on the concrete\ndriveway – down and up and around the letterbox when one of us spotted a\nrainbow. It was close. Its bow arced\nacross the sky in all its glory and it looked like it finished \u2013 it did finish\n– right in the centre of the park behind our house. Game on! We dropped our bikes and took off.\nThis time we were going to get to the end!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m sure reader that\nyou can see where this is going. We ran to the centre of the park and the\nrainbow was now three quarters of the way across! When we reached three quarters it was at the\nfarthest side. When we reached the far side of the park it was over the fence\nand in someone\u2019s back yard. Well we jumped right over that fence (don\u2019t tell my\nmother) and kept on doggedly chasing that rainbow\u2019s end! We went through that\nsomeone\u2019s garden, then down their long driveway until we reached the busy main\nroad. It was at this point that my dream gave way to the disappointing reality\nthat the end of a rainbow can never actually be caught. It\u2019ll keep moving and\nshifting, ever elusive. Teasing with promise and then shying away. With this\nrealisation, I walked home the long way around (I didn\u2019t want to risk getting\ncaught in someone\u2019s back yard), dragging my feet in disappointment. My brother, bless him, decided to forge on and\nwent through a few more gardens and back yards before he reached the same\nconclusion and returned home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happiness is a bit like that rainbow. When happiness is our\ngoal, our end game, that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; when we focus\non it, make plans to get it and chase it down, we too can find ourselves one\nday standing there defeated and disappointed by the realisation that it can be\nnot just elusive but fleeting as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now happiness has a couple of different meanings. The first\nis that happiness is an emotion: a sense of contentment or pleasure. It feels\ngood when it is present and so it is no surprise that we want it and chase\nafter it. However, like all emotions, happiness comes and goes. As humans, we\nare created to experience the full spectrum of emotions both the pleasurable\nand the difficult. To want only happy\nfeelings 24\/7 is like expecting blue skies and sunshine every day. Yes,\nunrealistic. So to be fully human, fully alive and to experience life in all\nits richness is to experience all emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other meaning of happiness is a sense of wellbeing, joy\nor contentment in a life lived rich and full of meaning. When the outworking of\nour lives reflects our values, beliefs and all that we hold dear, a deep sense\nof contentment and meaning follows. This\nis happiness. This is not a fleeting emotion, it is a profound sense of a life\nlived fully, with meaning and purpose. This happiness will bring with it many\npleasurable feelings, it will also bring difficult and painful ones like\nsadness, fear, anger or loss. And this is all normal. It is what it means to be\nhuman and fully alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a nutshell: When we focus our attention on the pursuit of\nhappiness – like chasing rainbows for the pot of gold – it can leave us feeling\nunsatisfied, disappointed and depressed. To live a life of meaning and purpose,\none that is in line with our values and all that we hold dear \u2013 this is what\nbrings true happiness. Pursue this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Have you ever chased a rainbow? I have. The first time I saw the glimmering end of a rainbow, I scooped up my spade from the sandpit as I darted past and then scurried through the gate at the back of the yard and into the park where I saw its ending shimmering on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-counselling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}