Note to future self: you have always carried joy in you | Deeper

Today I was reminded that though I greatly appreciate my experience in Hungary, and the opportunity to have been able to "start over," that I should never make the mistake of thinking the joy, and peace that I have come to know while here is only available here.

I am reminded that I carry it within me.

I am forever grateful that I was able to access these dimensions of me during my time here, but I also realise that when I leave this place, I will still be able to access them.

This is because they are inside of me, and I carry them around me every time, wherever I go.

I get to feel the pleasant feelings that I felt during the various experiences and interactions if I do not get attached to the experiences and interactions themselves, but rather realise that the feelings - of joy and peace, for example - have always been inside of me.

That, these interactions and experiences only allowed the feelings to come alive, and that it is, therefore, my responsibility to search out for experiences and interactions that allow those feelings to come out.

In this way, I save myself the trauma of being attached to any one of those experiences or interactions or ever thinking that I was happy, or joyous because of them.

People and things having the power to "give" us happiness, or joy, or any other pleasant feeling is a very risky endeavour.

It is risky because we take the power from ourselves, and hand it over to them.

Then where the people or experiences are not present, or when they are present but not making us feel the way we believe they should, we are left empty.