What does happiness depend on?
“Happiness does not depend on getting other people’s approval – it depends on getting your own approval” from A Thousand Paths to Happiness by David Baird.
Are you your own worst critic? I know I am. The moment I’m given a compliment or praise, I demur and try to downplay it or insist that it was really nothing special. With the encouragement and support of my friends and ‘family of choice’ I’ve learned to silence that critic and accept and approve of myself.
Many of us do the same thing. As soon as we get a compliment or praise, we downplay it or brush it aside. Yet, when we take the time to be honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we want those compliments and words of praise. We are dissatisfied with our efforts when no one notices what we’ve done.
Taking the time to nurture ourselves helps us to learn to approve of ourselves. Then compliments and praise from others becomes the icing on the cake of our lives.
Because we take time to nurture and approve of ourselves, we no longer need to depend on the approval of other people to validate our sense of self worth. Being happy is no longer an up and down kind of thing. Happiness is ours for the choosing when we love and approve of the self we are becoming.