Hello, dear friends! Let's think, why do we study psychology, all sorts of different psychotherapeutic techniques, engage in coaching, learn to dream? And psychology, and all of the above, and philosophical movements, and even religion itself are given to us so that we can be happy. But what a pity that, often starting to study all this intellectually, we forget about the most important thing - the content. We get lost in the form, in words, in rituals, in learning something, and, hop - we lose the essence. Why does this happen? Because a person has not learned to distinguish real happiness from pleasure. By the way, did you know that in Sanskrit the soul is called Atman, which means happiness and bliss itself? That is, it turns out that happiness is not found in the soul, but the soul itself is happiness. And this is what we should start from. Yes, I’ll tell you, this is exactly what they didn’t talk about at the Institute of Psychology, everything is more about form, IQ is calculated there, everything is divided into diagrams, put a person in some cell, maliciously diagnosing him))), oh, I didn’t like that business... Although, you know, this can also come in handy to understand yourself better: what kind of specimen am I and how to build bridges to yourself, to your “I”. So, the pleasure that we are all so actively chasing, headlong, thinking that this is what will make us happy, this is nothing more than happiness from the outside, a shadow, an illusion. And in this illusion we can live our whole lives, using coaching to find goals, make plans to achieve a career, fame and wealth, or it may turn out that we are simply developing greed in ourselves. A person wants money, sets goals, starts earning it, but it seems to him that it’s not enough, he sets new goals, achieves them, and again he is not satisfied - he wants more and more, but for some reason happiness does not come. Don’t throw tomatoes at me, friends, you might get the impression that I am against prosperity. No, and even very much in favor))), only when it comes from the heart, because a person can be truly happy both in a palace and in a hut, and being poor and being rich, but it is like a fountain from the heart. Yes, it would be great if each of us could say: I am rich because I am happy. I like the idea of ​​the eastern sages about the philosopher's stone, which can transform any metal into gold through chemical reactions. After all, this is the greatest truth, but people do not always interpret this metaphor correctly! And the idea of ​​the sages, in fact, was that gold symbolizes light or spiritual inspiration, and therefore our unconscious pushes us in search of that very career, fame and wealth! And in conclusion for today, I want to say that it is the craving for true gold, which is the light of our soul, the fountain of happiness, that is our motivation, desire and inspiration for movement, for growth, for self-realization! I hope that I wasn’t being too smart today))), and everything seems simple, but it’s not simple. As always, I look forward to your questions that will inspire me. Leyla Mamedova, practicing psychologist and coach, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine “Svobodnaya Gorozhanka”»