The Pursuit of Happiness

What was so important, so critical about this statement that on July 4, 1776, led Charles Thomson and John Hancock to put it into the Declaration of Independence? Later fifty-six men would sign this document and the words inside would never be forgotten. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” What brought these men to writing those words on that day? America and the British colonies had been under English rule for too long. They were slaves to an unruly king. These men knew what rights were given to them upon being brought into this world; Life, and not only life, but liberty, liberty that cannot be controlled by another, and finally the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness is our right but that happiness isn’t going to be just given to us, we have the right to pursue it.
These men knew they were not being given the freedom to pursue their happiness. They understood happiness was not just going to be given to them, they were going to have to pursue it, and they had the right to do so. The pursuit of happiness is real. It is an authentic and natural desire of our lives. For those that feel a deep emotional pursuit for happiness, simply meeting the criteria of beliefs about what is supposed to make us feel good doesn’t satisfy this pursuit. At a deeper level it becomes about the heart’s desire, or satisfying something at the level of the soul. Answering these desires is much more meaningful and emotionally fulfilling than satisfying the beliefs of society.
To create, and live in true happiness, we need to learn not to blindly chase the false beliefs of society. We have to pay closer attention to the end goal of emotion and not jump after the first idea the mind offers as a means to get there. When we go after happiness by satisfying societies belief system we have taken our eye off the...