The one element alone that causes much unhappiness: is our sense of attachment to belongings, relationships, and ideals. We attach ourselves to the thing or being and view it as an extension of us identifying us. Until lost.
We are disappointed not necessarily because of the loss but our attachment to it. This may include forfeiture of prized possessions or something we value, and when it’s no longer ours or is damaged, what is genuinely missing other than the item. It’s the attachment that hurts us as if the element no longer makes us whole or the damage sullies us. It was a material object.
Similarly, we create expectations of others, including within the work environment, where we have obvious expectations of how we would like others to behave and perform. We become attached to a notion or belief that we hold. And when these are not met, we are disappointed and dissatisfied. Yet why? They performed to the best of their abilities, and the performance merely missed the mark of our narrative. It was our narrative or own attachment to an ideal. Similarly, what do we lose when we leave a job or retire? In our relationships, attachment causes us to feel lost when it is no longer attainable or available as we wanted.
If we can detach from a glorified idea of an item, ideal, or a person, and appreciate we are whole without and it is a notion we manifest that troubles us, we will likely find a higher sense of happiness and less hurt within ourselves, when without.
