Happiness comes from Within / Glück kommt von Innen / A felicidade vem de Dentro / La felicidad viene de Dentro

Happiness comes from within, declare a million advice blogs and books, Twitter messages and Facebook memes.

The idea that happiness comes from within has taken a deep position in our collective psyche.

Wellbeing is not anymore engaging with others but engaging with an inner journey, a self-focused personal quest.

Most of the happiness trends, from self-help books to meditation, are designed to be carried out completely alone, or have the explicit that each person stays in their own private emotional experience.

In the United States alone this happiness trend, this inner exploration has become a multi-billion dollar industry.

In the United States around $1bn is spent on self-help books each year, $4bn on mindfulness products and therapies, $10bn a year on yoga classes and accessories.

There are now more than 1,000 options for happiness apps to become happy within our smartphones. Strange kind of emotional individualism.

This self-focus has come at the expense of outward engagement. Our wellbeing has become seperated from community, social justice or political responsibility.

The happiness trend urges to live a apolitical life, a non judging Awareness, to renounce analysis, critical thinking or imaginative empathy.

But while we have been in this happiness bubble, we failed to notice a profound rage growing within Society. This deep discontent found its expression in a dangerous, racist, demagogic environment.

How many were at a yoga class disconnecting from the World news in service of our own mental health, while Donald Trump won the election.

Excessive self-focus leads to unhappiness, depression, loneliness and anxiety, whereas its opposite, social connection, is overwhelmingly the single biggest source of Human happiness.

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