Paulo Coelho

Why do we feel the need to protect ourselves from happiness?

We often run away from happiness because of guilt: of reaching our goals, our accomplishing our dreams. It is a very bizarre logic – we keep on striving to be happy and once we manage to achieve our goal we feel we don’t disserve it.

Actually, we wish to entertain an image of ourselves – as victims – and this in my eyes is just another way of being vain. We torture ourselves because we would like to be something we are not and this is why we turn away from happiness.

In my eyes, to be able to accept happiness is to forgive ourselves and accept ourselves as we truly are – not as we would wish ourselves to be. Acceptance and humility are the cornerstones of joy.