The Price of Happine$$
This story will help you with your mindfulness training online. Mindfulness meditation helps us become more familiar with the nature of the mind and this is one of our roads to happiness, but how much is it? What is the price of happiness?
“I have been waiting for you, Gavin.” Mr Ross hugged his grandson, whom he waited for so long.
“I know Gramps, and you know why I’m here”
“Do not waste your time buying that box of Enough Happiness my child. Truth is, there had been fewer demands of Enough Happiness when people suddenly crazed over Enough Beauty, Enough Love, and Enough Sex. And on the last production of Enough Happiness, every box was put into a bid before it was sold.
And for years now, people had been bidding over that last box of Enough Happiness in our Store. And I’m saying that you don’t have to waste your time bidding on that box because I know you could outbid them all at one bet….”
“So Gramps, are you saying that I don’t have to waste my time bidding on that last box because… because you have a box kept for me somewhere?”
“No Gavin. I mean, will you give up everything for a box of overpriced Happiness? Enough Industries was discreetly teaching us a lesson.”
“But Gramps, Enough Happiness was the first reason why I aimed for who I am at the moment. And I believe I deserve Enough Happiness now, I have proved myself worthy of it. I want it, Gramps. Though yes I may not need it at the moment I know someday I’ll do. I’m just a bid away from that something I wanted my whole life.”
“Well then…” Mr. Ross handed Gavin a paper and put his finger to his lips to gesture a hush.
Gavin almost ran to the Store after their conversation. He was smiling, excited.
He went to the Enough Industries’ Section and saw it.
People were busy bidding on that little box—like vultures preying on a sole carcass in the desert. Everyone wants that box for themselves.
It’s the last box of Enough Happiness, of course, anyone, everyone deserves a box of Enough Happiness but there isn’t enough Enough Happiness.
‘How ironic’, thought Gavin.
He wanted to raise his hand knowing he could outbid everyone.
But he walked away from it, went on a dusty shelf, and found it. He stared at it. And looked around.
It was on a section with not much crowd but people come by now and then. It didn’t seem like it was a hit product but it seemed like it sold alright. The thing was underrated by no means, but still, he went to get a pack of it.
Gavin held the pack proudly and lined waiting for his turn.
Inside his head, he was replaying his grandfather’s words to him before he left the house. The old Mr. Ross had said,
“People had been bidding for that lone box for so long now. Wanting Enough Happiness at a price so high, they would even bet their life on it if given the chance. They’ve been consumed with the thought that Enough Happiness can only be acquired with a huge amount of Money and Smiles. But on this paper Gavin, you now will know, that as people had been fighting over a lone box…
… there is a long dusty shelf with Enough Happiness for everyone, though now only under the Enough Industries secret label – Contentment.”
Gavin reached the cashier and though he hasn’t even opened or paid for the package yet, he felt unusually complete.
Mindfulness is a simple practice that can bring deep contentment. Mindfulness, which is commonly used in meditation training, produces a surge of beneficial brain chemicals, called endorphins, giving you an instant experience of the power of contentment in your life.
You are free to use the above story when you teach meditation to help culminate a sense of mindful satisfaction or contentment— the price of happiness.
