There are a number of pleasurable experiences that I have continued to believe are something that I must have in order for life to be worth living. These things have held my attention as what I have believed are the source of my enjoyment. I have seen these things as something outside of me that causes me to experience what I experience. Yet, I have been the source all along. It has not been something outside of me, but that has been my belief. I have believed that certain various things define my enjoyment. I am the cause of my enjoyment, but have all along believed that something out there has caused it. Circumstances that I have defined as enjoyable have led me to believe that I can only experience joy if the circumstances meet certain criteria for enjoyment to exist. So from that belief, I have tried to change the circumstance into what I have defined as enjoyable.

I will use the example of heads and tails to illustrate. If I believe that heads is enjoyable and tails is not, then from that belief, I try to manipulate the circumstance so that heads will occur more often, and last longer than tails. Yet I have not seen that it has only been me allowing myself to experience joy, when the circumstance has been heads.

I have never been bound to experience joy only while the circumstance is heads, but I have believed that it must be that heads has caused my enjoyment. I can experience joy at any time, but I have not allowed myself to do that unless I believed the circumstance permitted it. All along it has been me directing me in allowing it or not. but I have directed myself to be directed by how I have defined the circumstance.

For instance, when people say look on the bright side, this implies that there must first exist a bright side in order to experience joy. We are not bound by a circumstance to experience joy, but we have permitted ourselves to be dependent upon what we have accepted as a definition of when it is possible and when it is not possible for an enjoyable experience to exist.