Everyone knows what happiness feels like, so we might assume that true, or radical, happiness—what we feel when we are experiencing our true nature—feels like the exciting kind of happiness we feel when we get what we want. However, it might be better if we had a completely different word than "happiness" for the true, deeper, ever-present happiness, which I refer to as radical happiness, since radical happiness is quite a different experience than the more exciting kind of happiness. This is why this radical happiness is often simply referred to as joy or even inner peace.

Radical happiness is not the exhilarating, "Whoopee!" kind of happiness we usually think of when we hear the word "happiness." The fact that radical happiness feels different than the "Whoopee!" type of happiness we love to feel doesn't make radical happiness less wonderful or desirable. But it is different.

"Radical" means root, and it points to the happiness that is at our core, the happiness that is experienced when we are aligned with Essence, our true self. How radical happiness and the more exciting kind of happiness are alike is both are an experience of feeling free, complete, content, and at peace with life. How they are different is that one comes and goes and the other is always available when we turn our attention toward it because it is our natural state.

The happiness we are most familiar with usually shows up when we get what we want and disappears when we feel we don't have what we want. Feeling the ecstatic happiness of getting what we want is great, but if we make feeling that way our goal in life, we will be very disappointed because that state of happiness cannot be maintained. It is created by the ego and, before long, destroyed by the ego. It comes when we get what we want and then goes when we lose or fail to get what we want or when a different desire shows up.

Our desires take us on a roller coaster ride, and happiness (the "Whoopee" kind) is tied to this roller coaster ride of getting what we want, with the flip side—unhappiness—being the experience of not getting what we want. This kind of happiness is the result of our egoic nature—our thoughts, beliefs, and desires. We believe we will be happy when we get something—and we are for a while, until we believe we need something else to be happy. This is the human condition: looking for happiness in some thing or some experience. When that thing or experience no longer satisfies or it disappears, so does our happiness.

The beauty of radical happiness is that it is our natural state. What an amazing thing that is! At our core is joy, peace, wholeness, contentment—happiness. What a gift that is, and what a wonderful testament that is to the goodness of life. What's true about life is that joy, peace, and contentment are always available whenever we turn away from the untruths of the egoic mind, especially the lie that happiness is dependent on having what we want. Egoic happiness is dependent on having what we want, but radical happiness is not. When we aren't getting what we want, that is often an opportunity and a very good time to discover that radical happiness is still present. Not getting what we want often drives us deeper spiritually, and that's perhaps what it's meant to do.

The reward is rich when we stop looking for happiness outside ourselves or stop depending on that "high" from getting what we want and begin to find the sweet inner peace, joy, and completeness that lie within.

Only you have the power to turn your attention to the more subtle peace and contentment at your core. Radical happiness is always there, waiting for you to notice it. Just stop and notice. Is it here right now, even just a little? Pay attention to it, and the experience of it is magnified. This radical happiness, unlike the exciting kind of happiness, is always available, it is always enough, and it makes everything feel like enough.

Gina Lake is a spiritual teacher who is devoted to helping others wake up and live in the moment through her many books, counseling, and intensives. She has a master's degree in counseling psychology and over twenty years experience supporting people in their spiritual growth. Her website offers information about her books and consultations, free e-books, book excerpts, a free monthly newsletter, a blog, and audio and video recordings: http://www.radicalhappiness.com.