Fundamental Wellbeing doesn’t, as such, make us happy. That, in itself, is an impossible aim. Guaranteed happiness isn’t something we can achieve. However, when we transition into fundamental wellbeing, we do start a process of unravelling the things that make us unhappy. I think we can say: we increase the chance of us being happy, and we likely increase the percentage of the time that we are happy.

If that sounds worth pursuing, then the question comes: how do we transition into Fundamental Wellbeing?

There is no one way. Just as the cliched route up a mountain depends upon where you’re starting from, each and every person will be starting from a different place. It is common for teachers of various Fundamental Wellbeing methods to focus on their own method exclusively, missing the fact that many students have different needs.

As well as originating the term “Fundamental Wellbeing”, one of the key insights from the work of Dr Jeffery Martin is that, rather than keep trying the same failed method for years, we are better off trying a range of methods in sequence – to see and observe which of these works best for ourselves.

To transition, we have to step outside of pure abstract thinking. Abstract thinking can only process abstract thoughts, but our experience and awareness is capable of perceiving so much more than this, and the the things that bind us aren’t in thought themselves. Can we slow down our mind a little, allow some space for observation, and start to feed our mind some more experiential observations to work with?

Over the next few posts, I’ll introduce a few methods that I have found useful – methods that won’t guarantee happiness, but are certainly effective in helping us let go of some of the deep seated causes of our unhappiness.