Finding Happiness
My initial inclination is to say that when we are an open vessel we invite and attract happiness. I still think that is true but I also think we can help it along with our intention, Intention is powerful and as many know it drives us in the direction where we would most likely want to be. Here are my shares in the area of finding and keeping happiness:
Look Inside:
Do not, I repeat, do not look for happiness in other people, you will be disappointed over and over again. Look inside yourself for the happiness that is either there or not there, Seek to find out why you are not as happy as you would like to be and ask yourself sone honest questions about the way you are living your life, the things you choose to participate in and what you surround yourself with, In AA it is equivalent to taking your inventory. Sit down and make a list of the things you often do and the things you are not doing to decide if you are living in the actions of happiness versus the illusion of happiness, We can all have a lot of material things but let's not count that in the equation of our joy, Just talk about those things in your life that have some spiritual, emotional or physical value. Once you have completed the list, take a hard look at it and decide what things on this list are no longer serving you and make some changes however slowly, bit by bit.
Define Happiness for You:
What does happiness mean to you. Does happiness mean that you hold a feeling of joy and smile often? Does happiness mean that you do the work that is meaningful to you versus making lots of money? Maybe happiness means that you downsize, sell the big house, move to a more affordable area in the US and let go of a relationship that is toxic? Defining happiness is about getting clarity around what it is for you and possibly what is missing in your life that you know will express in the form of more joy,
Here are some examples:
Happiness means that I get up each day with excitement and a zest for life.
Happiness means that I am doing the work that I am meant to do.
Happiness means that I can feel joy when I am alone doing things that lift my spirit.
Happiness means that I don't have a lot of things and expenses but that I live more freely to do what I love to do like travel and explore the world.
Some of us have given this idea of happiness very little thought and for this reason alone defining it is the first step to finding it and experiencing it. If we are living day to day, pay check to pay check we are setting ourselves up for stress and that alone is taking away from our joy.
Know that Happiness is Free:
I know there are those who would not agree sighting that money does bring happiness yet I am going to go out on a limb and say No to that notion. I have seen "poor" children in Mexico who live on a beautiful island with only a few parents, some with and some without, in a village that lives off the land and eat lots of fish. When I came to this island a group of children came towards us to greet us and the tour guide whom they knew and was well loved. The first thing we did was serve ourselves lunch from a beautiful array of food and as we all situated ourselves the children came over and sat with us. The smiles on their faces was infectious and not one asked anything of us. My gift of knowing how to speak Spanish was truly helpful in my experiencing the fullness of these children's joy who lived in this isolated island. These children could not have been happier and they been from a wealthy family in Mexico City or California. In their bare feet, short and white gauze shirts they looked like cherubs from heaven. Later the guide let us know that many of the children on this island did not have their biological parents but in fact were being raised by "foster" like mothers and fathers. It was then that I knew that happiness is in fact free and that joy comes from being in the fullness of our spirit. Happiness my friends is free and we must remember this for this is the key to knowing that we can all have it. Letting go of the notion that financial wealth equals happiness is to let go of a myth that we have been domesticated to believe that is in fact a lie.
The Birth Right of Happiness:
it seems to logical right, to say that happiness is something we have a right to? It seems so arrogant does it not? But my beloveds, it is far from being arrogant but rather just a knowing and a state of being. We were born to be happy and none of us were brought here to be sad and miserable. Yes there is suffering and yes there is pain but if we look at the birth of a baby we can see that there is this joy and peace that they come to the world with. We learn how to be unhappy my friends, We look for ways to punish ourselves with pain because we are often times self-loathing and hold onto all that old stuff. We were not born with that baggage. We were not born with all that self-hate. We were not born with all that negativity and self-destruction, When we know that we all have a right to happiness then we simply trust that happiness is who we are. We understand that we don't have to look for it in a Mercedes or a mansion in Florida. We get that what we own has less to do with how we feel and that happiness is a state of mind we set ourselves to experience and be in,
Believe in Happiness:
Yet another stupid notion from Coach Elliott yet I believe it with all of my heart. Believing in happiness is about having faith in it and trusting that we can be that highest joyful energy. Believe you can be happy and believe in the fact that there is a power in the universe that holds our highest vibration that we can source from. Believing is understanding that no matter what we can and will find our happiness once again, even if things have not been as we planned because nothing is. I believe in happiness and I find it each day in the sun, in a conversation with God, in the song I heard on my way to the grocery store and in the trees and birds that surround me.
Look Inside:
Do not, I repeat, do not look for happiness in other people, you will be disappointed over and over again. Look inside yourself for the happiness that is either there or not there, Seek to find out why you are not as happy as you would like to be and ask yourself sone honest questions about the way you are living your life, the things you choose to participate in and what you surround yourself with, In AA it is equivalent to taking your inventory. Sit down and make a list of the things you often do and the things you are not doing to decide if you are living in the actions of happiness versus the illusion of happiness, We can all have a lot of material things but let's not count that in the equation of our joy, Just talk about those things in your life that have some spiritual, emotional or physical value. Once you have completed the list, take a hard look at it and decide what things on this list are no longer serving you and make some changes however slowly, bit by bit.
Define Happiness for You:
What does happiness mean to you. Does happiness mean that you hold a feeling of joy and smile often? Does happiness mean that you do the work that is meaningful to you versus making lots of money? Maybe happiness means that you downsize, sell the big house, move to a more affordable area in the US and let go of a relationship that is toxic? Defining happiness is about getting clarity around what it is for you and possibly what is missing in your life that you know will express in the form of more joy,
Here are some examples:
Happiness means that I get up each day with excitement and a zest for life.
Happiness means that I am doing the work that I am meant to do.
Happiness means that I can feel joy when I am alone doing things that lift my spirit.
Happiness means that I don't have a lot of things and expenses but that I live more freely to do what I love to do like travel and explore the world.
Some of us have given this idea of happiness very little thought and for this reason alone defining it is the first step to finding it and experiencing it. If we are living day to day, pay check to pay check we are setting ourselves up for stress and that alone is taking away from our joy.
Know that Happiness is Free:
I know there are those who would not agree sighting that money does bring happiness yet I am going to go out on a limb and say No to that notion. I have seen "poor" children in Mexico who live on a beautiful island with only a few parents, some with and some without, in a village that lives off the land and eat lots of fish. When I came to this island a group of children came towards us to greet us and the tour guide whom they knew and was well loved. The first thing we did was serve ourselves lunch from a beautiful array of food and as we all situated ourselves the children came over and sat with us. The smiles on their faces was infectious and not one asked anything of us. My gift of knowing how to speak Spanish was truly helpful in my experiencing the fullness of these children's joy who lived in this isolated island. These children could not have been happier and they been from a wealthy family in Mexico City or California. In their bare feet, short and white gauze shirts they looked like cherubs from heaven. Later the guide let us know that many of the children on this island did not have their biological parents but in fact were being raised by "foster" like mothers and fathers. It was then that I knew that happiness is in fact free and that joy comes from being in the fullness of our spirit. Happiness my friends is free and we must remember this for this is the key to knowing that we can all have it. Letting go of the notion that financial wealth equals happiness is to let go of a myth that we have been domesticated to believe that is in fact a lie.
The Birth Right of Happiness:
it seems to logical right, to say that happiness is something we have a right to? It seems so arrogant does it not? But my beloveds, it is far from being arrogant but rather just a knowing and a state of being. We were born to be happy and none of us were brought here to be sad and miserable. Yes there is suffering and yes there is pain but if we look at the birth of a baby we can see that there is this joy and peace that they come to the world with. We learn how to be unhappy my friends, We look for ways to punish ourselves with pain because we are often times self-loathing and hold onto all that old stuff. We were not born with that baggage. We were not born with all that self-hate. We were not born with all that negativity and self-destruction, When we know that we all have a right to happiness then we simply trust that happiness is who we are. We understand that we don't have to look for it in a Mercedes or a mansion in Florida. We get that what we own has less to do with how we feel and that happiness is a state of mind we set ourselves to experience and be in,
Believe in Happiness:
Yet another stupid notion from Coach Elliott yet I believe it with all of my heart. Believing in happiness is about having faith in it and trusting that we can be that highest joyful energy. Believe you can be happy and believe in the fact that there is a power in the universe that holds our highest vibration that we can source from. Believing is understanding that no matter what we can and will find our happiness once again, even if things have not been as we planned because nothing is. I believe in happiness and I find it each day in the sun, in a conversation with God, in the song I heard on my way to the grocery store and in the trees and birds that surround me.
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