The Art of Happiness

Lately I’ve been asking myself how I can affect the world? I asked myself today, “How can I help others experience the joy and sheer happiness that I live each day?” I thought about the wonderful life I live. I thought about my amazingly perfect finance. I thought about the fact that I just celebrated my 12 year anniversary on February 12th of my bone marrow transplant. I thought about the fact that I get to open my eyes each morning, that I get to wake up in a warm bed, that I get to spend money on delicious foods, that I have the option to go and exercise at an amazing gym. And I thought, “Why doesn’t everyone know how to experience the joy and happiness I do?” Here’s my answer…

Where Is Happiness?

Happiness. What is it? Where is it? As a life coach the first thing I hear from my clients is, “I want this, or I want that, or I need direction here, or I need perspective here.” What I respond with always is, “Why?” Why do we want anything other than what we see in front of us? Why don’t want we want to live in our now moments? Why are we always searching for something else? Typically the response is, “Because I’m not happy where I’m at!” Ah ha! So really the underlying desire is to find happiness. And I use that phrase loosely because that is what we tend to hear. “Go find your happiness!” “Seek to find joy.” As if joy and happiness are some external pot of gold at the end of your new boyfriend rainbow…or perhaps at the end of your lottery rainbow…EVEN BETTER! And so you seek and you seek and you seek, but that rainbow continually evades you until you are left in despair and sadness.

So I ask my clients, “Mrs. Jones, where is your happiness?” “I don’t know Zach that’s why I called you!” We have developed these habits of understanding that happiness is outside of my realm of existence. When somebody tells me I’m good at something, or I’m beautiful, or I’m smart, or I’m funny, or when someone really really really understands me then I’ll be happy. So then you meet someone who tells you you’re beautiful and you’re happy then they stop texting you and you’re sad, then someone looks you in the eye and really listens to you and you’re happy, but then they avoid you and you’re depressed. Constantly riding the teeter-totter of other-induced emotional chaos. And then you and your friends get together and talk about how Dillon is a dick for not texting you good morning or how he’s changed and doesn’t treat you like you deserve to be treated anymore, and you suffer.

Here you are, being thrown on the tumultuous sea of relationship-induced emotion, or work-induced emotion, and you forget to ask yourself where your emotion comes from and resides. So where is it? Who in this now moment is experiencing pain? Fear? Anger? Resentment? Hope? Joy? Happiness? It is only you. And where do these emotions emanate? Why of course…it’s YOU! When you have a delicious piece of fruit do you think that happiness is contained within it’s walls and you just absorb that joy as you eat it? While you are having a wonderful conversation with a friend or partner do they just exude happiness and you absorb it? Of course not! Happiness, joy, love, hope, fear, resentment, anger, depression all reside and come from you!

What Is Happiness?

So if happiness comes from you, what in the world it it? Why do sometimes you experience happiness and sometimes experience sadness? Now these questions are the bread and vegan butter to your life.

Happiness is nothing more than an indicator of your connection to your Inner Being. Hear this…I’m going to say it again. Happiness is nothing more than your indication of your connection to your Inner Being. You can call this Inner Being anything you want to…Spirit, Source of All That Is, Divine Intelligence, Holy Spirit, Soul, God, Guardian Angels, Energy, whatever. Now if you are not a believer of a Presence that pervades all things and supports all life, you’re in the wrong place, scroll to the “x” at the top of the page and go watch some youtube videos.

Abraham-Hicks describe your emotions as a GPS system. Our emotions are a way to know how in alignment we are to our Inner Being. When we feel good that is an indication that we are in alignment with Spirit. When we feel bad that is an indication that we are out of alignment with Spirit. That is all…your emotion does not belong to anyone else other than you because your emotions are your indicator of your alignment with your Inner Being.

How Do I Align With My Inner Being?

Well that’s a very good question!!! Thanks for asking! To go further, your emotions are your indication of how well your THOUGHTS are in, or out of, alignment with your Inner Being. So think for a second about having everything you have ever desired. Think about living your dream life with your perfect partner, your perfect body, your perfect house, in your perfect career. Now when you visualize yourself being in that place you feel good. You align with where the larger part of you, your Inner Being, already is. Your thoughts and beliefs are the creative force in your life and your emotions indicate whether you are aligning with what your Inner Being’s thoughts are upon the same subject!

When you bottle yourself up in your house and watch reality TV, then judge the people on TV, then think about all the things that they have that you want and how they don’t deserve it, you feel bad! You feel like shit don’t you? And why do you feel that way? Because the thoughts you are currently thinking and the thoughts your Inner Being have about that same topic are in complete misalignment! But when you go outside for a walk, listening to the birds singing, thinking about how great your body feels and how warm the sun feels on your skin you feel great! Because in that moment the thoughts you are thinking are in complete alignment with your Higher Self!

How Do I Hold Onto Happiness?

Goodness, you are just full of great questions! 😉 Happiness is not something you need to hold onto because it is never outside of you. No matter how many times you get thrown into anger or fear or sadness, happiness is your natural state of being. One thing you can hold onto is the fact that happiness is your natural state. Babies come into this world full of joy. Why do you think so many people are drawn to a smiling baby? Because in that moment of sheer joy shining from the baby you are reminded of the beauty of life.

Happiness, just like any emotion, is simply an indicator. When you remind yourself of that, and begin to believe it, you know without a doubt that happiness is literally just a thought away. So the question really becomes, “How can you be a deliberate focuser of your thoughts?” How can you right now redirect your thoughts so that happiness and joy emanate from you? How can you change the thoughts you’ve been thinking right now so that you bring forth more joy from within?

When you begin to see that there is a stream of well-being that abounds in this reality, you begin to let go of all the thoughts that cause you to feel fear. When you begin to realize that joy is the state of nature, then you rest the constant thinking that overrides you. When you begin to believe that there is a Presence that wants only the best for you, when you cultivate that faith, happiness can only be there within you.

What Can I Do To Be Happy?

Now that’s the question you should be asking!

The first thing you can do it develop a practice that brings you into the now. I suggest meditation or ecstatic dancing. The sheer purpose of these practices is to develop awareness of the now moment by recognizing that you are the director of your thoughts, and not that your thoughts direct you. These help to bring you into your now, forgetting all the things could happen or might happen, and allow you to be where everything IS happening.

The second thing you can do is begin being thankful for this life and everything you possess in it. Gratitude without a doubt flips the switch in your brain and enacts the great Law of Attraction to work for you. Waking up in the morning and starting to think thoughts about all the wonderful things in your life connects you immediately with your Inner Being and gratitude ensues. Gratitude and happiness are on a vibrational equivalent and as you think thoughts that cultivate gratitude, the Law of Attraction brings you similar thoughts that match those thoughts.

The last thing you can do is read books that help you change your perspective, and to get out and move your body. Reading books that remind you of your innate potential enhance the mind and the soul, and getting out and exercising or moving enhance your body. The effects of exercise on happiness are too numerous to count. When you are enriching your mind, body, and spirit you can bet your sexy ass that your feelings of happiness will overflow.

BE Happy!

I hope that this little meandering has helped you to realize that only YOU can create your own happiness. I hope you’ve come to realize that you can get out of your own way. You have every opportunity to live a life that is deserving of you, and not only can you but you should! The Source of All That Is did not build a world where suffering is the only option and the dominant force. Happiness, joy, love are our true reminders of our innate beauty and potential. When you remember that, when you truly begin to believe that once again, happiness will be your overriding feeling. You’ll remember how perfect you are and how with practice, and then with habit, that happiness is a choice and it is accomplished through your thoughts.

 

With All My Love,

Zach ❤ 🙂