Happiness is truly an inside job. It’s been said that material things, and money won’t make you happy. It never was meant to. Poverty and lack won’t make you happy either. There is an article today in the New York Times, “But Will It Make You Happy?”
The issue is, nothing outside of yourself is going to give you the joy and happiness that can only be found within. It’s there already, yet it is covered over by the illusions of life. What are some of these illusions? The very belief that anything outside of you is the SOURCE of your joy is a major illusion.
The outer is really a reflection of your consciousness. It is a summary of what you have been “being”, “doing” and the perception of what this translates into manifestation, what you have. Even if you have many material possessions, if they were obtained in a state of being of ungrateful, whining, complaining, “not enoughness”, you will still feel unfulfilled when you obtain it.
If we feel dis-satisfied with ourselves, and that we are “missing something”, when we go to find it by getting whatever we think that is, we will still feel that negative feeling as the material things cannot fill a spiritual void. I get this. I get it because I’m aware and actively, mindfully addressing it in myself.
It is a process. It is not that I am broken and trying to “fix” myself. I’m just simply peeling away the “cataracts of the soul”, these illusion, beliefs that filter over the light of Spirit and distort how I see the world and myself. As I dump the conditioned beliefs handed down genetically, by society and the stories I created and wired into my brain/body before I realized this, I see life through new perceptual eyes.
The key to happiness is to BE happy – NOW. Now is all there is. You may have to deal with releasing the energy patterns in your body’s cells and energy field (this is getting into science now, not simply woo-woo, so keep your mind open if you want to grow).
Empowerment is just that – power within, coming from the inside out. This blog post is introducing my new video series, “BreakThrough to the Real YOU”. Do you know that there is an area in the brain known as the area of “autobiographical memory”? It is the STORY of who you think you are. When I wrote my book, “Empower Up and Play Big: Winning at Life from the Inside Out”, I called it the “Mental Me”. You can also call it “ego”.
Happiness and peace of mind seems to be on many people’s minds. After all, happiness and peace of mind are two elements that make for a life well lived. The challenge though is being clear enough to stay focused on principles that allow us to avoid getting pulled into the trap of “common knowledge”.
Common knowledge is often simply hand-me-down opinions that have been accepted as “just the way life is”. There is not a way life is that is universally true. What determines how you see life is the filter that you see the facts around you through, known as perception.
Perception is the lens we interpret through and if your brain has been unwittingly wired, particularly at a young age, to see life as threatening, this viewpoint will color the way that you see the world.
I’ve come to call these filters that keep us from connecting with our Authentic Self, sense of power, wisdom and peace of mind as “cataracts of the soul”. We all have many gifts and talents that are unique and would make a positive difference in the world.
Yet, once we develop perceptions about the world around us, our brain and nervous system keep us focused on the people, places and circumstances to keep our established perceptual systems in place. This is often the reason why change is challenging and why we stay stuck. It is difficult to have happiness, health, wealth and great relationships when your filter says, age brings disease, money is hard to get and people cannot be trusted.
The answer is to re-educate yourself while at the same time learning systems and processes that allow you to release the old perceptual memory from your nervous system/body. You can then learn how to more easily rewire and retrain your brain.
A practical example of how this plays out in your life can be seen from an article I read today about an “Aha” moment that Jada Pinkett Smith had. In the article you will note that she says that she micromanaged everything because:
Happiness and peace of mind is not something that will be found outside of you on any long-term basis. All of the rapid change and commotion that is going on in the world today is a reminder of this.
If my inner happiness were based on controlling the events that occur around me, I’d be in trouble right now. Yet, even in the midst of the outer instability in the world as reported by the media, I feel more grounded and less fearful than at anytime before in my life – why? For one thing, I’m learning the real power of mindset.
Empowerment is not just about confidence and speaking up or taking risks. It’s really all-inclusive – relationships, finance/career and health. Integrative empowerment involves spirit, mind and body. One of the reasons we struggle throughout life is that we are taught to compartmentalize ourselves.
There is too often a disconnect between how we really feel and what we do, or what we say. We talk about “pursuit of happiness” yet, when we or others attempt to come from an inner place of authenticity, if it does not fit inside of a narrow little box, there is not uncommonly, shame, guilt or blame heaped upon the one who finds a little courage to venture outside the “accepted” behavior for the group they currently associate with.
Well, I think it’s time to talk about how these dynamic impacts in a negative way everything from your health and aging, to whether or not you die with your joy and happiness locked deep inside of you. Over the many years I spent practicing medicine, I found that the people who were happiest, healthier and had the happier relationships tended to be open-minded, less concerned about what others thought of them and more likely to have a sense of humor or playfulness.
When we think that acting like an “adult” means that we have to be “serious”, or that to be successful we have to “work hard” or that health comes from focusing on avoiding being sick – we disempower ourselves in all of these areas. These are just common myths, common beliefs.
Emotional healing is an idea whose time has come. It is often ignored and swept under a rug, the old “elephant in the room” that people pretend that they don’t see. This is truly unfortunate as emotions are the fuel that runs the engine of our life.
Our intellect, logic and actions cannot rise above the quality of our perceptions, and emotions have more impact on our perception than what we think. This is also one reason why change can be so difficult for people.
We often think we want to change but because of our fear of feeling “bad” emotions, when uncomfortable feelings show up, we distract ourselves with all manner of drama, from workaholism to, well, all manner of additions and procrastination. And it’s not just our self-esteem and confidence on the table.
85% of all disease is stress-related, and stress is an emotional disease. Note the word “dis-ease”, or not at ease. The electrical energy of emotion is 60 times greater than thought and the magnetic energy is 5,000 times greater that thought.
In other words, when you feel good, you are a powerful attractor of that which resonates with the vibration of that feeling and when you feel “bad” you are going be on the “vibe” of these kinds of experiences. Science shows we live in a vibratory universe and like attracts like.
I use to be terrified of feeling pain, and there is a reason for this that often links back to early childhood, though not always. The long/short of it is, I discovered that once I stopped seeing feelings as something to be avoided, I was able to stop judging them and not dealing with my life.
Happiness is something that many people pursue. If you are pursuing it, you are on the wrong track out the gate! Happiness is not “out there”. It is not something to be “found”, as it is not lost.
It is really a matter of remembering, waking up. Remembering that you are more than merely human and that it is your “response-ability” that is a secret to your power to BE happy. You see, happiness is really a state of being. It is an “inside job”.
This time of year it is easy to get sucked into looking for happiness in things, and the “holiday season” is a great marketing tool for many merchandisers. While this is all fine and good, if you are expecting to experience lasting happiness, it would be wise to spend time getting in touch with your inner guidance, and cultivating your core confidence instead of seeking happiness in the next great gadget, outfit or piece of jewelry.
Again, I’m all for enjoying a variety of experiences here on our beloved planet, but if we don’t develop the awareness that we have choice as to how we respond instead of just continuing to react to external stimuli, we will easily be manipulated by others who don’t have our best interest at heart necessarily. Also, if we are depending on circumstances to “make us happy” – good luck.
The last I checked the only thing one can really count on in the physical world is, you got it – change.
Happiness is subjective and in essence is tied to inner peace. When I read some spiritual literature, I’ve come across the idea that to have desire is somehow a source of inner pain or is something to be avoided. I’ve even met people who believe that it is spiritual to have “no desire”.
Stop and think about it.
If I want to have no desire, isn’t that a desire? Another way of looking at it is, “I desire to have no desire”. Well, THAT IS a desire! I think to try to free your self of desire will only lead to frustration.
What’s the point of the human experience if we are to ignore our five senses? May as well be dead, actually, if you cannot feel or experience anything anyway. I prefer to make the distinction between desire and lust, perhaps, meaning that lust is more about being attached to something and feeling that you cannot have peace or be whole without it.
For example, I have goals, which help to keep me challenged and engaged in life. However, if things don’t turn out as planned, when I am living in the present moment and have a sense of surrender and trust that the universe is running based on principle, I can give room to the perception that perhaps I’m not seeing the “big picture”.
Perhaps my energy is not matching what I want to attract into my life at this time. Perhaps, my inner guidance knows something that my human senses are not appreciating. Perhaps, there is something bigger and better down the road, as long as I don’t allow myself to become impatient or frustrated in this moment.
I don’t believe it’s possible to have no desire and the pursuit of happiness this way will only lead to more unhappiness.
Happiness is truly an inside job. It’s been said that material things, and money won’t make you happy. It never was meant to. Poverty and lack won’t make you happy either. There is an article today in the New York Times, “But Will It Make You Happy?”
Happiness is something that many people pursue. If you are pursuing it, you are on the wrong track out the gate! Happiness is not “out there”. It is not something to be “found”, as it is not lost.
Happiness is subjective and in essence is tied to inner peace. When I read some spiritual literature, I’ve come across the idea that to have desire is somehow a source of inner pain or is something to be avoided. I’ve even met people who believe that it is spiritual to have “no desire”.
