The key to happiness

Recognize that nothing comes into your life without your attention.  Nothing stays in your life without your attention either. Pay attention to passing thoughts.  Listen to your words. Observe your behaviour. Notice your experience unfolds based on you.

When you choose to feel joy, this is evidence of success.   When you choose to talk about why you feel unhappy or why life is not going well, is it any wonder your experience reflects your words? You always get what you ask for. This also goes beyond words.

Take for example a woman who used to complain and self-criticize. She came to me and said one of her goals was to engage in a healthy, loving relationship. Unaware of the impact of her behaviours, she told me she slept in the middle of a big bed, filled her two sided closet with stuff, used one of her garages for storage and the other for a car. She also worked crazy hours with no social life. As she raised awareness, she began to see she was not being kind to herself or others and not making space for anyone to enter her life. Amazing things happen as you make space in the home and the heart. She cleaned out half her closet and started sleeping on one side of the bed. She chose to work less, was kinder to people because she could be not because she had to be. She began to see all life experience invites her to love herself more.  As she did, in thought, word and deed, the perfect partner entered her life. She discovered the key to happiness is loving yourself.

Another example is a man who sees his family moving from a rental to owning a home. He takes great pleasure from the vision.  He knows that nurturing joyful feelings is bringing a good feeling space closer in his reality.  It has to feel like the next logical step.  Grateful for the location and convenience of the rental, the whole family is also eager for what is coming. They appreciate the natural surroundings of their new suburb, visit houses, post an image of the house to buy like a vision board on the wall and look at it often. They explore furniture showrooms, discuss how to remodel parts of the new house and add solar panels. They develop a related business plan. Although a banker said they do not currently qualify for the mortgage they want, they remain optimistic. They thank the banker for his advice while sensing money comes from varied sources. They know the 'what' always comes before the 'how.' They behave as though details are in motion, give away belongings they no longer use, and do things you do as you prepare to move. They trust the universe has a plan. Life shows them the key to happiness is to be joyful where you are and focus beyond the limits of the mind.

Another example is a woman who asks me guidance in identifying her life purpose.  I remind her that she has nothing to figure out and nobody to live up to.  We are each eternal beings who create our paths and everything about our experience.  Its easy to forget that well-intentioned people train you away from your own inner guidance system.  I say to the woman as I say here you cannot make decisions that are the best for you while pleasing others.  There is no finished portrait of your mission that you can ever reach.  You move incrementally through experiences that are simply meant to make you feel good. So, you cannot get off your path. You can only live a purposeful life.  You can be deliberate about creating or not.  You are consciously in love with life and express this, receive and feel this fully or not.  For this woman, the key to happiness is to recognize events unfold based on how she feels and what she chooses to experience.

Ultimately, the key to happiness is the feeling of worthiness in all you do, knowing your value, that whatever you do you are winning, getting ahead, living the dream, that whatever anyone else is thinking or doing is irrelevant.  As you get a handle on how you feel, its like allowing yourself to be who you are.  In this state, everything comes to you.  Even to feel negative emotion is pointing to who you really are. Take this away:

1) Dwelling on 'what is', on what the mind judges is wrong or not possible prevents what could be from coming.  Ignoring 'what is' is as simple as focusing on something else.

2) Love yourself as the larger part of you does.  You only suffer if you cut yourself off from love and acceptance. You are the creator from the beginning to the end.  Know what you do and do not want. Know what feels not good and what feels better.

3) Revel in contrast.  Come into alignment with the best feeling thought you can find. Rather than saying, "It could be worse if...", say instead, "It is so great that..." or "It is fantastic that..." or "Its truly a blessing that..." or "It is so fortunate that..."

4) Be eager and solutions-oriented when apparent obstacles arise.  Remind yourself that more than one way to do things and to get places exists.  Be resourceful.

5) Be someone who chronically appreciates everything. reach out and help others because it is the right thing to do.  Be generous with no expectations.  Know you are living a good life.  Achieve the vibration consistently and watch what happens. 

6) Feel fulfilled as you are, wherever you are, and then like magic, "it" comes.

Connections are emerging

All around and within you, connections are emerging to reveal you are exactly where you are meant  to be.  Notice confirmations and synchronicity.  They all point to the same thing. 

Try to make something perfect and it remains imperfect. Do what comes naturally and it is always perfect. Nature is perfect; effort is imperfect. When you struggle and strive, you overlook what is natural.  Call it selective awareness or amnesia.  You block deeper seeing.  As the mind stops talking a mile a minute, you stop. Realize something is feeding it.  That which feeds the fire, or keeps the mind noise going, also prevents you from seeing beyond it. 

Brace yourself: You fuel the fire.  In essence, your attention, belief or identity is the fuel from the egoic mind.  This said, all fires go out without fuel.   You can observe without being consumed by drama. Recognize you can be strong without the mind but the mind cannot be strong without you.  The mind itself is pointing to what you do not yet see about yourself. 

Meditation invites true seeing to emerge.  Bring the attention back to what you cannot be, what no  longer makes sense to your life experience.  Verify.  Confirm what you are and are not.  Notice what is settled inside.  Notice the nature of awareness.  Where are you looking from?  Who are you looking as?  Solve the mystery that keeps you from satisfaction.  Be at the place where the seeing arises from.  Something is watching the coming and going, the transitions and changes in your life.  This is the source of innate wisdom you are seeking.

Have a happy mind

Many experiences are universal yet, must be discovered and rediscovered by each of us at our own pace.  We allow wisdom to reveal itself through us when we are ready and willing to accept it.  We each weave our own tapestry of life by making choices. How to maintain a happy mind?

1) Break free of the traps of the mind: Let go of the past, stop focusing attention on fear and the future. This releases you from ties binding you to karma/ family histories (recover the 'original self'). As identities are seen as the masks they are and shed, personal histories shrink and fade.

2) Be aware of and let go of attachment to inner possessions; judgments, thoughts, values, and ideas about right and wrong.  Notice everyone is a teacher pointing to existing contentment.

3) Break free of the traps of the body/ impermanent world. Thinking about doing anything is the hard part. Notice how the mind stalls and postpones things. Taking action itself is easy.

4) Explore the true nature of freedom & what it means to be 'liberated in life.' Notice you deny the ultimate freedom. You only step beyond parameters after you create them and grow aware.

5) Bring together the elements of a fragmented existence.  Each person who is open and receptive grows aware of an inner pilgrimmage and unique experiences with Spirit.

6) Be here in this present moment in mindfulness and kindness. 

"Renounce the self that does the renunciation." -Swami Venkatesananda

The truth of intrinsic value

Brainstorm what you value. Notice certain metals, gems, and currencies may appear on the list. Notice physical and non-physical things you value evolve with you. Think some things are more valuable than others? Pay attention to who interprets what has value for "you".

Now, step back.  You begin to see nothing has value, or holds importance, unless you believe it in the mind, unless you buy into collective agreement about what has value. You begin to see the inner judge in action. Notice what happens as you begin to see through your beliefs. How do you feel about an inner shift to valuing more peaceful, mindful awareness? 

Whether or not you get that job, the relationship breaks up or stays together, or your wildest dreams come true, what has intrinsic value always provides what you need.  Observe: The less attached you are to people, weather, seasons and other things, the more you accept what unfolds in your scope of awareness with grace and gratitude. As well, the more receptive you are now, the more empathic you are of people and their circumstances, and the more willing you are to reach out and lend a hand. Everything points to what has intrinsic value.

It is said the more things of value a person acquires, the more fearful and insecure he is about losing them. As you remain reserved, do not allow yourself to attach or cling,  you come to appreciate where you are and an amazing thing happens. Fear and selfishness disappear. What you have or not is less important than how you feel. You only see the good in people.  Everything points toward it. You only see things as they are (not as the judging mind does).

Letting go of expectations shifts the focus inward.  Keep in sight the nature of impermanence and non-self.  Accept the insight of impermanence in this moment.  When you resist being here as  wholeness, you resist embracing true self.  Be nothing.  Understand everything. As human beings, we share one Source, one origin. What we cannot change has intrinsic value.  Send energy of love and compassion to every part of the body.  All that matters is revealed.

"We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government..." -George Farquhar

Be aware

Be aware.  Step back to observe how the mind functions. Notice stillness and what is engaged when you think or feel a current.  What is your focus of attention as you choose to agree or disagree? If you dislike something in your life, notice what happens as you change your thoughts. Harness the power of mind. Recall who is actually captain or master of this ship.

It is always possible to detach from conditions, to stop thinking, comparing, judging. All it takes is  letting go. Call it a shift inward if you will. Flow into a new mindstream. Engage the senses mindfully. Notice the waves simply arise and pass through you. All currents, forms of resistance, emotional reaction and suffering, cease. Peace and compassion flow freely now.  Feel it.  Be that.

"In fact, everything we encounter in this world with our six senses is an inkblot test.
You see what you are thinking and feeling, seldom what you are looking at." -Shiqin