Choose To Be Happy

I’ve shut off most news sources in my life. The television and Internet news were just blood sucking happiness leeches, filling my mind with unnecessary doom and gloom.

Everyone wants to be happy. Sure it’s sounds incredibly corny, but if you think you have a better theory please let me know. Happiness isn’t overrated, it is the primary goal of our lives. There is no better feeling than waking up in the morning and looking forward to the day.

Of course life isn’t always going to be full of rainbows and lollipops. Problems arise when you start to believe your constant negative thoughts and feelings are facts, but in reality they are not you. They are not facts. They are only struggles in your mind. You CAN let them go. So just let them go.

I avoid people that complain and insist that the world is against them. They have become totally blind to any type of appreciation and would rather wallow in self pity.  Perhaps they will die like this one day, wallowing in self pity. And don’t get me started about excuses.

I choose to listen to inspiring audio books when I drive into work.  I choose to think about how lucky I am to have shelter, food, safety and love in my life. I am hopeful for the future and realize my potential is almost unlimited.  I meditate to cease the struggle of my mind, coming back to the present moment over and over again. I notice the deep blue sky during a sunset.  I stand outside in the quiet of the morning, gazing at the cool shades of the morning sky and listen to the birds.

I choose to be aware of what’s around me.  I choose to be happy.

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Finding Peace And Harmony With Meditation

Plenty of people ask me how to meditate.

I think a better question would be why I meditate.

Meditation is about letting go of the normal world and associated thoughts that constantly invade the senses and mind. Meditation is about just being instead of doing. Meditation is about becoming friends with yourself and realizing that separation from the ego brings freedom and happiness.

We bombard ourselves with thoughts beginning with I. I need to pay the bills. I need to lose weight. I need to buy a new something. I should be eating better.  Probably 80% of these thoughts are constantly and annoyingly repeating themselves from one day to the next.  It seems to be a constant struggle. Meditation trains you to quiet the mind and look at life from new perspective. By calming the mind, you begin to distance yourself from all that mindless chatter and begin to think with more clarity. Meditation reduces snap decisions and trains you to look at yourself and your thoughts with a friendly curiosity. Instead of being overwhelmed with sudden angry thoughts, you become more inquisitive about your thoughts. Most importantly meditation slows down and relaxes the mind. Don’t we all want that? Don’t we want to exercise the body and the mind?

By practicing meditation, you will find that it affects your whole day. Decisions are made with more clarity. Peacefulness resides in the background of you at all times. You realize that struggling with thoughts all the time was a waste of time.  Life will throw you curve balls all the time. It isn’t easy sometimes. But the more you are able to quiet your thoughts and stop labeling and twisting them, the easier it becomes.

So step out of all those thoughts of desire, dislike, fear, and ego. Don’t let them control you. You can learn to control them.  Soon you will see yourself changing and become friends with yourself and your thoughts. You will chase your thought less often, become less judgmental and see the world with more clarity.

And finally, if you use the meditation technique of following your breath throughout the day, you will be living in the present moment more often. This is the ultimate goal of course, because the more you live in the moment, the more you give your life your fullest attention. Don’t you want to be aware of life and all it has to offer? I certainly hope so.

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A Simple Strategy To Start Meditating Right Now

Here is a simple strategy to begin meditating tomorrow morning. Meditation isn’t some mystical journey whereas you are required to become a Zen or Buddhist master. Meditation is simply staying in one place quietly, eventually learning to be in the present moment until it becomes natural.

Living in the present moment is the beginning to ending the mindless clatter and worries that are constantly bombarding you. Meditation teaches you to ignore self destructive thoughts and become at peace with ones selves, warts and all.

My meditation techniques are based on the practices of Pema Chodron .

Find a quiet room away from your bedroom. Sit upright, hands on lap, legs crossed and focus on a spot 4 to 5 feet in front of you.  Concentrate on your outer breath as a way of focusing the mind. When a thought arises, label it as “thinking” and go back to concentrating on your outer breath.  Let your thoughts go over and over again by labeling them as thinking. Continue to relax and allow whatever thoughts to arise without labeling them good or bad. Return to your outer breath.

Try to perform this exercise 15 minutes a day to start. After a while you will notice that you can return to the present moment much easier. This is one of the best ways to reduce the stress caused by over thinking and worrying.

You are the master of your life.

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Happiness and Awareness

We are not always aware of the world around us because our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours usually highjack our awareness. Once we overly identify with our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours we usually lose our awareness of ourselves and the world around us. Being aware means stepping out of this destructive cycle and realizing our true or greater nature. Our true nature is bigger than this. Stepping out of an emotional cycle creates a vast space in our mind, where we can experience our true selves and not the self created from our emotions. For example, “I am angry” turns into “I am experiencing anger.” Once we recognize this we can usually step away from any emotion and it eventually recedes instead of strengthening. Being aware (or living in the now) is a pure form of consciousness that can be particularly joyful and free ,which then eliminates our temptation to use past conditioning , blaming, or other negative behaviours that will most likely be destructive.

So happiness doesn’t always begin with a simple switch of attitude. Happiness begins with the realization that we can step away from the turbulence of the mind and just soak in the now with every fiber of our body. Staying in the now elevates us to experience this world as we were truly meant to as human beings. Staying in the now or being aware makes something as simple as a walk in the park a truly joyful experience. We feel the grass under foot, the sunshine warming our skin and the scent of flowers as we are meant to experience. It is actually a very simple concept and free to experience every moment of our lives. So wake up and look around you. You are not your emotions, thoughts or conditioning. You are free. Free to embrace each and every moment as you choose to.

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