5 Ways to Happiness and Joy In Life
It really took me a lot longer to write this article than I’d anticipated. I suppose writing about “happiness” feels like a huge responsibility. I know for me personally, the typical things I hear about happiness, feel cliche and contrived. I wanted to really sit with this topic and allow the message to emerge from within.
Happiness is not something we can force.
In fact, the desire to be happy can very often be the very thing that keeps us from it
Thoughts that Kill Your Happiness
We tend to have this belief that happiness is the only good emotion, and that something is “wrong with us” if we aren’t feeling “happy.”
Well, I disagree.
In my experience, happiness is just like all the other fleeting emotions, such as sadness and anger. They come and go. When we get into trouble is when we make them mean something about us and start using them as a gauge to determine whether or not we are worthy, capable, and enough.
One of the most POWERFUL turning points for me in my life, was when I began to understand that I was ALLOWED to feel everything. I had permission to BE with what was in each and every moment, and I no longer chose to attach meaning to my feelings. I stopped defining myself by my emotions.
As I stopped resisting my current state, or current reality, more JOY was the result. To me, Joy or Happiness, is the result of being with WHAT IS, no matter what that is, and maintaining a state of integrity and well-being regardless of what’s going on around us.
When I get too attached to happiness, too attached to pain, too attached to anger, and I want to make them bigger than they are, THAT is when I suffer
When I really begin to dig into the word happiness and what that means for me, I come to this. What I am REALLY after is a feeling. A feeling of freedom. A state of liberation. A place within me to exist, where I am no longer held hostage by my own judgments, fear, labels, and limiting beliefs.
AND...I can honestly say, although I am, and will always be, a work in progress, I have found this. I Practice this on a daily basis and so do my clients.
Happiness is an INSIDE job
o
Peace of Mind Achieves Happiness
We must be willing to go within, to seek out whatever barriers inside of us that are holding us back from love and acceptance, from peace and freedom, from joy and oneness.
Here Are 5 Ways To Experience More Happiness and Joy in Your Life:
- Check in with yourself and what you are making things “mean” about you. Be mindful in regards to your creativity. There is never suffering in the fact. Our suffering comes from our perception of the fact. What are YOU making things mean about you, about life, about others? Is that helping or hurting you? Are you ready to take your power back and make a different choice?
- Sit down. Be still. When you are feeling sad, angry, rejected, abandoned, hurt, alone, lost, misunderstood, BE STILL. As hard as it is and as much as you want to resist this, close your eyes. Breathe deeply. Come back to your body. FEEL yourself. Where is your pain showing up in your body? Where is the wound? Is it in your throat? Your tummy? Your heart? What are you longing for underneath that? What do you REALLY need? Take that journey inward. Get curious with yourself and practice compassion as you inquire.
- What would it be like, to ask in a BIG way, for the Universe to step in and help you? Are you willing to ASK for help, without being attached to how that help shows up or what that looks like? What would be possible for you if you chose something different right now than you have in the past? Ask new, different, better questions.
- Notice when you are focusing on worst case scenario. Why are you doing that? Is someone making you? Or are YOU unconsciously choosing to? STOP IT. Take responsibility for what you are creating. What is the BEST case scenario? What is the solution? Look THERE!
- Let go of what “Happiness” looks like. What does it FEEL like inside of YOU? And what choices align with that feeling? Are you currently making choices that align with how happiness FEELS inside of you? Get real with whatever needs to shift or change so you can come into alignment with what feels true and real, right and good for YOU.
Finding joy or happiness is a sacred journey within, that we all GET to take if we want to. As we walk the path to freedom, there is a whole new world we begin to discover along the way. And in my experience, it is AWESOME. I welcome your comments and questions and I look forward to connecting with you!
