By Dr. Robert Henry Schwenk
Actually choosing to be happy is a revolutionary act. Though happiness remains one of the most popular goals among those polled, it is not yet in the mainstream.
It is not in the mainstream because people, by and large, do not know that happiness is not produced from material things, nothing wrong with material things per se. But many folks believe that if they have everything they want, they will be happy.
When they have everything they want, they discover happiness has not been acquired. They may even feel less satisfied now that the achievement of things is accomplished.
So, to capture and keep happiness is going against the mainstream; it is a revolutionary act.
It is also radical because you have to do something different to find and maintain happiness. You need to develop a meditative-life. (Some folks will want to call this a prayer-life. That's fine.)
You have to take the time to plan and execute a daily regime of meditation. It need not be a long period of time. Anywhere from ten to thirty minutes, whatever suits, will be first class.
Does not need to be long nor does it need to be arduous. You can even imagine yourself sitting besides a great, blue mountain lake. Into that lake you drop all of your cares, troubles, concerns, joy, hopes, needs, wants, and watch as they sink out of insight, as if absorb by that lake.
Then you simply, in your imagination, drink in the pine smells around that lake and the beauty of the landscape and sky nearby that lake.
Do this lake-vision exercise in meditation once a day for a week and I bet you will feel much happier. You have detached yourself from so much of your life that you will be lighter in spirit.
But to be lighter in spirit is a rebellious act. To carry self-imposed burdens is the norm. This is not to say that there are no real burdens to carry. There are. But so many folks create and construct their own burdens when they could just as easily mentally set them aside and walk free.
To walk free is to know that The Source is totally accepting of you just as you are. That's where happiness arrives. When you discover that the meaning of life is happiness through total and unconditional acceptance from The Source, you will have joined the revolution.
You will have joined the revolution of those who choose to be happy. Yes, happiness is a choice which involves accepting your unconditional approval from The Source.
This is sometimes difficult to understand. Joy is an emotion that spontaneously washes over you like a cooling wave during a very hot day at the beach.
Happiness is a choice - a way of viewing your life and your world. Joy is spontaneous; happiness means deciding to respond to life in a certain way. Happiness is not spontaneous as such, rather it is a decision and it is a revolutionary decision.
You have heard of the idea of whether the glass is half full or half empty. How you see that glass of water is up to you. You decide. If you have previously decided one way, you can change your mind and decide the opposite way.
Did you get that? You can change your mind. When you have found happiness as the meaning of life, you choose to follow your intuition and be happy. You are happy, you discover, because you have found total acceptance in The Source of All There Is.
In these actions of mind and spirit your have lifted yourself out of the workaday into the extraordinary, the revolutionary, way of being in the world - happy.
Why is this revolutionary? You need look no further than the vast majority of your family, friends and acquaintances. You will see that they are unhappy and complaining perhaps 90% of the time.
But you have chosen to be different. You have chosen to find the meaning of life, which is to be happy, by accepting your acceptance. In reveling in that acceptance you know the emotion of joy, but you know the decision of happiness.
Make sure you are a part of this radical, revolutionary spirit-action. Be happy.
It is not in the mainstream because people, by and large, do not know that happiness is not produced from material things, nothing wrong with material things per se. But many folks believe that if they have everything they want, they will be happy.
When they have everything they want, they discover happiness has not been acquired. They may even feel less satisfied now that the achievement of things is accomplished.
So, to capture and keep happiness is going against the mainstream; it is a revolutionary act.
It is also radical because you have to do something different to find and maintain happiness. You need to develop a meditative-life. (Some folks will want to call this a prayer-life. That's fine.)
You have to take the time to plan and execute a daily regime of meditation. It need not be a long period of time. Anywhere from ten to thirty minutes, whatever suits, will be first class.
Does not need to be long nor does it need to be arduous. You can even imagine yourself sitting besides a great, blue mountain lake. Into that lake you drop all of your cares, troubles, concerns, joy, hopes, needs, wants, and watch as they sink out of insight, as if absorb by that lake.
Then you simply, in your imagination, drink in the pine smells around that lake and the beauty of the landscape and sky nearby that lake.
Do this lake-vision exercise in meditation once a day for a week and I bet you will feel much happier. You have detached yourself from so much of your life that you will be lighter in spirit.
But to be lighter in spirit is a rebellious act. To carry self-imposed burdens is the norm. This is not to say that there are no real burdens to carry. There are. But so many folks create and construct their own burdens when they could just as easily mentally set them aside and walk free.
To walk free is to know that The Source is totally accepting of you just as you are. That's where happiness arrives. When you discover that the meaning of life is happiness through total and unconditional acceptance from The Source, you will have joined the revolution.
You will have joined the revolution of those who choose to be happy. Yes, happiness is a choice which involves accepting your unconditional approval from The Source.
This is sometimes difficult to understand. Joy is an emotion that spontaneously washes over you like a cooling wave during a very hot day at the beach.
Happiness is a choice - a way of viewing your life and your world. Joy is spontaneous; happiness means deciding to respond to life in a certain way. Happiness is not spontaneous as such, rather it is a decision and it is a revolutionary decision.
You have heard of the idea of whether the glass is half full or half empty. How you see that glass of water is up to you. You decide. If you have previously decided one way, you can change your mind and decide the opposite way.
Did you get that? You can change your mind. When you have found happiness as the meaning of life, you choose to follow your intuition and be happy. You are happy, you discover, because you have found total acceptance in The Source of All There Is.
In these actions of mind and spirit your have lifted yourself out of the workaday into the extraordinary, the revolutionary, way of being in the world - happy.
Why is this revolutionary? You need look no further than the vast majority of your family, friends and acquaintances. You will see that they are unhappy and complaining perhaps 90% of the time.
But you have chosen to be different. You have chosen to find the meaning of life, which is to be happy, by accepting your acceptance. In reveling in that acceptance you know the emotion of joy, but you know the decision of happiness.
Make sure you are a part of this radical, revolutionary spirit-action. Be happy.
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