The title might be irritating to some folks. I read, many years ago, that happiness was our choice. I never doubted it intellectually, that didn't keep it from being irritating, however. Knowing it is true and learning it is true are different things. It doesn't seem true, when we are in the depth of despair. It doesn't seem true, when all the world is against us. None the less, it is true. We can decide to be happy.
Happiness is our natural state. We had to learn to be unhappy in an imperfect world. We learn to be unhappy for various reasons. The most prevalent one is; we feel we don't deserve it. Everything about our culture teaches us we are unworthy and must somehow earn happiness. In our recent culture, this has been intertwined with money. It is pounded into our heads that we need money to be happy. Everything is monetized and happiness must be bought.
Another thing is we have a profoundly passive-aggressive thread running through our society. We learn, when we are still toddlers, that we can get back at our parents, teachers and caregivers by being unhappy. Those adults are supposed to make us happy, they are failing at their job when we are morose. If for any reason, a more functional expression of our dissatisfaction is blocked, we can resort to being unhappy to punish those around us.
When we become adults, and gain some interpersonal sophistication, these mechanisms are buried; but, they don't disappear. We might be amazed at how many times we are unhappy because we are angry with someone. We automatically go in to this punishing mode without knowing it.
Both of these mechanisms, our sense of unworthiness and our need to get back at folks, get buried as adults. We certainly don't want to admit, we would be so childish, as to be unhappy to punish someone and we don't want to admit we feel unworthy. We all have developed an array of little triggers, that when pushed, set off one of these processes.
When we are unhappy we can generally find reasons to remain unhappy. In those moments, it is hard to believe we want to be unhappy. Yet, if we are willing to look honestly at ourselves, we will discover we did make the decision to be unhappy.
Each one of us has to make this discovery personally. It is our thing. It is our thoughts that trigger unhappiness. When we find that we are unhappy, we can look look at our thoughts; and ask ourselves. Do we need to be thinking like this? Do I want to think like this? What do I get out of being unhappy? Am I trying to punish someone? Myself? God?
When we are at the bottom of a pit, and only darkness can be seen, it is hard to believe that it is our choice. It might make us angry to suggest that it is our choice; yet, yet that is our freedom. That is our ticket out of the pit. From there, we can begin to search for light.
We are creative beings. We shape our perception. We can't escape the truth, that we create our experience with our thoughts. Happiness is always our choice.
Happiness is our natural state. Happiness promotes optimum body functioning. Happiness attracts happy thoughts. Happiness is contagious, it brings out the smiles in those around us.
The old world is collapsing around us. The fear mongers are doing all they can to keep us trapped in, fear induced, negative thinking. We don't need to pay attention to the horror they are trying to create. We need to keep our focus away from what the mainstream media would like us to think. What we think is our choice. What we create is our choice.
When we embrace love, happiness is. Happiness doesn't have to be raucous. Happiness is not loud. Happiness may be quiet; very quiet. Everything that is good comes from the deep peace of our being. From the deep peace of our being, we are creating the New World of Love. Let us be joyful. Let us be happy.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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