HAPPINESS

Almost 10AM and I am still sitting here wondering what I am doing. Sometimes I question why I am blogging. Other times, I am almost compelled to get something out. Today is kind of blah. When I first got up the Sun was shining bright. Then it clouded up. The Sun occasionally breaks through. It is bright and then dim, bright and then dim; kinda like my mood.

There has been a cloud coming and going across my mind these last couple days. It is not heavy.............but not happy either. I have been going over the concerns that float through my consciousness this Morning. My blessings, so outnumber my concerns, that it is almost embarrassing, to have so much richness. I live in a beautiful home. I have no debt. I have a modest sum in the bank. I am as healthy as a horse. I am surrounded by abundance. I have wonderful friends. I have amazing, wonderful children and grand children. I am married to the most amazing women on the face of the Earth. Jamie has been having some health concerns; but that will pass. Like me; she is basically very healthy.

Happiness is tricky. If we ask ourselves, if we are happy, we won't get a good answer. The wrong part of the brain looks at the question. The analytical part of our mind doesn't know. Happiness is realized when we are not thinking about it. Happiness, comes out of the mind, at peace.  

Yet happiness is the greatest gift we have. When we are happy we radiate love and well being. In my family of origin and my extended family, there were certain members who seemed to determine the mood of the whole family; when they were happy everybody was happy. When they weren't, not so much. There were times when the family was together, for a party, and things could not really start, until a certain individual arrived. Things might have been humming along okay; but the happiness quotient really cranked up, when they arrived. They carried the party with them.

I read a study a couple months ago. A group constructed a happiness index and used it to measure happiness in several different countries. I don't have the study before me, but I remember being surprised that some of the more impoverished places had the happiest people. Some of the wealthier countries were rather happy, also. There seemed to be little correlation between happiness and wealth. Relationships- families and friends were most mentioned, in relation to happiness.

Anybody who is observant, and especially if they work with people, discovers that happiness has little to do with anything outside us. In fact folks, who have grave things happening to their bodies, can be happy.

Sure we are influenced by what comes from outside; but happiness comes from inside out. I think, if we pay careful attention, the next time we are in a less than happy mood, we will discover we are not treating ourselves well. We are criticizing ourselves for something. We may be brooding over some faux pas we think we made. Something is not quite right and we are making some negative self evaluation. I find myself, sometimes late in the afternoon, feeling vaguely unworthy. I would have spent the day relatively idle, perhaps doing only the mandatory chores, ignoring all the things that need to be done; mowing the grass, cutting up that huge tree branch that fell down, mending that leaky fence. There are many, many things I could do rather than sit in the Sun, outside, and absorb the energy from the Universe. Why would one make the decision to rest and then blame themselves for it?

The answer, maybe, that we are not always aware that we are making a decision. We are aware of how much we have to do and we let ourselves slide into, not doing them, instead of making a decision to do something else, like take a rest. Actually, we are always making a decision: consciousness is the issue. We are responsible for ourselves at every moment. The more we are aware of our decisions, the less self criticism will emerge. We have been trained to be very self-critical; it is part of this insane illusion. The next time we find ourselves being self-critical, we can ask ourselves. "Is this how we would treat somebody we love?"

Our greatest gift to the world is our happiness. Happiness is there, whenever we suspend, all the nonsense, that travels through our minds. Happiness is our default position. When we are happy we radiate love to all other minds. Practice loving yourself. Whenever we are aware of an impending decision we may ask ourselves, "What would I do if I loved myself?" There is a remarkable teacher by the name of Teal Swan, who has an exercise on this subject. It is on YouTube. Worth looking up.

It is difficult to realize that happiness is a decision we make. After all, who would make a decision to be unhappy!? However, if we look carefully at ourselves, we will see it is a decision. At any moment we can reverse the decision and decide to be happy. I have had much personal experience in this area. No matter how ugly and gloomy things appear, we can find that switch in our mind, click it, and let the light shine in. Ah, it is so nice to love ourselves and bask in the light.

Love and Peace,  Gregg