happiness

The Super ABC’s Of Happiness

Over the last two years of living quietly, I have gained some valuable insights about happiness and I want to share them with you today.

As I started going through the alphabet I realized I had more than one idea for each of the letters. They all seemed valuable. What I want to give you is as many good ideas as I can come with. Hope that’s okay with you? Here’s the list:

Acceptance of Self – If you accept yourself as fully as you can, happiness will come easily. Loving yourself will set you free to love the world.

Awareness – Through awareness of who you are and what matters to you, you can create the life you want. Awareness makes your life a choice.

A Summer Blessing For You

I invite you to join me and explore a spiritual practice of blessing.

The following is the blessing I will share throughout this Summer for the benefit of all our brothers and sisters on the planet:

I call upon the brightest light within me and beyond to bless all my human family.

I send blessings from the heart of unconditional love, compassion, kindness and caring to everyone.

I send blessings of awareness, consciousness, insight, inspiration, awakening and the realization of are oneness.

I send blessings of peace, inner peace, and world peace. It is time to find peace together.

I send  blessings of joy, happiness, laughter and much enjoyment of life. Feel the joy flowing through these blessings to you.

I send blessings of healing, health and well-being to all. Within we have all we need to heal ourselves and each other.

I send blessings of flow, abundance, prosperity, money, wealth, and financial freedom. We all deserve this wonderful flow.

I send blessings of freedom, free to be, free of oppression, free of the need to be in control and be right, and free of all limits.

I also bless myself with all these blessing and encourage you to do the same.

Together our blessing will send transforming waves across the planet for the good of all.

Let the Blessings flow,

Joseph

Just Say YES

In the last post, I shared with you the basic life attitudes of Yes, Maybe and No. I advocated for the importance of living the Yes way. Yes is the very best response to the chaotic world we live in.

I decided to follow up the last post with what to say YES too. I know in my heart Yes is more fun, healthier and what works best for creating the life you want.

This is a long list which is exciting because that means there are so many energizing and joyous ways to say Yes.

If you are willing to play with this list of Yes possibilities, I can make you a promise – You will love living your life this way.

Each day, in every way, say YES to the following:

The Ten Commandments For Healthy Living

No, this is not a mythical story about a guy coming down from a mountaintop. It is more about the basics of what you need to keep in mind to live a vibrant and healthy life. (Thought you might appreciate these ideas for 2013)

These commandments may actually be more useful than the original ten in stone. More useful because they are about the well-being of your mind, your heart, your body and your spirit.

One day in my early 20’s something became very clear to me. I was walking up a long set of stairs and was breathing hard. I made a clear decision in that moment to be healthy and keep fit.

I made that decision because I wanted a long and vibrant life. I knew then that my choices about my well-being would shape the rest of my life.  

Since that day my study and exploration of health and fitness has been a key part of my life. I have learned there are a number of universally important ways of being in the world that optimize health.

The following are 10 Commandments For Healthy Living. I offer them as a guideline for you in creating a life of true health and well-being.

Your Choice: Joy Or Suffering

Recently something became very clear to me. I have known this idea for many years but it has taken time for me to really understand the impact of this statement: We shape our experience of life moment-by-moment by our thinking. 

We all have the opportunity to live a life of joy and happiness. It is a choice we make throughout each day. If joy is not the choice then the results often included suffering. Suffering is a product of our mind running us, not us running our mind.  

The following is a summarization of the mental obstacles to living a joyous life:

Between Sparkle And Uncertainty

Last night as I was doing my walking meditation I saw the waves sparkle under the bright moon. I love to be in the sparkle of life when beauty shines, when life fills us with encouragement, when inspiration flows like a giant endless river.  Lately it seems I have been dancing on the edge of sparkle and uncertainty. I am sure this is where there is much growth but sometimes the uncertainty can weigh heavily on the mind. When it does, I have to remind myself that happiness is just a choice away and easy to come by if I live in the appreciation of the moment. Self-reminders are a good thing to carry in your thoughts and your pocket.

There is a lot going on of late with my new movement idea bubbling to the surface and my just published book. These times are ripe for creation, can you feel in the air? The creative flow is there also like happiness when I am in the now. As I have said often, “now is where all the action is.” In this moment if I take the time to tune inward then inspiration and intuition are their waiting. Give the moment a try, pose a question, sit quietly and listen for guidance and be ready for inner messages, images, impulses, synchronicity and other forms of deeper guidance.

The next thing I wanted to talk with about is my new book. Awaken:100 Questions to Expand Your Mind and Open Your Heart.  This book is a life changer, if you take the time to explore these questions. I am not claiming any special powers to change your life, but I am promising you that if you ask yourself the important questions, you will be deeply affected by those questions and your responses to them. As counselor I have seen people’s lives change just be the asking of a simple question.  I know when I turn inward and ask myself questions I am forever altered by the exploration.

Questions are powerful because they invite us to expand our thinking, to broaden our viewpoint, and to go searching for what is truth for us.  Questions also have the ability to open us up to more love, greater compassion, and ways to be more engaged in the world. Just a simple question like, “how can I be more kind to those I love,” will give you an abundance of ideas that will enrich the lives of yourself and those around you. 

It is my guarantee that if you read this book your life will be enhanced in many ways. These questions have great power.

The Better World Together movement has been percolating now for a few days and I am getting lots of ideas, which I will share with you soon.  I welcome your ideas too. I can be reached at josephteach@hotmail.com

Experiment Update: Also if you read my posts regularly you know I started this experiment about inner focus versus action with the belief that my inner work was more important for success than my outer actions. I am now well into week two and what I am noticing is that my focus on inner work is more rewarding than my focus on action. When I am in the introspective mode, I fee most alive. When I meditate or do other practices, I feel fully present and inspired.

This week I have been doing actions with much less inner focus and I have noticed worry and fear more in my awareness. Actions are great and may at times help with the concerns but they are not near as effective at soothing the heart or quieting the mind. Of course this may seem obvious that inner work has a greater inner benefits. It is not near as obvious as when you take time to highlight both inner work and outer actions and see which best enhances the quality of your life.

Through this experiment I have become even clearer about the importance of taking the time to tune inward throughout my day so that my actions are always guided by my inner knowing. I will now integrate that into my daily routine. My plan is to now take at least 5-10 minutes every couple of hours to tune inward in addition to longer periods of inner practices in the morning and in the evening. I want to fill my life with the vibrations of this inner work so that all my actions sparkle with inspiration.