Discover How To Choose Happiness
It is true, but often not realized or understood, that you and none other hold the power over your own happiness.
It is a power that you can hold and develop, or a power you can give away.
When you embrace the power to choose happiness in your life, you are making a conscious step to fulfilling the creative potential of your life.
Wikipedia defines happiness as, “a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.”
Also according to St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, “man’s last end is happiness.”
Many years ago when I was first learning how to meditate, I received instruction at a Zendo. In Zen Buddhism, the zen-dō is a spiritual dōjō where zazen (sitting meditation) is practiced.
Zen instruction tends to come from little stories or statements, which the student explores, ponders or considers.
In the very best results, this leads to a moment of awareness that shifts your entire understanding. A moment of enlightenment where sometimes these seemingly offhand comments by the Zen master resonate so deeply and profoundly that they bring a significant shift in understanding or perspective that is life-changing or transforming.
One such statement in my early experience was on the subject of happiness.
The Zen master and I were sitting quietly over a cup of tea after the actual meditation time was over. We were talking about beliefs and culture and the far-reaching implications of those things. The subject of happiness came up, particularly the concept so deeply embedded in the American consciousness, that of the pursuit of happiness, a concept the Zen master unequivocally declared as absurd.
In one of those enlightening moments, one has when their consciousness and perspective changes, I saw and understood happiness in an entirely different way. I realized that by pursuing happiness I could never be happy. I realized that happiness was not something I got, but rather something I brought to life.
Happiness was something I could choose to be.
At that same time, I realized that I could choose to feel victimized by others, blame them for either what they had done or not done. That would functionally put my happiness outside of my control.
This paradigm shift in my awareness had a deep and very life empowering influence on my life. It changed my expectations and needs for others in a way that was very freeing and empowering for me. The power for my own life and my own happiness come under my control. I didn’t have to wait for others or life circumstances to bring situations and circumstances to my life for me to be happy. I could choose happiness.
As with any moment of enlightening (and I have learned over a lifetime of expanding and exploring consciousness) moments of enlightenment shift my awareness and the cascading effect of this realization was profound. It put me in touch with the power of choice in my life experiences. Of course in that morning over tea, long ago there was a great deal I did not yet know or understand that would influence my ability to take this insight and incorporate it into my daily life.
As with all flashes of enlightened consciousness, you need to learn to integrate and demonstrate what you now understand.
Much of what I have since discovered, and come to understand, has been built upon the foundation of recognizing that I have a choice. I am not a victim of my life and circumstances; I am the actor and director.
I am, by the power of my thoughts empowered to join my conscious creative power with the Divine as a co-creator of my life.
Effective Tools To Be Happy
Choosing to be happy can have an amazing impact on your life. Once you make that choice there are some tools and techniques, many of which I have suggested time and time again. These tools and techniques can be used and adjusted to different situations and circumstances to energize and support your choice.
Affirmations
Among these effective tools are using affirmations. The power of saying an affirmation sets up energetic ripples in ways that help bring what you are affirming and what you think as you affirm it, into manifestation.
Using the powerful assertion of an “I Am” statement in your affirmation activates the dynamic principle that energy follows thought.
Right now, you can experience that control if you say with conviction and intention one of the following affirmations I wrote.
I am happy, peaceful and calm, right now.
I choose to be happy in this moment of time.
In this event, I am learning to be happier and more fulfilled in my life.
You might notice that whatever you had been thinking or feeling before you affirmed this has started to fade away and that assertion and affirmation have been elevated in your mind and your consciousness. This is not a trick of the mind to affect your feelings, but rather a dynamic tool to give you the ability to transform and influence your life, right now.
Experience my Soaring to Success Affirmations for Abundance CD or MP3’s to allow yourself to envision your life beyond limitation and allow them to train the imaging faculty of your mind to create perfect pictures of the life you will create with these >> affirmations.
Mindful Breath Meditation
You can expand and enhance the use of affirmations by adding a simple Mindful Breath Meditation (that I created) while you breath.
I am breathing in peace and calm, right now.
I am aware that I am choosing to be peaceful and calm right now.
Observe how affirming the state of being you are wanting shifts your experience, how it influences your consciousness.
Reframe & Reinterpret Your Experiences
In addition to the capacity to affirm the state of being that you desire, you also have within the vast capacity of your mind the ability to reframe and reinterpret your life experiences.
My mother-in-law used to say. “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you react to it.”
So much of what interferes with your personal happiness lies within the content of your negative mind chatter, which is mostly based upon fear.
Remember, in life, there are many things that you have no control over. These life experiences can be viewed as negative things just happening to you or opportunities for life lessons learned. It all depends on the meaning you attach to them.
Therefore, ponder on these life experiences and take the space to re-frame and re-interpret them in a positive light.
Live In The Moment
When you examine the content of your negative mind chatter, particularly when you bring your awareness to the perspective of the detached observer, you may well realize that much of what is limiting your happiness is created by your expectations and your fear of what might happen in the future, instead of being in the NOW.
These are underlying factors that can influence your choice to be happy in any given situation and circumstance in your life. Inherent in every event in your life is a choice. The choice to be the primary force in your life or to surrender your personal power to the people and happenings you bring into your life is of great importance.
In every moment, you consciously or unconsciously decide.
Needless to say, I encourage you to use the power of your mind and the mastery of your emotions to choose happiness.
Master Your Emotions
It is important to note that mastery of your emotions does not mean the suppression of your emotions. Emotion, any and every emotion experienced has a natural ebb and flow to it.
When allowed to wash through you without fear, and kept in the present time emotions should not disrupt your happiness. It is when you overlay the emotion with fears, with the thought that what you are feeling has always been that way (which is not true), or (it will always be that way), which also cannot be true, does an emotion take hold and create misery.
This is important to understand. This is something that is entirely within your control and is inherent in your choice of being happy. The tools that you can incorporate into your life, including affirmations, observing and reframing your thoughts, and releasing fears and expectations, all impact whether or not you are happy. And, they are all tools that are available to you today.
I encourage you to choose to be happy. You can use an affirmation of your own creation or from the vast array of positive affirmations that are available in the world.
You can pay attention to the input of your negative mind chatter by observing and noting the thoughts that interfere with your happiness. If they are fears, you can release them by entering into the present time, which is much more real than the fear and incredibly freeing.
You can take a moment to re-frame what you are observing in light of greater understanding and awareness as you focus on what is going on. This process is amazingly freeing and empowering, especially when applied to your own personal happiness.
So today, I invite you to discover to choose happiness and experience how to BE HAPPY. It is your birthright and your empowerment as the co-creator of your life.
Namaste,
Genevieve,
The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!
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Last updated 7-8-2020
About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”
Read more details…
Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.
Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.” Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.
Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.
In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.
It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.
Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.
Copyright © 2015-2020 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.
