Happiness
Seminar
“Be
happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
Omar Khayyam
(The Rubaiyat)
A
flier came in the mail sometime in the last week or so. I found it
when going through my holiday-collected-stack. It announces a six
hour seminar on “The Habits of Happy People.” Here's a quoted
statistic for you: “About 50% is genetic, 40% is within our power
to change, and only 10% is affected by life circumstances.” I had
to think about this for a while. Nature vs. nurture. When you are
born to, and reared by people who are pessimistic, you're conditioned
to see the negative in every situation. You learn early to expect life to be difficult, and that you will not have the resources to
deal effectively with it. In short, you inherit a natural tendency
toward pessimism, and you learn how to be unhappy. That's a hurdle to
overcome.
But
if we can learn how to be unhappy, we can also learn how to be happy.
The science of happiness has to do with brain
chemistry—neurotransmitters that calm anxiety and control mood,
such as serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. The psychology of
happiness is one of pro-active determination. It includes gaining the
ability to express what's in your heart; to speak your truth. If you
grew up in a home where expressing honest feelings was not respected,
perhaps even punished, then learning, first, exactly what you're
feeling, and second, how to accurately express it, is a challenge. It
takes courage and practice.
Cultivate
kindness—first toward yourself, and then with others. The extent to
which we are kind and empowering to ourselves, will determine how we
treat others. When we reach out to people in kindness, we expand our
world and give ourselves reason to feel good about who we are. Work
to see the good in any situation—whether life circumstances are
labeled good or bad, ask 'what can I learn from this?'
Keep
moving. Regular exercise, especially when it's done outside, is great
for increasing those before-mentioned brain chemicals, some of which
require sunlight for production. Find what you enjoy doing, and what
feels good to you with regard to exercise, and you will be more
likely to keep at it.
Discover
your strengths and use them. Feeling capable, competent and creative
is conducive to being happy and contented. Be willing to learn from
others. Be teachable. Identify someone you believe to be happy and
satisfied with their life, and ask them questions. What keeps you
positive? Why are you optimistic? What gives you hope?
And,
finally, there is a direct correlation between having a meaningful
spiritual life and one's feelings of contentment. Find something to
believe in, to go to when you need encouragement, and cultivate it. A
spiritual practice is, to my mind, essential to happiness. Living in
relationship to Spirit, however we may define it, enables us to see the
good that already exists in our lives. It transforms what might be
deemed negative into positive through the power of love and light.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment