5 Gentle Steps to a happier Life – for 2019

Creating a Happy Life

Oh My, What year am I in!

Is it really another new year, has the calendar really progressed; without me moving with it?

If time is an illusion why am I still in it and why are things still the same? Who am I?

I am sorry, I am not Einstein, I can’t really give you a clear and concise explanation of how illusive time is (nor could Einstein either, really)… but I do however have a felt sense of this illusion. I know when I was a child I felt something other than time – a timelessness. I also know that I am not that same child, that time has passed, that my cells have changed, my likes, my dislikes, my mind has changed (perhaps too often) and my LIFE has changed. Yet, I still sense this timelessness.

Most of this happened without me noticing, except in reflection – in looking back in time.

I didn’t have to do intense Pranayama, breath work or meditate underwater for an hour for my body to go through these changes or for my brain to develop; or for life to happen to me in such a way that my employer was mean or my partner left me for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or that my dog passed on to a new dimension. It all just happened.

But then, there came a time – Time was nigh. “Oh in time It could have been so much more” as Boy George serenaded me back in 1984.

A present moment.  A moment of pause at each failing, at each hurt, at each sidestepping of responsibility and each breath. NOW NOW NOW!

So where am I going with all this apparent time on my hands. This Nowness.

Oh Yes, happiness. That fleeting moment that comes from the first lick of a Basken and Robin’s ‘cookies and cream’ and ends with an empty sticky non biodegradable little cup in your hands that is going to create the end of the world; the planet gone, poof!.

That moment, another moment in time.  And at that very moment you realise “I don’t even know who I really am!

So you download a mindfulness app and you be present to a ringtone that disturbs your… Er…. happiness and you remember to be mindful for a moment with a quote that your app reminds you of that you don’t really understand but it makes you feel like…. a warrior. Because you’ve said it out loud five times – You feel tops. For a moment.

Now you’re back to where you started from – see? you are timeless. Now you understand.

And nothing has really changed; it’s 2018 and you’re  still ‘there’, that you that you don’t really know anymore. Still um….unhappy!

Well I’m letting you off the hook. I’m handing you a secret – not THE Secret – you tried that, it didn’t work or it did a little but.. there you are again playing Russian roulette with happiness.

“What goes up must come down” – Hermetic law

So is that the secret you ask? Yes. It is. But, it’s not the one for you today.

Today’s one comes in the form of time.. well steps in time. Five gentle steps that I have learned, to help you create a happier life in 2018.

FINALLY 5 Gentle steps to create a happier life in 2018.

1. Realise you are already all that you can be.

“The more you depend upon conditions outside yourself for happiness, the less happiness you will experience.”   – Paramahansa Yogananda.

So what are you saying I can’t want anything, I can’t have goals, I can’t have things?

NO –  this doesn’t mean you can’t have things or do things – it means you are still you – that being that you can’t find, that one that wants things is still the same whether you have them or not – That fundamental you is not the desire itself. Realise this and you will be happier!

Find time each day to contemplate this and you will be one step closer to happiness

      2. Help Others without complaining

“To live for self is the source of all misery. “- – Paramahansa Yogananda.

This one speaks for itself. When we help others who are less fortunate or even those who are not, we get to step outside of our own problems as well as creating a dynamic of energetic flow. When we help others we gain a deeper sense of happiness – we experience a flow of energy and the reward of seeing someone else happy or improve their lot fills our heart with joy.  Do it often, lasting happiness takes time.

When we give we receive . It’s a little bit like what goes up must come down.

     3. Do Things you love

“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” — Rumi

There must be something you love to do. Do that, do it often. Do it when you feel unhappy. Do it when you feel happy. Try to find more than one thing. Simple things, everyday things. Do them.

Take a road trip, pick flowers, walk in a forest, clean your underwear… if it makes you happy just do it!

When you do things that make you happy you create happiness chemicals in the brain and the body. The more you do them, the more you increase your memory bank of happy thoughts and the more you are inclined to act from that place. You also increase your capacity to be creative, to come up with new thoughts and feelings that complement your happiness disposition. You never know you may even be able to turn it into a vocation – in time of course

       4. Learn something new.

 

I’ve learned that i have a lot to learn – Maya Angelou

Learning activates the positive chemicals in our brain, increases our energy and creates new neural-pathways. Wow. And it doesn’t stop there. It prompts positive self worth and gives us something interesting to communicate. It then deepens our capacity to – you guessed it – learn more.

There are many free resources for learning, you don’t have to learn in a formal environment, you can make a decision to learn something new and find simple ways to begin. Research on the internet – go to the library, ask a knowledgeable friend.

We are never too knowledgeable or too old to learn something new

     5. Open your heart to love

“All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.” – Kahlil Gibran

Love is the key to happiness. Start with yourself. Give yourself love and it will flow into the universe, into the people you come across and into the Earth.

Open your heart up to love. Allow yourself to be vulnerable. Speak your love, be your love, give over to it and your happiness will grow like a blossoming flower.

Practice these with an openness and an innocence and you will begin to discover, over time, an abiding happiness that cannot be altered by someone else’s actions, behaviours or words, as you are the mistress/master of your life and Yes, a timeless being 🙂

Warm Blessings for 2018

Megan

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