The following is an excerpt from the "Reinventing Happiness" on-line course. If you would like to enroll in the course, click here.
Many people believe that happiness comes from success, health and great human connections. The inverse of this principle is actually the statement that is the most true: success, health and great human connections are the inevitable result of being happy.
We know this to be true when we observe the people around us. Successful and famous people have notoriously unhappy lives, good health can be taken for granted and even happy families can be struck down by an unexpected tragedy. And yet, why do we continue to believe the erroneous belief that success, health and relationships are all we need to make us happy?
In the Vedic and Buddhist traditions of ancient India, there are five causes linked to suffering and unhappiness:
1. Not knowing your true identity. 2. Clinging to the idea of permanence in a world that is inherently impermanent. 3. Fear of change 4. Identifying with the socially induced hallucination called the ego 5. Fear of death
You only need to focus on the first tenet of unhappiness, which is not knowing your true identity. Once you know your true identity, all of your suffering will cease. Enlightenment is knowing who you truly are.
The seven keys I am about to show you will lead you to self-knowledge and enlightenment. You are on a two-fold path when you are allowing your happiness to manifest—by eliminating darkness, and bringing in the light.
ACTION STEPS
1. Write a message in the discussion group by clicking the link below about your current state of happiness. 2. Post an intent on what you wish to achieve by the end of this online course.
The First Key: Be Aware of Your Body
Your body and the universe are a single field of energy, information and consciousness. By listening to your body and responding to it with awareness, you tap into the field of infinite possibility, where the natural experience is peace, harmony and joy.
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If you want to know how happy you are feeling right this moment, your most reliable guide is your body. Many of us tend to underestimate the signals our body tells us, which is always giving us extremely nuanced messages in terms of our comfort, discomfort, sadness or joy. In order to understand this first key, we need to look past the usual mind / body division and start viewing the mind and body as a single force field with no separating boundary between the two entities.
In order to increase our capacity for happiness, we must tap into our own sense of awareness. When we increase our awareness, we are then able to understand with more clarity the important messages our body is telling us. When we better understand the important messages from our body, we intrinsically know what we need to do (or not do) in order to create a sense of harmony in mind, body and spirit. Unhappiness is the result of disharmony between mind, body and spirit.
What happens when you stop being aware? When you are not paying attention to your body signals, you create disruptions within the mind-body force field. These disruptions manifest themselves in a number of ways, such pulling all-nighters even though your body needs 8 hours of sleep, or snacking on insubstantial junk food in spite of the negative repercussions they have on your mood and energy level. By withdrawing awareness, you are essentially neglecting your body's cries for help when it needs proper nourishment, rest or loving attention.
In order to become more aware of our bodies, we should take a moment to appreciate all that our body does for us. Firstly, consider the infinite intelligence that exists within our bodies: without our knowing it, a human body can imagine the future, play an instrument, grow new cells, monitor the heart rate, eliminate harmful bacteria and create a new human life within the womb—all at the same time.
Our bodies also have an amazing capacity for infinite creativity. Anytime we learn a new skill or even change the altitude of where we are breathing, our body intuitively adapts to these completely new conditions and does not resist this new change. Consider this the next time you are learning a new sport or completely changing your eating habits.
Thirdly, our bodies are connected to an immense power source, which allows microscopic cells to survive, thrive and evolve in environmental situations that ordinarily would not support life. It is this same power that allows the body to defend against viruses, germs, cancer cells and other harmful elements that may enter the internal system.
How then can we become more aware of our own bodies and everything that they do? It is actually a lot simpler than one may think. The next time you have a quiet moment to yourself, simply ground yourself in the physical sensations you are feeling. Are there any particular areas—such as your face, neck or back—where you feel particularly tense? What happens when you pay complete attention to a specific area in your body?
The next time you are feeling any physical discomfort, simply take a deep breath and observe the uncomfortable sensations without any judgment until they disappear on their own. Practice doing this anytime you feel distracted, overwhelmed, stressed or overshadowed, and you will begin building your awareness muscles--which will benefit you and the people around you for the rest of your life.
To activate the First Key in everyday life, I promise myself to do the following:
1. I will make choices to maximize the energy in my body. If am feeling lack of energy in any way, it means that I am resisting the flow of this infinite supply which we are all connected to when we are fully aware of ourseves. 2. Before I act on any emotion, I will consult my heart. My heart is the most reliable guide for emotional intelligence. 3. If I feel heavy or dull in my body, I will pay special attention, because these feelings are signs that I am suffering from inertia and the force of habit rather than experiencing the potential in every moment.
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ACTION STEPS FOR LESSON 1
1. For this activity, allocate twenty minutes of alone time for yourself when you are not feeling rushed. Sit in a comfortable position, and simply tell your body that it can do whatever it wants. You may feel the need to emit a deep sigh, remember a specific memory, feel tense in a certain area, feel relaxed in another area or even burst into tears or feel a deep sense of relief. Whatever your body wants to do, allow it to do it without any restriction. This is you giving yourself the permission and the space for the body to heal and refresh itself. In other words, your body is healing itself simply by knowing itself. 2. Write a journal entry on what you observe when you become aware of your own body. Are certain areas always uncomfortable? If they are, what is the nature of these uncomfortable sensations or what adjectives would you use to describe them? What adjectives would you like to use to describe the sensations in your body in an ideal state? 3. Create an intent on how you plan on incorporating body awareness into your everyday life starting today. (Ex: My intent is to do a body awareness check every evening before I go to sleep so I know what my body is trying to tell me.)
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