Recognizing Happiness

[MajestyJo]

DAILY OM

Analyzing The Path

Recognizing Happiness

Those of us on the path of personal and spiritual growth have a tendency to analyze our unhappiness in order to find the causes and make improvements. But it is just as important, if not more so, to analyze our happiness. Since we have the ability to rise above and observe our emotions, we can recognize when we are feeling joyful and content. Then we can harness the power of the moment by savouring our feelings and taking time to be grateful for them.

Recognition is the first step in creating change, therefore recognizing what it feels like to be happy is the first step toward sustaining happiness in our lives. We can examine how joy feels in our bodies and what thoughts run through our minds in times of bliss. Without diminishing its power, we can retrace our steps to discover what may have put us in this frame of mind, and then we can take note of the choices we've made while there. We might realize that we are generally more giving and forgiving when there's a smile on our face, or that we are more likely to laugh off small annoyances and the actions of others when they don't resonate with our light mood.

Once we know what it feels like and can identify some of the triggers and are aware of our actions, we can recreate that happiness when we are feeling low. Knowing that like attracts like, we can pull ourselves out of a blue mood by focusing on joy. We might find that forcing ourselves to be giving and forgiving, even when it doesn't seem to come naturally, helps us to reconnect with the joy that usually precedes it. If we can identify a song, a picture, or a pet as a happiness trigger, we can use them as tools to recapture joy if we are having trouble finding it. By focusing our energy on analyzing happiness and all that it encompasses, we feed, nurture, and attract more of it into our lives, eventually making a habit of happiness.

April 5, 2008 from my site Soundness of Mind

Always looked to others to make me happy. My attitude was entertain me, make me feel good, make me feel wanted, if you would do that, I will do this, if you give me your attention, I would be.... Happiness in an inside job.

[MajestyJo]

From "Gutter Bravado":

"Still very impatient, I wanted the whole deal right away.

That's why I related so well to the story about a
wide-eyed new person and an oldtimer. When the
newcomer approached the oldtimer, envying his
accomplishments and many years of sobriety, the
oldtimer slapped down his hand like a gavel and said,
'I'll trade you even! My thirty years to your thirty
days—right now!' He knew what the newcomer had
yet to find out: that true happiness is found in the
journey, not the destination."

Fourth Edition;
Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 510-11

April 28, 2008