Miscellaneous
If you enjoyed the intro talk then try the Meditation for the journey to Happiness and Contentment #85 also try seeing it on video at https://youtu.be/SJabrFyrmSgHappiness can come very much from positive psychology and positive thinking. As Shawn Achor says in his happiness advantage book, and on YouTube TED Talk, he says if we do just 4 use the simple things every day if we make one random act of kindness, if we do some meditation and sitting, if we have 3 positive thoughts of gratitude if we do some exercise, and before we go to bed at night the journal of positive experience a happy experience, 28 days we change our lives we will build a positive attitude and outlook in life. Happiness is influenced when things are going well. Sadness comes when we feel we have a sense of loss. On the most superficial level, we find happiness in the positive and sadness and loss in the negative. If we are not careful we are like a rudderless boat in a rough sea, being tossed around by circumstance and chance. Mindfulness helps us to gain a rudder and the sail, so that we can cross the oceans with a deep sense of purpose and direction. And as we sit and delve more deeply into ourselves through meditation so we find our compass, our purpose, our journey through this life. When we sit and watch the clouds, when we watch the wind bend the branches in the tree twist the leaves we are watching our lives. Nothing is ever static, everything changes and moves, and happiness contentment and fulfilment comes from changing and moving with this life around us. Two things in life we can be assured of. 1, life is not a straight line. 2, everything always changes and nothing ever stays the same. Once we learn to dance with these laws of life, happiness becomes more real and deep within us. For the meditation is like a key to the doorway to the sacredness of our life it leads us to our senses, it leads us down can out into the spaciousness of now, well with clarity and intention we can discern effortlessly our path before us. Not by trying or owning, not by control or manipulation, put through listening and being trusting and acting from our hearts. But for those of us who find it difficult to know the difference between the media-generated self and the authentic deep self then the journey can be very challenging. However this path is open to everybody, it is one of life's opportunities, to find that happiness and well-being and sense of purpose, which is always available to us will we stop and listen to our sacred selves. I urge you to find time every day to stand back from the fear-driven desperation of trying to succeed in this transient life of ours. As you stand back to stop and listen to yourself and all that is around you. And find that peace of mind, gentleness and happiness is already present within you. Mindfulness and meditation are not anything, but just a prospective a state of mind, a view. When we stop our clever minds and open our conscious present moment, we will find all we have been looking for, but all there is at any time is the present moment. There is no future. For the future becomes the present moment, learn to live in the present moment and you are living in your future. Take some time today to do nothing on purpose.