Why Am I So Happy Now?
A little over a year ago, some friends and I discovered the magic of “the positive affirmative question.” Popularized by St. John & Berard’s The Great Little Book of Afformations (All-New, Expanded Edition)
Instead of repeating, “I now enjoy eating wholesome, nutritious foods,” for example, you ask yourself, “Why am I enjoying wholesome, nutritious foods so much now?”
Brains are problem-solving machines. Pose a “why” question to yours and it will look everywhere for an answer.
The “why” question doesn’t give your brain a chance to argue about whether you are actually enjoying nutritious foods. The mission you have assigned it, after all, is to find out why you are. (More than anything, this is what makes the PAQ more powerful than a simple affirmation. No part of you is arguing with yourself.) As it turns out, in order to solve the question, your brain has to get you to choose nutritious foods and to enjoy them! Sneaky, huh?
So anyway, one of my friends decided to test this theory against the feeling-miserable-about-life state into which she had fallen. She asked herself, “Why do I love my life so much?” and every night she made herself write down whatever answer her brain could come up with. Day after day, she discovered more answers. And within a few weeks, she was eagerly looking for more and more proof that her life was, indeed, wholly worth loving.
Following her lead, I’m using the PAQ technique to turn up my happiness heat, my eagerness to know more about it, my awareness of its grace in my life. Every morning when I get up, and when I think of it throughout the day, I ask myself, “Why am I so happy now?”
May I suggest that you give it a try? And let me know what happens!
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