High on Happiness

Archive for February, 2010

One of the gifts that happiness brings is clarity of vision.  Like a weather high, it clears away the clouds and lets the sun shine through.  It restores your perspective and renews you vision, allowing you to see the possibilities that fogs of doubt or mists of fear obscured.

The clarity of happiness brings simplicity to situations that seemed ambiguous.  It broadens your view and lets you see your circumstances with a new lucidity and wholeness—to see the shape of the forest, as the proverb goes, and not just a thicket of trees.  It allows you to see a greater range of choices and to make decisions from a vantage point of optimism.

It comes when you release the pressures that were keeping your lows in place, when you relax and allow them to pass you by.  And that’s the key.  Relax and release.  Let go of your battles and resistance; just relax and release, and let the pressures flow past.  On the other side of them, just waiting to waft in, is a happiness front, full of clear skies.

Spread a little happiness; share a little warmth today.  Light a candle, flash a smile, touch a hand.

Tell someone she’s amazing.  Tell someone that you appreciate his efforts and contributions.

Open a door, give a wink, say thank you, say hello.

Make a call, send a note. Spread some warmth.  Share a little happiness today.

You’ll love how good it makes you feel.

Can you be happy and feel sadness, or grief, or disappointment at the same time?

The question seems ludicrous on its face, and the answer an obvious “Of course not!”

If happiness were merely a mood or an emotion, that would be true.  You can’t feel two emotions at once any more than you can simultaneously think two thoughts.

But genuine happiness is more than a passing feeling.  It’s an orientation toward life, a state of being in which you find yourself anchored regardless of the temporary circumstances that you experience as time flows past.

It’s a kind of trust in the ultimate goodness of life, a faith of sorts that even when the foreground of our lives feels tangled and blue, beneath it, there’s a light and a purpose supporting us.  It’s an experiential knowing that when the trials run their course, the light and purpose will once again shine through, showing us how the trials have enriched and strengthened us.  And our light and purpose will seem even deeper and more beautiful because of them.

Happiness lets us keep faith in life.  It creates resilience and teaches us that in the balance, it’s all good.  Every bit of it.

The snow was just beginning as I drove home from work.  But it has been falling heavily ever since, and by this time tomorrow, I’m told, it will be knee-deep.

I couldn’t help but notice the glee that everyone was feeling in anticipation of the storm.  It’s coming on a weekend, when most of us can hole up and enjoy its beauty from the warmth and safety of our homes.

We have the perfect excuse to do nothing, a gift from nature, who understands that our tendency is to do-do-do until we drop.  (We shouldn’t need an excuse, of course.  And our tendency for non-stop action is one that could benefit from some reflection.  But that’s a tale for another time.) So now, along comes Mother Nature with her soft, shimmering blanket, to slow us down and give us time to rest.

Happiness likes rest.  When we’re relaxed and refreshed, happiness flows so much more easily through us.  Rest heals and restores us.  It dissolves the brittleness that accumulates inside us when we get caught up in life’s hustle and bustle.  It returns us to our points of balance, and so we see with clarity again from a vantage point of truth.  And thus we know joy.

Intertwined with every wave of happiness like an inseparable companion, appreciation dances.  It’s the harmonic of happiness, resonating with it wherever happiness sings.

Where happiness expresses itself as peace, appreciation adds its notes of serenity.  Where happiness tumbles in the laughter of delight, appreciation adds its touch of affection for whatever evoked the laughter.  Think about the sweet warmth you felt, for example, when you laughed at the antics of a puppy or a baby.  Happiness and appreciation just naturally travel hand in hand.  They’re like the yin and yang of joy, flowing outward in a dual embrace that envelopes and enriches everything it meets.

Where happiness exalts in finding beauty, appreciation adds the harmony of awe.  Where happiness finds release, appreciation brings its echoes of gratitude.  Happiness gives the joy; appreciation gives the meaning.  Happiness gives inspiration; appreciation gives depth.  Happiness is a gift from life’s Source; appreciation is the acknowledgment and valuing of it.

And so, if you listen for appreciation when happiness sings its songs for you, your joy will be all the more complete.  Listen, and be glad, and give thanks.

Happiness is far more than laughter and delight, although it sparkles in them.  Its textures are as complex and varied as the bark of an aged tree.

It can feel as soft as comfort, as smooth as satisfaction, as rugged as resilience, as crisp as success.

Happiness can be the velvet of pleasure or the silk of savoring.

Meeting challenge, it finds its grit.  When faced with seeming defeat, it finds its resolve.  At the heights, it exalts in ecstacy.  At its core, it revels in love.

Happiness feels like passion and like contentment, like gratitude and peace and kindness and joy.

Feel it.  Sense it.  Celebrate it.  Luxuriate in it, in all of its varieties, and let its beauty give depth to your life.

Infusing yourself with happiness is as simple as making a cup of tea.

First, find yourself a little bag of happiness in whatever blend you most prefer—a smile, a laugh, an act of kindness—and then you dip it in the water of your being.

After a few seconds, the happiness oils begin to seep through the bag, releasing their fragrance and taste and color.

At first, the effects are subtle.  But every time you dip that bag they grow richer, fuller and deeper.  And pretty soon, you have a perfect cup of happiness tea.

Brew some daily.  It’s brimming with essential nutrients, you know.  Besides, it’s delicious; it tastes like joy.  And it gets you high.

Although we know it as a mood, an emotion, a state of mind that brightens our days, these are but the residue of happiness, the gleam and shine that it radiates as it dances through our lives.

At its core, happiness is a force of being that rises from the heart, enveloping you in its love and light.  Surrender to its power and it will work its magic in you, transforming all you behold into works of wonder, beauty and joy.

Happiness flows toward fulfillment and peace, and if you allow it to carry you on its stream, it will teach you effortlessness.  As it moves in harmony with all it encounters, it will teach you nonresistance and release.  It knows when to be active and when to be still, when to whisper and when to roar, and how to stay anchored in the balance between them.

It doesn’t shrink from darkness, yet it celebrates the light. It travels to the very edges of things and connects them all to their common home.  It weaves the parts into a whole and teaches each that alienation is illusion.

Happiness knows there’s nothing to fear, and so it dares adventure. Knowing there’s no hurry, it luxuriates in rest.  It has a perfect sense of timing and a timely sense of perfection.  It lives in the present, savors the past and anticipates a future filled with ever-expanding opportunities for its self-expression.

Travel with it and learn its magic.  Watch it turn your emotional dross into shining, golden joy.  All it takes is a quiet little yes and a smile.  That’s where it all begins.