High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘Healing’

Take time for some moments of ease in your life, some moments for letting cares go.  Few are the problems that will not wait, or benefit, from being forgotten for awhile.

Walk somewhere that you can see a tree, a flower, the broad expanse of sky.  Walk easily, as if all the time in the world was yours (for it is, you know, and you’re free to spend it as you will).

Sit on a patch of grass.  Rifle your hands through it and feel how alive it is.  Feel the soil beneath it, the stuff that gives birth to everything that sustains us.  Breathe the air; inhale its fragrances; feel its warmth.

Hear the world’s music.  The delicate rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds.  Pretend you’re a kid again: Cup your hands over your ears and roll them forward and back and listen to the sounds change and laugh at the miracle of hearing.

Look at the wondrous expanse of sky, its light veiling the cosmos.  Watch the heaped clouds, made of nothing but water, floating on the wind.

Study it all as if you were seeing it for the first time, or as if you had just been told that in two weeks you would be blind.  See the spectrum of hues and shades, the patches of light, of reflection, of shadow.  See the magnificent complexity of it all, the precision of its design—all purposeful, all pleasing.

Let it pour into you like warm honey.  Taste its sweetness.  Feel your connection to it, for this is your home.

The small pleasures, the moments of sweetness and ease, are balm for the soul.  Make time for them, and they will bring you healing and joy.

Even as we celebrate our own joy, let us offer an invocation for all who have not yet found their paths to happiness.

May all who suffer undeserved pain
(for all pain is undeserved),
who unwittingly fall into strife
(for all strife is unwitting),
who wrestle with nightmare monsters
(for all evil is an unreal masquerade)
find comfort, healing and peace.

May all who suffer misery awaken.  May all who live with falsehood find truth.  May all hardness be met with mercy and all harshness be soothed by kind hands.

May those who are caught in arrogance be humbled. May those who think themselves low find their worth.  May those who are forgotten be recognized.  May the alienated find belonging and the lonely find friends.

May our darkness give way to light, our doubt be turned to faith, our fear to strength, and our confusion to understanding.  May we be touched by grace, opened to beauty, moved by goodness and surrendered to love.

For we all are children of the universe, of the illimitable, omnipresent Yes.  May we know its truth and dance in its glad song.

Just as I pulled up to a stop light, a work van changed lanes to pull behind me.  Glancing in my rear view mirror, I was astonished to see face of a friend I hadn’t seen for many years sitting in the passenger seat and laughing with his companions.

When I knew him last, he had made some terrible choices and stumbled into a world of darkness and pain.  The thoughts of him that floated into my mind from time to time over the years dragged with them a trail of deep sadness.

Now suddenly here he was, alight with laughter on his way to a job, looking healthy and strong and well.  He wouldn’t have recognized my car or known it was me gazing through my sunglasses into the rear view mirror.  And I had only a moment to take in the glow of his smile.  But it was like the light of a thousand suns shining on my heart, and in just those few seconds, all the sorrow I had felt for him lifted and burned away.

“He’s happy!” I said to myself.  “He’s well!”

You know, that’s all we want from loved ones who have fallen into error: to know they found their bearings again, to know they’re happy.  What a healing realization the experience was for me!  Not only because the sorrow I had been carrying for my friend vanished, but because I realized that those who had seen me during my own sojourn into darkness were at peace about me now, that my smile, too, had the power to dispel all the sadness I once brought into their lives.

Finding the path to true joy is a miraculously healing thing, not only for the one who walks the path, but for all those who are touched by the light that radiates from him as well.  For the sake of all who love you, choose joy.

Somewhere in a back corner of your mind it’s good to keep a little bag of favorite distractions you can draw from when life pulls you down.  Toss into it random scraps of things you enjoy.

Think of places that soothe you and draw your interest —a library you like to visit, a street lined with shops whose windows hold treasures and delights, or where the architecture fascinates you.  A park, a garden, a meadow, a beach.

Think of activities that engage you—hobbies and pastimes, games, sports, arts.

Think of people who make you laugh or who tell amazing stories.  A kid maybe, a neighbor, a pal.

Toss ‘em all in your bag.  Then, when you find some dark train of thought has gained traction in your mind, you’ll have ways to dis-tract it right at hand.

Happy distractions are like mini-vacations for the mind.  They bring you little pleasures and healing.  They offer you nibbles of light and joy.  They take you away for awhile so you can remember a bigger you.  You’re refreshed and renewed when you come back to tackling your problem.  And sometimes when you come back, you find the problem has simply gone away.