12 July, 2021, by Jasmine Chandra
In keeping with the subject of my latest video on my You Tube channel, I am writing today about choosing happiness. As I stroll in the sunshine, I ponder the many perceptions I can cultivate in my daily life. It's easy to shift a thought. I can grab onto a random thought that is charging through my mind, and grow that thought until it becomes a FEELING.
Thoughts precede feelings. This means that any thought, either positive, negative, or neutral, can be blown up like a balloon until it makes me feel that thought, thereby making it a current reality. Along with the feeling will then come a mood. I have been learning about this technique and practicing it every day.
Perhaps this sounds a bit tacky. Seeing images of smiley faces all over social media does not make me cringe, but, rather, it makes me notice how starved people are for joy. It has become pathetic to hear shop clerks wish a customer to, "Have a nice day." In that context, the words do not feel authentic. The world is rife with unhappiness and fake happiness. As always, the thought, feeling, and mood must come from one's own individual, real intention.
I have read articles about happiness in which the writer describes the feeling as though it were a garden. I rather like when the instruction is to, "Cultivate happiness." It gives me a sensation of growth and vibrancy, as well as change. Positive feelings can be like flowers. The feelings contract and expand, ebb and evolve, blossoming and flourishing perfectly like fresh blooms. Happy feelings can create a perception of soaring in an endless, cloudless blue. Yet they can also become small and peaceful, like a napping hamster.
I am aware that labelling emotions as, "Negative", or, "Positive," is misleading. It may not truly be a bad thing to be sad. Sadness is not literally a negative thing unless it becomes one's constant lover. It simply is not very welcome, because it does not uplift and fly the way joy does. I surely do not wish to feel the presence of sadness often. I have, in the past, carried it about with me in my pocket. I used to react strongly to events, even tiny ones, but I won't beat myself up for being tender and highly sensitive. It is fabulous to be tough in order to deflect the feelings of sadness rushing in. At the same time, being tough should be combined with an awareness and allowance of all reactions. Acknowledgement of sadness as an opportunity to mourn, and to process that humanness of being alive, shows a wholeness of spirit. I think it is a well-roundedness of a person. Consequently, my opinion is that a mirthful heart should be, and can be, the general disposition of one's life.
When I arise each morning, I write with my pen," Today will be a great day", and I say it aloud, too, for affirmations are indeed uplifting. They set the tone of the day ahead. I like coming up with new affirmations all the time. I usually say them in conjunction with yoga. For example, I will use an empowering affirmation as I strike a warrior pose. The combination of the words with the movement creates a doubly effective result. I lunge into warrior as I bellow, " I am powerful!" When I am sinking into a seated forward bend, I will ofttimes purr,
"I am peaceful and calm". Indeed, I then feel quite tranquil, and tranquility is a happy state of mind, is it not?
Interestingly and wonderfully, smiling is a powerful exercise. When in a funk, try smiling. Do it spontaneously, meaningfully, whilst thinking of a lovely or funny moment in your memory. There it is! The thought has triggered a new, more cheerful feeling, and then a lighter mood ensues. It is actually a simple formula. I will admit, at times it feels fake, yet it still holds a speck of change in it.
Choosing joy is to attract more options. It opens a portal to renewal and creativity because the weight of happiness is null. It cannot be experienced as anything other than the urge to leap into the atmosphere. It cannot be grounded, and it cannot be bound.
I make it a habit to always write down the things that make me happy: sunshine, doing yoga, the ocean, bright colours, animals, singing, playing the piano, dancing, watching classic films... listing these things and reading that list reinforces their influence. Happiness is a power that far exceeds that of any other. Try making your own list. You may discover that it lengthens quite easily over time. My list also includes seemingly very little things, such as delighting in the way prisms dance across my walls when sunbeams pour in my windows. This leads me towards a practice of gratitude, which can foster a lovely overall dull roar of happiness that walks long beside me like a friend.
Gratitude seems to result in, not only an instant pleasant mood, but also in a solid way of increasing bounties of all sorts. Gratitude would be the entire subject of another post. For this tirade on happiness, however, I shall mention it only briefly, to illustrate one of my own tools with which I hearten my experience.
Of course I believe that happiness is paramount to life. I think it is more essential now than ever before. In this current point in human history, it is a form of a revolution to defect to the side of happiness in order to surmount more and more encroaching darkness. I think the choice to live joyfully can be a purpose in and of itself. I feel being happy is the right of all creatures on this planet. It isn't about not ever noticing things that are melancholy or dreadful. It is about making the choice to hold onto all the wonder that is all around, and to see how much larger those things are, as they perpetually surmount the things that would bring disharmony and devastation. Choosing happiness includes doing one's part in elevating the happiness of others, as well. It is a cause and effect, in addition to being a desire and a mood.
Happiness goes beyond the constraints of religious dogma. It creates a sort of spiritual way of being that suits all personalities. It is a part of dreams and goals. Happiness is never stale, nor is it stagnant. In yoga we endlessly talk about moving the energy because true growth cannot come from that which is stuck.
Happiness does seem to be fleeting. I do not really believe that, though. It can be snatched as it zooms by. Hold it in your hand like a brilliant hummingbird. When you make a safe home for it, it tends to want to dwell there.