Positive Attitude – Happiness and Mindfulness

There has been so much written about finding that elusive state of being — profound happiness.

Our inspirational teachers have all come up with thousands of ways to help you be happy.  Yet how many people feel they actually achieve that pinnacle of extreme exultation and positivity? And is it truly necessary for leading a fulfilling and rich life?

Optimism does not seem to be the natural way of the human condition and I am not sure why. Are we born relatively happy, and then life teaches us otherwise? Or are we born in a neutral space, and have to learn happiness? These are just questions that are food for thought.

In my years of experience here on Planet Earth, working first in the corporate world and then the holistic healing world, my observation is that people have a wide range of happiness ratio (whether they spend more time feeling good than bad.) It seems far easier for people to fall into that space of concern, stress, tension, confusion. Happiness seems to take work!

If you are one who naturally gravitates toward positive feelings, then I suspect you are more uplifted than most. If you get up in the morning, excited and optimistic about greeting the day, then you are in a beautiful space and probably among the minority.

However perhaps there is too much focus on the achievement of a total constant positive state of being — if we try hard and fall short, we feel in worse shape.  And really, I don’t believe it is possible to be happy ALL the time!  Part of the human experience here in the physical plane is to feel through a large range of emotions so we can understand contrast and learn the value of appreciation.

So what if we set our sights on a more neutral state of being rather than always pursuing some perfect state of bliss?  That would be mindfulness — being present and focused in the now.  Maybe we don’t always need to be happy, but simply “happily functioning” in the current moment, living purely right here, right now.  Observing what is at hand and coping with what is right before us. Ready to move forward into our next moment, just greeting the unfolding of our own unique life experience with a sense of expectancy, openness and receptivity.  As well as flexibility.

If you can wrap your mind about that kind of state, then you will likely be able to move into a more receptive space that includes peacefulness and harmony. So if you can just be peaceful (meaning non-reactive to all the challenges that happen in our surrounding reality) in the moment, with the task at hand, being in an attitude of “neutrality,” that does leave an opening for good things to flow in, thereby bringing that wave of happiness that may periodically flow with it.

It is completely spectacular to seize those clear moments of happiness, of course!  Milk them for all the goodness you find streaming through you at that point in time.  But don’t be judgmental when the flow abates, because like the ocean tide, there will be an ebb and flow of this sought-after emotion.

Accept yourself for who you are — and your own variety of emotions. Take those “steps” so that you are happy more than you are not happy — yes, go ahead and do the “inner work.” Yet know that it is okay if you find yourself in a sort of breezy, gentle place of “neutrality” for periods of time.  The only place you DO NOT want to be is mired in serious sadness, stress or depression for any prolonged time frame.  But don’t underestimate the gracefulness of living neutrally and mindfully in the moment.

“Happiness is not what makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy.”  ~Br. David Steindl-Rast

Affirmations:

• I focus on the now moment, allowing my life to unfold with a state of openness and expectancy.
• I strive to be in that space of neutrality and mindfulness, doing the inner work of remaining peaceful and non-reactive.
• I understand and accept that my human range of emotions brings a wonderful learning experience in the form of contrast.