Today I read an article by Michael Bernard Beckwith from the Monthly Aspectarian, a free magazine dedicated to awakening consciousness. Michael Beckwith was in “The Secret”. He is a powerful speaker. He offers a different way of thinking.
Who doesn’t need help with a new thought process when we are bombarded daily by new of how the economy is getting worse.Most of us know people who have been deeply affected by the change in our economy who have lost jobs or lost their home.
He points out that material things only give us temporary happiness. Once we have the object of our desire the joy of it wears off and we are thinking about what we need next.
He tells us genuine happiness can only happen when we co-create with our Ultimate
Source. What if you do not believe in an Ultimate Source? Before you become totally skeptical, I ask you to consider trying one new thing in your life. That new thing could be meditation, or prayer, or yoga or service to others. I started out doing Heart Math which is a meditation focused on the heart. With some practice the heart energy gets stronger and stronger. You begin to feel the energy in your hands, arms, legs, feet until you are aware of the energy in your body. Once this awareness happens, you can connect to the energy of other living things. And when you think back to your chemistry days and how electrons move around protons and neutrons and connect to other atoms it is possible to imagine that we are physically connected by energy that we cannot see. If you scoff, then I ask you how is it that we are all connected all over the world by internet? Do we really understand how it works?
As you practice quieting your mind the awareness becomes more apparent. It takes practice though. Some people may be able to instantly feel the awareness just as we instantly get online. But other people may start out with an energy awareness that is like dial up. We can easily loose our connection. With practice we can stay connected like we come equipped with broad band. All of us our equipped. It is the beliefs that we grow up with that foster the connection or cloud it up with thoughts of disbelief. Our connection is always on but our receiver may not be working.
When we are tuned in we can find that we connect with living a joyous harmonious life.
Many of us pray, pray, pray, pray, pray but do not listen for the answer. We pray, pray, pray some more and still we miss the answer. At times we may feel that we do not deserve the answer or that we deserve to suffer. These are just our learned beliefs.
I truly believe that one of the main life purposes we have is to be joyful. I always imagine after I have done laughing yoga is the entire world covered in laughter. Wow, what a difference it would make.
By bringing happiness to others we may change someone’s day or even their world. They may feel a shift from negative to positive.
Micheal Beckwith offers 5 suggestions for tapping into happiness. First is through activities that promote joy in our life. Meditation is just one way.
Second he recommends moving through life with a “yes” point of view. It helps us be open to the answers to our prayers which may not show up in the way we saw the answer. For example, at laughing yoga we end the session with positive affirmations and everyone agrees with the affirmation by moving the arms and hands in a forward motion while saying yes. This is an amazing energy builder. For example, we say we are the happiest people in the world…YES! We are the luckiest people in the world….Yes! We love everyone…YES! and everyone loves us…..YES! Of course saying yes should resonate with your heart.
Michael says the third way to create authentic happiness is to share our gifts but not worry how it turns out. I learned this lesson after doing several laughing yoga groups. Many people only come to one session. I was frustrated thinking that people just did not like it. Then I started to see people who had come to one class when I was out in the community. Many of them told me that they are practicing on their own everyday. When I taught, I had envisioned a large group of at laughing yoga. When it did not happen, I interpreted the result as not successful. The truth is that I do not know what effect it has on others. So, I continue to teach and I do not worry if someone really likes it or not. I just pass on the message that we can react to our circumstances with humor or with negative energy.
In the article, Michael give the fourth way to happiness is to drop our sense of self-importance. He says that we should slow down enough to become aware of how to support others. This may be our natural approach, but it can be the opposite of how we are raised. In America, we focus on getting good grades, getting a good degree and getting a good job that makes lots of money. Many times if we do not have a degree we can feel lesser. However we feel, this can help us take the ME out of the situation and focus on others. The only thing I want to add to this is that mothers often put the needs of others ahead of themselves. Women tend to learn over care. We may jump in to help when help is not needed. It is helpful for woman to ground their energy then do a heart rather than head check in as to the best way to help. Sometimes the best help is letting the other person try to do something on their own and succeeding.
Michael’s fifth way to happiness is focusing on gratitude. I have written about gratitude myself, and I feel this is a very important focus. I give thanks everyday for myself, the body and energy that I have been given. My family is such a gift. My home and the joys of running water, hot water, shelter, gifts of nature, food, clothes, clients, internet, ect. It really brings an awareness of how lucky we are in this country. We can go to the store and purchase what ever we want off the shelves. It makes me feel happy as well as thankful when I look at the blessings I have in my life.
I am thankful for Micheal Beckwith and for “The Monthly Aspectarian”.
The Monthly Aspectarian can be found at www.lightworks.com
Michael Bernard Beckwith has his own website @ www.agapelive.com
He has a wonderful cd entitled “Life Visioning: A Four Stage Evolutionary Journey to Live as Divine Love. I will write about it I have finished it. So far, it is very powerful.
I hope you have a day filled with joy and happiness.
Blessings, lol Eileen