“You will find only what you bring in.” – Yoda
Personally, I am a Star Trek fan...I was introduced to Star Wars as an adult! My son at the age of 9 was given the entire Trilogy to watch.
And as he consumed it he converted me to become a fan as he retold the story through his 9-year-old eyes, it fascinated me.
"Yoda" caught my attention from day 1, the backward speak of riddles and parables but always from that place of 'Master, Seer, & Guide'.
“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” — Yoda
We want Better. Better love, home environment, more material things, spiritual enlightenment, health, money, job or career, and our list of wants goes on, and on, and on.
But where does our true happiness reside?
Is it in the wanting of the thing, the receiving of it, or the deep underlying need it
fulfills?
Can the practice of Contentment bring a state of happiness and satisfaction right where you are?
Let's EXPLORE together...
“Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view.” – Yoda
First, we have to accept that happiness is not something we catch, like the Zen Buddhist parable of chasing The Bull in my book, which describes the process of attaining Self-Awareness that then leads to awakening our hidden potential through the various phases we encounter to catch the bull.
I believe happiness is something you wake up into, it’s something similar to the phrase "home is where your heart is", a feeling of happiness is what you receive. One day or someday there it is in your consciousness as you smile more often, you are more relaxed about external stressors, you breathe deeply through your daily activities and the list goes on, and on, and on.
This happens when we stop the busyness of running after your next goal, physical, emotional, or spiritual. And the next exciting shiny object emotional relief which is always out of reach and always a few steps ahead of any point in time that you were experiencing in the now; which would be understood as always in your future now, but never right now!
This feeling of happiness is usually there all along, in the peripheral of your experiences, you just
didn’t see it or missed the feeling of it because you were too busy chasing the external reflection of the happy feeling state.
So you will never catch it, happiness, it comes to you. And this is what you bring in, into your home, relationships, life experiences.
That means accepting of your now, what you have now, who you are now, where you are now as you’re reading this ...and the ability to savor and enjoy any moment now!
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
“Happiness and contentment must be preceded by genuine self-love.
When you truly love and respect yourself, everything seems to run more smoothly in your life. You get along better with others, you feel stronger and more balanced, and you don't take challenges so personally.
Rather than seeking love and acceptance from others, give it to yourself! Speak kindly to yourself and build yourself up as often as you can. The more you do, the happier you'll feel.” - Positive Thought of the Day
Here is a Confidence building exercise that aligns you to a happy
feeling state:
Think about all your best qualities, then make a list ...commit to focusing on these qualities a few times/day especially in moments when your Inner Critic is throwing ‘shade’ (doubt) on your abilities and your self-worth. I've also suggested to clients to record this list and listen to it a few times/wk to help change their internal programming.
"The greatest teacher, failure is."– Yoda
Our true happiness resides in the wanting of the thing we want when we receive it with deep appreciation with no external trigger of our ego, and when it fulfills our emotional needs where we feel safe, approved of, and accepted by ourselves.
The doing of happiness is in the practice of “ASKING FOR WHAT YOU NEED EMOTIONALLY”
Good or bad, you won’t learn if you don’t start somewhere, let the words come out of your mouth. You can’t correct what you don’t know to fix.
ASK FOR support, love, health, friendship, etc. So go ahead and ask, what are you waiting for?
It is in your asking that you will give yourself the opportunity to transform your home environment, career, spiritual path, relationship, health,
etc. And it is in this asking that happiness will be received not chased.
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