Shortcut to happiness – a crude version of my mind mapI stopped the other day, talk to a neighbor I had never met. His son had gone off to college and he said he was very, very lonely, as he found himself eating alone, living alone and missing his son terribly. Whew, that is a hard feeling!I too find myself lonely at times, it is a symptom the human condition. I can be lonely even with other people around, even people who love me and care for me!One thing that I have learned from the study of Vedanta, and A Course in Miracles, is that happiness, contentedness and peace, are ours already, they are within us. They are accessible to us when we remember that our True identity is not this body, it is Consciousness itself. When I remember who I Truly Am, or when I become “at one” or I atone… then I relax, and am content. I am happy.
There are times where I struggle to find happiness in myself. I use a mental map of sorts to lead me to it. The map is my version of a map of life. It’s easier to remember this map when I take time alone, in quiet, or when I spend time in nature.
My mental map shows the things that are seemingly outside of me, family, relationships, jobs, money, attainments, food, stuff, activities and places… all the outer physical, emotional and mental stuff of this world. They are actually all just stand ins, stimuli, reminders, access points and teaching aids for us all. The things of the world either lure us away, or point us toward our happiness, which lies within us.
The things of this world help stimulate the choices we make, to remember who and what we are, as either part of the outside world –or– as separate from it.
Happiness doesn’t lie outside of us… ever! We may find people, relationships, situations and things that make us feel happy for awhile, but they are not the source of our happiness.
Happiness is ours already, it is within us. We can choose to feel it and find access to it more easily, surely when things are going our way. It’s when the going gets tough, that happiness is harder to find.
And so, the shortcut to happiness is to go within, and to look for happiness inside of ourselves. Who we are, our true identity is eternally and always bathed in happiness.
Our happiness is available to us in inner stillness, because it is in inner stillness that we are focused and at home and not pulled outside of ourselves, to react. In stillness, we can remember our core Self, our steady, innate, unflinching, unfailing Self. Inside our very own bodies, we have a “Source connection”1 which is who we are as Consciousness, Source or One.
Our true identity as Consciousness does not necessarily give us a distinct feeling, because we are ALWAYS Consciousness or Source or One! Happiness is intrinsically a part of who we already are, we can access it when we remember that we are part of All That Is, and not separate from it.
And so you can find your happiness when you expand your definition of who you are… when your “me” becomes all of life, all of creation. You can see the green circles expanding in my drawing, as an illustration of how I can define myself as all and everything.
The shortcut to happiness is to see ourselves as the world, and to remember that I am, we are Consciousness itself. I am the Consciousness that makes up and flows through all things. I am not the body I live in, I am, we are Consciousness.
Consciousness makes up the material of all things, enlivens all things, and it is who we Truly are.
Happiness is within you. Access it when you remember you are part of the team of LIFE! Access it when you remember you are Consciousness and not the body.
This shortcut to happiness is also the shortcut to Love, and Peace and Joy!
Be Well! Be Happy and Choose Love!
Freedom