Beyond the Psychology of Happiness

The scientific community is now investigating in greater detail the science and psychology of happiness. You will find sections of popular media devoted to this topic, including the Huffington Post and BBC.

Here is a recent commentary from the Huffington Post:

Looking deeper at what makes people genuinely happy, we see that people who are happy usually have, or can get, what they need when they need it. The essential word here being need not want. Wants might include the wealth and power mentioned before, but needs could include information, assistance with a problem, or peace of mind, in addition to material possessions. We can infer then that happiness is enabled by an ability to create at will what we need, mentally, emotionally and materially. Although this sounds like a hybrid of the Law of Attraction and great portfolio management, to measure success in this way is really determined by our levels of willpower and self-control, which when combined lead us to self-mastery. Source is Huffington Post

Huffington Post

I disagree with this approach to life. For me happiness is not embedded in our ability to create at will what we want. It is our ability to be with what is. When we derive happiness from creating what we want, then the end is the goal, and we experience happiness only at the end! Instead there is a space of happiness, joy and bliss inside each one of us that resides there, ready to be tapped into. This space is joy and bliss in the moment. That moment may include being in situations that we do not want. For instance the car breaks down.

Bliss can be present. When it is we laugh, we move into action, we enjoy the process of getting the car towed even if the towing takes 5 hours, that is 5 hours in bliss, enjoying the experience of being present where we are.

Each moment has the potential to bring us such joy, love, compassion and bliss. Why take away that potential from any moment? Why would you say “This next 5 hours is going to be miserable.”

Why would you spend 5 hours wishing you were somewhere else? Why would you spend those 5 hours generating thoughts and emotions that increase low vibration, low energy, chemicals in the body that contribute to disease?

Doing the regret, worry, sadness thing is just old habits and modeling of the surrounding society. To shift that to the frequency and inner space of happiness, joy and bliss requires us to eliminate our habits and transcend the societal programming. This requires courage, boldness and vision as the first steps. Then it requires us to step up and take action. Daily action that keeps us expanding our potential, keeps the vision alive, keeps our awareness increasing and keeps our frequency on the rise.

I have created two programs to help others, one is spiritual life coaching, and the other is an online course that focuses and daily practices that increase bliss.

You can find the first one here: Enlightening Adventures

You can find the Increase Bliss course here.  Increase Bliss

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