Guiding Thought

We focus our mind and thoughts on our Inner Divine Self, our Self of Peace, our Self of Joy, our Self of Infinite Being and Intelligence. When we are aware of our Inner Divine Self, we radiate these qualities, expressing the freedom of Being in Life!

Sharing

We can feel free in Life. We can experience the freedom of being in life.

What does freedom feel like? It’s a lightness that transcends “earthly cares”…it’s weightlessness; it’s confidence that nothing can touch or hinder the inner solidity of that lightness or weightlessness. It’s thinking about the future and dismissing worries because they have no foothold. It’s being at peace with whatever comes. It’s feeling happy for no reason. It’s assurance that whatever comes is fine! It’s an inner knowing that truly, all is as it should be.

It’s more than words. There are enumerable ways we’re told: “Don’t worry, be happy.” People make a lot of money using encouraging, positive words—in songs, in affirmations, in self-help books. These things are incredibly important on one level. People today experience so much malaise, ennui, despair, or helplessness that they need to know it can be different; they need to hear that and be encouraged; but more than this, they need to feel and experience the truth of all those positive messages.

But too often, those positive messages don’t take hold; people don’t know how to be happy, to be free. They don’t know what to do. Something is out of tune between what they are hearing and what they are experiencing. They know happiness is out there, right? Someone is happy…the people who write those songs…people with a lot of money…people who smile all the time. “What do they know that I don’t know? What do they have that I don’t have? I need to get me some of that.” But people don’t know how.

It’s more than just being told “It can be different.” Too often, people hear the words, perk up, and think, “Yeah…I can be happy,” but then happiness is fleeting and often dependent upon what they are experiencing. When life is good, low stress, no arguments with family or friends, people are “happy.” When they are at a party, having dinner with friends, or just listening to a happy song, people can be “happy”. Who wakes up happy for no reason these days? I mean happy as in carefree, unburdened, and with joy that effervesces out of every pore? How often do you wake up this way?

Sometimes I wake up this way. When I was younger, I used to wake up this way more often. I’ve been experimenting with what to do to get this feeling for a long time. I’ve figured out there are things I can do that get me closer to this, and things that get me further from it. For example, taking a bath before going to bed gets me closer; too much sugar before bed gets me further. Do I always take a bath now before bed, since I know it gets me closer? No. Do I avoid sugar before bed because I know it gets me further? Not always…but the point is, I make choices, with a certain understanding of the effect they will have and I keep experimenting. I know breathing and meditating get me closer. I know doing these contemplations gets me closer. I know that more exercise would get me closer, but I don’t do that as much as I would like.

These contemplations not only get me closer to experiencing happiness and freedom, they expand what I expect. That means my tolerance for what is not happiness or freedom goes down. It’s more acute when I can feel myself getting further away from it. If I can feel it sooner, that drifting away, I can make a choice that will move me closer again.

It’s kind of a two steps forward, one step back approach…and I am ok with that. With the two steps forward, I am growing and learning; with one step back I am adjusting to a “new normal”. The new normal keeps growing, because the forward steps are always happening. The one step back keeps me sane.