The Secret of Happiness
To be happy with yourself in the present moment while maintaining a dream for the future is a grand recipe for manifestation. When you feel so whole that you no longer care whether ‘it’ will happen, that’s when amazing things materialise in before your eyes’. ~ Dr Joe Dispenza
It’s that time of year. Resolutions. Goal setting. Mapping out the year. But does it have to be that way?
I’ve been contemplating prayers & manifestation. So many times I’ve caught myself believing ‘I need this to happen to be OK!’ Behind that need there is a sense of lack, mistrust in the present moment, inability to believe everything is OK right now, just as it is.
As I recognise this, I’m firstly so grateful for my practice that allows me to see clearly. Then I can open to the challenging emotions and allow them to be there, without fighting. In the past I’d try to run away and bury the emotions under constant distraction and a need for validation.
Of course, this still happens. But I find myself engaging with the drama of my mind less and less. Instead, I’ll go outside. Smile at the silvery eucalypts in the clouds, watch intently as the ants scurry over the new fig leaves. Suddenly there is space. And within that space there is peace. The wanting turns to gratitude.
So prayer and manifestation is all about gratitude. Deeply appreciating what you have here and now.
Pause. Connect to your beating heart. Feel your breath. Feel the sensations of your body. Whisper to yourself all the things you’re grateful for now. Close your eyes and allow the emotion of gratitude to wash through you. Instead of asking what you want to get, ask what you can give.
The spiritual teacher Krishnamurti famously declared ‘Truth is a pathless land’. He was always telling his students to not waste their time listening to spiritual talks, but it didn’t put them off. Everyone was always asking him to share his secret. How are you so peaceful? Why are you calm and happy all the time? At a 1977 lecture in California, he finally agreed. The whole crowd went silent and leaned in. Krishnamurti smiled shyly and said. ‘My secret is, I don’t mind what happens’.
This year I’ve been really exploring what it means to feel at peace with myself. It’s been a year of deep transformation. The structures I thought were fixed have dismantled. Things we were told were impossible are now happening with ease.
2020 taught me that I can do things my own way and ’succeed’. I used to have this belief that I ‘wasn’t a business kind of person’. I’ve never studied anything business related. I’ve never written a business plan. I didn’t go to uni. My idea of success doesn’t look like a shit ton of money in the bank. It doesn’t look like economic growth for its own sake. It doesn’t look like spreadsheets and wall planners ( I tried to use a wall planner this year but every time I looked at it my brain hurt so now I’ve gone back to scribbling on pieces of paper). It doesn’t look like marketing plans or scheduled posts. It doesn’t look like structure of any kind.
I’m not saying these ways are ‘bad’. The opposite! I know structure works really well for some people and that’s the whole point.
You do you baby. Explore the way YOU like to work. Ask yourself WHY you do things in a certain way? Is it because it feels good or because someone told you that’s how it should be done? When everyone is given the freedom to work in the way that suits them, everything flows. And the best part is, YOU’RE THE ONE WHO GIVES YOURSELF THAT FREEDOM! What could be more empowering than that.