In This Issue:
~ A Personal Note from Rhonda ~ Things to be Happy About ~ Quotes and Inspiration
Life may be simple, but it’s not always easy. If you find value in these gentle reminders, please invite your friends to sign up for my free newsletter by visiting www.centerofhappiness.com. Your perspective is a valuable one, and we can learn from one another how to create a happy life worth living.
I’d like to welcome all of our new subscribers to the Center of Happiness newsletter and acknowledge you for taking the first step toward living a better life.
Thrive Yourself Happy Through the Holidays
Dear Ones,
OK, you may not want to admit it and you may go as far as resenting that I bring it up, but the holidays are just around the corner and the end of another year is soon to follow. The holidays just are. They are neither good nor bad. It is what we do with them, how we handle them, the way we think about them that creates our experience. We may wind up with memories that we will remember with joy–or merely the relief that the holidays are over.
Did you know that the average person spends only about 8% of their time in the present moment? We are either lost in the past wanting to change something we can’t or anxiously anticipating and predicting a future that is likely not to unfold the way we think it will.
STOP. Take a deep breath. Call your thoughts back from the past where they want to harshly review and critique all you ‘should’ have gotten done. And don’t let your thoughts usher you to the future where they want to anticipate all that next year ‘should’ be. `Planning’ can so easily be a disguise for ‘control,’ so get out of the fast lane
and pull over to the path of reaching for excellence rather than striving for perfection.
Shhhhh, take the SCENIC ROUTE for a change. Be here with me right now for a moment, a precious moment, that’s all, for life really will wait that long, and it is in this moment that your power lies and life is certain. It is this precious moment that we truly have, full of amazing gifts if we learn to notice them.
REDUCE SPEED, calm yourself, breathe deep, look around you wherever you are when reading this and simply notice the overlooked wonders and blessings that surround you. Where I sit I notice my dresser holding the picture of my parents, the backdrop of trees whooshing in the autumn wind outside my window, and the basket of multi-colors of yarn that remind me what a joy it is to meditate with knitting needles in my hands from time to time.
Time is a funny thing. We try to capture it by a clock, but do we really succeed? We try relentlessly to control our lives by it, yet control is only an illusion. Time is not a bad thing, and we can’t throw it out the window even if we try. But the amazing thing about it is that we actually have a sense of more time, or at least greater clarity in the time we have, when we dare to consciously choose to live life consciously, rather than on ‘automatic’. Peace and calm are more readily ours when we shift away from revving up and racing in high gear and instead match our gear to our true intention.
Basing our happiness on trying to control everything by fitting it into a rigid time frame is futile without flexibility and leaving plenty of room for the unexpected. After all SHIFT HAPPENS. Change is what we can count on. While we do control the choice of our actions and the thoughts that generate them, we ultimately cannot control the consequences of our choices. They do, however, become more congruent when we design our lives by having our words and actions match our intentions.
My mom would always say, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” We are not in control of our lives in the way we ‘think’ we are, but we do have control over the quality and intention of our thoughts and how they influence and shape our lives. The things that create a life of durable happiness are our principles and values, putting first things first, and knowing that we are amazing and magnificent people. Life lived from the inside out judgment free rather than driven from the outside according to everyone else’s expectations leads us to the HIGHWAY of happiness rather than down the road that has NO OUTLET.
Consciousness with dedication to learning through our mistakes allows us to turn an important corner and drive our lives by ‘principles’ rather than ‘shoulds,’ importance rather than urgency. This way of traveling soon transcends the traditional and bumpy route we have chronically taken, the DETOUR of faster and harder that is complicated by unrealistic expectations and a sense of entitlement. The old path is a certain formula for stress and disillusionment. The new path allows us to be happy regardless of our circumstances. The good news is that we are free to choose!
It is not that you must throw your clock out, but rather treat it as a friend rather than an enemy. More important than how fast you are going is where you are headed and the grace and conscious attention you put into choosing your course.
“How can I SLOW down?” you ask. “Where is the shortcut? I don’t know where I’m going but I’m making such good time! I can’t STOP now, I might miss something.” The type of short cut you are looking for doesn’t exist and you miss more by running too fast in the direction of a mirage, and in so doing you overlook the simple wonders and SIGNS OF HAPPINESS that are beneath your feet and at your fingertips. Trust me, the true short cut is in slowing down to consciously choose each step, willing to embrace your mistakes as opportunities to learn and the unknown as an interesting traveling companion. Learning to accept what is and that change will come is the key.
So, there is no easy shortcut, but there is a simple path. It is a delightful road on which we are joined by many who are dedicated to creating peace and power in their life through connection and conscious choices. You are in good company and far from alone. By starting your journey based upon a firm bed of value-based ambitions, your direction becomes clearer and the inevitable potholes, twists and turns become more manageable. A meaningful, content and happy life is not a matter of doing all you do with speed and perfection. It is more a matter of driving guided by a clear intention and directed by your authentic self. Remember, we are not human “DO”-ings, we are human “BE”-ings, and time offers a loose structure with guideposts to define how the road unfolds.
Today, practice living your life knowing that the most important things in life aren’t things. Drink in the freedom of this new perspective where you dare to declare what is important to you by putting first things first. Gently notice your urgent and pushy thoughts, brush them away without over-reacting or with criticism, and redirect your thoughts with kindness back to the present moment.
The longest journey we take in life is merely 18 inches. It is the path from our head to our heart!
With Gratitude,
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