Finding Happiness Every Day with a Spiritual Life

What does being happy mean to you? What does it take to be happy? Does it mean you have no problems? Does it mean there is nothing you wouldn't change? No, of course not. As long as you are living and breathing on this earth, you will have challenges to meet. How we choose to meet those challenges will determine our degree of happiness. Happiness is partly a choice in how we approach our lives. First there has to be a foundation in your life that you believe in. Life without beliefs is like a boat without an oar. Everyone wants to be happy, but most of us don't have a plan for happiness. We set goals for everything else in life, but somehow we think happiness will just happen or not happen. People that don't believe in fate often leave their happiness up to fate. They don't make a choice to be happy they just hope it will happen. I believe our happiness in life is our choice of how we react or don't react to the things that happen in our lives and what we believe about what happens. As I said before there will always be challenges in life and things we can't control, but how we decide to respond is in our control.

Acceptance and Change

Accepting that there are things we can't control and allowing room to be led in life is a huge step towards happiness and peace. When I say happiness, I don't necessarily mean overwhelming joy in every moment. I do mean recognizing joy in life and having peace with life. Fighting the inevitable is such a waste of time. This does not mean that you just accept everything and don't ever confront things or try to change things, but it means knowing what you believe and accepting when you can't change a situation. Being led in life means recognizing there is a purpose to that happens to us and if we are open and aware, life will lead us on our path with a surety.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Quote by Reinhold Niebuhr

As long as you connect happiness to your situation or the circumstances of your life alone you will probably never be happy. Or happiness will always be a very fleeting and elusive moment in time. Learning to accept life as it is, as it happens and not fighting life is an important step to peace and happiness. Changing things that are toxic in your life whether it be your attitude or people in your life is equally important and necessary. This may sound contradictory in its terms, but it is not. If something or someone in your life makes you miserable and you have done all that you can do to try to have a good and healthy relationship or to try to change the situation to no avail then it may be time to disconnect. We can forgive people their sins and their shortcomings, but that does not mean we are accountable or responsible for their lives. We are not obligated to continue relationships with anyone or any situation that continually brings us harm. Family ties or any other type of connection, does not give people the right to diminish you, to hurt you, to hold you down or to steal your life force. We are not ultimately responsible for their lives and we must be responsible for our own hearts, our own deeds and our own happiness.

Past and Future

Living in the past or future is not beneficial to happiness or peace. If we hold onto our past or look to the future for our happiness, we miss today. Today is the day to tell your loved ones how much you love them. In today are our happiness and our joy if you will only find it. Don't wait for tomorrow for what you can live today. Whatever it is that you want to accomplish in your life be that today. Be brave, be courageous, be happy, be kind, be an agent of change, be forgiving, be loving, be generous, the key is to "be" today. Don't let the things from yesterday weigh you down, if you made a mistake forgive yourself and if needed ask for forgiveness and then move on. If the weeds of yesterday try to choke out the flowers of today you have to ignore the past and enjoy what is here and now. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come so don't let these markers of time steal your life away. When old feeling or worries rise up to take your focus and steel your emotions against yourself, look at them head on and recognize this is not your destiny. You are a living, breathing being with opportunities and options available to you at every moment in your life. If we identify only with the past and regret or losses or even successes we are missing what we can be today. If you are waiting for sometime in the future when it will be time to enjoy life or when you will have enough money or you will have worked through your problems or whatever other requirements you may have put upon some future point of happiness you are missing your life now. We don't have any guarantee of time in this life, we have no guarantee of circumstances, all we have is that we are here now and we can choose how we will live this day. We can make goals for the future and plans for the future and we can learn from out past without letting either identify who we are. We are spiritual beings with value intrinsic to the life we have been given. When you live with this awareness you will find it much easier to find value in each moment of each day and to see the value in yourself and others.

Our Choices and the Truth

We can decide what we believe is true in life we can decide how to use the time we have in this life. We can decide to love someone or to withhold our love; we can decide to be happy or to be unhappy. Your identity is bigger than what you have done or failed to do. We are more than the sum of your experiences. You are a part of a interconnected whole that is life, there is a spiritual truth, that is bigger that any one person, that is true beyond any definition of God or any religious division. In the quiet of our souls, I believe we all know this one truth and that that unites us all. This still small voice is actually greater than the clatter of our minds and the static and noise of false emotions that will you lead you to depression and destruction. The truth is true in all languages, in all peoples, in all countries, in all hearts of man. We know the truth because we are part of the truth. We are all part of one creation and we all know this truth in our souls. We may have let the clatter of the cares and woes of everyday life over power this center core of truth, but it is still there waiting to be discovered. Ultimately the only thing that can separates us from happiness and peace in life is when we become separated from the truth of our existence. We feel alone when we are separate from the truth that we are all born knowing that we are part of the whole of creation. That is why children seem so wise in there simplicity and so simple is there wisdom of how to live and love. They live in the moment with passion and intensity and they love unconditionally without regard to people's successes or failures. You don't have to win a child's love you only have to love them from your heart. Next time you are feeling like the world is closing in, or your mind is driving you crazy, stop and look to your heart, remember what is important. Quiet the racing thoughts or just ignore them and listen to the voice that is inside you that is longing to be heard. It's always been there, its part of you; it's your soul calling out to you to listen to the truth. When you listen you will hear a deep and collective sigh as all of creation is longing for you to "be".

The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. Bible verse, Romans 8:19

It is my sincere hope that at least one person will read this and see a glimpse of the truth that maybe they had forgotten. Or that one person will read this and remember what some part of all of us, already knows.

Books that most inspired me and guide me in my spiritual journey:

The Bible
The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle

Things that inspire me and have guided me in my spiritual journey:

A starry, starry night
Looking into the eyes of my beautiful newborn baby daughters
Sitting on a deserted beach, listening to the surf
The perfection of flowers in my garden, the scent of lavender, jasmine and thyme
Standing on a Colorado mountain top looking out into the heavens and the valleys below
The sound of a babbling brook, birds chirping, the stillness
Biting into a lush red tomato still warm off the vine
Fresh peaches, crisp apples, fresh corn on the cob and all the bounty of this magnificent place we call home
Listening to the stillness inside and that spaciousness that is so huge it pulls me out of myself into the infinite wonder of creation and awareness of me as intregal part

People that have inspired me:

Jesus Christ
Many other spiritual leaders
My Parents, who gave me life in this form and who never, told me not to dream about a better world
My Children, who showed me in their hearts and their actions the way to that better world, who gave me a purpose greater than myself
My Husband, who lives in the now, who enjoys the smallest things each day, like talking to his dog, or watching the fish in the pond, who accepts each moment equally without judgment and who loves unconditionally
My Brother and his beautiful wife who love each other with the love of God and whose spirits are at once gentle and strong
My Pastor and his wife from many years ago who opened to me the power and truth of the scriptures and blessed my eyes to see and my ears to hear
Friends I have known and loved and who have shared my spiritual journey
Little children who you see in a moment somewhere, eyes full of wonder, the truth of who they are so alive in their souls
Old people who you see for a moment somewhere, eyes full of wisdom and peace as they ready their return to life without body and form
Poets, artists, songwriters, spiritual leaders and myriads of people whose names I will never know, but whom touched my life for a moment and made me recognize their life and mine and how it's all so magnificently put together