* Choosing Happiness

I have come to the conclusion Happiness does not just happen.  Especially these days when we seem to be surrounded with so many 'heavy and dense' issues in the world.  It's a decision to be happy.  "I am going to be happy."  "I am determined to be happy."  "I choose to be happy."  "When confronted with life's situations where there is more than one choice and the obvious one may have been for me at one time that of sadness or grief, I choose happiness."  I've thought a lot about this over the past few years.  I used to ponder over the heavy question, "How do people move on from grief and despair so quickly."  The answer was beyond me.  Unimaginable, due to my childhood conditioning and societies expectations. Sometimes it takes a few days for the shift to occur.  In years gone by it may have taken months or even years in some cases.  I find I recover from life's mishaps more rapidly now.  I regain my equilibrium more quickly.   I've changed my thinking.  I have allowed my thought process to open to new and innovative thoughts.   I've let the old belief system melt away and a  new one take it's place.  It's not about burying my emotions.  Heaven knows I did that for years and it made me ill.  It's not about stuffing it down and believing everything is fine.  Please don't confuse this decision to be happy with 'not processing' what is happening in my life.  It's just that now, while I am processing and letting go, I can still choose to be happy.  Does that make sense?  Sadness does not hold the same extreme power over me at this stage in my life.   It's a new way of processing.  It's a more objective view.  It's pure.  It's detached.  It's a deep knowing and recognition of what is really good and healthy for my soul.  It's 'higher self' direction.  It's recognition of and listening to that inner voice.  "I choose to be happy." Today, I ran across an except from THIS SITE which supported this way of thinking.  The entire post is great.  Enjoy.

'It's possible to define a more supple variety of happiness that does not paralyze the will or sap ambition. For the first clue about how to proceed, we turn to Buddhist researchers Rick Foster and Greg Hicks.

In their book HOW WE CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY- the nine choices of extremely happy people , they reveal that the number one trait of happy people is a serious determination to be happy. Bliss is a habit you can cultivate, in other words, not an accident that you stumble upon by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere.

For another clue about how to conjure up a kind of happiness that does not anesthetize the soul, we call on Kenneth Koch. Here's what he wrote about Nobel Prize-winning poet Saint-John Perse: "So many poets have the courage to look into the abyss. But Perse had the courage to look into happiness."

"Happy birds, ah, may they extend towards us, from one short to the other of heaven's ocean, that huge

arc of painted wings that will assist and encircle us!  May they bear the full honour of it among us by strength of the soul!"  ~ Saint-John Perse