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| Every person, every moment is precious |
I had the most interesting thing happen to me yesterday! I experienced two heightened emotions at the exact same time: extreme happiness and extreme sadness. I could feel the two physical sensations in my body and how intensely different they made me feel.
I was on my way home from purchasing this iPad I have been saving for since last year. I was elated and couldn’t wait to get home and play with it! Then I got a text from my daughter with some terribly depressing news about what had just happened to her. I immediately sank like a rock from the excited state I had been in just moments before.
There I was feeling outrageously happy and extremely sad simultaneously, and beginning to also feel overwhelmed. I remembered an A Course in Miracles lesson “Happiness is a choice I must make”. I took a deep breath, pulled away from my physical and mental experiences, then aligned with my Inner Self, the one who was observing the experience. It was remarkable! I was able to watch and feel the sad Juliana and also watch and feel the excited Juliana. I could exactly feel the differences between the two emotions and how they felt in my body!
I slowly went back and forth to feel and observe each one; it was so fascinating to me! When I was in that position of observing, I could make the choice of happiness. It was clear to me that my sadness wouldn’t help my daughter in any way, and was a waste of my energy. Almost instantaneously I could feel my sadness lighten, then disperse. I’m of much more use to the world and my daughter when I’m not burdened with those negative, heavy emotions. I was able to lift my daughter up with my lightened presence, which then helped her make a constructive choice for the problem.
Happiness is a choice I must make.
I created “Happiness is a choice, learn how to choose” as the new tag line for my company, The Joyful Life Project. That statement expresses a core operating system for how to live a happier life. I use it and teach it to my clients.
Irritability, anger, depression, helplessness: often people don’t realize they are creating their own unhappy lives. They may feel they’re stuck with a problem before them, stuck with the unfulfilling relationship they’re in, stuck with the bad day they’re experiencing. They may feel they have no choice but to bear it, assuming others will have the peaceful and easy life – but not them.
Usually these unfortunate people have lived their whole lives expecting to be disappointed. They probably have collected plenty of evidence, as proof to themselves and others, that they’ll always lose. It’s a victim-consciousness way of thinking that creates resentment, blame, anger and shame. The hopelessness, helplessness and despair that can result continues until another path is chosen. It’s the choice of the person feeling those feelings who has to make the choice, no one else can make it for them!
I’ve heard it said “You can choose the easy way, or you can choose the hard way, but you’re going to get the life lesson either way”. It’s true that probably the biggest lesson of my entire LIFE was a really difficult one, 20 years ago, when I hit a brick wall. But In the past several years of my life I now know I can choose the easy path and still get some wonderful life lessons. I choose to live consciously now. I mean, we can’t always choose what happens to us, but we can choose our reactions in any moment. We can choose to be happy.
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