MEDITATION TIPS - 3 STEPS TO HAPPINESS

By Tanja Lennertz, SoulCentre, www.soulcentre.org
13 December 2017

Happiness! Isn’t that what we all strive for in life? Isn’t that the purpose behind every single action we take? When you take a moment to think about it, you’ll realize it is true. Even the things you do that you don’t like, bring at least a little more happiness into your life, otherwise you would not do it. Let’s say you feel unhappy about your job, but you don’t quit because the consequences may make you even less happy! And therefore staying in this job does add to the happiness in your life until something better comes along that will increase your happiness even more.

So, if we are all constantly taking action towards happiness, then why do so many of us not feel happy at all? Even when we seem to have everything we could wish for?

It all comes down to your mindset. This is what the masters of wisdom and meditation on this planet have been teaching for ages!

Here are 3 steps to happiness:

1) Appreciate what you have.

The tendency of the majority of people is to want more and more. We enjoy only briefly what we have acquired and then we start wanting the next thing, the previous thing losing its value to us quickly. We see the most exciting posts of friends and strangers on social media and feel that our life is dull and boring in comparison. This creates even more of a feeling of lack, not to mention all the advertising that we are exposed to every day.

The focus is on what we don’t have, on what we lack and we forget to see and enjoy all the wonderful things in life we do have; our family and friends and the love we receive from them, access to good food to properly feed our bodies, education, public facilities taken care of by our governments, beautiful nature that is freely accessible, our house, car, money in the bank and so on and so forth. Start to appreciate what you have and how these things support you each and every day. It will have a major impact on your level of happiness!

2) Live in the now.

Many times we worry about the things to come or we hold grudges or feel sad about things that happened in the past. These negative thoughts influence how we feel and act in the moment of now. But the now is in fact the only moment we will ever have. Everything else is future or past. So you’d better make your now as happy and positive as you can, which will then positively influence your next moment and your next moment and your next moment. Do you see the cycle?

Realize that the past is gone and can never be changed. The only thing you can change is the your attitude towards it. Can you learn your lessons from it and have peace with it? Can you let it go and direct your energy towards positive things in the now? Or do you allow it to negatively influence your present moment and your future too?

Worrying about what may happen in the future, doesn’t contribute to your happiness either. The saying ‘Man suffers most from the suffering he fears’ is so very true. Most of what we fear will never even happen and if it does, we’d better deal with it then instead of letting it take away our happiness now. All we can do to influence the future is to give our best in this moment of now.

3) Be flexible.

We all prefer things to go smoothly and as planned. We have expectations on how things are supposed to go and want things to go our way or have a certain outcome. However, along the way, life may present us all kinds of hick ups and bumps in the road. When we encounter them, we often feel stress, frustration or even anger. After all, we had pictured a different outcome and the first impulse is to resist the actual outcome. But no matter how frustrated and stressed we are or how angry we become, it will not change the outcome that is right in front of us. It does have a negative impact on our happiness and the peacefulness of our mind, though. Learn to become flexible. Accept what is happening, find ways to work around it and then simply proceed happily on your path. Or choose a different path. Many roads lead to Rome! If something doesn’t work, try something else! Don’t keep banging your head against a brick wall: it will only give you a headache.

Apply these 3 steps to your life and experience how your happiness increases!

More wisdom and steps to happiness are taught in our unique and highly effective Meditation program. Our next meditation for beginners class – Meditation Made Simple - starts on 23 January 2018 and consists of 4 sessions of 2 hours. We offer morning and evening sessions to suit your schedule!

SoulCentre is Asia’s Premier Centre for Meditation, Mindfulness & Stress-Management. For details & dates of our meditation programs, connect to www.soulcentre.org/events