Happiness Tips - Page 1

Happy-Woman-Enjoying-Nature-300Take a Balance Break

Some people begin their day feeling clear and focused, but struggle to maintain that momentum beyond late morning. Also common is the mid-afternoon slump, which happens for many people at around 3.00 pm. These are good times to take a balance break.

Balance breaks can take several forms. You can eat a nutritious snack, take a brief nap, or sit to meditate briefly. Even day-dreaming can restore your energy. The point is to change gears, to restore balance.

Notice the increase in creative flow, productivity and fulfillment when you maintain balance throughout your day.

 Open to Transformation

To open yourself to transformation, open yourself to life as it presents itself to you in every moment. Fully embrace whatever arises in your experience, without resistance or denial, and participate fully in life as a transformational process. Day-by-day as you flow with change and accept who and what you are as completely appropriate, you are delivered to increasing levels of integrative wholeness.

Do not judge yourself, but rather endeavor to become more aware of your process. With awareness, you can bring more balance to your experience.

 Be Grateful

If someone compliments you on an accomplishment, it is easy and natural to feel appreciation and express gratitude. If, on the other hand, someone points out a shortcoming, you may react and feel negatively towards them and yourself, perhaps becoming defensive or criticizing them in turn. This creates separation.

Acknowledge your world with gratitude, because everything you experience is a gift. Fulfillment is a state of constant gratitude.

 Shift Your Focus

Whenever you become aware that you are lost in daydreams, bring your awareness to focus for as long as possible. You can practice this while driving a car, cooking, reading, etc. You can use a pre-determined focus, for example, the heart, or the point between your eyebrows, or the top of your head.

Whenever you become aware that you are slipping back into fragmented thinking (which will happen frequently), simply bring yourself back to your focus. The key is to make the shift whenever you recognize you have lost your focused awareness.

When your mind is directed, you enjoy a greater sense of wholeness, well-being, fulfillment, and peace.

 Energy Is All There Is

Become aware of the presence of energy everywhere.

In this process, it is best to sit or lie. Once you have located your energy form, maintain a focus upon it for a few minutes. Then, gently shift your attention to some element in your immediate surroundings, such as the wall or window if you are indoors, or a tree, rock formation or something in nature if you are outdoors. Now, extend the experience of energy you feel within yourself to include the outer element you have chosen for your focus. Notice that you have not relinquished your own energetic experience, but have expanded it. In this expanded focus, see if you can discern any shift in the energy field compared to before, when it was just your own. Spend a few minutes exploring this relationship to see what you discover.

Turn the ordinary magical and expand your energetic experience by bringing awareness to the quality of energy in your external world.

 Energy Body Awareness

Bring a meditative focus to your body.

Once you have experienced your subtle energy body, you can tune into it whenever you wish, to sustain balance and wholeness and facilitate the clearing of blocked or suppressed energy.

Whenever you feel imbalance, mentally, emotionally, or physically, direct your attention in the following way to restore wholeness. Focus your attention on the subtle pulse or flow of energy that you have recognized as your energy form. It is not necessary to attempt to change or direct the energy form in any way. Rather, just experience it as an observer. Continue the process for about five minutes or until you notice a shift in your experience. Try this at least once each day.

Through simple observation of your energy form, enhance your experience of well-being and wholeness.

The Energy Body

Experience your body as an energy field.

Our human form is capable of experiencing subtle levels of reality, which are energetic in nature. To do this, we must first expand our awareness. Here is a simple technique that brings awareness to the body, enabling us to experience ourselves as an energy field.

Begin by lying on your back on the floor or on a bed. With your eyes closed, gently observe your breathing. Watch as the breath flows in and flows out, without trying to change it—just observe and relax. After a few minutes, expand your awareness to your whole body. Allow your awareness to fill the space that surrounds and permeates your body. In that focus, see if you notice a very gentle vibration or energy in your form, almost like a low hum.

Remain attentive this way for five to ten minutes, just observing, without trying to “do” anything about it.

 Whole-Body Awareness

Use this simple process to clear stress, tension, or blockages in the physical dimension.   

1-Do some aerobic physical exercise to move energy through your body.
 2-Lie on your back on a bed, or the floor, with your eyes closed. Allow yourself a few minutes to relax into a wakeful state of awareness.
 3-When you feel settled, focus on the tips of your toes for a few seconds. Then, slowly move to your feet and ankles, then calves, knees, and thighs, allowing your attention to rest at each point for a few seconds each. Then, continue moving upward along the body with your attention focusing on each point for a few seconds as before: your hips and genital area, abdomen, chest, throat, chin, face, forehead and top of head, then down to the shoulders, upper arms, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands, and finally, the tips of your fingers.

When you complete this process, release attention to a more diffuse observation of your whole body. Allow your awareness to simply observe the whole body without any intention to change or create anything. In this wakeful awareness, if you should notice any sensation arising anywhere in the body, simply observe it.

Do this practice once a day for about fifteen minutes, especially on rising in the morning or just before bed.

 The Clearing Visualization

This technique is best used while walking or exercising. Visualize yourself as a hollow bamboo tube through which your fear, anxiety, or other negative emotional states are flowing away. Or, visualize yourself as a stream carrying these emotional imbalances away in a purifying flow. The physical exercise assists in actualizing the clearing process that the visualization addresses.

Try this clearing visualization process whenever you feel emotionally.

Breathe for Emotional Balance

When we are peaceful and contented, breathing is slower, more regular and rhythmic. When we are experiencing fear, stress, or anxiety, our breathing patterns speed up and become irregular and erratic.

You can learn to direct your breathing consciously whenever you feel stressed or fearful, and return to a state of balance. With practice, regular, relaxed breathing will become more automatic and you will become calmer and more peaceful.

When you notice you feel imbalanced or stressed, sit down for a few minutes and focus on your breathing. With your breath at equilibrium, neither all the way out, nor all the way in, consciously draw in your breath while counting slowly to five. When your breath is completely in, slowly exhale all the way, again counting to five. Keep this basic technique going for a few minutes, and then notice if you feel a shift towards balance.

Use conscious breathing to restore emotional balance any time you experience distress.

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