The Practice of Happiness

Someone saw me & heard

Silent suffering is the worst. The mind creates images & thoughts to protect the soul. Then one day, the mind calms. The body relaxes. The thoughts slow. Peace, happiness & joy shine through the fear, doubt, loneliness, and hate. The body recalibrates. A new life is born.

Really focused

I started this meditation by counting my inhalations/exhalations (in 1,2,3,4,5; out 1,2,3,4,5) in order to maintain a slow, steady pace. After a few minutes, I noticed that I wasn't counting anymore but could keep the same slow, steady breathing. I could then focus on the joy and peace in my life. Wonderful meditation with Dorothy.

Happiness

I was reminded that to be happy you must be in the present. You can bring happy moments from the past to remind you of happy feelings but you must be present to be happy and content.

The Practice of Happiness

I found this to be one of the most important meditation sessions for me. Learning that happiness is a natural and normal state in the present moment is a big issue for me. I feel I’m making inroads and challenging my previously dominant cynicism.

Happiness

I learned that in order to be happy, I have to let go of the past.

Distracting...

While I love Dorothy’s voice, I felt a little distracted by it a couple times today. I would be getting into a nice “blank out” session and then she’d give more instructions which actually took my focus away from “being” and caused me to become a listening student for a moment. There were a couple nice long “silent” moments which I really enjoyed & would expect more of in a longer/advanced meditation. For me, I like shorter phrases of instruction “do this” ... long pause to do it... “you are doing good”... long pause... “do it like this”... long pause...,etc... with encouragement sprinkled in, instead of longer instructional sentences. But she still got to a nice place of Happiness! Thank you Dorothy ❤️😌🍀

I just did this with my Meditation group....

...at my center for folks that have had brain injuries, and man! This is a Groovy thing! Namaste 🙏🏼

Memories of my dog Max

It was a somber feeling recalling some of the past memories that have brought happiness in my life. I had a dog Max for a long while who past away, who was a great companion and brought much happiness into my life and I will never forget him.

Seeking happiness

Had an awful experience this afternoon! I've been working with my neurologist on trying to figure out why my right arm/hand are now exhibiting the same ”dead” or ”pins-and-needles” ”asleep” seeking as my left side extremities have since my stroke. It's been worrying me because I've chosen to drive again, and felt like having my right leg go to sleep was going to lead to a traffic accident Today? It happened!😳😩😰 I was in our car, leaving In-N-Out Burgers with my eldest child in the car, explaining this very worry with her, because my leg and foot had fallen asleep once again. Suddenly my right leg ”jumped” and I hit the accelerator, rear-ending a van in front of us! Thankfully? No damage done to either behicle, no injuries. But I am voluntarily removing myself from the public roads. It'll be a hassle for the whole family, but I CAN’T allow myself to be responsible for either hurting myself, or someone else, or wrecking one of our vehicles. I just rcan't.

Focusing on happiness starting with breathe

Sometimes is difficult to have a sense of happiness with all the noise around us. Pausing to breathe is an excellent start to pursue it.

Pursuit of Happiness

Happiness is our natural state of being that originates from within. If we approach finding our happiness as our responsibility that is exclusively ours to co-create, then we become far more dedicated in the practice of making ourselves happy. A simple way to return back to our original state of happiness is to pause and bring our awareness to our breath. Our breath is always there to anchor us back to the present moment. Then visualize a moment in time that brought you happiness. I visualized driving along a winding mountain road with the windows down on a beautiful Spring day. As I continued to focus on this , I could feel myself smiling and a feeling of joy spreading throughout my mind and body. All of us have the power within us to access our state of happiness at anytime we want. May you find a few moments to take for yourself today especially if it has been a stressful day to bring yourself back to the present moment. Wishing all of you a beautiful day!🙏❤️💐

Happiness

When we realize that we have a say in how we feel, that we co-create our lives, we can take a more direct action to be happy. Sure, external things happen that may temporarily change our innate state of Being, but we can change this anytime we want by bringing ourselves into the Now by way of our breath as well as bringing to mind an experience in which we felt happiness. Settling in my body, I became aware of my breath. Feeling the sensations of my body simply breathing, I was brought into the Now. Hearing birds sing in my surroundings, I was brought into the Now. In the Now, I am content. Redirecting my focus from my breath to an experience that brought me happiness, I was taken back a few months ago where my mom and I were on a river boat going up the Colorado River. Being back on the river boat, I felt the wind blowing through my hair. I saw juvenile eagles perched on branches. I saw the surprise look on my mom’s face when she was given cupcakes for her birthday. I heard others sing happy birthday to her. I tasted the ham and cheese sandwich and cup of gumbo i had for lunch in my mouth. I smelled the fresh air flowing into my nostrils. Bringing to mind this happy experience, feelings of love and joy flooded my heart. I even noticed I had a smile on my face. As these feelings of love and joy lingered in my body as I redirected my focus back on my breath, I found myself even more content than I was before. Being in the present moment by focusing on our breath or any other point of interest, such as sounds, we find that there is a peace, a stillness that exists. It is within this stillness where we find happiness and contentment. We can increase our level of happiness by bringing to mind an experience in which we found ourselves happy because when we visualize ourselves feeling good, we will feel good! Namaste 🙏🏻❤️☮️

Enlightening

This meditation enlightened and taught me about happiness. The narrator instructs that our natural state is happiness, and we can return to happiness by focusing on our breathing and then an image of happiness. The narrator’s voice is crisp, clear, and wise as she guides the listener through steps for rediscovering happiness. I only dislike that the narrator takes long pauses between words, though this seems to be her style.

Being in present

Feeling good and learnt being in present gives happiness and mindfulness.