THE "FEELING" OF IT ALL
Sometimes, as I walk out into the sun or see anything of beauty or of wonder, even the marvels of our technology today, I am suddenly overwhelmed with the greatness of life and the abundance of wonderful things in this world. Often I am struck with awe and wonder - and gratefulness for how all this came about. And sometimes I feel an electricity running through my body, kind of a feeling of excitement, of exhilaration. I feel a rush of energy up through my neck, filling my head with warm energy.
And I have to stop in my tracks, take a deep breath and just enjoy it.
Right now, as I write this, I can hardly contain myself, with the joy I feel, the deep appreciation for having arrived at where I am, for having lived the life I've lived.
I begin to see (or maybe pretty well see, now) what the great philosophers purported, but which I didn't fully "grok" earlier in life: that we already have more than enough to be happy - and that setting a criteria of a [never ending] "more" in order to be happy is a useless chasing of the never attainable, like the cat chasing its tail or the donkey and the carrot.
I was privileged to have gone through a process that has driven this further and deeper. Yes, I had the exposure and trite understanding about how we should be grateful and content about life, but I thought I had to achieve "more" to "get there".
IT ISN'T POSSIBLE WITHOUT THIS
But my mission was about enabling other people to be happier. And as I learned more and more (and failed many times to quite push it over the hill into the 'valley of understanding' for other people) about how essential the view of "what I have" instead of "what I'm missing" is to happiness, I saw clearly that one absolutely can't get there without appreciation of the "what I have", no matter how accomplished a person is!!!!! [And I was measured 2nd highest in my business school class for "achievement drive", believing totally that that "was the way."]
To convince others that there was something to be happy about, I started my lists of what I could be grateful about, to share with them.
Then I "discovered" that it was very, very helpful (and necessary for happiness) for me to review those lists AND to do so until the essence is "top of the mind", accessible from my brain, immediately "useable".
And then the balance shifted, from the normal "watch out for threats and what's wrong" over to, with intention, "I think I'll look for what's right and for what's good" - and finally over to having it just be natural and virtually automatic, where I can bring it to mind effortlessly just by a little thought.
INSTALLING THIS IN OUR LIVES
As I was trying to figure out how to contribute to others, I thought that really "nailing this down" was vital. I think that The Positives Portfolio (plus some reading to further understand this all) provides an impactful tool to help people see that there is already more than enough to be happy and that we have a full "safe haven" in life, no matter what happens above the surface "out there".
I think this perspective is within the pieces linked from The Gratitude Contents/Links page. See if it is clear to you and how helpful it is - or isn't - and please give me feedback, comments, suggestions that could improve its impact and helpfulness to others in attaining the happiness that is already available.
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This is not "trite" stuff. It is actually "reality". Our misery or ungratefulness is based on our mentally constructing false beliefs, false fears, false views, false perspectives [or lack thereof]. [But it's very hard to "see" this clearly without going more deeply into the reading.]
Reality doesn't "suck". Reality is incredible,yet credible...and beautiful and full of great stuff.
I couldn't be happier about getting this incredibly, incredibly, incredible gift. I am truly blessed!
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