How to Be Happy

PERCEPTION AND PERSPECTIVE
 
Confucius said “Our greatest glory lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall”
 
It has also been said that there are as many different versions of reality as there are people on the planet. We are all viewing the world from a completely unique vantage point with a completely unique perspective of it all. Your specific perception of a situation for example, may leave you feeling completely threatened and anxious however the exact same issues mean nothing to another person.
 
I personally once had an incredible fear of the taxman or anything to do with a lack of money mixed with having to deal with an authority. That mix would somehow send me completely bonkers to the point I felt I could not escape, it was so intense that my body would sometimes shake. My wife however was not touched by it at all and could not understand how I could go so deeply into depression and anxiety when a situation including those components arose. And thank goodness for that because the ability for her to share her perspective on the situation was really my only source of relief and probably saved me from going far deeper into depression. In the end that slight shift in perception triggered a process that allowed me to see right through my own self defeating perception and realize that it was actually ridiculous after all.
 
A slight shift in perception (shift in our thoughts) is all it takes to change the emotions we are feeling and with that shift in emotions it is far easier to then focus our thoughts in a more positive direction and in turn create a totally different experience of reality. If we can see through our perception of any situation and realize that all it actually is, is ‘a unique perspective’ then we can start to free ourselves from our own limiting belief patterns. Anytime you come across a negative emotion you can notice how it is somehow generated by your thoughts, by your perspective of some situation, then remind yourself that you can choose to see it from a different perspective, even if only for an instant. That slight change in perspective for a moment is enough.
 
The truth laid out above by Confucius that “Our greatest glory lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall” points to one of the most exciting shifts in perception you may experience on this life journey. 
 
What it points to is this. The juice of life is not in climbing to great heights and remaining there, nor is it in the avoidance of falling through not climbing at all. The juice is the flow of life-force-energy moving through us as we rise and fall. Our greatest glory is that of being here, experiencing life-force or we could say experiencing ‘consciousness’ as it flows through all of our experiences from moment to moment. Reaching goals is always secondary.
 
If we can see for just a moment from this perspective then we notice nothing is really a problem from this unique vantage point, nor is any accomplishment really going to be a solution in any way. The fact that we have life flowing through us right now is what life is actually about and nothing adds to or diminishes that fact.  We are free now! This is obviously an awesome all encompassing shift in perspective that actually points towards full self-realization in the end- very deep! Upon considering this self-realization can happen in an instant, however our shift in perception does not need to reach this far yet to still have a massive effect on the level of happiness we experience in our lives.
 
 
If any new perspective brings relief to a situation then it is well worth taking that perspective but at the same time remembering that there exists unlimited other ways of looking at any situation that also may bring relief and if the feeling of relief is our measuring stick then we can scroll through different perspectives until we find one that brings relief and not only that but also change perspectives as needed along the way. It truly is within our power to do this.
 
In a specific situation of mine with the taxman my wife’s perspective was that it did not matter in the least that we just received a letter of demand. What mattered was that we were alive and well. In that moment we had all we needed, the kids were healthy, we had a roof over our heads, we had each other, and nothing had really changed from the last moment in that regard. I could see what she was saying and felt the relief of it.
 
In that moment of relief I found myself thinking it may be possible that there could be an easy solution to this situation. This was quickly clouded over by my fear again though and I went through a couple of weeks of hell in my body and mind with occasional episodes of relief when I spoke with my wife and her perspective managed to pierce through mine.
 
I finally decided to take some type of action to move forward. My plan was to go to the accountant and find a way to pay all this off. When I got there and he went through the paperwork he found a mistake and the $27 000 we owed the tax office turned into $8000 that they owed us!!! Silly me!
 
Needless to say I was now instantly in a state of extreme elation! However what struck me most profoundly was that I had spent a few weeks in utter hell simply because of my ‘false’ perception of the situation and that it was not even real! It was not true or false, it was  totally in my head the whole time, a complete fabrication of my mind but it had a profound effect on my experience of life during that period. Could this be the same for other, more subtle ‘real’ situations going on in my life? Absolutely!
 
When you are able to witness your perspectives like this you may still fall into the realm of negative emotional vibrations as you move along through life yet you will start to see through them for what they are, unique perspectives, and they will no longer effect you so deeply, they will start to dissolve. This witnessing process will gather momentum and power in your life at a level that is in direct relationship to the level you have committed to make positive new thought a daily habit.
 
When once stressful situations now arise you will no longer actually see them as negative per say, your perception of what is a negative situation will have shifted and so will have your experience of those situations. Even, in many cases, if the external situation itself has not changed at all. Life will become much lighter and with the reduction in this type of stress your body and mind will become far healthier in all areas.
 
This can take some time and effort if your existing emotional patterns are very strong however there is a massive paradox here which is that by going through the process of shifting your reactions over time, you will not be generating any new experience of life that does not already exist as a possibility right now. You already have immediate access to many different perspectives, which can help you shift your emotional experience right away, in this moment.
 
The more of your close held limiting perspectives that you see through and dissolve will in turn help the very quick and even immediate dissolution of any further limiting perspectives as they come up. Even though it can be immediate in some cases it does seem that a process is usually involved for which we require the commitment to make it happen and if you are this far through the program then I am guessing your possess it.
 
In his book Working with the Law, Raymond Holliwell describes the method of achieving a desired outcome (in our case, ongoing happiness) like this, “To achieve success we must think it, we must work it, we must become it. To advance we must make some effort to rise. To obtain happiness we must adapt our lives to the law of harmony and order. To rise above any limitation we must organize our thinking along constructive lines. If man wishes to climb a hill he doesn’t sit down at the base of it and pray to the good lord to lift him, hoping the lord will pick him up bodily and carry him to the top or give him a pair of wings to fly. The natural thing he does is, first to organize his thought. He decides he is going to climb the hill and then he starts to climb. He climbs steadily keeping his eye ever on the top. He may find another picking out a better trail, he may wind around, he may slip back a step or two, he may even fall. He may have to stop to rest to regain his strength. But as he keeps his thoughts collected and his desire intent upon reaching the top he will eventually get there.” For a free PDF copy of this book click below
Raymond Holliwell – Working with the Law.
 
Your ability to have a unique perspective of life is a power you have been gifted as a human being. Everything in our universe has duality built into it, there is no refuting this fact. There are always two sides to the coin plus everything in between. Where there is a down there is always an up, where there is an out there is an in, a hot a cold, a night a day and so it is with every life situation and circumstance you find yourself involved in.
 
Whether you see something as good or bad is totally up to you. Your perception of any situation creates your unique experience. If you see something bad in your experience by law it is guaranteed that there is an equal and opposite way of seeing good in that situation from the opposite side of the coin.
 
The practice over the next 2 weeks is this:
1. Remind yourself of your unyielding commitment to unveil your own natural happiness.
2. Notice this option you have to see things from a different perspective and when troubling situations come up imagine you are someone else who has the opposite perspective than you, actually argue the other side of the situation, notice how this feels.
3. Keep up your 5-minute morning visualizations whenever you remember but now we are going to add a gratitude list. So as well as writing visualizations, on each alternate morning make a list of things in your life you are grateful for. Starting Dear Universe, Thank you for………
4. Read Raymond Holliwell’s book. It will give you many new positive perspectives on life to consider.
 
Remember that by staying committed and taking the time out to focus on happiness regularly you are creating new tracks through the grass field of your brain and these tracks are like doorways into the already existing natural state of joy, peace and happiness within.

 How To Be Happy | Series One | Article Three | Perception and Perspective © 2011