Welcome to this episode and a series on happiness and joy.
This has been a lot of fun to share with you and I do hope that you will dive into the other episodes in this series.
I will leave them in the description for you.
What I am about to share is going to change your life.
It is not something that we are typically taught,
However we could have had this behavior modeled to us and hopefully we would also have gleaned this wisdom along our life path.
This is especially useful for those who are diagnosed with clinical depression.
You may or may not be taking medication as prescribed by your physician or psychiatrist.
Even so,
All of us have felt unhappy.
And the strategies I am about to share will be important for you to utilize and practice.
Remember for each one of us,
Happiness must first be a conscious and deliberate choice.
Choose to live and feel happiness readily and you are living,
Manifesting a vital intention for now and the future.
I like to begin with a mantra and then we are going to dive into a visualization.
Peaceful begins with me.
Love begins with me.
Kindness begins with me.
Happiness and joy are my namesake.
Here we are,
About to dive into this visualization.
I am going to ask you two questions,
Your eyes closed,
You are focused inward and allowing your intuitive answers to rise up naturally.
The first question,
What stops you from feeling happy?
You may want to note your answer,
You can record it in front of you and then close your eyes once again.
The second question,
What are your roadblocks to happiness?
I want to also guide you back to our first episode in this series,
The list,
My list,
Your list of the eight best practices to be and live happy now.
These will help to reinforce what we are going to cover today and they are a beautiful guide for the practice of living happy for the rest of your life.
The one and only roadblock that exists for you,
And I imagine your answers will illuminate this,
To feeling happiness is your state of mind,
Your mindset,
Your attitude,
Your thoughts,
Each of which is rooted in what is called core beliefs,
Which are the absolute ways in which we think about ourselves,
Others,
And the world.
Negative thoughts,
Jealous,
Unkind,
Judgmental thoughts,
Mean,
Negative thoughts,
All cause you to feel the absence of happiness and joy.
And let's not forget anxiety,
Worry,
Fear-based thoughts,
All of which put you into a whole other spectrum,
Not only of the absence of happiness,
But of suffering.
If happiness is to be your mainstay,
If it is to be your normal,
Then when you feel the absence of happiness,
Or whatever other adjectives you choose,
Such as contentment,
Eagerness,
Enthusiasm,
How motivated are you to fix or change this?
And here's another question to ask yourself and to answer wholly honest.
Do you want to transform your life?
To make happiness a thriving state in most moments,
You begin with a positive mindset,
A loving mindset,
Actions of kindness and love to all others and toward yourself,
And you practice this.
Like any important,
Valuable tool that you acquire,
And also many that are inherently a part of you,
Practice allows you to become so skilled at this.
If accessing your innate capacity for happiness was not something that was taught to you,
And depending on the story of your life thus far,
You may need to practice living with a new mindset,
New core beliefs,
And new ideals.
Now this is where working one-on-one with me is so helpful.
We in a single and solitary session of therapy and life coaching,
Dive into your core beliefs.
I help you to challenge the what are called problematic core beliefs,
The untrue,
The negative core beliefs that you've been carrying.
When we resolve those,
We re-script them into what is true,
Into what has always been true.
And this helps you to think and perceive situations and yourself with more love and more kindness and more patience,
And most important,
Accuracy and truth.
If you want to transform your life,
And you can think back to the answers to those earlier questions of what stops you from feeling happy,
And what are your roadblocks to happiness,
Then you can begin the question,
How can I make happiness my everyday,
Every moment state?
Because I truly do want to transform the rest of my life.
The practical wisdom of this tool,
This teaching,
Is to begin with your thoughts.
Your thoughts,
Your perceptions,
Your attitude,
The way in which you think,
Hold the secret to what you feel.
And as part of the teachings of cognitive behavioral therapy,
We know that every thought creates a feeling.
Every thought you hold builds upon the one that was previous.
And we know from the research that much,
Upwards of more than 70% of what we think about today is the same or similar to what thoughts we held previously.
If you want to transform your life and to feel happiness readily,
Easily,
You begin with what you think.
And this first step means recognizing the moments when you do not feel happy.
Choose in those moments happiness.
And you do so by changing the inner dialogue that focuses the mind on the problem,
And instead find and choose the solution.
One of the tools that I work on with clients,
In addition to re-scripting their problematic core beliefs,
Is to examine and change the thoughts that cause the absence of happiness.
In fact,
The thoughts that cause all of the other ways we do not wish to feel.
And re-write your thoughts.
You can focus on a solution.
You can focus on what is possible and positive and true.
You can focus on an ideal,
On the work and effort you will put into what is most desired.
You can visualize an outcome you are hoping and working towards,
And so much more.
The main thing is to know that your thoughts are the first place to begin.
In fact,
Your actions,
Your thoughts in particular,
Are the roadblocks to your happiness.
And once you recognize this,
You realize it isn't the car in front of you that's driving too slow or too fast,
Or the package that didn't arrive on time,
Or a deadline at work.
These are all situations in which you have a thought or thinking or a perception about,
And it is what you think,
And the perceptions and the attitudes you hold that determine how you feel.
And so,
A fun way to do this,
And I love sharing this with my youth clients because they really sink their teeth into this,
I ask them to first identify how they're feeling.
That brings home the awareness of what they do not want to continue to feel.
And then I ask,
How do you want to feel instead?
This is really important.
It shifts our mind.
It gets us thinking about what is possible,
How we want to feel and experience this moment and the next.
And then I ask the question,
Okay,
What thoughts do you need to think in order to feel this way?
If you want to feel happiness now,
Tomorrow,
Next week,
In an hour,
Ask yourself,
How do I need to think,
Or what do I need to think in order to feel happiness?
And then follow through with that.
The practice effect of doing so allows you to see the momentum of self-empowerment,
Of choosing in this moment and in any moment how you truly want to feel.
And let's face it,
Happiness is a really good way to feel.
Whether contentment,
Positivism,
Optimism,
Joy,
Pleasure,
Peace,
Eagerness,
Hope,
They're all beautiful feelings.
They are all possible when you know what tools to use.
And if you would like to work with me,
Please reach out and I will help you.
We will rework the core beliefs that you grew up learning and adopting,
Even though on some level you likely knew that they were not true.
And we'll get you into happiness consistently,
Forevermore.
Thank you so much for joining me here,
Sending you great love.
This is Dorothy Zanori Juna.
Namaste.
Thank you so much for joining me in this episode of the Wisdom Podcast.
To hear more,
Please check out the other episodes here,
As well as my guided meditations,
Including my signature prose meditations and I AM Mantras,
And as well the meditations to guide you into a deep and restorative sleep.
Please also visit me on social media and say hello.
And a special thank you to Insight Timer for this beautiful space to share all of my love.
Allow yourself to go within,
To access your inner wisdom,
And to live this.
Awaken your authentic power,
Live your truth,
And be love.
Namaste.
