The pursuit of happiness.
How many people are in the pursuit of happiness?
Did you know that the pursuit of happiness could be causing your misery?
In former episodes,
I was talking about acceptance,
And acceptance is a very popular topic in the spiritual domain.
Today,
We're talking about happiness.
I want to break this down for us by words,
By intention,
By energetics,
So we can see how to make a shift in our lives to actually find what I think we're really looking for.
If we're in the pursuit of happiness,
Where are we?
We're in pursuit.
If you're in pursuit,
You will be in pursuit.
Happiness is like the dangling carrot that we put out in front of us and we're always in pursuit of it.
We're either happy or we're not happy.
But if we're in pursuit of happiness,
If we're doing things to make us happy,
We're actually saying to ourselves,
To our subconscious,
To the universe that we aren't happy and therefore we are seeking happiness.
So that's truth number one,
The pursuit of happiness.
Now let's look at happiness.
What is happiness?
Happiness is often a superficial,
Not always,
But often a superficial experience.
Or a feeling sensation that we receive or achieve when we do something that makes us feel good.
Now,
I'm gonna be talking a lot about all these concepts and philosophies in my upcoming book,
Which will be released early 2027,
About the chaos of nature,
About polarity,
About energy,
About goodness,
About all kinds of things that we get tripped up on in our spiritual quest and in our emotional healing process,
Because we have been programmed and we have this thinking behind us that if somehow we get there,
Then we will be better than we are now,
And then we will be fixed.
Similar concept with happiness.
People pursue happiness.
And yet there is this whole other experience to be had.
So now let's look at the word enjoy or enjoyment.
If we're enjoy,
We are in joy.
We are in a state of joy and one can be in a state of joy no matter what is going on around them.
Joy or enjoyment is usually a deeper state that's sometimes brought about by social interaction and so forth.
But it is an experience that is felt and it's a longer lasting experience.
And so to enjoy is a personal choice.
We have personal rights in our life.
Now,
I understand that the world is chaotic and there's a lot of stressors and most everyone is trying to find ways to numb out,
Dumb down,
Avoid,
Get rid of the stress in their life.
Lives.
And this is a way that you have total control.
You have personal choice,
Personal rights to maintain what your truth is,
What you believe,
How you feel,
Decisions that you make,
The state of being that you reside in,
Your thoughts,
Your feelings,
All kinds of things that you have control over every single day.
And one of those things is to stay in joy.
Now joy is actually one of the innate emotions that we are born with.
There's not a lot,
There's a few.
And joy is one of them.
Happiness is not one of them,
But joy is.
We all know joy.
If you think about a little baby and they're laying there in their bassinet and they're just looking up and they're smiling and they're giggling,
That is joy.
There's nothing perhaps going on.
They're just present and witnessing and feeling alive in that state of feeling joy.
Feeling alive,
We have access to joy.
But if we're numbing out or avoiding or trying to somehow overly control the world or other people or what's going on around us,
Then we feel depleted and we feel out of control and we give our energy away.
And then we feel resistant to everything and we don't like our experience.
And therefore we want to seek happiness.
We want to seek relief.
Relief is not resolution.
Relief is temporary.
And so we have to make a choice as conscious adults.
Are we going to seek temporary relief,
Happiness,
Something that may bring us to a certain state,
But not allow us to stay there?
Or are we going to choose to claim our personal rights.
To be in joy.
To enjoy our lives,
To access,
To learn how to access the very part of our nature that already exists without anything else happening.
Of course,
I'm not saying that relief isn't helpful.
I mean,
I seek relief throughout the days.
I think everyone does,
Even if it's just from the sun.
You know,
If we're out in the sun too much,
We seek relief in the shade.
If we're overstimulated,
We seek relief in the quiet.
If we have been eating poorly,
We seek relief with some digestive enzymes.
There's all kinds of ways that we seek relief.
And I'm not saying that relief is bad or that happiness is bad.
Nothing is bad and nothing is good.
And when we understand that more deeply,
We will be able to access the truer nature of ourselves and of spirit,
Of God,
Of source,
Of universe,
Which contains all things.
And from there,
We can intentionally,
Mindfully move into the place that we want to experience more frequently.
So no matter what's going on out there,
You can still embody a state of joy.
Course,
There's many ways to do that.
You can access gratitude,
You can resource fond memories,
You can come into prayer meditation,
You can journal or paint or,
Or write or listen to music.
And you can come into that state.
For me,
It's like a coming home place.
When I feel frazzled,
When I feel overstimulated,
If I feel resistant or defensive or aggressive,
I do something as simple as This is kind of a vulnerable share.
I like do my nails.
I mean,
I know that's silly,
But for me,
I love color.
I love a meditative practice of painting,
Whether that's my nails or the wall or a canvas.
And it just works for me.
I like cleaning them up,
Shaping them up.
And it brings me home to myself without any of the noise,
Any of the distractions.
And it also keeps me from avoiding.
It brings me into a place instead of having me run from a place.
Place to avoid what's going on,
Whether that's my own feelings or external stresses in the world.
And in that little quiet place of doing my nails,
I come back to enjoyment.
And enjoyment can sound selfish or frivolous,
But joy is not.
It is energy.
It is connectivity.
It is the thread that can then take us from a state of misery,
Of current happenings,
To a state of inner bliss,
Of remembering who we are and where we've come from.
But it's different than happiness.
Happiness is not always superficial,
As I said,
But it's often the carrot that if that,
Then this,
If I get that,
Then I will be happy.
If I have more money,
I will be happy.
If I have less things to do today,
I will be happy.
Even if we have a lot to do,
Even if we don't have a lot of money,
Even if we're not sure of the plans coming up,
We can stay in joy-ment.
We can stay in joy.
And that is a powerful,
Powerful thing to claim for yourself.
When we talk about taking self-responsibility and being in the adult conscious self,
And again,
I'll be talking a lot more about this in the coming weeks,
In the coming months.
But it's not just about owning your deficits or owning your shadow or owning your trauma and staying embodied in the state.
It's about owning your joy,
Owning your power,
Owning your love,
Owning what you are here to contribute and to receive and to be like an intermediary between source and other.
It's about being part of nature and being in agreement.
And this is why myself and so many other spiritual teachers talk about acceptance.
I'm now talking about it as agreement,
Because if we're not in agreement with what is,
Then we're in resistance to what is and we're in avoidance.
And that has us chasing the happiness.
But when we're in agreement with it,
Even if we don't like it,
But we agree to the reality of the truth and we can stay in our joy.
And we have full.
Power,
Personal power of how we experience every moment of every day.
Joy doesn't mean we don't get tired.
Joy doesn't mean that we don't have other emotions.
Joy doesn't mean that we aren't cognizant of what is going on.
Joy doesn't mean that we are struggling inside with different thoughts or decisions.
Joy is a state that we can access that encompasses and allows for all things and still have joy.
This is part of the polarity that we are under.
And if you've been listening to me for a while or for years,
Or maybe even back to my first book or before,
That very act of being able to hold two truths at one time.
To hold all.
That will take you further on your healing journey than most anything else,
That pain and love coexist,
That joy.
And suffering are.
One,
Together.
So I want to encourage us all today as we're just going about your day.
Whatever you're doing,
Just notice how many times you get into judgment about if this is good or if this is bad,
If you're happy,
If you're unhappy,
If you feel miserable,
If you don't feel miserable.
And just notice within yourself,
In your body,
If you can catch yourself,
Come to that adult conscious state and try to catch yourself of when you're judging or somehow criticizing the way things are,
The way that you feel or how the experience is to you and how you don't like it.
And just notice in your body where that lands.
For a lot of people,
When I say superficially,
I don't just mean like the ego or satisfying like,
You know,
Quick,
Quick,
Satisfaction.
I mean,
Energetically,
It's,
It's kind of up here,
You know,
It's kind of like,
Yeah,
Maybe around the heart,
But usually even higher,
It's like up around our shoulders,
You know,
That same area that we're always looking for relief,
Like,
Joy is in your body.
Joy is deep.
It's down to your toes.
We think about pleasure and passion and sex and this kind of carnal drive that we all have.
It doesn't start up in your shoulders or even in your heart.
It starts in your groin.
It starts in your legs.
It starts in your root.
And that's where joy is as well.
So joy is much more grounded.
Happiness is not as grounded.
It's a little more floaty,
Flitty.
And I just want you to start noticing when you feel in the pursuit of happiness,
Can you notice that that pursuit is never ending?
And can you notice where you feel the pursuit,
What's driving you in the pursuit,
Where in your body it is?
And if you do attain the happiness,
Where do you feel it?
And then notice maybe you're sitting and having your tea or a cup of coffee on an early Sunday morning,
Or you are in one of those states where you don't have a lot of pressure and you can allow yourself a little more easily to access joy.
Notice then where is joy in your body?
For me,
I feel it right in my seat,
Around the groin,
The low back,
The top of the thighs.
It feels settled.
It feels like an anchor because it is.
It is an anchor.
And I think what you're looking for,
What everyone is looking for,
Is their joy.
It is their joy.
I often remark about my clients or when I teach in group settings and so forth,
Because it's all relatable,
Right?
And in workshops and retreats in the past,
I've asked people about their joy.
When do they feel joy?
Where's their joy?
What is their joy?
How do they experience joy?
It's heartbreaking and sad to recognize so many people don't know.
And then when they start thinking about it,
They start trying to resource,
You know,
These big events or at least memorable experiences that made them happy.
And so we go through this whole process of remembering the joy that you were born with.
As soon as we start having human experience,
Which obviously is right when we come out of the birth canal,
But when we have cognitive awareness,
Energetic awareness,
Emotional awareness of the human experience and of other people,
That is when we begin learning defensive posturing,
Avoidance,
Fear,
Anxiety,
Feelings of unsafety.
And of course,
Those experiences,
As well as traumatic experiences,
Will have us believing that the joy has been put out,
That is dampened,
That the fire is gone.
But that's not so.
That is not so.
We also have examples of people who have been through immense adversity.
Things that I cannot even imagine going through and we see them on TV or on social media and we see their joy.
And it's like,
Wow,
What is that?
And we're all drawn to it.
And it's so inspiring because they have found their joy.
And what is so ironic about this polarity and about the chaos of nature is often to access that joy,
We have to have had or experienced some kind of brutal suffering sometimes because life offers that.
But it is a path,
A connection,
An awakening to the other parts of us that contain the joy and love and peace.
So I want you to practice this,
Just recognizing where in your body do you feel happiness?
What on a day to day brings you happy?
And is it possible for you to sit maybe in stillness,
To sit in a space and try to access that joy and notice where that is in your body and see if you can practice sustaining that a little bit longer each day,
Or maybe day to day.
And this is not a superficial affirmation process.
Please don't do that.
If it's not felt,
It's not real.
You will know when you feel it.
It will bring an inner smile.
It will bring grounding.
It will bring an outer smile.
It will bring a perspective shift.
It will bring something because it is so potent and powerful.
It may bring desire.
The possibilities are endless,
But see if you can sit with that and reconnect with that joy.
So that's the mission for today.
I will see you or you will hear me real soon.
I will be bringing more and more.
Information,
Insights,
Spirit messages,
And hopefully helpful empowering tools that you can use.
To move from the place that you've been existing into a place where you really feel alive and well.
Take good care.
