Happiness more or Less

Happy Spring First everyone and Happy Nowruz. It's been too long since I put my thoughts to paper and being inspired by a sunny Sunday afternoon, here I am.

I was cleaning up my desktop and started to view several memes I had downloaded since the new year. One is a quote from John Lennon:

“When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn't understand the assignment. I told them they didn't understand life.”

I know I’ve blogged about happiness before and it seems like a recurring theme but honestly it's so important to living a fulfilling life it's worth another round. Think back to a time when you were completely happy. What did it look like? What were you doing? Who were you with? How long ago was it? Why aren't you happy now? Or are you? How did you get to it or from it? When I did this little exercise on myself I found those moments to be fleeting and temporary. So I began to think about how to be successful in permanent happiness not only for my own sake but especially for the sake of my children. I needed the tools to teach my kids the meaning of that John Lennon quote. There must be a way, a method. Happiness comes from within right? Hmm...

I found another quote a short meme that states: “Beauty catches the attention but character catches the heart”. Character catches the heart...now that was worth exploring. What does good character look like these days? Kind, gentle, polite, funny, helpful, does the right thing even if there are negative consequences for themselves, will always fight for what is right, gives of their time and money to help others, shows goodness of spirit.

Which started me thinking about how we can express this good character to the world.

The next desktop item reads: “Do noble things, do not dream them all day long.” Noble deeds improve your character, and by improving your character, you will have happiness. So it begs the question, what are noble deeds? Here is a definition: “A noble deed can be defined as an action or performance that is done according to high moral standards. Such actions can include aiding the sick or impoverished, selfless acts or random acts of kindness. These kinds of deeds can be performed anywhere by anyone.” Ok sounds like a plan. In order to build permanent happiness, refine a good character and show it in your deeds.

There is one more thing that stands in the way of permanent happiness. It's called Ego. I was reading a short blog on flipboard which had some very interesting insights. It talked about moving beyond the “you” and “me”. Loving on a higher level. Mmm yes happiness moves us toward love but this can become troublesome and fleeting also.

“Instead of wasting time with the Ego's version of love, return to the place of love. To detach yourself from anger, resentment and the sense of being a victim happens only in the space beyond ego” -DC

As per typical Deepak, the answer lies in how mindful we remain. When we have a decision to make we should ask ourselves these important questions:

which choice is more loving?

What will bring peace between us?

How awake am i?

What kind of energy am i creating?

Am i acting out of trust or distrust?

Do i feel what my partner is feeling?

Can i give without expecting anything in return?

“if you can rescue love every day, bringing yourself back to the place where love is, all the other problems don’t have a chance to grow”. -Deepak Chopra