Any way you look at it, you can’t get away from your emotions. Emotional pain, or confusion arising from conflicting feelings, accounts for most of the suffering I see in my clients, not to mention my friends and family – and myself! There are a wealth of suggestions out there on how to be happy and many of them are good ones. But I have my own favorites which go deeper into working with your mind for lasting results. This post will kick off my Top 10 favorite techniques for overcoming depression, fear, and shame, so that you overcome your suffering and experience more joy.
Extremes of happiness and of sadness may come up at any time, and with good cause. In my case, I have mixed emotions every December. Wonderful memories of great holiday celebrations filled with great food, gifts, and cousins to play with are tempered by the memory of losing my mother just after Christmas in my 20th year after her 6 month struggle with cancer.
Whether or not you have troublesome memories you wish you could forget, sometimes you may have mixed emotions – feeling sad when you think you should feel happy, and vice versa. Mixed emotions are a great opportunity to challenge any tendencies that your mind may have for taking you into small, dark corners, and to choose happiness instead. There are many ways to do this, but I have my Top 10 Favorites. In the coming days we’ll look at each of them, one by one. Here we go:
Top 10 Ways to Choose Happiness
#1. Release any notion that it is “selfish” or “bad” to invite abundance, happiness and joy into your life.
The only thing that could make it “bad” to be invite happiness would be if you were asking to receive good things at the expense of others. Again and again, invite abundance, joy, compassion, and wisdom for yourself and for everyone.
This “happiness technique” has the effect of not only bringing your mind into an uplifted state, but also expanding your sense of your own generosity and loving connection to humanity at large. It feels good to be part of a big family!
Check out this fun video by our friend Marci Shimoff, author of Happy For No Reason.
May all beings enjoy happiness, prosperity, and fearless ease!