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This article previously appeared in the New Day Herald in November 2013. Following the article is a Guided Meditation to the Happiness Within and a Blessing for Health, Wealth and Happiness.

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Are you happy? Did you know we all have a need for happiness? It’s one of the ten blessings John-Roger named – Loving, Caring, Sharing, Prosperity, Abundance, Riches, Health, Wealth, Happiness and Touching. John-Roger said, “The quest for happiness is an eternal one, something that we all say and we all look for and yet it seems to be one of the most elusive qualities and commodities.”

Have you ever noticed that when you’d like to be happy, it seems to be a rare commodity? And if it’s available, it seems to be with other people or situations that you don’t seem to have access to? That’s okay. The nature of the soul, of who we truly are, is happiness and joy. So consider this truth — Happiness is your true nature.

In the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, we invite you to consider that first and foremost you are a soul. Once you log-on to that truth, then there are infinite opportunities to have greater experiences of your nature as a soul. And to know your soul is an experience of happiness and joy.

Consider the soul is in some way tempted by things that are material and of the world, things that are temporary and illusive. We might have an experience of happiness for a while. Then something happens in the world that we’ve identified with our happiness, and then it seems as if the experience of happiness is no longer available. We no longer feel happy because our happiness was tied to that event or that person or that situation. And then we find ourselves searching out in the world for our happiness.

Looking for happiness out in the world is where we get misdirected. We can forget that inside is the happiness because it lies in the nature of our soul. When we attempt to find happiness in outer things and what’s going on in the world, then we can have some kind of disconnect with who we truly are.

John-Roger said, “Joy is inherent through the soul. When we have joy when it is coming up inside of us, it does not matter what you do out there or what you say.  What you become does not disturb the center of calm and happiness because it is what is. Therein lies your fulfillment for being on this level.”

By opening up to your happiness within, you have a greater opportunity to bless the world with your happiness. When we are happy, we are spontaneous and open to participate. We allow our creativity, that happy energy, to move out into the world and touch others.

Keys to Happiness

How do you experience happiness? How do you find ways to happiness? Happiness is here and now. So see if you can find some way to relate to the happiness that’s here and now in this moment. Consider that happiness and joy is in each person. So if you happen to see a person (and by the way, you are one), see happiness right there with that person. Right there within you is happiness and joy. So what are the keys to your experience of the happiness and joy inside of you and in other people?

During an MSIA webcast that I facilitated, “1000 Ways to Happiness,” we gathered from the participants some keys to experiencing happiness. Here are a few: Noticing flowers blooming, seeing babies’ faces, smiling, laughing, sleeping, looking in a person’s eyes, watching trees and bushes sway, noticing colors on people’s clothes, enjoying cars and homes, listening to music, and doing good deeds for others. Doing good deeds doesn’t just have to be for people. It can be putting a shine on a sidewalk or floor or watching a sunset over a beautiful ocean and appreciating the beauty in nature.

A hug can bring forward happiness. Would you be willing to give someone a hug to experience the joy and happiness in the hug? How about offering a calm, soothing glance into someone’s eyes?

Here are some other Keys for choosing into happiness:

Find the Humor

One of the things that I heard John-Roger say a long time ago is, “If it’s going to be funny later, it’s funny now.” Have you ever noticed that when you have strife and adversity, it becomes eventually one of the best sources of laughter? When you finally get around to being able to tell the story without being so aware of the pain or the suffering, disappointment or whatever it was that kept you out of your happiness, you see the humor. Professional comedians stand up in front of groups of people and get paid to do that, to share stories that were once painful and upsetting in ways that bring the humor and joy present. That’s a key to sharing their happiness. So find the humor.

Think Happy Thoughts

Have you ever been in a train station where there are lots of tracks with lots of trains going different places? Trains change tracks. They change direction. And you can change your thoughts and where you choose to direct your thoughts.

There’s energy in a happy thought. Part of it is your willingness to move away from any unhappy thoughts and choose the happy ones. Change how you think so you find a happy thought of some kind.

If you don’t know what a happy thought is, you might want to find one. Then maybe write it down and put it in your wallet so you carry it around with you as a reminder. If you forget, you can pull out your wallet and go to the “Happy Thought” section.

Do Happy Things

John-Roger has said, “If you want to be happy, do happy things.” That may sound simple, or maybe you think you don’t know how to do happy things. You could have the “Happy” section in your wallet include a reminder of something you could do that would be happy. Maybe your reminder says to break out into a song or start skipping. See where your willingness is. Are you willing to do skip up to the check-out stand or break into song while waiting to pay for your groceries?

What would you be willing to do for your happiness? Rather than saying, “I’m not willing to do that. That’s too ridiculous and embarrassing. People won’t understand,” choose to do something happy just for the joy of it. Others may not agree with your happiness. They may think that you are responding inappropriately. If your happiness is misunderstood or judged by others, you can turn it to peace, understanding, and compassion. You can choose to be happy regardless.

Choose the Light

The consciousness of Light is the consciousness of who God is. So another way to do choose happiness is to think of God. Be conscious of God right now and who and what God is. What are you thinking?  What are you seeing?

Maybe you envision a loved one being vibrant and healthy. Perhaps you imagine someone you miss being right there with you. Maybe you realize you’re alone and yet you’re embraced, appreciated, and loved fully and completely. In fact, you remember you’re adored by God. So choose the Light that is from the highest source. Choose God which is eternal, unconditional love.

Look for the Good

John-Roger referred to the secret of soul transcendence as, “Look for the good in all people and things and leave the rest to God.” Soul transcendence is the business of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. It’s our purpose. What does that mean?

We’re allowing our souls to come into our conscious awareness. We do that here and now. As we do that, experiences can lift us and help make things better. If nothing else, our thoughts start changing their attunement so they’re happier, freer, more joyful and more peaceful.

Have the willingness to look for the good. It isn’t necessarily about finding the good or seeing the good. Soul transcendence is about looking for the good. Choose to look for the good rather than declare there is no good just because you haven’t seen it yet. If you’re not seeing the good right now, then keep looking. Looking for the good in all people and things is the secret to soul transcendence and a key to happiness.

Focus on Gratitude

It’s a great attitude, so find your gratitude. Find what you appreciate. Find the value in the situation. This is an amazing way to move things away from feeling stuck or from a problem focus.  If you’re viewing a situation as a problem, something you don’t know how to solve or you don’t know how to handle, look for your gratitude.  Find what you appreciate in the situation.

You’ll always be correct if you look at what you’re learning in a situation. Realize you’re being educated. You’re being increased in your wisdom and your ability to endure and withstand similar kinds of situations. There’s always value in discovering the teaching and what is your learning in the process. So choose into your gratitude.

Choose a Positive Interpretation

This process may involve retraining your mind. It might require your patience and dedication so you alter how you process what goes on. Maybe you eliminate the first twenty things that appear in your mind because you realize they’re all negative thoughts. You just kind of wait for them to roll through and then realize, “Hey, there’s a positive way to look at that!”

Find a positive, uplifting way to interpret whatever is going on. This is a mental process to be aware of so you’re interpreting what you see or hear. Rather than interpret negatively, trust that there is something good going on in each situation and look for that positive interpretation.

Win in your Fantasies

This is another great teaching that has come from John-Roger. One of our greatest tools is our imagination. When we are aware, we also realize that we have a consciousness that is creative and makes things up or down as the case may be. The imagination is free to go wherever we want to direct it. As long as we’re going to fantasize and make things up and then be influenced by the pictures we hold, then it makes perfect sense to win and create positively so those same kinds of results follow how we focus our creativity.

Ask my dentist. She can tell you that most often I direct her to drill and use sharp instruments without any numbing agents applied. I use this opportunity to imagine that what she is doing feels good. I fantasize that she’s giving my teeth and gums a very intense massage. Call it self-hypnosis or mind over matter. I don’t care what you call it.

Fantasies can work to create your happiness.

Find Greater Happiness

Consider an area or situation in your life where you would like to experience greater happiness. Be open to not having an immediate answer, or maybe you have several. Just start with one, and make it rather simple for the moment.

Next, consider how you inhibit your expression of happiness in that situation. Even if you think, “I don’t inhibit my experience or my expression of happiness,” give yourself an opportunity to consider that sometimes you do and take some responsibility. Maybe you say, “I don’t inhibit. I am not in any way blocking or restricting my happiness.” Well, that attitude may be how you inhibit your happiness.

Choose one of the ways for finding happiness that I’ve noted so far. Then close your eyes and imagine yourself using this way to happiness. See it or imagine it as clearly and as detailed as you can.

Look inside at what would be happy thoughts in a situation where you want to have greater happiness. How would you do happy thinking towards that situation? Would you be open to an experience of happiness more than you’ve ever experienced before? That willingness, that gumption, that enthusiasm is often experienced within like a fountain or a spring. It’s an endless supply. So use it to bring forward greater happiness.

Let yourself be a little freer right now, a little more childlike, a little more open. Know that safe place inside where you are free to be happy and to express that happiness as openly as you would like.

Increase Your Light

Turning up the voltage of the Light, the energy of it, has to do with to your openness and willingness. Would you be willing to be lit up as much as you’ve ever been lit up? And to express freely what that is? You can express the happy thoughts that go with the Light and do happy things in a way that is illuminated, bright and bold.

We ask the Light to do what it does. Because the Light is the consciousness of the Divine and it has all the ability, it has all of whatever we need. The Light can clear, so ask for a clearing and a balancing. If you’re in any way suppressing your happiness, then allow your happiness to be fully alive and energized into every cell. The Light can go to any cells wanting that happy vibration and deliver it to them.

Share some happy thoughts with any place inside of you that you have not been happy towards. That could be physically, emotionally, or mentally. That could be towards any memory you have or an event in your life in the past that you’ve not been happy towards. You can open to the Light and let the Light come in like a wind of fresh air. Let that Light come in and take away what you don’t need. Don’t hang on to misery or pain or any form of unhappiness. Invite the Light into whatever that negativity is inside of you. Allow this Light to become a flood or a rush, so the Light is becoming bright within you.

Let the Light become you and breathe you

Breathe in the Light and breathe it out. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Let it be in your eyes, ears and all your senses so you’re lit up in the Light that is of the divine nature and the Holy Spirit and the Christ. The anointing can come in right on top of your head and flood you as an energy. It can dance through the room where you are. It can wake people up who have been sleeping. For things that have been slowing you down and not allowing you to see and hear clearly, the Light can help liberate you to be yourself more clearly and fully. Let go and let this Light of God infuse you and surround you completely.

Right now, it’s all a Light action going on through your willingness and openness. The Lord that is our God wants happiness for us. So let your trust inside realize that you have a God of eternal love who wants you to be happy.

Bless Yourself

With whatever is confronting you, first of all bless yourself. You have the ability in you to call upon what is needed to bless yourself with happiness. The experience of your happiness, contentment, satisfaction, and peace is always within. So you never have to give your happiness over to outer circumstances. It is for you to realize that your glory, your love, your peace is always present with you and to not assign it to anyone else or anything else regardless of what takes place.

Remember to be compassionate and merciful towards yourself. So when you find yourself doing things that you consider dumb, stupid or idiotic, rather than take that choice, make a positive interpretation. Talk to yourself in a way that demonstrates internally that you have compassion for yourself. You can always say to yourself, “Oh, I see I’m still learning here. There’s still something I’m working on like my patience, my willingness to do something one more time and do it more correctly if I can.” Then bless yourself and your learning.

Know the Blessings of Happiness

You can know the blessings of happiness through your trust and faith in God. Trust yourself in relation to God that everything that ever takes place in your life and in all of creation is never against anyone. Be aware that God sustains good, all the time, every time.

When we are consciously in accordance with that knowing, we have trust in God. We have trust that what is being done, what has been done, and what will be done is good. There is no point in fighting with it. There is no point in judging it. There is no point in being unhappy with what is. When we have doubts or fears or when we judge ourselves, we can always let go and choose into the blessings of happiness.

To the Happiness Within, A Guided Meditation

One of the ways we practice the movement of spiritual inner awareness, and it’s the primary way, is be aware inside. So take a moment to do a happy version of that.

Find a position that is more or less relaxing to you. If you’re holding on to something and you don’t have to hold on to it, set it down. Put yourself in a comfortable, restful position.

Using the creative imagination, consider you’re wild and free and capable in a single bound to leap to happiness and to see it instantly. So see yourself in a happy place, a beautiful place.

Experiencing laughter is okay. In fact it may be rampant laughter, like a babbling brook, or soft giggles as you are tickled inside with the joy of your soul.

Whatever you see, it somehow touches how you experience yourself happy. Maybe it makes you laugh or smile. Maybe it puts you at ease.

You begin to notice things you especially like. Often this is simply noticing how beautiful nature is — the colors, the shapes, how things move. There’s a movement that tells us this place is alive, vibrant and harmonious. There are many sounds, and all the sounds are welcome and uplifting.

Take some time to notice other things you find beautiful, uplifting, and nurturing. Maybe you go into water that’s delightfully refreshing. Maybe it’s a gentle rain or a cool spring.

Your cells respond to whatever you sense. The aliveness of you is very keen. You experience yourself free to move. Maybe you dance. Maybe you run. Maybe you sit still and take in the beauty of the universe.

Your breathing is full of life. You come alive with each breath. As you breathe out, it’s as though you’re breathing into all of this beauty and your entire surroundings.

Now go on a little discovery walk up to a high place. It doesn’t have to be a great journey. It can be a simple movement forward, where you just find yourself on top of a hill or mountain. It’s very comfortable there, so you find a place to sit and breathe in deeply. Notice the Light and how brilliant the colors are wherever you look.

Now you are gently approached by someone. Maybe you recognize this person as a special friend. This person is completely happy, contented and at peace. They are sharing this happy presence with you, and they come bearing gifts.

This person shows you special gems or jewels that are brilliant blues, reds, greens, yellows or different colors. They’re all very beautiful. All these gems have a special energy. This person shares these jewels with you. Somehow you take them in, and you now wear them too.

There’s a radiation with each gem wherever it is placed inside of your consciousness. It may be an experience of it being physically placed with you in the head, around the head or in the body. When it internalizes, it becomes part of your energy. You realize that these gems and jewels are for you as an energy that is placed with you.

What you are aware of is that each jewel carries a light and a quality that is harmonizing for you, reminding you that you are created in a very perfect way regardless of how you viewed yourself at any time in your existence. These gems have a way of helping you to realize everything has contributed to your growth to you becoming strong, clear, wise, healthy, and happy. This process becomes an attunement for you that’s completely absorbed and welcomed.

If there’s anything that has in some way caused you to be concerned, or worry or wondered, it is answered so you understand and appreciate that you are blessed. You are gifted. What has been placed with you as treasures have added to your well-being and to your knowing that as you walk in this world you are blessed, and treasured and happy.

Even when you forget, which is part of the human condition, and you forget how treasured, beautiful and radiant you are, you will remember your happiness and be opened. You’ll see that all of what has been gifted to you is still present, radiating, and harmonizing you, letting your mind, your emotions and all of the energy that is in your body and consciousness to lift and realize your true nature. You are joyful and happy.

You are blessed. You are bright, and you are beautiful. You are crowned in the glory that is God.

Baruch Bashan

Blessing for Health, Wealth & Happiness

John led this blessing at an “Intention, Health, Openness, Prosperity” (IHOP) class held in Los Angeles in February 2013.

NOTE: You may also be interested in purchasing “1000 Ways to Happiness and Healing” by John Morton, which is available in CD, DVD, MP3, and MP4 formats through the MSIA store at www.msia.org.