Happiness

This article ties in with the recommended book of the month, "The Art of Happiness at Work." It occurred to me that I was able to talk about something I knew about first hand. Of course, everybody can talk about being happy. But, in my case I went from a place where I was not happy to a place where I was happy and my surroundings did not change at all. My fascination with this topic is the feeling, which I also embraced for most of my life, that happiness was something that happened to me rather than something that sprang from within. I look at all the people who come and go in the company I work for, I look at so many relationships that fail, I look at folks who cannot open their mouths except to complain and, I remember how I used to think, "If only something was a certain way I would be happy". Baloney.

Some years ago I quit my job. I spent a year and a half at home writing and reading and doing a lot of inner child work. It was during that period of time that the wheels were set into motion for me to learn how to channel. One of the first things I did was to read most of, "The Course in Miracles"...just the lesson part. Then, I began reading all sorts of material that had come from channeled sources, from, "Messages From Michael," to Emmanuel, to Seth. In addition I did a lot of journal writing. I wrote one and a quarter million words just to see if I could do it. All of these things provoked movement for me.

After a year and a half of all these activities the folks at my old job called me back. I was only supposed to go back to work for a month to train somebody new because my replacement had quit, but I ended up staying and I've been there 13 years the second time around. What was really interesting for me was that I was miserable when I quit that job. I was not a happy camper. Everybody bothered me, everything they did, everything they wanted, anybody who called. If I had been able to cast spells they would all have been toadstools.

The really curious thing about it when I returned after a year and a half hiatus was that nothing about that job had changed. The same people were there, the same problems, the same issues. Nothing had changed. But, I was happy. Go figure. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what happened. Still, to this day, 13 years later I am basically happy. I have my up's and down's the same as anybody else, but for the most part there is an underlying cushion that was not there before. I believe it is happiness.

Now, what is really interesting to me is that I really did not change much. It did not take all that much to change my entire outlook on life. It took a very minor tweaking. It was hard to do in the sense that I really did not know what I was doing, but the degree of change was enough that it affected how I view life. And, it all began with the desire to effect change. How the changes occurred, the order they happened, the new things I was exposed to and the psychic awakening that took place all snowballed. In retrospect, taken all together, it might look like a lot of things happened, but, I just get the feeling that it was the way I look out at life. Instead of being the victim in all of this I gradually saw that I was actually the orchestrator of my life; that I had a whole lot more to say about what was going to happen than I thought I did.

So, the secret to happiness? I think it is an important aspect to know that you can be happy. Know that it might take awhile, but happiness does not depend on financial riches. It does not depend on a good job. It does not depend on how good you look. Happiness does not depend on the clothes you wear, or the school you go to or the degree you earn. Happiness is something far and away simpler, and small and precious. I truly believe that everybody, no matter what their circumstances are can be happy.