Happiness is How You Arrange Your Mind • Anonymous
The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup applied (even though she is legally blind) moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets, and the blue curtains that had been hung on her window.
“I love it!” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room…just wait.”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged…it’s how I arrange my mind. I’ve already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice. I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
“Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away…just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account; you withdraw from it what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filing my memory bank. I’m still depositing.”
Remember five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
Grasping at Happiness is Futile • by Cain Carroll
Feelings come and go like changing seasons. It’s our reluctance to fully appreciate all of them that makes us feel divided inside. We were taught to feel bad about not feeling good. We learned this from a neurotic culture that is pathologically addicted to unattainable ideals (flawless beauty, eternal youth, perfect happiness). We can un-learn it! Like removing corrupted software from our CPU…Delete program!
When we are in harmony with our life we feel happy much of the time. But it’s also possible to be at peace when dissatisfaction, pain, loneliness, confusion, sadness, or any challenging feeling comes along for a visit. It requires that we simply let go of our resistance to feeling what we feel. In other words, if we can fully accept whatever comes without judgment, criticism, or the need to understand why, then we find a sense of ease opening up inside us.
That way, we can be free to feel dissatisfied without being anxious about it. Feeling less anxious, we have less dissatisfaction. The whole thing unwinds itself.
Admittedly, this takes quite a bit of courage, and the willingness to get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. But if we do this repeatedly, moment after moment, day after day, our inner conflict melts like a chunk of ice into a flowing stream. We discover a basic joy and peace that is available to us all the time, even amid the changing tides of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and circumstances.
“Normality is a paved road; it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.” – Vincent van Gogh
Life has certainly not felt very normal for a while. But we can still make nourishing connections for ourselves.
Often, when we’re on a spiritual path it can feel a bit isolating. I’m so grateful that I have the Sunburst Community, both near and far, to rely on for friendship, companionship, and spiritual sustenance. – Missy Collier
Note: Sunburst Community continues to offer a Zoom option for weekday group meditations. See www.sunburst.org/tuesday
and www.sunburst.org/mornings for details.
“The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interests upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance. Thus we demand that the world grant us recognition for qualities which we regard as personal possessions: our talent or our beauty. The more a man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. He feels limited because he has limited aims, and the result is envy and jealousy. If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change.
…Looking outwards has got to be turned into looking into oneself. Discovering yourself provides you with all you are, were meant to be, and all you are living from and for.” – Carl Jung
Through depression and many other dark low emotions, our Light dims and our immune system declines along with it.
– Jacqueline Ripstein
by Fredd Dunham • Scientists studying the effect of the mind and body on the immune system worked with volunteers. In a controlled setting the volunteers were asked to experience an emotion. In between each of three emotion experiments, there was a period of time in which the volunteers could return to a more or less neutral state.
The volunteers were asked to recall a time and an incident in their lives and to focus on it. The first test was on one of depression. Next was one of emotional trauma, and the final one was the emotion of love. During and after each session blood was drawn and tested to measure the immune response. The results were very insightful for helping us find Spirit in our lives, as well as for dealing with these emotions in a healthy, healing manner.
When depression was visualized, immune activity dropped appreciably—the scientists graded it as a “minus.” The white blood cells were present, but seemed dormant. When emotional trauma was recalled, the immune system became significantly more active (a “plus”)—the inverse of depression. And when love was the focus, the immune system was very active and fully engaged (“triple plus”).
During thoughts of love the twenty trillion cells of our immune system get kicked into hyper drive. They really work at healing our bodies, our minds, and our emotions to help us express the divine pure Self that lives inside of us. This allows us to heal our bodies so we can be healthy, vibrant, strong, vital, and effectively living on this planet. We are enabled to serve, and to project positive healing for our planet and all of humanity.
by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder • With the consistent practice of meditation, contemplation and prayer, the existence of the divine Presence within you begins to unfold. You will eventually be able to identify the light that Jesus spoke of, shining behind the darkness of closed eyes.
This light is from another universe existing within the structure of our own dimension. Here, other suns shine and blue skies reflect upon the waters. This is a living universe that watches us more than we are able to watch and comprehend it.
Our physical bodies seem solid but, in the light of present scientific discoveries, exist as a sea of highly intelligent subatomic particles not unlike swarms of bees set about building honeycombs. These divine and highly intelligent particles of light and energy continually build the structures of creation and everything we see!
These subatomic particles can be seen and known by the meditating adept. They are the body of Christ consciousness. They are as bright as any sun we see. They create suns and galaxies in this dimension. If we seek to know God, we will surely see them in our meditations. They will shape our bodies in the next dimension as we leave this present one behind in death’s transition.
Through your belief in these sacred forces that are continually creating you, the doctrine of sin and the burden of guilt vanish, and you begin to move into the light of Self-realization. Your love becomes divine, and your soul creates an unbreakable bond with the pure Self within, unleashing your healing and creative powers: the ability to create, project, and materialize your own images into the future.
As you put on your true spiritual nature, the pure Self, you will recognize the knowledge which has always been there and you have seen it not.
by Jacob Collier • Many of us have been affected in one way or another, by the horrific events that take place in this country and around the world—fires, floods, famines, etc. We wonder what we can do to help, what we can do as individuals to make a difference.
At other times we wonder: How can we stand up for what is right rather than getting rolled along with a more prevalent energy that is not healthy? How can we help change the tide of energy from a negative one to a positive one? How can we replace fear with faith and courage?
Turning to prayer and meditation is even more important during times when we feel fearful or anxious. When we are successful in shutting down the senses and going within, we truly become a conduit of light.
As Spirit enters the tops of our heads, it not only energizes us but it passes on through our bodies and into the center of the Earth positively energizing our planet and all of its inhabitants. Deep meditation is truly one of the ways that we can help in the healing and evolution of the planet.
Another way we can help is with sincere prayer from our hearts to our Creator. Pray for the Earth, and for the expansion of peace, harmony, and non-violence for all of humanity.
Meditation helps us arrive at and maintain an objective viewpoint. From this observer’s seat we can watch the emotional highs and lows of others and ourselves. We gain greater spiritual insight and self-control. When we feel God’s light and unconditional love flowing within us, we help shift and uplift humanity simply by our presence.
I Am that I Am, our Creator, we love you so much and we are so thankful for the sacred teachings of divine illumination. They are a part of the great healing and future unfolding of life on this Earth. May your will be done. Amen
