Yesterday, I came across the following thought-provoking extract by Michael Neill (http://www.supercoach.com/) which I thought I would share with you:
"In any moment, we can decide that what we have is not enough and look around for something to fill in the gaps, or we can decide that what we have is exactly what we want. We can turn our "bone of happiness" into a bone of contention and throw it off into some imaginary future, or we can enjoy gnawing on it right here, right now.
"This thought can be disturbing at first to people who feel like 'the next big thing' is continually just around the corner. But just because there's nowhere to get to doesn't mean you'll no longer travel - just that you'll no longer travel in order to get somewhere better than right where youu are sitting now. It doesn't mean that you can't upgrade your car, your job, your finances, or even your relationship. It just means that if you do, it will be because you want to, not because you htink you have to or you should."
Sometimes it is important to pay attention to just how green the grass is already under your feet, before you consider the grass on the other side of the fence. The grass under your feet will be greener if you water it. Look around you and notice what you are grateful for now, in this moment; what is there in your world right now which makes you happy just to look at it, or think of it?
About Me
- Joanna Taylor
- Scarborough, United Kingdom
- Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Master Practitioner and INLPTA Certified Trainer
Showing posts with label Happiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happiness. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
The Teachings of Dog - No 12: What sort of seeds are you sowing?
It's been a beautiful spring weekend here in North Yorkshire. The garden is beginning to come to life and small green shoots are thrusting their way through the bare brown soil - the weeds as well as the garden plants...
Amongst the canine members of staff, Snippets has discovered yet another new joy in life; mysterious holes have started to appear around the base of the fern by the mint bed... Snippets will return to the kitchen with suspiciously muddy paws, tail waving happily and a big smile on her little woolly face.
As the weather improves, the dogs enjoy spending more and more time exploring in the garden. A couple of days ago, this resulted in an exciting and illicit adventure as, unbeknown to me, the back gate through to the adjacent farm yard and fields had been left open...
Theo was the first to return, appearing at the back door with all four legs decorated with a festival of burrs which lent him a rakish and somewhat bizarre appearance. Tutting as to where on earth in the garden he could have collected this unwelcome harvest, I set to work removing them, and only after a few minutes did it dawn on me that the rest of the garden was suspiciously quiet and alarmingly dog-free...
Leaping out of the back door, I found the back gate wide open and, looking through, saw the four other staff members joyfully romping among the stalks of last year's burdock, diligently collecting the dried seed heads in their fur. They were quite delighted to see me, running back into the garden and bringing with them their sticky velcro harvest for me to remove from feet, legs and tails.
Theo, Lily, Snippets, Poppy & Daisy's Teachings:
Negative thoughts and beliefs can be compared to the seeds of the weeds that flourish in an uncared-for garden. As these beliefs and thoughts are planted in the mind, so they may grow and flourish, spreading quickly from one mind to another.
Take note of what seeds you are picking up from the world around you - what thoughts and beliefs do you choose to allow to take root in your mind? What seeds are you sowing in the minds of others? Remember that the seeds of happiness, kindness, compassion and love will always bear a good harvest.
Amongst the canine members of staff, Snippets has discovered yet another new joy in life; mysterious holes have started to appear around the base of the fern by the mint bed... Snippets will return to the kitchen with suspiciously muddy paws, tail waving happily and a big smile on her little woolly face.
As the weather improves, the dogs enjoy spending more and more time exploring in the garden. A couple of days ago, this resulted in an exciting and illicit adventure as, unbeknown to me, the back gate through to the adjacent farm yard and fields had been left open...
Theo was the first to return, appearing at the back door with all four legs decorated with a festival of burrs which lent him a rakish and somewhat bizarre appearance. Tutting as to where on earth in the garden he could have collected this unwelcome harvest, I set to work removing them, and only after a few minutes did it dawn on me that the rest of the garden was suspiciously quiet and alarmingly dog-free...
Leaping out of the back door, I found the back gate wide open and, looking through, saw the four other staff members joyfully romping among the stalks of last year's burdock, diligently collecting the dried seed heads in their fur. They were quite delighted to see me, running back into the garden and bringing with them their sticky velcro harvest for me to remove from feet, legs and tails.
Theo, Lily, Snippets, Poppy & Daisy's Teachings:
Negative thoughts and beliefs can be compared to the seeds of the weeds that flourish in an uncared-for garden. As these beliefs and thoughts are planted in the mind, so they may grow and flourish, spreading quickly from one mind to another.
Take note of what seeds you are picking up from the world around you - what thoughts and beliefs do you choose to allow to take root in your mind? What seeds are you sowing in the minds of others? Remember that the seeds of happiness, kindness, compassion and love will always bear a good harvest.
Monday, 14 March 2011
What is Happiness?
"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven in the human spirit." - Helen Keller
The Oxford English Dictionary defines happiness as "feeling or expressing joy", but what actually is it and how do we get there? I think nearly everybody knows what it feels like to have an absence of happiness, and this is what drives me in my work - I like to share with people the ideas that transformed my own life and made my seeds of happiness flourish, in the hope that it will do the same for others.
Most people seem to spend their time living and starring in their very own scary film - their lives are so full of worrying about what bad things might happen that they forget that there are a lot of good things which are just as likely to happen.
In the village where we used to live, in the North Yorkshire Moors, there are a lot of free-range sheep who wander the lanes. Sometimes, when I was out walking the dogs, we would come across a group of three or four sheep as we rounded a corner. At first, the sheep would ignore us and carry on eating the grass, but as we approached, they would lift their heads and stare. As we came even closer, the matriarch would stamp her foot and, with a sardonic "baaaa!" they would all canter off down the lane for a few metres, their little hooves beating a staccato rhythm on the tarmac of the road, before slowing to a walk and starting to eat the grass again.
Our walk would progress in this fashion, following the sheep down the road. We would come so close - sometimes you could think you would almost be able to reach them - then at the last moment off they would go again, always just out of our reach.
This set me thinking... if you really wanted to catch the sheep - if you had a good enough reason - how would you go about it?
Happiness can sometimes seem like this - always just out of reach - always just round the corner. "I'll be happy when..." is a common motif - we forget to live in the now. We forget that, in life, the journey is the destination; life is just a series of present moments and the present moment is the only chance we have to live. Sometimes I could be so busy watching the sheep in front that I would forget to look around me and notice the beautiful, dew bejewelled flowers in the hedgerows, and the wonderful plumage of the partridge on the gate, frozen into immobility at our passing.
So - if I did want to catch the sheep, then how would I go about it? I have some of the resources I need - arms and legs, even a dog! But without the knowledge of sheep I'd never catch them; they would remain forever elusive, always cantering off a few metres ahead of me. And that, to me, was the key - all I needed was learing, and there is always a shepherd to teach the skills you need.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines happiness as "feeling or expressing joy", but what actually is it and how do we get there? I think nearly everybody knows what it feels like to have an absence of happiness, and this is what drives me in my work - I like to share with people the ideas that transformed my own life and made my seeds of happiness flourish, in the hope that it will do the same for others.
Most people seem to spend their time living and starring in their very own scary film - their lives are so full of worrying about what bad things might happen that they forget that there are a lot of good things which are just as likely to happen.
In the village where we used to live, in the North Yorkshire Moors, there are a lot of free-range sheep who wander the lanes. Sometimes, when I was out walking the dogs, we would come across a group of three or four sheep as we rounded a corner. At first, the sheep would ignore us and carry on eating the grass, but as we approached, they would lift their heads and stare. As we came even closer, the matriarch would stamp her foot and, with a sardonic "baaaa!" they would all canter off down the lane for a few metres, their little hooves beating a staccato rhythm on the tarmac of the road, before slowing to a walk and starting to eat the grass again.
Our walk would progress in this fashion, following the sheep down the road. We would come so close - sometimes you could think you would almost be able to reach them - then at the last moment off they would go again, always just out of our reach.
This set me thinking... if you really wanted to catch the sheep - if you had a good enough reason - how would you go about it?
Happiness can sometimes seem like this - always just out of reach - always just round the corner. "I'll be happy when..." is a common motif - we forget to live in the now. We forget that, in life, the journey is the destination; life is just a series of present moments and the present moment is the only chance we have to live. Sometimes I could be so busy watching the sheep in front that I would forget to look around me and notice the beautiful, dew bejewelled flowers in the hedgerows, and the wonderful plumage of the partridge on the gate, frozen into immobility at our passing.
So - if I did want to catch the sheep, then how would I go about it? I have some of the resources I need - arms and legs, even a dog! But without the knowledge of sheep I'd never catch them; they would remain forever elusive, always cantering off a few metres ahead of me. And that, to me, was the key - all I needed was learing, and there is always a shepherd to teach the skills you need.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Teachings of Dog - No 7: The Secret of Happiness
Daisy is a perennially happy little soul. Her beautiful, long tail, as soft as dandelion seeds, is carried high over her back and streams out in the wind as she dances up the garden path; just about anything can cause a wag of this gorgeous appendage. After a haircut, however, Daisy often experiences some consternation when the wagging tail tickles her back, causing her to turn in circles trying to ascertain the cause.
Daisy's tail chasing reminds me of a lovely story I heard... One day, Mother dog comes across one of her puppies chasing her tail and asks her what she is doing. The puppy tells her mother that she has just come back from Puppy Philosophy Class, where she learned that a dogs' happiness is stored in its tail, which is why dogs wag their tails when they are happy. "If I can catch my tail," says the puppy, "then I will have the secret to eternal happiness!". Mother dog smiles, "I learned that at Puppy Philosophy Class too," she says, "but what I have learned since then is that we don't find happiness by chasing it. Like your tail, once you get to where it was, you find it's moved on!" The puppy turns big eyes on her mother. "So how can we reach our happiness, then?" she asks. Mother dog smiles back at her daughter. "You don't have to try to reach it," she replies, "you already have it; happiness is always within you. When you know that, then as you move forward in the direction of your dreams, wherever you go, happiness will always follow behind you."
Daisy's tail chasing reminds me of a lovely story I heard... One day, Mother dog comes across one of her puppies chasing her tail and asks her what she is doing. The puppy tells her mother that she has just come back from Puppy Philosophy Class, where she learned that a dogs' happiness is stored in its tail, which is why dogs wag their tails when they are happy. "If I can catch my tail," says the puppy, "then I will have the secret to eternal happiness!". Mother dog smiles, "I learned that at Puppy Philosophy Class too," she says, "but what I have learned since then is that we don't find happiness by chasing it. Like your tail, once you get to where it was, you find it's moved on!" The puppy turns big eyes on her mother. "So how can we reach our happiness, then?" she asks. Mother dog smiles back at her daughter. "You don't have to try to reach it," she replies, "you already have it; happiness is always within you. When you know that, then as you move forward in the direction of your dreams, wherever you go, happiness will always follow behind you."
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Why Happiness Matters
I've just come across Action for Happiness - a wonderful new charity which is officially launching in Spring 2011. If you would like to be part of the movement, visit their website and join up now - www.actionforhappiness.org
Monday, 17 January 2011
Joy is wherever you choose to find it
So apparently this is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. I'm not terribly sure who decided that was the case, but I am a firm believer that joy is wherever you choose to find it. Where do you choose to put your focus today?
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Looking for the silver lining
The natural world is an immense source of inspiration and metaphor. Watching the grey clouds moving ponderously across a leaden sky on this chilly late Autumn afternoon, it occurred to me that the sky could be a very interesting metaphor for our emotional state. The weather is constantly changing, just as our thoughts and emotions come and go across our mind. Like the weather, sometimes our mood can seem to be "set in" for the day - which is wonderful if we are feeling in a sunny disposition, but not so good if we are surrounded by our own personal cloud of gloom.
It is important to remember that we are not our emotions - they are not attached to us, just as the clouds are not attached to the sky. Happiness is a state of mind and, believe it or not, we do actually have a conscious control over our own state of mind; you can choose to be happy right now, in this moment - that is your decision. No person or event actually has the power to "make" us feel a particular way; we react to situations because of the way we perceive them - and in that moment there is always a choice of how we react - it is our choices that show who we truly are. Every cloud really does have a silver lining and it is up to us whether we choose to look for it.
It is important to remember that we are not our emotions - they are not attached to us, just as the clouds are not attached to the sky. Happiness is a state of mind and, believe it or not, we do actually have a conscious control over our own state of mind; you can choose to be happy right now, in this moment - that is your decision. No person or event actually has the power to "make" us feel a particular way; we react to situations because of the way we perceive them - and in that moment there is always a choice of how we react - it is our choices that show who we truly are. Every cloud really does have a silver lining and it is up to us whether we choose to look for it.
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