~ ~
~ ~
*********************
Most cultural assumptions about happiness
are based on acquiring romantic love, wealth, or power.
Yet these have not brought lasting
happiness. The habit of acquiring is embedded in the belief of
an isolated identity that needs validation
and improvement.
In truth, your inherent nature is
clear awareness. In this awareness one discovers
a love that is not dependent on particular
circumstances or objects, and that is
the most abiding form of happiness.
You need not acquire anything to realize this.
You need only release beliefs which
obscure your living as this radiant presence,
as love itself. This is what is known
as freedom, and it is immediately accessible
to you, even as you read these words.
from site: Dharma Dialogues
with Catherine Ingram: www.geocities.com/~cathing/
*book:**Catherine
Ingram
In
the Footsteps of Gandhi : Conversations With Spiritual Social Activists
~ ~ ~ ~
*********************
**book:
Pema
Chodron.
When
Things Fall Apart
The author says that awareness through
meditation can teach us what is true,
even when the truth is painful or
disorienting. Usually we fight with an uncomfortable
emotion or act it out in habitual
ways; we want things on our own terms and don't want
to think about how they affect others.
Feelings like craving, resentment,
aggression and depression are too much to bear.
But by embracing these realities,
we can heal and open up to the fundamental joy
that is our birthright.
We can connect with our noble heart,
which "is not affected by all our kicking and screaming."
With gentleness and a broad grasp
of the human spirit, the author makes this material very inviting,
like therapy with a wise, existential
therapist. [AudioFile review]
~ ~
~ ~
Oddly
enough, happiness is probably not a state we should even try to pursue.
It seems to emerge
as a byproduct
of fulfilling activities. Identify and practice those activities, and you
just might find --
if you
ever slow down to think about it -- that you're happy.
As writer
Edith Wharton put it, "If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have
a pretty good time."
Robert Epstein, PhD.,
Editor-in-Chief, Psychology Today [quote from Jan/Feb 2001 issue]
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*********************
"People
put entirely too much value on feeling good about things.
It doesn't
build any character. Anybody can be nice if everything goes their way.
You learn
stuff from the bad shit... I absolutely am scared to death and live in
fear
of [what
might be heading my way next.] ..
But maybe
it's better to have things happen because then you're not afraid of them.
You find
out you can handle them, and when you do you say, OK, if I can deal with
that
I can
probably deal with the next thing. It's like building muscles. If you don't
do it, you'll
never
have the ones that will make things easier for yourself."
Cher [Interview
mag., Dec.98] her memoir:
The
First Time
~ ~ ~ ~
 * |
It is
the full involvement of flow, rather than happiness, that makes for excellence
in life. When we are in flow, we are not happy, because to experience
happiness we must focus on our inner states, and that would take away attention
from the task at hand...
The happiness
that follows flow is of our own making, and it leads to increasing complexity
and growth in consciousness.
......Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi
***from
book:
** Finding
Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life |
~ ~ ~ ~
"Dr. Barbara Frederickson's
research is showing that positive emotions
open a person's mind to a broad
range of new ideas and new courses of action.
This means that feelings such
as enjoyment, happy playfulness, contentment, satisfaction,
warm friendship, love, and affection
all increase resiliency. Negative emotions, in contrast,
decrease resiliency. Feelings
such as anxiety, fear, vulnerability, and helplessness narrow
a person's range of thoughts
and limit action choices.
Frederickson describes her findings
as the 'broaden and build' theory of positive emotions.
She finds that the activities
during times of positive emotions increase a person's strengths.
Play, for instance, builds physical
skills, self-mastery, understanding, and health.
Enjoyable times with friends
increases social resources that are available during difficult times.
By experiencing positive emotions,
then, we act and play in ways that build our mental,
physical, and social resources."
Al Siebert, Ph.D. [quoted in
Positive Psychology newsletter]
Barbara L. Fredrickson, PhD is
an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan
Positive
Emotion and Psychophysiology Laboratory
Al Siebert, Ph.D., is host of
The
Resiliency Center - and author of The
Survivor Personality
~ ~ ~ ~
*********************![[Image]](images/yinyang.jpg)
Life's
best survivors can be both positive and negative, both optimistic and
pessimistic at the same time.
The ability to think negatively helps minimize
the disadvantages of being
overly optimistic.
The ability to think positively
helps to overcome discouragement and generate
renewed energy. Each benefits
the other. In contrast, many people expend lots
of energy trying to think
and feel as trained by their parents.
They try to think only in positive
ways and work to avoid negative thoughts and feelings. ...
The most energy-draining condition
is when people who work at being positive and not-negative
have a strong, negative reaction
toward people with negative attitudes.
They feel stuck in frustrating
conflict with their upsetting opposite, unaware that both
the cause of their difficulty,
and the solution to it, is within themselves.
*from
book:*The
Survivor Personality: Why Some People Are Stronger, Smarter,
and More Skillful at Handling
Life's Difficulties...and How You Can Be, Too by Al Siebert, Ph.D.
~
~ ~ ~
*********************![[Image]](images/MichaelToms.jpg)
"I am hopeful and optimistic. I define
hope as believing in spite of the evidence
and working actively to change the
evidence. [This is 'evidence' that is reported
in TV and newspapers.]
One of the challenges facing cultural
creatives ... is how to harness that extraordinary
energy and involvement that exists
for good, for balance and harmony.
We can't afford the luxury of pessimism
nor cynicism. We need to be grounded optimists.
All possibilities are inherently
there. I think we can make the difference."
Michael Toms [from
The Integral Culture - Cultural Creatives Making a Difference for
the Future by Bobbye
Middendorf, Conscious Choice, January 1999]
Toms is President, New
Dimensions World Broadcasting Network
books: Michael Toms, Justine Toms.
True
Work : Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do
The
Well of Creativity by Michael Toms
~
~ ~ ~
**************
"I'm happy and sad every minute.
I don't think I've ever been happy without being sad, too." ///
"What it boils down to, at
the end of the day, is who do you love, and why - and how you do it."
Billy
Bob Thornton [Bravo Profiles]
~
~ ~ ~
*********************
"I've always
been terrified of being content, because it seems such a stodgy
or smug
place to be stuck in. But, yes, l am happy in a sense that I am
not frightened
of momentary disappointments or depressions.
"That means
a lot of things bounce off me today that wouldn't have
bounced
off me a few years ago.
"It's a
difficult question because happiness is a thing you don't necessarily
want to
admit to -- you don't want it to go away once you're experiencing it.
"Actually,
I find the less I think about happiness, the happier I am. The amount
of energy
you spend on it could run quite a few lightbulbs."
Cate Blanchett [Interview mag. Jan.00]
~ ~
~ ~
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