.....But I Can Be Happy Now
By Shelley Riutta MSE, LPCNovember 24, 2008
Are you waiting for some external event to happen before you think you can be happy? Open up to embrace your happiness in this very moment.
"What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life. " Leo Buscaglia
Notice if you do this in your life. For many people I work with, this is such a routine pattern that they don't even notice they are doing this. Making some external condition a source of your happiness is a way to lose sight of your capacity for happiness in this very moment.
I was driving home from Chicago on Sunday and got stuck in traffic. I had a choice of moving into frustration or opening up to some happiness I could experience in the situation. Before I had left on my trip - I had thrown some music CD's into the car that a participant in a presentation I gave a few months ago had made for me. I decided it would be a good time to listen to one of them.
I put the music in and was immediately transported into such a pure state of happiness. The music was amazingly beautiful, the sun was shining and Niyo (my dog) was being very sweet with me (the car was at a standstill - so he could be by me). I could have been there for hours and would not have been bothered at all!
It is the opportunity each of us has in every moment and that is how to open up to the potential happiness RIGHT NOW! Our lives are made up of these precious moments that can be wasted if we have our mind set on something needing to be different for us to be happy.
If this is a pattern for you -- a phrase that can help you shift this around is when you find yourself saying "I will be happy when this happens---". You can counter yourself with saying "But I can be happy NOW."
This powerful phrase can help shift you out of the future and affirms the truth of the vast opportunity for happiness right this moment. It also can loosen your belief that your happiness is a function of external events happening around you -- and is more of a function of your choice to embrace it right now -- right where you are--just as things are.
Copyright 2008 Shelley Riutta MSE, LPC is a Holistic Psychotherapist in private practice specializing in Inner Bonding and Transformational individual counseling, presentations, groups and Workshops. To get her free workbook "What Do You Really Want: Finding Purpose and Passion in Your Life" visit her web-site http://www.RadiantLifeCounseling.com/ or call her at 920-265-2627 What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life. " Leo Buscaglia
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