Creating a Better Life

How to Find Something to be Happy About

Brad Isaac of Persistence Unlimited made an important point in response to my previous article on affirmations and being happy:

“I think you hit the nail on the head when you said we can cut out the middleman and just be happy now. But how?

I read recently that unhappiness is over-focusing on the small things that are wrong. Something or someone is imperfect, so let’s get mad or unhappy.

Perhaps happiness is just over-focus on what’s right.”

And Vickie of Contemplate This (who I’ve come to think of as my unofficial coach when it comes to the Abraham teachings) wrote about a process from “Ask and It Is Given” that quite frankly, I don’t remember reading about before seeing it on Vickie’s blog.

The process is called “Wouldn’t It Be Nice If…”

Which brought to mind yet another resource that I recently found… the “What If Up Club.”

And I finally realized something: affirmations work.

I’ve been doing them over the past few weeks and didn’t even know it!

The Wouldn’t It Be Nice Process

When you say, “I want this thing to happen that hasn’t happened yet,” you are not only activating the vibration of your desire, but you are also activating a vibration of the absence of your desire — so nothing changes for you. And often, even when you do not speak the second part of the sentence and you say only, “I want this to happen,” there is an unspoken vibration within you that continues to hold you in a state of not allowing your desire.

But when you say, “Wouldn’t it be nice if this desire would come to me?” you achieve a different sort of expectation that is much less resistant in nature.

Your question to yourself naturally elicits from you a more positive, expectant response. And so, this simple but powerful game will cause a raising of your vibration and an improvement in your point of attraction because it naturally orients you toward the things that you want. The Wouldn’t It Be Nice If…? Process will help you let in the things that you have been asking for, on all subjects. - From Ask and It Is Given by Abraham-Hicks (and Vickie’s article)

Wouldn’t it be nice if:

• My debts were paid off?
• I was living a healthier lifestyle?
• My intentions for 2008 worked themselves out?
• I could be happy right now?

That I can do.  For me, because of my habit of having to “tell it like it is”, the energy behind asking the question is much more powerful.

What If Upping

I’ve always thought that rather than “When the student is ready, the master will appear,” the saying should be “When the student is ready, he’ll start paying attention to and doing what the master does.”

I first read “Ask and it is Given” quite a while back, but pretty much “skimmed” the processes.  A few resonated with me, such as Segment Intending… but most were passed over pretty quickly.

So the “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” process has been out there and available to me… but I never really gave it a go.

It took the idea of “What If Upping” to get me to try it, and it’s been fascinating to see the results.

There are physical manifestations (extra income has been a big one that’s been popping up lately), and there are also internal shifts that have been happening since I started this process.

No… I haven’t become some goofy Pollyanna… it’s a deeper happiness - a joy that I’m not sure the English language has a word for.

Or maybe it’s just that it’s becoming easier and easier to find things to be happy about.

Because that’s what I’m looking for.

Which finally brings us to the answer to the question…

How Do I Find Something To Be Happy About?

Look Around You.

Yes, I know that much of it sucks.

But so much more of it is good.

Do what you can about that stuff that sucks.

Can’t do anything about it?  Then why are you bothering?

Look at all of that other stuff that you can be happy about.

That’s really all there is to it.  I’m not saying it’s easy… old habits die hard.  But it really is just that simple.

It sure seems to be working for me, at least.

Hero of Healing - Ernest Holmes

[ This post is a part of Jenny Mannion's Heroes of Healing Group Writing Project. ]

Hero Of Healing - Ernest Holmes

The teachings of Dr. Ernest Shurtleff Holmes (1887-1960) can be summed up by the following quote:

“There is a power greater than you in the universe, and you can use it.”

He was a leader in the New Thought movement, codified the “Science of Mind” philosophy, and founded The Church of Religious Science.

Dr. Holmes referred to his “Science of Mind” philosophy as being “open at the top” - in other words, it wasn’t a hard coded, unchanging doctrine, but a living thing that could be added to as new information came to light, or taken away from if evidence was presented that contradicted it.

There were three major influences on Dr. Holmes:

1. Christian Science - When Holmes lived in Boston, he studied public speaking, and his teacher was a reader at the Christian Science Mother Church.  He attended one Sunday in order to see his instructor in action, and ended up being fascinated by Mary Baker Eddy’s philosophy.
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson - Holmes said that “Reading Emerson is like drinking water to me.”  I remember reading somewhere that The Over-Soul was one of his favorites.
3. Thomas Troward - Troward’s Doré Lectures and Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science brought the above ideas together in Holmes mind, and helped him to finally put together The Science of Mind.

Holmes was a true independent thinker.  He called his philosophy a science because he believed it could be proved experientially, and was more interested in results than in the philosophy itself.  Another interesting fact is that he never planned on starting a church - he originally wanted to set them up as teaching centers, but was influenced otherwise.  It seems that currently, many Religious Science churches have gone the way of calling themselves “centers.”

[ Disclaimer for those who need it: the above is *not* intended to be a scholarly examination of Holmes' life, just a few interesting facts that I've picked up from the internet, books, sermons, and lectures.  Just picture a big old Wikipedia style *citation needed* after every statement ]

Video

I couldn’t find any publicly available video (or even audio) of Dr. Holmes.  There are quite a few Religious Science churches who make their sermons and teachings available, but none of Ernest Holmes himself.  If you have a link to freely available audio or video, please feel free to let us know about it in the comments section.

Resources

• The International Centers for Spiritual Living and The United Centers for Spiritual Living are the two organizations which grew out of Ernest Holmes’ original Church of Religious Science.
• The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes
• Creative Mind by Ernest Holmes

What I (Lyman Reed) learned From Ernest Holmes

Like the quote way up there says - I learned that there truly is a power greater than me in the universe, and that I can use it.

Holmes’ core concepts were a very radical departure from my previous beliefs (I used to be a fundamentalist Christian), and one of the reasons that his work was so fascinating to me is it’s openness and practicality.  If it works, use it.  If not, toss it.

I also remember finding out that he considered himself more of a collector and synthesizer of information than a creator.  He understood that there really is nothing new under the sun, and that all we do is put concepts that already exist together in new ways.  The truth is already out there - we just need to discover (and use) it!

When I was early in my sobriety, attending The DuPage Church of Religious Science (now the DuPage Center for Spiritual Living) was vital to my survival.  I regularly saw one of their practitioners who charged me next to nothing (and often nothing).  It’s not an exaggeration to say that Rev. Kathy Mertes was one of the major players in saving my life.

I no longer attend a Religious Science church on a regular basis, but the teachings still guide my life.  It really was an honor for me to be able to do a little writing about Ernest Holmes for the Heroes of Healing Project, and I hope that if his work sounds interesting you’ll take some time and explore his ideas further.

The Boundless Living Challenge Round Two Starts Today

Just a quick update to let people know that the second round of Bob Doyle’s Boundless Living Challenge starts today!

It’s never too late to join (it’s free)… and maybe you’ll get as much out of it as I did the last time around.

Join 7,315 members (plus Patricia, Suzie, and myself) in this round of the challenge.  And when you do, don’t forget to look me up on the site.  I’m Lyman Reed, and I can always use more friends.

Click here to watch the introductory video and to join us.

Your Lips Say No, But Your Eyes Say Yes

Ever hear that one?  Do people really use that in real life?

When it comes to affirmations and goals, it should probably be “Your Lips Say Yes, but Your Vibration Says No.”

One of the biggest distinctions that I picked up from “Money, and the Law of Attraction” by Abraham-Hicks was the idea that we can be saying, affirming, or visualizing one thing, but vibrating another.

If we’ve accepted the idea that it’s our vibration that does the attracting (I have), shouldn’t we be focusing on those things that bring that vibration into alignment with our desires, and avoiding (or at least not focusing on) the things that don’t?

This may be one of the reason that some people have a problem with using positive affirmations (like I’ve had in the past) - all they are doing is saying something that they didn’t believe, and therefore causing even more cognitive dissonance… often with not very pretty results.

But if we use those same affirmations as a tool to adjust our vibration, instead of thinking that it’s a statement of fact… would the results be better?

(Maybe I need to read some of my own stuff every once and a while.)

And maybe, affirmations just aren’t the way for some people to go?

Personally, I’m finding the much simpler “find something to be happy about” works better for me.

All of our goals are in place for one reason - because we believe that when we reach them, we will be happier in some way.

But we can cut out the middleman, and just be happy now.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have goals and move toward their achievement.  As a matter of fact, when I feel good, I’m able to stay focused on, and therefore work more at, those things that I want.  Then I get to be happy before I achieve something, while I’m working on it, and continue to be happy long after I’ve reached my goal.

Feel Good.

Be Happy Now.

“There is no way to happiness.  Happiness is the way.” — Wayne Dyer

Updated “About” Page

Just a quick announcement that I’ve updated the About page of this blog (finally!).  Feel free to take a peek, especially if you haven’t before… getting to know one another is a good thing.