What if  "our joy is simply a habit to reclaim"?

Playing with my three year old granddaughter had me realize something. She is in the habit of being ecstatic about life! Joy is the habit she is in!

Every once in a while, something interrupts her habit temporarily---but not for long. It's like watching one of those paddle ball toys. The ball might go out a long ways but it always comes back via the rubber band it's attached to.

Once upon a time, we all were in the habit of joy. We were born that way. 

EXPERIMENT: Pretend you're addicted to joy. Pretend you have a habit of being joyful like the habit of having a cup of coffee every morning, or flossing your teeth. You would never forego your coffee or floss so why forego your joy? Find a way to get it! Just for the next 24 hours, refuse to do without your joy.

Our heart is, in reality, the "brain" of our body. It actually tells the brain in our head what to do! Hundreds more communications start in the heart and go to the brain than the other way 'round.

In his groundbreaking film "I am" Tom Shadyac brings together experts in the noetic sciences, the Dali Lama, quantum physicists, biologists, religious leaders,  and Heart Math researchers.

The undeniable conclusion is that our heart, our emotions, cause effects around us even though we can't see them. They can now measure the impact of our hearts on, not only the people around us, but everything else---even the yogurt.

EXPERIMENT: Find this film at a theater near you and go watch it. 

 C'mon, really! So many words of advice. So many prescriptions, better ways, fool proof ways, 9 steps to this or that (why is it 9? why not 14 steps or 3?), self help books, daily sayings/thoughts, do this and you'll have that--no kidding for sure. Ulch!

We need to get over ourselves. There is no magic formula. There is no pill. There is not prescription. We are human beings. We are always constantly changing. What worked for Dr. Dwyer, Cheryl Richardson, Alyson Armstrong, David Deida, etc. worked for them at a particular time, in a particular place, with particular people. Yeah! for them!  But what on earth makes us turn it into the next spiritual behavior we have to adhere to because if we don't our lives will suck?

Then we're trapped. It's a fool proof formula right? So if it's not working for us, we're the one who's wrong. AND worse than that, we now have yet another belief system to try to squeeze into our already full of beliefs consciousness that keeps us from being here and now with our own experience another one of us--cleanly and newly.

THE TRUTH: Each and every one of us have to muck around in our own selves until we discover our unique path. What works for us and what doesn't. What serves us and what doesn't.

But the problem is, you just can't market 'do it on your own.'  What sells is formulas, prescriptions, and steps. Marketing is about promises. We buy promises. We don't get paid back if the promise isn't fulfilled.

It's our own lack of confidence in ourselves that trips us up and traps us. We want it fast and easy. We want someone else to sell us the magic beans.

Carl Jung said, among many other things, "A great mysterious energy is embodied at conception, bides awhile and finally goes elsewhere. Let us be gracious hosts, let us consciously assent to the luminous pause."  

What if we experienced life as that space between birth and death? Would it change what we do, think, be?

Perspective, the point from where we look, is, or should be, always changing.

Here's another one written by Mike Dooley in one of his daily notes from the Universe: The greatest trick and most subtle secret to doing anything really, really well, is loving that you get to do it all.

WE GET TO! 

We get to be gracious hosts. We get to do stuff. We get to think stuff. We get to fumble, fall, and fail, BUT WE GET TO! We get to succeed, excel and rejoice.

EXPERIMENT: Just for today, try adopting  the perspectives of Carl and Mike. Soak up like a sponge that you get to be alive. That you could be a gracious host to the energy that lives through you. What does that feel like? Does it change anything?

 If you think about it, relationships are never over. They may take a different form, certainly. But once we're in, or have, a relationship with someone, it remains, in one way or another, forever.

Now, try this on. If the aforementioned hypothesis is true, then we cannot, with any certainty, predict the outcome of any relationship based on its past or even its current form. It's future is truly empty. Anything could happen. It might undermine our illusion of security but also tickles our love of the unknown and the energy that brings.

Have any friends you don't see or talk to for years and then when you do its like you've been in communication that whole time?

Ever think a romantic relationship was over just to have it turn around unexpectedly and be great?

Ever think a romantic relationship was going really well just to have it turn around and "end" (take an different form) unexpectedly?

Generally, when we think something is over, we pay no attention to it and don't take any actions towards it. What if we stay open? What if we simply adopt the perspective that, "It ain't over till it's over...and maybe not even then."? I wonder what kind of attention and actions we might give to it.

EXPERIMENT: Just for the next 24 hours, ask yourself this question; "What in my life have I decided is over so that I don't pay any attention to it? And then ask, "What if I'm inaccurate about that?" You don't have to DO anything. Just ask.

Helen Keller:

"Security is a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.    Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."