Happiness

On a scale from 1- 10, I think most of us would agree that experiencing happiness would be a 10. 

So, it’s interesting that during the season we consider the most joyful the feeling of happiness can be fleeting.   Whether it’s the disappointment of a party where you haven’t been included, a present that you don’t receive or a family member that doesn’t show up with his/her best self – our expectations aren’t met and we are often left with a season or at least moments of sadness.

It’s in that spirit, I wanted to share a sermon that my minister,

Tom Dickelman, gave last summer. 1 deposit casino nz.com  While we generally don’t write posts that center around any sort of religious belief I found his message so timely and poignant that I wanted to share it with all of you.

As I wrote this post, I ‘ve read and re-read his sermon many times.  I found myself reflecting on his words.  Was I taking time to smile to a neighbor? Was I counting the many blessings of my life?   Was my internal narrative around abundance or scarcity? 

I hope you are inspired by his message, as you begin the holiday season.

“The Art of Happiness”  by Rev. Thomas Dickelman

You don’t have to read between the lines of the New Testament to know that Jesus wanted his followers…to be happy.

• ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full
• I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance
• These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete

It is clear, Jesus most certainly wanted his followers to be happy.

And Siddhartha Guatama, who they call the Buddha – he was no different. The story is told that the King of Kosala once remarked that the Buddha’s disciples seemed exceptionally jubilant and unencumbered by the grave seriousness of the more ascetic practitioners.  The Buddha’s reply?  “Happiness is the spiritual life.”  In fact, one of the Buddha’s most frequent blessings was simply this, “may you be happy.”

A Harvard Medical School and U of C @ San Diego study looked at the happiness of 5000 people over a period of 20 years – they found:

“One person’s happiness can trigger a chain reaction that benefits their friends, their friends’ friends and their friends’ friends’ friends’. The happiness effect can last for up to a year”                

You may have heard of Daniel Goleman, the best-selling author of Emotional Intelligence Goleman writes:

“Emotions are contagious – we catch each other’s feelings like a cold.  When we are in toxic relationships there are physical consequences.  When we are in positive relationships with people who make us feel good, our body chemistry changes for the better.”

Lesson One in the Art of Happiness:   Happiness and Joy are Contagious

Now, the second lesson is that while we can “catch” happiness – we can initiate / ignite joy and happiness for ourselves what’s the easiest way to do this?

83-year old Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast offers the most simple technique  for moving to a place of happiness and joy –  he says “count your blessings”

Monk David writes:

         “There is a spiritual energy that flows through the world – a super-aliveness.

When we are feeling that eternal connection we experience our greatest

         happiness.  Yet there is something in us, a tendency to close off from it.

         To counteract that tendency, count your blessings.  When we do, a stream

         of energy, of blessing, a form of love, flows in us and through us.”

Lesson Two in the Art of Happiness:  Count Your Blessings

Now, Lesson Three in the Art of Happiness does not come from a specific study or the thoughts of a monk, but is instead a widely accepted notion like the way Indian Yogi Paramhansa Yogananda says it in his book titled with a bold promise How to Be Happy All the Time:

         “If you want to be sad no one in the world can make you happy.

         But if you make your mind up to be happy, no one and nothing

         on this earth can take that happiness from you.”

Yogananda’s basic premise is this: we spend much of our lives seeking happiness and joy from what lies outside of us – conditional happiness. As in, “I’ll be happy…

• if I find Mr. or Mrs. Right
• if I get that promotion
• if my horse wins the blue ribbon
• if we can have a son to go with our daughters
• if I break 90 on the golf course
• if I can sell my boat
• if I win the lottery”
• if I get in the right college
• if the sermon is short today!

You know – that happiness is conditional – I will be happy if. Yet you and I both know conditions are as fleeting as a beautiful summer day in Chicago

Happiness is not found in external conditions but is instead found within you and I make a conscious choice that happiness and joy are the lens through which we choose to look at life

Lesson Three in the Art of Happiness:  Happiness is a Choice

So, lesson one – happiness is contagious

lesson two – count your blessings to get on the road to happiness

lesson three – happiness is a choice

And I offer these thoughts today because I believe with all my heart that we as humans are meant to be happy, we are meant to feel joy sure, there are rhythms to life like everything else – there will be peaks & valleys moments when joy seems elusive but we can have an inner joy with us all the time without regard to circumstances

it is what I call uncommon sense something that is entirely logical yet we seldom think about it happiness and joy feel good – we feel alive – make sense that we should have that?

The other reason is the spiritual punch line you come to expect you see Jesus didn’t come to this world only to offer

• puzzling parables
• masterful miracles
• come just to tell us about God’s love and grace
• he came as John 15 tells us “so our joy may be complete”

You see in what is called “the farewell discourse” of Jesus at the end of his life he is summarizing all his teachings for the disciples a final study session before the teacher goes away / students on their own said Jesus “I tell you these things that your joy may be complete”

Even as Jesus stares down death he is talking about joy – complete joy and I tell you these things

• that happiness is contagious
• that counting our blessings moves us toward joy
• that happiness is a choice

because joy is one of God’s great gifts to you and for me it is ours for the taking.

As we close out 2021, Jane and I want to wish you a HAPPY Holiday!   Feel free to reach out if you want any recipe suggestions for your family gatherings.  We look forward to reconnecting in the New Year!

Author’s Note

In addition to our Zen Stocking stuffer bundle we wanted to continue to spread a little holiday ZEN with a Friends/Family discount of 25% off  your entire order!  Just add HOLIDAYZEN at check-out

Happy Cooking!

Zen Moment

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

-Mahatma Gandhi