Happiness is in your Heart

The happiest person I know is a woman who at 104 years young exudes a depth of Peace of Mind and a joy of life that is profound. Aunt Grace is a very happy person.
She contradicts most of the popular but disappointing templates today that promise happiness. She has never been on television or radio, she has never been a star or held high office and she never has had an above normal bank account. What she does have is a wealth of faithful and admiring friends and relatives and a trust and faith that she has found her purpose. She is ready for her long home and she is confident that she has found and fulfilled her reason for being here. How wonderful ! So many of us would love to arrive at that age, and after all the trials and disappointments, all the struggles and the tragedies, rest in the knowledge that we found our place in the great scheme of things and filled it and completed it safely.
In her book “Happy for no Reason”, Marci Shimoff suggested that most people in their search for happiness seem to always get it backwards. They think that the more they have, the happier they will be. So they organize their lives around getting as much as they can of the things they see around them. They want more cars, a better house, beautiful clothes, a better job, and a lot of friends. But as Marci says, they have it backwards ! All these things are O.K. in their place, but they don’t bring happiness . Happiness is on the inside. Don’t spend your life and your energy trying to attract these things, thinking that when you get them you will be happy. There is a veritable plethora of your fellow human beings who have already travelled that road and found that it is a disappointing illusion.
One of the sages of our time - Dalai Lama, assures us “As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery. . . . . . . . . . we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace . The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness ."
Actually, Happiness is in your heart. No, not that spiritual, esoteric, mysterious entity we sing and write poems about. Happiness is in your literal heart. The same one beating away happily right now in the centre of your chest. One of the most significant scientific discoveries of our time is that our hearts have a powerful energy field. The Institute of HeartMath, a highly esteemed research group whose work has been verified in studies conducted by Stanford University and Miami Heart Research Institute, among others, has found that our hearts generate an electromagnetic field around us. This field is several feet in diameter and five thousand times greater than the field generated by the brain. Did you notice . . five thousand times greater !! The HeartMath researchers discovered that when people focus on emotions such as appreciation, love and gratitude that they’re able to create more coherence and harmony in their heart rhythms at will. The researchers continued . . . . “when we activate the power of our hearts and intentionally have sincere feelings such as appreciation, care and love, we allow our hearts’ electrical energy to work for us. The more we do this the better we’re able to ward off stress.”
One of the most powerful emotions generated by your heart is Gratitude . Your heart is the seat of emotions both negative and positive. You decide which of the positive or negative emotions you create in your heart. When you create Gratitude the electrical impulses and vibrations form a positive and powerful magnetic field which begins to draw to yourself more positive situations such as peace, compassion and love.
Jack Canfield one of America’s great educators and author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” promotes the importance of a Gratitude Journal. He sees it as a valuable tool for development and growth. Take the time to list the things you are grateful for, like your health, your job and your friends. . . . . . but also the air we breathe, the sun, the sky and the little bird singing in your backyard.

An excerpt from “Life One-0-One: Find Your Purpose”
by Vince DaCosta . . . . . . www.lifeone0one.com

A message of HOPE for you on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9REvtdBB2Ps