“With A Song In My Heart” – Some Tips, For Living A Happy Life, From A Guy Who’s Living A Happy Life!

“With A Song In My Heart” – Some Tips, For Living A Happy Life, From A Guy Who’s Living A Happy Life!

Happiness is a choice, and a very personal one, at that. There are lots and lots of books and videos, by all kinds of experts, from many different fields of study...all about happiness. In the end, even after consuming them all, it is still up to you, to decide what happiness is, and how you can experience it. These experts are doing exactly what you are doing. They are discovering what happiness is, and how to live in happiness. The only difference is…they have figured out how to make it their job. I know. I am one of those people. I love my work.

For more than twenty years, I have had the great honor of helping others, in their remembering. Wait. What? Let me back up a little. I believe that we are all already whole, and that all healing is simply the remembering that we are already whole. I know my clients and students as whole, while also realizing that they may not be fully experiencing themselves in this way. Part of this work, is to help them see that happiness is a choice, that it can be a conscious choice, and that they are always free to choose happiness, regardless of their current experience.

Our happiness is only dependent on our decision to experience it. This takes practice. I know, because it is my daily, all day long, practice. I practice what I teach, and I teach what I practice. When I was approached about writing an article on happiness, for this amazing publication, I had just been interviewed, to potentially be in a book about fifty of the happiest people on Earth (according to one well-known self-help/spiritual author), and this had inspired me to start writing material for my own book, of tips for living a happy life.

Now, I get to share some of these with you. As always, trust yourself, above all, and should you find some wisdom in these tips, remember that it is simply your own wisdom, reflected back to you. Thank you for the opportunity to connect and share with you. Here’s to your happiness!


1. “Cause I’m easy. Easy, like a Sunday morning.” – Be easy with yourself...about everything...no matter what. Be easy. Cut yourself slack...a lot of it. Be gentle and generous with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be easy even when it feels more make-believe than real…even when you don’t feel like you deserve it. Be courageous, in your decision to be easy with yourself. This is a practice, to be sure. You may feel some of the old feelings of guilt and disappointment. Say “Hi!” to them, and then come right back to being easy. Happy people are easy with themselves, and easy with others. Which brings us to our next tip.

2. “Free To Be You and Me” – Be easy with the people, in your life. This is another practice of happy people. They’re easygoing folks, because they have chosen to be easy with others too. Be easy with folks, no matter what. Cut them slack…a lot of it. Be gentle and generous with others. Be kind, too. Be easy with them, even when it feels like make-believe (or even an outright lie). Does this all sound familiar? You know this one. The people, in your life, are mirrors for you. Being easy, with them, is being easy with yourself. This is a challenge, at first, and sometimes we may not remember to be easy. No worries. This brings us to our next tip.

3. “But I think it's about forgiveness…” – When you find that you haven’t been easy with yourself or with others, forgive yourself, and while you’re at it, forgive others too. It’s like being easy, but with a time delay. It’s retro-active easiness. It’s like time travel, and since time and space are constructs, you have no excuse, really. So…have at it. Forgive, with wild abandon. Make it a hobby. (“What do you do?” “Me? I’m doing the whole forgiveness thing. You know.”). Forgive yourself, and others…ALL THE TIME, and ABOUT EVERYTHING. Was that too subtle? This is a big one. Self-forgiveness is self-healing, and all healing is simply the remembering that we are already whole.

4. “Welcome to my happiness. You know it makes me smile.” – Celebrate the joy and happiness of others, with great fervor. Revel in their successes and triumphs. Make their good news be your good news, and really let yourself feel the excitement of it. This is a powerful way to jumpstart, or reconnect, with our own happiness. Now, we are not responsible for making others happy, but happy people do love celebrating the happiness of others. Happy people make others’ happiness, their own, AND love sharing their happiness with others.

5. “I love to laugh…hahahaha…loud and long and clear…” – This ain’t news, but…laughter makes us feel good. It is, perhaps, the most holistic activity, available to us…if not the best medicine (see above), it is near the top…with benefits in every area of our lives. Laughter makes for happy people. We know this, because we’ve experienced it. We don’t need research to tell us this, but serious research (see what I did there?) keeps confirming this as true. It also confirms another cool truth. You get all the benefits, whether you wait for something to make you laugh, or you choose to laugh, just for the sake of laughing. Laughter Yoga is an amazing practice, that taps into this understanding, and makes it available to everyone. Find a Laughter Yoga club, in your area…they’re everywhere…or contact me about creating your own laughter practice. (Yep, that was a plug, but a soft one, eh? )


6. “Sing. Sing a song…” – Sing and whistle and hum happy tunes…and tunes that make you feel happy. Sing to yourself, or out loud. May I suggest that, even if you count yourself as shy, you allow yourself to belt out at least one tune a day? It has many of the same researched benefits as laughter, actually, and is another completely holistic activity that costs nothing and requires no special set-up. Also, as the song goes, “Don’t worry if it’s not good enough, for anyone else to hear. Just sing. Sing a song.” Sing in the car, in the shower, with the vacuum on…if you are self-conscious of your voice…but do sing. It’s brilliant! Sing happy tunes, uplifting tunes, hopeful tunes, tunes that make you feel like dancing. Which brings us to our next tip.

7. “I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it.” – Get on up, and move that body of yours. Dance and play and walk and run and hike and bike and swim and juggle and parkour and bounce on trampolines and hang-glide and stomp grapes and do some tai chi and yoga and throw your hands in the air, like you just don’t care and have sex and hug people and wave at people and… You get the idea, right? The human body loves to move. It is built for it. A moving body is a happy body, and happy bodies belong to happy people. Really. Truly. You know this. You could be dancing while you read this. (hint, hint)

8. “Cause the things that I prize, like the stars in the sky, are all free.” – Make a practice of taking in delight in simple things, in everyday things. Find the miracle in the mundane. Pay attention to the brilliance and the majesty of your current surroundings. In fact, let’s do this, right now. Close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths. Then, look around, and do your best to allow yourself to be amazed at it all. Think about it, for just one moment…this computer is incredible. You and I can connect through time and space, and it is all so easy. And that’s just the most obvious example. Allow yourself to be amazed and astounded. Happy people find things to be happy about.

9. “The Sound Of Silence” and “Every Breath You Take” – This one is very simple. Make time, every day, to be still and quiet. Notice I didn’t use meditation? Sometimes, that word can scare people off. If you want to meditate, and call it meditation…wonderful! It works just as well, if you call it “making time to be quiet and still”. Either way, this is the one practice that I introduce to every single client and student. The happiest people, I have ever met (and I have met a lot, in just the last twenty years), have made time for being quiet and being still. I could go and on, but you get it. Why? Because you are very smart and very wise.

10. “I go to sleep, counting my blessings” – Make your last thoughts be about all things you can count as blessing…practice gratitude as a bedtime ritual. It can help you frame your dreams, and set the tone for the next day. Grateful people are happy people. It is really simple. Bless your world, and you live in a world of blessing. This is just good psychology. You will experience your world in the way that you expect to experience it. See it as blessing, and it is. It is this simple, and with some practice, it is this easy.

11. “Always Something There To Remind Me” – One last one. Whether you are beginning to cultivate your practice of happiness, or renewing it, consider an old tried and true memory tool. Leave yourself notes…all over the place, and in bright colors. Leave them in conspicuous places. The bathroom mirror is a great place. So is the ceiling above your bed, and the dash of your car. I leave them everywhere, and I even hide them, so that I can have wonderful little surprises, later on. I’m sure you already have some ideas of your own ideas. Make the message simple, like “Smile, beautiful!” or “Remember, happiness is a choice.” or “Quick! Name three things you love!” You could even use song lyrics, like I’ve done for this article. Whatever works for you, is what works.

Thank you, my friends! This has been a blast. If you would like to stay connected with me, friend me on Facebook. I have a fairly new professional page, and a standard personal page. I am slowly moving most of my activity to the professional page, but I accept friends, at either one. Search for Patrick Sterenchuk. Trust me. There is only one person with that name. You can also follow me on Twitter, @brotherpatrick. When you connect, please let me know that we met through this article. Thank you. I look forward to it. Now… Quick! Name three things you love!



Patrick Sterenchuk is a spiritual teacher, mentor, life coach, healer, intuitive, meditation teacher, stress management consultant, and Certified Teacher of Laughter Yoga. His work is informed by his deep and abiding belief that all healing is simply the remembering that we are all already whole. For more than twenty years, he has had the great honor of serving others, all over the world, in their remembering. You can find Patrick on Facebook, and by following him on Twitter, @brotherpatrick. A website is in the works.

Patrick was recently interviewed, by a well-known self-help/spiritual author, to be included in a book about the happiest people in the world. That book is now out, and is called “Happy Stories”, by International Best Selling author, Will Bowen. It is available on Kindle, and at all fine booksellers (ask your local independent book seller).

I am honored to be part of this LOVEly short video!

My LOVEly friends, 

This short video is a wonderful glimpse into the mystical art of my friend, Yvonne Rosenlund. I have the great honor to be a part of this. During one of my evenings of meditation and reflection, at The Port of Dubuque, I wrote a poem, and shared it on Facebook. Yvonne asked if she could create one of her fabulous Zendalas, with my poem as the theme. I, of course, said, "YES!", and I am joyful for this collaboration.

Check out the video...less than two minutes long...and then check out her work. It really is beautiful, like its creator. Blessings! I AM LOVE, and know YOU as LOVE!

Patrick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nKQwa4CKiVQ

Imagine this... A true story!

Imagine this... One day, you wake up to a bunch of smiling strangers, wearing lab coats. They are clearly glad to see you, and they look vaguely familiar. Yet, everything feels strange. This is not your bedroom. This room is filled with computers and bright lights and wires, and some of these wires are connected to you.

Imagine this... After what feels like a very long time, one of these smiling strangers says, "You ran the simulation well. Really well. That is our best run yet. Tell us, did it feel real? Did the amnesia protocols do their job? It seemed like you were completely immersed in the game. What was it like?"

Imagine this... You have no answers, at first, because as she is asking you these questions, you are trying to process two distinct sets of memories...your life, in the simulation (the one that you are experiencing, as you read this), and your life before your participation in the simulation. At first, they both feel true, and not true.

Imagine this... As you are able to more easily hold both sets of memories as true, you realize that everything you experienced, in the simulation, was a game, and one that you created. You are the designer of this whole project. This lab. These people. The simulation. They are all because of you, and your groundbreaking work.

Imagine this... You realize that everything you experienced in your simulation was very real, while it was happening, and at the same time, a construct of your mind and emotions. It was real because you believed it was, and now you realize just how beautiful all of it was...still is.

Imagine this... As you get your bearings, you realize that you still feel the love for all of your loved ones, but none of the hate for those you thought of as your enemies. In fact, you feel a fondness for them, as you might for a bad guy, in a movie. This is new. This is the first time you have felt like this, after a simulation. A breakthrough.

Imagine this... Days go by. Tests and meetings and computer diagnosis and medical examinations fill your days, and you still feel  a deep love for the people and experiences of your simulation. You realize that the you, of the simulation, will always be alive within you. As will all of your experiences...the people, your choices, your feelings and thoughts, all of it.

Imagine this... About a week later, you hear a knock at your office door. You open the door, and it is one of the new senior engineers. For a brief moment, you have a funny feeling about them, and it passes. You invite them in, noticing that they will not make eye contact with you.

Imagine this... They sit down, across from you, still not making eye contact, and they ask your forgiveness, in advance of what they are about to tell you. You agree, and when they look up at you, your heart skips a beat. What an unusual feeling. If you didn't know better, you would say that you were feeling something like love.

Imagine this... As you are trying to pull yourself together, they look at you, and say, "Again, I am really sorry. I was told to do it, by the project manager. I was new, and I didn't feel like I could refuse. I was in the simulation with you. I know you feel it. Even as I am telling you this. You know that I was your love. You can feel it."

Imagine this... You are reeling, and they continue, "I remember when we first met. When we got married. I remember the births of our two children. I remember burying our oldest. I remember the day you died, and I remember the years of living without you. And I can't help myself. I still love you. Are you angry?"

Imagine this... As you sit, across from them, with tears of great joy, in your eyes, you have no words. So, you come around the desk, and they stand up...and then you are holding each other. It is strange, at first...you are different than you were...and then, all of a sudden, it is familiar and beautiful.

Imagine this... For a long time, you simply hold each other, and they say, "Do you remember what you said to me, whenever I was sad or worried? You would always say, 'Nothing is ever lost, and nothing ever dies.' I always wanted to believe it. Now, here we are, and I have you again." And with a little smile, you say, "And I have you again."

Imagine this... This is just a story. As all stories are, it is true. Is it real? It is as real as the emotions you felt, when you read it. It is as real as you believe it to be. Just a couple more questions. How would you live, if you knew that nothing ever died, and nothing was ever lost? How would you live, if you knew that your every experience is your creation, and it is perfect and beautiful?

Imagine this... When you woke up this morning, you actually entered a simulation, with implanted memories of all kinds of experiences...worries, joys, hates, loves, feelings, thoughts, etc... Your whole past, a construct, created by you. Your whole world, existing because you believe it does. How do you live, today, with this freedom?

Imagine.

Blessings. I AM LOVE, and know YOU as LOVE!

Patrick

It's only pretend, right?

Can you let all of your opposites...love and hate and joy and pain and sadness and happiness and light and dark and so on and so forth...be whole and perfect and true, living within you? 

Can you imagine yourself letting them be, with no need to make some wrong, and some right? Can you imagine that, whether you see them all as beautiful, as blessing, they are? Can you imagine that you are the one deciding factor in the existence of each one? Can you imagine that what you call blessed, though it seem otherwise, is blessed...that even what you may have called cursed, may be blessed, if you say it is?

Imagine yourSelf as perfect LOVE...as That, in which all is perfect and true and whole. Imagining is a nobler sounding word than pretending, but pretending is no less powerful. If it is easier for you to say "pretend", remember this little mantra -- "Pretending is practicing, and practicing is remembering."

Pretending is practicing, and practicing is remembering. Say it a few times, to yourself. Then say it a few times, aloud. Feel it. Let yourself feel it. What are you practicing today? Can you let yourself practice blessing everything, regardless of how you have previously known it? Can you practice being LOVE, and allowing your world to be LOVE? Allowing all of it, then being easy with yourself, when it is hard, or when it feels like lying?

Pretending is practicing, and practicing is remembering. What you are remembering, and what no one else can remember for you, is that you are LOVE...perfect being, perfect understanding, perfect allowing. You are remembering that you are LOVE, and that everything you experience is you, is LOVE. This is what you are remembering. You are LOVE, and LOVE is all. You are LOVE, which knows all as LOVE.

Today, can you let all of your opposites...love and hate and joy and pain and sadness and happiness and light and dark and so on and so forth...be whole and perfect and true, living within you? Can you pretend that they are? Can you pretend that you are LOVE, in which all is perfect and whole and true, living within you?

It's only pretend, right?

Patrick

Do you know what happens?

Oh, my LOVEly friends, 

Do you know what happens when you relax about your spirituality and enlightenment and heaven and saving and being saved and...all of it...all the worry about getting to something or back to something or becoming something? 

Do you know what happens when you relax all the letting go and digging and releasing and cleansing? 

Do you know what happens when you simply let yourself be? When you let your world be? When you let God/Source/Universe be?

You begin to remember that "what is" is perfect, as it is. You begin to remember that you are perfect, as you are. You begin to remember that there is nothing to become, and nothing to stop becoming. You begin to remember that you are (already, always) everything you seek.

You are everything you seek. You can relax. There is nothing missing in you. There is nothing extra in you. You are perfect and whole and true, as you are. In truth, you are LOVE, in which all is perfect and whole and true. You are LOVE, in which all exists.

When you remember yourSelf as LOVE, you remember that your world is LOVE too. This is what happens, when you relax. You begin to remember things like this. You begin to remember that you are LOVE, and LOVE is all. You remember that you are LOVE, and LOVE knows all things as Itself. LOVE knows all as LOVE.

You are LOVE. LOVE is all. LOVE knows all as LOVE! Say it with me, "I AM LOVE, and know all as LOVE!" Remember?

Blessings! I AM LOVE, and know YOU as LOVE!

Patrick


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Morning Meditation -- Friday, February 15, 2013

In this perfect moment, I remember that resentment, and the feeling of being taken for granted, grows out of fears of not having enough, and the fear of not having enough is really a fear of not being enough. 

In this perfect moment, I am aware of the times, when I have felt these feelings. Nothing to change. Nothing to fix or make right. I simply am aware of them, and I allow them to be, exactly as they are. I allow them, and I love them as my creation. I love them as perfect experience, perfectly created, and I love myself, as their creator.

In this, is ease and well-being. In this, I begin to remember that I am everything I seek...that all lives within me...and I remember that...

I AM LOVE, and know all as LOVE!


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Morning Greeting! -- Friday, February 15, 2013

Gooood Morning, my LOVElies! Happy Friday! 

So. Yesterday was LOVE Day! What would happen, if you just kept it going? What if you decided that today was LOVE Day, too? What if you chose to experience yourself and everything and everyone through the lens of love? 

I invite you to keep the flame alive, to renew your love for life, to remember what is joy for you! I invite you to choose, today, totake nothing personally, and to take nothing for granted. I invite you to pay attention, and be thoughtful and kind.

I invite you to be easy with yourself, and with those around you. I invite you to laugh and dance and sing and play, and be unabashedly in love with your life.

I invite you to ask yourself, "What would it feel like to, all of a sudden, remember that I am perfect LOVE, creating all of this, perfectly? What if I remembered that I am LOVE, and I knew everything as LOVE?"

I invite you to let today be LOVE Day, and let yourself celebrate love in all of its aspects. I also invite you to remember yourSelf as LOVE, and to remember everyone you meet as LOVE. Blessings! I AM LOVE, and know YOU as LOVE!

Patrick


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www.twitter.com/brotherpatrick