What do you want for your life, and what do you want for the lives of your children? Universally, the answer is the same: “happiness.” Finding and expanding happiness is part of our Divine purpose as a human being. The brighter and more loving we are, the more God can experience and share our life with us. This is why we seek it out, and wish to expand and maintain it when we find it. This goes well beyond the comfort we may feel from any material things we own, and can be expressed and received in many ways. There are things we can do everyday to attain and maintain this deeper feeling of joy. And love and gratitude are crucial parts to sustaining it.
For one thing, remember that you are not alone in your desire to be happy and that most everyone desires the same thing, even though you may not be outwardly seeing it. For example, although acts of love and gratitude occur millions of time every moment throughout the world, these are not the ones that gain the attention of the media. A rare segment at the end of a newscast or the back of a newspaper may mention an act of heroism, but in reality they are not rare at all. Huge difficulties are being successfully surmounted everyday, by people who choose to follow-through on the choice of love. Take the time to look for these stories, they can be found everywhere; on the Internet, magazines, by word of mouth. Perhaps even keep an archive so that you can be reminded of the love in the world and that the over-all heart of mankind is good, although many of these expressions of love and gratitude are often hidden from the world.
We hold a door open and a stranger says “thank you” and we smile. We send a card or an email showing our gratitude for another and we make their heart glad. In that universal expression of happiness, the smile shows the love we are feeling in our heart, indeed, in our soul. Do you feel the satisfaction and warmth inside? That is the knowing that you are doing what you should be doing. You are feeling that God-connection you were created with, the spark of light flickering within. “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16) How many times in your own life have you taken that extra step, or been thankful to another for the step they have taken? We may not have ran into a burning building or been pulled from one, but how many struggles felt like we were doing exactly that? Even by giving or receiving a hug or word of encouragement, very real fires can be put out and lives can change for the better, if the choice of that opportunity is taken. And it is a choice, a personal one that can be made several times a day.
In reality, our happiness depends on making only two choices in life: love or fear. The choice of love will always move us forward, whereas fear stagnates and freezes us. This is also why we can look at any place of immobilization in our life and know better choices can be made there. We are created as sparks off the Divine flame. So fear and stagnation is not in our comfort zone and will continue to create feelings of sadness, incompleteness and despair; but as we continue to choose love, that light expands and grows into a bright bonfire of joy and happiness within. Although it may not always be easy to show love and gratitude in our daily lives, when we do, there is always a beautiful ripple effect that occurs from it, whether we visually see it at that time or not. As an additional bonus, our spirit knows we are doing what we came here to do, and as this inner happiness expands we feel more comfortable, peaceful and confident. And since our spirit resides within our physical body, besides the spiritual and emotional benefits we receive, there are very tangible health benefits as well.
In the very first photo of Dr. Emoto’s famous book “The Hidden Messages in Water” a beautiful ice crystal is shown, with more facets than any jeweler could ever cut. This was the result of wrapping the two words Love and Gratitude around a bottle of water, freezing a sample of it, then photographing a slice of the result. “This crystal is as perfect as can be. This indicates that love and gratitude are fundamental to the phenomenon of life in all of nature.” This is a repeatable scientific result of positive physical changes that occur when love and gratitude is expressed. It changes things around us, it balances and purifies; and the water is just one sample of it, which is part and particle to about 70% of our bodies, and the same ratio of ocean to land on the earth. This is also a good reminder to say a prayer or blessing of thanks over our food and water before we eat it. Isn’t it interesting to see the bigger picture of why mankind in so many cultures and lands have felt compelled to do this for thousands of years? That spirit within us knows and compels us, although analytically we may not know the science behind it until later. “We love because he first loved us.” (John 4:19) Love truly transforms and changes things!
Choosing to take the extra steps to show love and gratitude in what only looks to be an unthankful world is a main key to attaining joy. And although there are different holidays which can be good reminders to express this, daily transformations will occur when we do this on a regular basis. Keeping a journal or archive of positive stories reminds and encourages us to be an expression of love ourselves and that the over-all heart of mankind is good. Directing our thoughts on what we have, not on what we do not, refocuses our priorities in a positive way. Our choosing of love over fear continues the awareness, brightening and expanding of our true Divine nature. This includes being consistent in offering blessings for what we receive and give, including our food and water. Expressing love and gratitude satisfies our deep sense of purpose, which transforms not only our environment, but our spiritual, emotional and physical health as well. So no matter what is perceived outwardly, true happiness can be sustained by the personal choice of love, and with that we can choose to be grateful every day, which in itself is something of which we can be truly thankful.
