It's Okay to Feel Good and Enjoy the World!

[Ariel]

Use this thread to discuss the following blog post:

It's Okay to Feel Good and Enjoy the World!

[binnoy]

hey arial

I liked the first part of the post very much.

Well I honestly think that happiness is an illusion, a pleasure-signal created by the nervous system.
The peace and joy that one enjoys during enlightment lies actually BEYOND HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS.

Happiness in itself is not bad as long as one lives WITH IT.
However the moment one starts living FOR it, the seeds of suffering are sown then and there

with love always
BINNOY
http://binnoy.hpage.com/

[Ariel]

Yes, there's a difference between happiness the emotion and happiness of being. It's the classic point. One has an opposite called sadness. The other there is no opposite of. It's an important distinction and thank you for bringing it up.

[deeprivernz]

Hey Ariel,
another great post!

All my life I have been happy - don't know why, that's just how it's been. Never really got into having the bigger car to be happy. As I progressed I found deeper layers of happiness and so it continues. I find it interesting that, not needing money, house or beautiful partner to be happy, I now have all those things - without ever trying! A good friend of similar age (50s-60s) has nothing much - no money, house or partner but is just as happy as I am.
So it seems that the external trappings don't have much to do with the happiness, if anything. So why do some of us find happiness and others don't, even though we may apparently be on similar journeys. Perhaps it's something to do with always being able to see that this moment is all that IS, but also being open to change whenever it offers an opportunity?
Certainly being 'stuck' in one way of Being seems to me to be rather boring although, having said that, I'm never bored with my day to day existence here in Paradise!
So, yes, I do feel good and I am enjoying the World!

PS The Celebration was fantastic!

[Mysticle]

YES!! It truly is okay to feel good, be happy, express gratitude, and Enjoy Life ~´¯`•.¸¸.~☼~

~Misty

[CaterpillarWoman]

The Celebration was fantastic!

Great to hear! I was intending that for you. (Yes, really!)

[Guest]

Hi Ariel....

Thank you very much for this post...

I am just not able to get rid of my limiting beliefs, stale ideas, learned responses, social conditioning etc... . Whenever I try to get rid of the harmful & no longer useful mental attitudes, I experieince guilt!!! I am not able to overcome the teachings of my parents, teachers (religious & academic) although I know those concepts no longer serve towards my well being & progress. I will give you a typical example of one of my mental blocks--I have come across " researches" that say girls are not as good as boys in solving math problems & I certainly do not belive that. "What crap" is my reaction towards those types of researches which give varying results depending on the researchers who conduct them! Well, despite this, whenever I solve Math with my dad (Dad teaches me& my brother Maths!), I am not as good as my brother 'coz I know my dad believes in those studies & expect me to be not as good as my brother!!!! Weird & trivial it may sound, I am very depressed due to this strange problem! But when I try to solve the same stuff in the privacy of my study without anyone looming about, I am so fast that I enjoy solving them. I enjoy Maths then.

Please tell me if you know of any methods to get rid of these types of mental blocks & limiting beliefs...I am very frustrated because I seem to know about the blocks but still not able to dissove them & replace them with positive, useful ones. Thank you very much...

Ninya.

[Ariel]

Hey Ninya,

Yeah, beliefs... so much of our life experience is basically a result of it and there's many ways of clearing out limiting beliefs and many of them are effective.

It would be helpful to get a basic understanding of how beliefs and emotions work.

In short, beliefs are just thoughts and concepts that you have decided to buy into as true for whatever reason. Every belief you buy into generates an emotional response and you can use that emotional response as an indicator to let you know whether or not that belief is in alignment with your inner being or not. When the belief is in alignment with the deeper part of you, you experience a good feeling. When it's not, you experience a bad feeling.

Understanding this, you can then reverse the process and recognize that any time you experience a negative emotion such as the guilt which you mentioned, it's because you have a belief system in place that's out of alignment with your inner being.

When you experience this, you can ask yourself, "What would I have to believe is true in order to feel the way I do?"

See what it is you believe and then ask yourself, "Is this true?" You'll get an answer and if you get a yes, ask yourself, "How do I know this belief is true?" You'll then find a deeper supporting belief which holds up that first belief. You can then inquire into this second belief and find out why you believe this belief is true.

You keep digging and digging until you get to the root of your belief. When you get to the root, you may come up with a number of conclusions such as:
-This belief isn't true at all!
-I could believe this, or I could just as equally choose to believe something else more beneficial.
-This belief is based upon what someone else told me, not what I've found.
etc.

Either way, when you get to the root you'll have the opportunity to change your core beliefs and/or just drop your current beliefs altogether.

It takes a willingness to look within and be honest and vulnerable, to look at all that dark murky stuff within. It's just a matter of bringing awareness to your subconscious belief systems that are running beyond the limits of your conscious awareness. The process is primarily bringing awareness to the parts of your psyche that you're not aware of.

What you're not aware of controls you. What you are aware of you have the ability to let go of and change.

There's also a number of wonderful techniques you can use to help let go of limiting beliefs including The Sedona Method and The Work by Byron Katie, among others.

Basically just sit down and take the time to really explore your belief systems. Why do you believe what you believe? How do you know for sure that what you believe is true? Find out.

You may discover that once you get to the roots of your beliefs, you don't have to let them go. They let go of you! Simply bringing awareness to your unconscious beliefs is often enough.

Good luck with your digging!

Ariel

[binnoy]

HEY NINYA,
I too was in a similar situation a few months ago.
I tried a number of meditations,....however nothing work until
I tried the following

I just saw how much influenced i was by conditioning.
I just saw how much was its burden on me and gave it a weight that came to me.(it was 29 kgs in my case).

I kept feeling the burden and paying attention to how heavy it is,
the beauty of its weight and so on.

THE result........I just kinda had a weight loss.

I actually coincidentally have wrote a post pertaining to a similar
topic today on my website

http://binnoy.hpage.com/the__law_of_att ... 93807.html

WITH LOVE ALWAYS
BINNOY
http://binnoy.hpage.com/

[deeprivernz]

Hey Ninya
Your problem so reminds me of how it used to be for me. The key that i found was that I was always FIGHTING the bad feelings/attitudes/conditionings as I could only see them as negative. Once i stopped fighting them then there was space for things to change. Note that Ariel uses the words:-

when you get to the root you'll have the opportunity to change your core beliefs and/or just drop your current beliefs altogether.

There's no fighting there, just 'change' and/or 'dropping'.
So Ariel has suggested one way to deal with it - looks good to me.
Binnoy's idea of a heavy weight is great too. I used to imagine that I had a heavy backpack, full of all that old 'shit', which had to be lightened before I could continue climbing up the mountain of my life's journey. I used therapy (re-birthing) which worked for me, but may not for you.
My observations are that each person has to find their own way of dealing with the old 'stuff'. The fact that you were moved to ask Ariel for help suggests that his way may work for you - but it may not! I always keep my eyes open for new opportunities/doorways which may be a book which keeps appearing in front of me ('The Road Less Travelled' did it for me), or may be a therapy, or may be a teacher or even a religion! There are so many 'ways' and I take bits from here and there so that I can construct my own 'way'. A very common trap is to assume that the way that does work for me at this particular time is THE WAY for all time. This is not my truth as I want to continue to change and grow.

Hope this may be of some help and that you find a way that works for you.
River