Often yoga is associated with discipline, hard work, denial and even rigorous practice. Sure, we talk a lot in Yoga about discipline, and yes, we need that, but really, Yoga is the “Art of Joyful Living” (Swami Rama). We confuse joy with happiness, not knowing what either is except that it’s something that makes me feel good, invoking in me the feeling of being happy.

Scientific research names three sources that give us “happiness”:

1. Pleasure (positive sensory experience, for example eating chocolate, drinking cappuccino, making love, even doing vigorous exercises).
2. Engagement (involvement with one’s family, work, romance and hobbies, doing something where we are positively involved, not feeling alone and separate).
3. Meaning (something like fulfillment, satisfaction, etc.)

All these bring a rush of energy to our heart; we say it gives an adrenalin rush and releases endorphins. But that’s not it. Let’s contemplate: Whether through pleasure, engagement in the world or in meaning, or indeed, whether from the satisfaction derived from knowing I do “right” – all the above reasons link happiness to events that happen outside of ourselves.

The research indicates that what contributes most to happiness are working human relationships. In fact, the happiest people seem to be those who are in the center of a network of people, such as family, friends and community. We derive happiness from: my wife, my husband, my children, my friends, my state. This includes not only simple contact, but the ability to communicate and be understood by them. So happiness is a reaction to something that happens “on the outside.”

Moreover, what makes us happy seems to depend on our personal make-up, our character type. We can easily recognize five types of happiness, which we call the elements or gunas. According to the Bhagavad Gita (Yogic Scripture), for one type of people happiness arises from things staying the same (security, routine, habits, lack of inspiration). This type of happiness satisfies the basic human urge for safety and mere sense cravings. It is linked to addictive, samsaric patterns.

The second kind of happiness arises from doing the job asked of you perfectly; happiness here arises out of the satisfaction of achieving an aim. This can, with higher understanding mean that happiness arises from dropping the confines of the conditioned ego-self, rising above it and merging in the joy of knowing one’s subtler core, one’s essence, the Higher Self.

The third type of happiness arises from the thrill resulting from passionate sensual stimulus; however, unhappiness follows in its wake, dumping the enjoyer into a pit of exhaustion. Happiness changes easily into un-happiness. However this burning fire has the potential of transcending the sense experience into awareness of the “light beyond,” and with such transformation one can taste the “joy of being.”

The fourth and fifth kinds of happiness stem from the joy of discovering something new and through creativity, discriminative awareness and insight, which leads to the moment of “eureka” – of the aha experience, the “Ionian enchantment.” The satisfaction from such insights brings equilibrium and hence fosters inner harmony and peace. It roots in “the joy arising out of inner self-control. Initially it might feel ‘tough’ (tapasya), unpleasant/like poison, but is in effect like elixir; that happiness is called sattvic, born of the pleasantness of one’s intelligence” (Swami Rama; Perennial psychology of the Bhagavad Gita; XVIII/37).

The peace and tranquillity, the joy and expansion that the mind and intellect come to experience as a result of the latter, is a coming together of inner and outer nature, and as such is called “prasadam,” gladness of the heart.

The Bhagavad Gita says that when the individual self finds delight and joy in his Self, that is the highest form of all joys. That is love – love not for an object, not love because of fulfilling a desire, but love without object…simply love for all. More subtle versions of happiness relate to a “state of being in joy” that Swami Veda Bharati refers to as “Chitta prasadanam” and is in Buddhism called “the beautiful mind.” The joy that arises from such beautiful mind, is caused by:

• “Giving of oneself (earth)
• Merging into the ocean of the all-pervading (water)
• Fulfillment of one’s destiny (fire to light)
• Gladness of heart and mind
• Through living a divine life (air and space).”

Happiness that stems from fulfillment of lower desires (sense pleasures) is always temporary, invariably followed by unhappiness. The subtler, higher versions of an inner happiness is what we refer to as joy! Joy has no opposite, because it is not related to the external. To experience joy we have to turn inward, to get in touch with that “inner happiness,” which has no trigger, no relationship with what goes on in the outside world. That joy is there, whether we live in a troubled world, chaotic family situation, alone on a mountain top – or in prison.

Somewhere within us, there exists a source of deep joy, independent of causation. It is what is referred to as ananda, marking our true source: sat (existence) chit (consciousness) ananda (bliss/joy).  Joy then rises in its purest sense from realizing who we really are, hence is always available within us, arising from “an internal state of tranquillity!” (S.R. Holistic Health).

It’s the source in our being, that joy externalized is felt as happiness. Joy itself is something intrinsically ours; it cannot be taken away, even if the circumstances change, or we lose all wealth and health. It is, rather, an innate quality that is in you and part of you. You don’t lose it when you lose your job! Or your children!

Joy is a sense of tranquillity and love, which bubbles in us as a life spring. In Swami Rama’s  (and Swami Ajaya’s) book, Creative Use of Emotions, this definition of joy is given: “Joy is the first-born of love and is experienced by all creatures. A human being can experience joy through thought, actions and speech which soothes the senses and stimulates the nervous system. Joy is a necessity in human life. It repairs the physical and mental damage brought on by one’s way of day-to-day living.

“Life without joy is a light that shines only for the dead. A fortunate few know how to utilize this joyous state of mind. Joy is very necessary for maintaining harmony within oneself and in one’s relationships in the world, at home and in society.”

To live from such inner tranquility, peace and joy is what Yoga offers us. In fact, it is the key to “the art of joyful living” as Swami Rama called it.

Swami Nitya will be in the Twin Cities area through the end of July. She will be giving public lectures at The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul as part of the Creating Joy: The Art and Science of Yoga Congress 2011. For more information visit www.TheMeditationCenter.org or stop by The Meditation Center, 631 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413. Email info@TheMeditationCenter.org or call 612.379.2386.

I am: a psychologist with more than 30 years of clinical experience; a qigong teacher with nearly 15 years of study, practice and teaching; and a man who is nearly 60 and has spent most of his life searching for happiness. And I really didn’t understand that a central element to that happiness was sitting in front of me all the time.

As a psychotherapist, I was looking for the right theoretical school, the right technique, the right approach to help my clients not only heal, but also find happiness. I spent years in therapy myself looking to become more lighthearted and happy. But I never found that.

What finally became clear to me was that psychotherapy was able to remove some of the obstacles to happiness. So even if it couldn’t give it to you, therapy could make happiness more likely. Continuing my search, I found myself delighted to be practicing qigong, an ancient Chinese energy system of simple movements and deep meditations, wonderfully opening my heart energy. I thought this would surely give me the key to happiness.

I felt calm and energized, and I began not just to practice but to teach this qigong. I even translated what I was learning about qigong into my work as a psychotherapist. I taught people how to breathe, drop their consciousness into their energetic body and even into their hearts. I thought I had found the missing key in my search for happiness.

I felt blessed — filled with vitality and almost addicted to the wonderful energy I could produce — and yet, I must admit, not very happy. I had moments — great moments that I could expound on at length to make others and myself think I had found happiness. But I was fooling them and myself.

I was a senior teacher with a qigong master who seemed to embody happiness and love. So, given my rich history and all I had done and was doing, I must have been embodying happiness and love, too. But what I learned was that even mystical experiences and moments of happiness and love don’t necessarily translate into a transformed and happy life.

Then I stumbled upon what I was missing in the unlikeliest of places — in the epilogue of my own book, and it wasn’t even close to what the epilogue was meant to convey. The book told the story of my healing journey through trauma to profound mystical experiences in the Christian faith, on the Native American path, and then on the Taoist road through meditation. It was about how love pierced me in all those traditions and brought itself forward in ways I didn’t imagine possible.

In the epilogue, I am having an incredibly romantic dinner in a little restaurant at a resort on the beach in Mexico reflecting on the experiences of love I had written about in the book and what they taught me. But what I realized as I was reading those pages was that it wasn’t the experiences of profound spiritual love that made me happy. I had had them for the previous 35 years, and they never led to much more than moments of happiness.

What made me happy, I realized, was my new ability to be in intimate relationships — ones that opened up my heart energy in a manner I had never been able to sustain. I could see that my therapy and spiritual healings helped give me tools and inspiration to lean, again and again, into these relationships — to lean into the heart-opening and gentle unfolding of a deepening in me and a deepening in them. It was being in relationships, this one with my partner and others, that was making me feel happy.

I was now able to be more transparent and vulnerable, was able to be more humble, was able to stay in relationship and not emotionally withdraw as much. I was now able to take in love and be loving with a depth I didn’t know previously was possible. I had found, through all my wanderings, how to better stay in my heart and in my body, which allowed me to stay in relationships.

And that is what is making me happy.

Several years ago, I entered a three-week retreat, during which time I disconnected from everyone and everything. Something hugely powerful and irresistible was pulling me away from the outside world, towards an unknown inner journey of reflection, release and renewal. It was as if I had an appointment for which I was not ready. An alchemical process was going to catalyze something within me, my intuition told me, which was going to get me ready by dissolving what might be in the way, by renovating my mind and heart, and restoring my soul to wholeness. After the retreat, I would be able to enter and engage the future that was calling for a more authentic, free, and powerful self.

One day, resting on the blue couch in my lounge room, my eyes closed. Shortly after, they opened, but I was no longer in my home in Richmond; I was sitting on the banks of the Ganges river in the ancient city of Varanasi. I was at one of the several “burning ghats,” stone steps where hundreds of cremations occur every day. Bodies are placed on wooden pyres, set alight with ghee, and priests chant sacred mantras while the body burns to ashes. There I was, in some spirit, astral form, sitting quietly, watching this, taking it in.

I could feel the whole of the recently-left life of each person, not in specific ways, but in a general way, as in remembering a play I had once seen, recalling the essential drama of it, and a few highlights. I could feel the many ways in which people lived, the ways in which they gave themselves too often to things that did not really matter – to worries and concerns, to activities and aspirations, to quarrels and squabbles? How did they really matter? I also felt how quickly each body journeyed from birth, through the drama of life, to these burning cradles that were birthing them out of this world.

Some invisible guide, a kind of unseen presence, asked me, “What makes life truly worth living? Look how quickly it all ends. It’s just a day, though it seems like forty, fifty, maybe eighty years. It’s a day. What is important? What makes life worth living? What makes the difference between a well-lived life, and one squandered on petty things?”

What I discovered in this shamanic journey to a sacred city by the banks of a holy river, where they burn to ashes hundreds of human bodies every day, is that “the difference” we want to make is about a way of living. It is a choice between petty concerns, mindlessness, sadness, negativity, cynicism – and clarity, truth, meaning and purpose. And while these last words are abstract, perhaps idealistic, they are also as real as the very ground we stand upon.

I already knew that there is something written in each person’s heart, in the scripture of their soul, that is their map for an authentic life, such that if they follow it, if they follow the paths of that map, they will live a well-lived life, a significant life, a life without regret, or sadness or meanness. They will live a full, unique, joyful, exuberant life. I knew that. But now I know it more fully, as if a brighter light has been installed in each cell of my being.

I came to understand, with a kind of urgency, that making a difference is really choosing a way of living. Making a difference is not something we do, but rather a lifestyle we choose, one that flows from the words inscribed in the scripture of our heart, of our soul; and in this way of purposeful living we are a constant blessing to ourselves and to others.

We are a walking seed and spark that awakens and fires the imagination of others towards a similar way of living.

Making a difference may involve community service; it may not. The ways in which each of us will make a difference by definition and necessity will flow out from our inner being. First, we choose the difference between true and false, between authentic and inauthentic. Then, we act. Then, we make the difference that has already been made within us through our choice as to how we are going to live. In the end, making a difference is not idealistic or philosophical. It is practical, and inevitable.

I understood that the size and scope of what we do is not important. Our life may be huge and daring and world-shaking, or it may be small and quiet and unrecognized by the masses or media. What matters, what makes the difference, is the fragrance we emit, the intoxicating aura we carry, as we fulfill whatever roles we are called to by the secret that only we know, the secret revealed to us when we enter the deep and beautiful sacred place of our heart to read what is written there for us. That is what counts. That’s how we live a well-lived life.

We find the way that is ours alone. That is the way in which we can bring forth the most glorious self that is ours alone. And, paradoxically, we never go on this path alone, for we are always within the community of others who are making a difference in the same way – from the center of their spiritual universe.

This is the difference every human being wants to make: to live an authentic life of deep meaning, of significance, of connection to existence itself. When the petty preoccupations of unexamined busyness are struck down and taken apart by our deeper knowing and feeling, we become expansive and elevated as in those moments where time gives way to eternity, where self-concern gives way to a greater belonging, where things we have no words for become our constant companions and trusted friends. The difference that we all want to make is the difference we make through choice and devotion and love, by choosing an authentic life, the life only we can live: the choice between depth and surface, between significance and pettiness, between courage and fear, between possibility and cynicism, between clarity and doubt, between connection and alienation, between generosity and greed, between imagination and recitation, between creativity and repetition. It is certainly a choice between freedom and bondage, between magic and mundane.

Magic. Yes. There is great magic in choosing an authentic life. I know this is true. I can tell you this because I have experienced this directly. When we open our heart and unshutter our soul, we find unimagined things are suddenly possible. We uncover creative and expressive powers that are not from learning and experience, not from courses and certifications, but from our very nature. We suddenly feel that the blood pumping through us, circulates through every living thing; that’s how close, how joined, how similar we would become with everything else, with all of existence.

We awaken to a world that is not fixed and certain, but one that shape-shifts to fit the contours of our map, the one drawn in our heart from the beginning of time. This world, awakened by the magic within us, becomes a story waiting to be told, about a life of dimensions and levels and nuances and subtleties of music and mystery and miracle where anything is possible, where anything can happen from any place at any time without reason or cause. This is the difference that magic makes, and that we make with magic.

This difference comes from who we are, from consciously choosing to live from that deep place inside us, now wide open; from that secret being revealed for the first time, spoken and told with every word, made real and true with every step, every move, every act. Then, all our doing is a blessing.

A blessing. We become a blessing. We are a blessing. When it is our turn to be turned to ashes, and that time is coming fast for all of us, people who knew us would both mourn the loss and be wildly joyful that we lived. They would laugh and cry and spin around like mad little children too full of excitement and wonder. And those who didn’t know us might, for some inexplicable reason, stop what they are saying and doing, and feel something move deep within, as if a comet were streaking across the sky of their soul.

And we, and our enduring spirit, would be happy, very happy. Delighted. Ecstatic. Yes, because we would have chosen a well-lived life, we would have been, and made, that supreme difference.

“The power to fulfill our dreams is within each of us. We alone have the responsibility to shape our lives. When we understand this, we know that nothing, and no one, can deny us greatness. We are the ones pushing ourselves forward or holding ourselves back. The power to succeed or fail is ours alone.” – Unknown

Living a balanced life is something we all strive to achieve. We want great things for ourselves and our loved ones and we want some degree of control over our lives. We want to be able to take what life throws at us and thrive as we learn and grow from each and every life situation. But many of us have not yet learned  how to do that. In fact, a large majority of people believe that the notion of a balanced life is a myth.

That’s because when there’s too much to do and no time to do it, we live in constant stress and anxiety. But we are learning another way. There is a path that can help us find a better sense of balance in our personal and professional lives, in our spiritual interdependent self, and in our relationships. But we must understand how balance works and what it means to each of us individually. That’s the only way we can create the life we want.

Definition of Balance
We all would agree that balance is an essential component of happiness. The dictionary defines balance as  “a stable mental or psychological state; emotional stability; a harmonious or satisfying or proportion of parts or elements.”

I liken a balanced life to a four-legged chair. Each leg represents a component of your life, such as mental, emotional, spiritual and personal. The idea is to keep the legs of the chair the same length so your life won’t become lopsided. For example, if you work excessively and you don’t make time for your family, the personal leg of the chair will be too short and your life will feel shaky, because you’ll be off-balance. If the legs of the chair don’t match — if one part of your life is ignored or given short shrift — no matter how much energy you give to the other legs, you’ll still have to battle stress, anxiety and depression. But when the legs of your chair (the parts of your life) are equally nurtured and strengthened, you will feel strong, in control, and up to handling whatever hand life deals you.

Leading a balanced life requires a very personal determination, according to life coach Jerry Lopper. He maintains that what feels like balance to one person may feel way off balance to another. But essentially, lack of balance in any area will cause you to be overwhelmed, whether in your career, your family life, or both. It feels as if something is missing, as if there’s a void in your center and you have no idea how to fill it. Lopper believes that this kind of existence lacks meaning and purpose, and as a result, you may feel depressed, lethargic or deeply sad that “this is all there is.”

By contrast, Lopper says hopefully, a balanced life just feels right, as if things are exactly the way they should be. Despite the normal ups and downs in an average day, when your life is balanced, you are an active participant, fully engaged, and finding meaning in all that you do and in who you are.

Lopper has designated “the five P’s” as the fundamentals of life:

• Purpose – finding your mission in life
• Passion – finding what you love to do
• Powers – exercising your unique strengths and abilities
• Principles – discovering what you value
• Perspective – discovering what you believe.

Economics of Happiness: Going local can help solve our global crises

The launch of The Economics of Happiness, a one-hour documentary about the worldwide movement for economic localization, recently debuted in America and Europe. Festival screenings and television broadcast are planned soon.

Going beyond merely identifying the myriad problems of corporate globalization, The Economics of Happiness explores the rapidly growing localization movement, which offers a strategic solution to our most serious economic, social and environmental crises.

The Economics of Happiness is “a must-see film for the future of the planet,” says Zac Goldsmith, member of UK Parliament, who appears in the documentary.

“Going local,” the film argues, is a powerful strategy to help repair our fractured world — our ecosystems, our societies and ourselves. The Economics of Happiness spells out the policy changes needed to enable local economies and communities to survive and prosper.

The film is global in its perspective, drawing inspiration from urban gardens in Detroit, the Transition Town movement in England, community development in Japan, ecological development in Ladakh, India, cultural preservation in Peru, and much more.  In doing so, The Economics of Happiness illustrates how people worldwide are working to solve the multiple crises we face as a planetary community by localizing their economies and their cultures.

The Economics of Happiness also features numerous acclaimed environmentalists, scholars and authors: Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Juliet Schor, Richard Heinberg, Bhutanese film director Khyentse Norbu, and the first Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile Samdhong Rinpoche, among others.

“It is good news indeed to find so persuasive an explanation of our ailing world as The Economics of Happiness,” writes eco-philosopher Joanna Macy.  ”This film connects the dots between climate chaos, economic meltdown, and our own personal suffering — stress, loneliness, and depression. It presents the localization movement as a systemic alternative to corporate globalization, as well as a strategy that brings community and meaning to our lives.”

Producer Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) and its predecessor, the Ladakh Project. Norberg-Hodge is the author of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, the basis for the 1993 award-winning documentary film of the same name produced by John Page. She is also the co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals such as The Ecologist, Resurgence, and YES! magazine. As founder of the Ladakh Ecological Development Group, Norberg-Hodge received the Right Livelihood award, or alternative Nobel prize. She is also a co-founder of the International Forum on Globalization.

For more information, visit www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org.

What kills happiness? Sometimes it’s a big thing; but it’s usually a series of little things that pile up over time. For instance, saying yes too much when you should really be saying no. Have you ever heard the old saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person?” It makes sense. It’s obvious they are able to get things done. But there is a fine line between taking on a lot and taking on too much.

People in corporate situations often fall into this over-commitment trap. It’s easy to see why. If you like what you do and you’re good at it, it shows. Everyone wants you to be at their meeting; they seek out your opinion; they ask you to run a project for them. Busy people find no shortage of opportunities. And, this happens at all levels. It’s how junior employees advance more rapidly than some of their cohorts. Their ambition and enthusiasm is contagious. Their bosses pile on the work – the employees don’t cry uncle (until it’s too late). And that’s when their work quality deteriorates and they begin to falter. It’s a predictable and vicious circle.

Self-employed people really fall for this happiness killer. That’s because without the cushion of a steady paycheck, every opportunity could be the last. So, you take on everything even though it’s impossible to do it all. I do this. As a speaker, I show up for the day, share my knowledge and get paid for my time. It’s a straightforward pay-for-work opportunity. If I show up, I get paid. If I don’t, I don’t get paid. I look at unbooked periods as valuable time during which I can catch up on my reading and writing, or simply relax with my family.

Then someone will want to hire me for the day. I’ll say no at first, because I’ve planned to do these important things. But often they’ll persist and I soon find myself saying yes to a gig a few months away, rationalizing that who knows what the economy or my future bookings will look like, I’d better take what comes. Really, though, I might be better served to say no and write my next book! I’m lucky to have this problem. And, I know that if I say yes too many times when I should be saying no, the feeling will compound to dangerous levels and will turn into burnout.

That’s the lesson of the #1 Happiness Killer. For those of us who tend to over-commit, we have to watch out. Over-commitment is liable to make our spirit sag on the inside and soon will become obvious on the outside to everyone else. Our great job will turn rote, our execution sloppy and apathetic. It will make us appear under-committed, and this is rarely appreciated by our customers or colleagues.

Practically everyone feels over-committed on occasion. It’s a hard thing to admit for lots of reasons. Maybe we don’t want to look like we can’t handle the challenge. Maybe we want the validation of being told we’re doing a good job. Maybe we think that taking on too much is no excuse for dropping the ball.

The key is before you reply with another enthusiastic “yes” to that request, think of the long-term impact it will have on you. Is it right for you in the long-term? Are you just saying what will make others happy in the short-term? And, is what you are about to commit to going to increase the long-term happiness and meaning that you experience in life? Or not? The answers will help you avoid the #1 Happiness Killer – over-commitment.

In pursuit of human well-being, much has been done on this planet. In the last hundred years with the use of science and technology, we have done so much to create human well-being. As a result, definitely much comfort and convenience have come our way. But at the same time we cannot claim we are the most joyful generation on the planet. We cannot claim we are the most peaceful generation on the planet nor can we claim we are the most loving generation on the planet. Never before could another generation even dream of these kinds of conveniences and comforts. But has humanity become really well?

For this I think looking at India would be little unfair, because still there is a large chunk of population whose basic needs have not been met. Looking at Western societies, today the United States is standing as an example of ultimate success in terms of economics, but more than 40 percent of its people are on some kind of anti-depressants to keep themselves balanced. The outside has been sufficiently fixed, but human beings are not well, because we only take care of the outside; we never bother to take care of the inside.

Feel Pleasant In Mind
If you look at yourself and see when you really feel well, it is when there is pleasantness in your body, pleasantness in your mind, pleasantness in your emotion and pleasantness in the energy. Being pleasant in the body is generally referred to as health and pleasure. When you feel pleasant in your mind, we call it peace and joy. When you feel pleasant in your emotions, we call it love and compassion. When you feel pleasant in your energies we call it blissfulness and ecstasy. If these things happen within you to whatever extent possible, you feel well.

This wellness comes only when you achieve something. You cannot achieve something 24 hours of the day. It can happen only once in a while. That is not good enough. Everything that man has done on this planet has been a search of human well-being. A lot has happened, but human well-being is not happening because we have not paid any attention to the inward self.

Fixing the outside will only bring comfort and convenience. That is necessary, but well-being will happen only when you fix the inside. As you understand it, unless you do the right things outside, it will not work. But the fact is, unless you do the right things within, it will not work.

Situation Not In Control
As long as your well-being is subject to and enslaved by external situations, your well-being is going to be accidental, because nobody has 100 percent control over the outside situations. Whoever you may be, however powerful you are, you do not have 100 percent control over every situation. Any time outward things do not happen the way you think they should happen, the chances of you being well are very remote.

On one level, every human being is trying to expand the scope of his life. On another level, he is setting this impossible condition: “Unless the world is running the way I want it to be, I cannot be happy.” This is a no-win situation. You must accept the fact that you will be constantly working towards something, but it will never really happen.

Does that mean you cannot be well? No. But your well-being should not be linked to the external world.

Engineer Inner Self
Is there a way to create an inner situation? Yes. As there is a science and technology to create external situations the way we want it, we have a whole science and technology to create inner situations the way we want it. We have engineered the external world the way we want it, and we can also engineer our inner being the way we want it. If this doesn’t happen, we will function by accident.

Why are people getting stressed out, burnt out? Is it simply because of the nature of your work? Stress is your inability to manage your own system, but have we invested any time at all to manage our inner systems? If you do not do this, you will function by accident.

I request everybody to take this up in your life. If you really want to bring quality into your life and to perpetuate that quality into life around you, the first and foremost thing that you need to do is that you establish your inner realities in a certain way with a certain stability that what is within you, your mind, your emotions, your system, does not go through upheavals to face challenges of life. When there are no inner upheavals and issues, you can handle the outside issues well.

If you truly want to enhance the quality of your life, you have to take this step and be willing to invest a little bit of time for your inner well-being. If this is done, you will see a remarkable change in the way you function. The necessary technology is there. I call it inner engineering, the peak of well-being.

Isha Yoga’s Inner Engineering program is being offered May 6-12 at the Park Plaza Hotel, 1500 Park Place Blvd., in Minneapolis, MN. For more information on the Inner Engineering Program, please visit www.ishafoundation.org, call 612.325.6350 or email minneapolis@ishafoundation.org

Read Personal Experiences about “Inner Engineering”

Read an interview with Sheela Rajdev, who works with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

Our society operates from the head, carefully thinking, weighing the pros and cons and making decisions that make sense based on the current situation. We may have a choice on Sunday night to prepare for a Monday morning presentation or to watch a movie. Our heart may beg us for the relaxing, enjoyable entertainment, but our mind tells us to run through that presentation one more time….

Seems like a fairly logical choice, even though you spent the past two weeks working on the presentation and five hours Saturday night perfecting it. But wouldn’t it help you to review your material one more time?

Perhaps not.

Perhaps having a little less-polished speech will make your endorphins flow and make your speech more passionate. It may make your words more genuine and less rehearsed. You could also seem more approachable for questions and suggestions. And perhaps watching the movie will inspire you in some way that will further enhance your presentation.

So what is the better choice?

Ask your heart.

Sometimes the practical choice is not the better choice. The better choice is the one that comes from the heart. Many of us often think that too much fun and not enough work are the ingredients for failure. Oftentimes, however, it is the exact opposite: the greatest successes come when we honor our heart and follow our passion.

In many cases, we would be better off going with the option that is more fun, even if our minds tell us differently. The best solution in any decision-making process is to check in with your heart and your intuition.

From a physical perspective, allow your body to move in ways that keep your heart open. Remind yourself to keep your arms at your sides rather than crossing them over your chest. Relax your shoulders away from your ears. Stand tall with your chest lifted and open. Do not hunch your back or hide behind things. Wear green, the color of the heart chakra.

Do a small back bend from time to time to bring awareness into your chest and energy into your body. Stretch your arms wide, releasing that heart energy into your arms, hands and fingers. They are extensions of the heart and provide us numerous ways to connect with others.

Respect your heart. Listen to it. Open it. Allow yourself to be vulnerable. And trust that you are safe in your vulnerability.

Allow yourself to be wide open to everything that is for your highest good. So often we stay stuck in our comfort zones, in our tiny self-constructed and self-perceived boxes. We tend to include people in our lives whom we think share our same interests, beliefs, status and background. These choices may be based on the ego and they can keep us from opening our hearts. Of course, when you feel that someone or something is wrong for you, it is beneficial to release that person or thing. But when everything feels right and good, be open to receiving all the abundance, happiness and beauty the Universe has to offer.

Allow that abundance to come into your life in every way. Open your heart to the earth, the wind, the sky and the ocean. Open your heart to plants and animals living in harmony. Open your heart to those who love you. Open your heart like an innocent, trusting child. Open it as though you have never been hurt in your life. Trust that the Universe will expose you to what is for your highest good.

Be open to the happiness that is your birthright. Fear nothing – especially do not fear your own happiness. Open your heart and your soul. See yourself in others. See others within yourself. Live your life with abandon. Trust that the world is filled with love and with compassion. Add to that depth of love. Jump into it. Dive into it. Belly flop and somersault into it. Let all the love in the world fill your heart and fill your soul. And let that love cascade from every breath you breathe, every thought you think and every action you take.

An excerpt from The Body Knows…How to Stay Young: Healthy Aging Secrets from a Medical Intuitive

If you’re sick, chances are you’re addicted to certain foods, behaviors and thoughts. Anything that has power over you and that you have difficulty letting go of is an addiction. For example, dwelling on the past can be just as damaging as being hooked on coffee, alcohol or chocolate, because it holds you back in life.

In fact, noted physician and author Deepak Chopra claims that all illness is the result of addiction. I couldn’t agree more – this has been my observation for the past 25 years. In fact, when I used to work as an allergy-testing technician, I noted that as soon as people removed the substances they were addicted to, all their symptoms miraculously went away.

This is why Dr. Doris Rapp, a well-known expert in environmental medicine [www.drrapp.com], suggests that patients replace everything they currently consume with things they don’t normally eat for five days. She’s noticed over and over again that chronic complaints disappear and health improves when this happens.

In my work as a medical intuitive, almost everyone I see has an addiction of some sort. I can tell that something is hooked into them, be it physical or emotional, and it’s robbing their vital force and taking them down, cell by cell. I might see gray or black around them – a dark or negative force that’s stealing their precious stamina and vitality. Something has a hold on them, and I know that they’re addicted.

From this deep spiritual perspective, I believe that we should all be free: No particular substance, person, place or physical possession should have us in its clutches. I call this “the climb.” Now, many of us are content to go around and around the bottom of a mountain, but very few want to do the work to ascend it. Just as in real mountaineering, the trek I’m proposing will require concentration and discipline.

As we age, we’ll do a lot better if we’re prepared, focused, and free of excess baggage, including anything that’s a toxin, allergen or poison. The mountain that we are will be stronger and more supportive as we age if we’re willing to examine our issues and give up the items we’re addicted to.

The aging game is not to be taken lightly. To stave off the ravages of old age, we’ve got to get busy and become prepared – now!

CLIMBING OUT OF THE ADDICTION
We’re spiritual beings – our entire raison d’être is to operate from a conscious perspective. We’re here to make a difference on this planet, and as soon as we turn the corner of age 50, this becomes all the more apparent. So the emission of radiant, clear, positive energy from our physical bodies is very significant in relationship to our manifestation ability.

Your aura or electromagnetic field is what you use to draw people, things, and experiences into your life. As you desire to manifest or attract the best to you on a material and spiritual level, an emanation of glowing energy is essential, and it can only come from having a clear and detoxified physical body. Addictions cloud your aura, and even a simple doughnut or cup of coffee can muddy your field. Try it sometime by ingesting your favorite “poison” and waiting 20 minutes. You’ll quickly see that the result is a tired, worn-out body that’s temporarily removed or disengaged from life.

The ability to effectively manifest is in direct proportion to how clear your aura is. So if you want to make the climb out of addiction, take out a sheet of paper and a pen and follow these steps:

1. Make a list of all the things you’re hooked on. These can be foods (such as candy, bread or chocolate), beverages (such as soda, coffee or milk), or chemicals (including drugs and alcohol).
2. Next, make a list of everything that might be an addictive behavior, such as staying up late, working too hard, worrying too much, overspending, overeating, nagging at your partner, remaining in an unsatisfying job or relationship, being a pack rat, or the like.
3. Finally, make a list of any thoughts that have you in their vise grip. These are what you find yourself thinking about most often, including dwelling on the past, self-deprecating beliefs (such as I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy, I’m not intelligent, or There is never enough).

Of course no one wants to be mired in negativity. Thankfully, author Eve Brinton shares a simple and practical technique for switching out of negative thoughts in her book Instant Happiness with the Energy Exchange [available through www.evebrinton.com].

Brinton believes that changing habitual negative thoughts and reframing them into positive ones can be accomplished in less than a minute. To that end, think of something positive right now: Maybe it was when you flew over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter, or when you were in your grandmother’s garden, feeling peace and happiness wash over you. As soon as you find yourself dwelling in negativity, find that positive image and draw it into your consciousness. You’ll instantly notice the difference.

As the Dalai Lama teaches, why should you allow anyone to disturb the freedom of your thoughts? Your material possessions can be taken from you, but your thoughts remain your own. And because you create your thoughts, they can’t have any power over you. Thanks to Brinton’s Energy Exchange, you can master your mental activity and be free.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
As you climb your own mountain on the journey of personal self-mastery, your desire is to be as free as a bird so that you can be moved by the universe and go wherever your soul wants you to. I learned from my near-death experience that life is short and so precious, so use the law of attraction to draw good into your life.

As a medical intuitive, I see subtle energies: For example, coffee carries the emanation of anger and irritation; and the energy of excessive alcohol use is like a “zing,” taking away the body’s life force like a feather in the wind. The moment you consume a substance like coffee, you put its vibration into your field. Then, because like attracts like, you’ll probably pull angry and irritating experiences to you such as losing your car keys, getting involved in minor altercations, or blowing things out of proportion.

How can you tell if a food or beverage is really affecting you? That’s easy – take your pulse. An easy-to-find pulse point can be found on the carotid artery that supplies blood to your brain, which is located on either side of your neck just below your jaw. Find that point, become familiar with what your normal pulse rate feels like, and then start testing. Twenty minutes after you’ve had a cup of coffee (or consumed anything that you’re concerned about), test your pulse again: If it’s elevated or racing, this is an obvious sign that your body is rebelling against the poison or toxin you’ve ingested.

Pulse testing is one of the ways in which traditional allergists determine potential sensitivities, but you already know the answer intuitively. I’m always amazed when people tell me during a reading that they’re aware that coffee, cola, corn, sugar and other stimulants affect them – yet they can’t believe how calm and happy they feel when they give them up.

Coffee also clouds the aura, hardens the prostate gland, causes jitters and an irregular heartbeat, pulls fluids out of the body, blocks the lymphatic system, contributes to cellulite and a dozen other effects. So the easy and obvious answer is to switch to decaf for a few weeks. A good decaffeinated roast has the same taste and smell as real coffee, but it doesn’t have the kick. Decaf might not have any deleterious effects, but by consuming it, you’re still keeping the memory, taste, essence and vibration of coffee alive.

Remember that you’re climbing the mountain, so the next step is to eliminate the decaffeinated java and switch to herbal or green tea (make sure it has low amounts of caffeine). You’re not giving coffee up just to give it up – you’re releasing this addiction, and others, to lengthen your life. I know that there are studies that indicate coffee is beneficial. But in my opinion, these studies don’t show the drink’s effects on one’s aura, heart, or genitals…or, indeed, one’s life.

The same goes for sugar, which may taste ever so good to you. But what does it do to your energy, your nervous system, your precious pancreas and your cell walls? Sweetness should come from life, so this is where following your dreams and living your passion take priority. When you’re happy and fulfilled in your work and play, you really won’t be interested in sweets.

IT COMES WITH A GIFT
Keep in mind that your willingness to set aside addictions always comes with a gift. I believe that we’re all being watched over by angels and towering beings at all times who are shepherding us and guiding us.

As soon as we give up an addictive behavior, the next step will be revealed. Just watch the phone ring, a job opportunity arise, a pure white feather land in our lap, or a serendipitous benefit appears seemingly out of nowhere. One door closes on what’s no longer healthy, but another one opens to something better. This is confirmation that the universe knows that we are climbing the mountain and are willing to give up what no longer serves us in favor of what will benefit us (and humankind). Then the addiction is no longer viewed with seduction but with recognition of what it can – and will – do to our precious life force and cellular tissue. We make the decision to leave it behind and attract something priceless.

I’ve personally benefited from vibrant health for the past 25 years because I gave up coffee, wine, chocolate chip cookies (by the dozen), homemade bread and lots of cheese. I got my life back, and there has never been a moment where I thought the choice wasn’t worth it. The smell of coffee and the taste of chocolate simply aren’t appealing to me anymore. My addictions have turned into passions: I’m passionate about teaching, I’m passionate about communicating, and I’m passionate about health. It’s as if the angels have given me a mandate to empower you to get healthy, too, so that you’ll be able to complete your destiny as I have.

Sure, I have the occasional stray into “no-no land.” I’ll have a glass of wine or a sweet dessert on occasion, but it better be good. My husband and I might share a crème brûlée on our anniversary, for instance, or I may enjoy a small slice of my daughter’s wonderful pie at a family gathering. But I know that I’ll be feeling and seeing the effects of those choices very soon. I might wake up feeling a little tired or grouchy, my eyes might be puffy, and my clothes might be tight; or, on the rare occasions I have bread or pasta, my hands will become stiff. After three days of eating bread, my arthritis will return, so it’s really not worth it for me. I’m climbing the mountain, and these so-called temptations really don’t entice me anymore.

ADDICTIONS AND MEDICATIONS
What about people who are addicted to medication? After all, every prescription drug has side effects. Yet, you’d be surprised by the number of folks who are on medication and would rather have the side effects than change their habits or research alternatives. If they would just give up their habit, their symptoms would back off, but these people choose to stay addicted.

For example, at age 62, Gretchen had bladder problems and was hooked on sweets and alcohol. Sure, she had reason to be addicted to these items: She had a 28-year-old son who was running amok – he was stealing money from her, had quit his job, and was draining her dry and disrespecting her. She felt powerless to stand up for herself and reclaim her own life, so she soothed her wounds with red wine and pound cake. Bacteria had built up in her body, probably due to a lack of hydration, so she was put on diuretics and sulfa drugs to take care of it.

She’s now faced with bladder surgery, rounds of antibiotics and a compounded set of medical concerns that will probably set her on a careening course to premature aging. Will she change? I hope so, but many people like Gretchen are addicted to the drama of their emotional lives. This keeps them in the fury of the hurricane, which is familiar territory. Rather than make some simple lifestyle changes, it’s easier for such men and women to stay stuck and medicated.

Now I’m a firm believer in traditional Western medicine when it is needed. I know that drugs can save lives, because I grew up in a medical household: My mother was a dietitian, and both my father and grandfather were medical doctors. In our house, the physician was God. Today, things are different. I know that each of us can be God and the doctor, regardless of whether we have a medical degree, and we can form our own healing team.

Let’s remember this basic concept: The body knows how to get well. But optimal health takes a deeper level of commitment than some people are willing to make. Because you’re reading this, I know that you’re willing to point your compass toward aging optimally, beautifully and vibrantly.

TWIN CITIES – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a rising star among the new generation of Tibetan Buddhist teachers, will visit the Twin Cities in mid-April to share his extensive meditation expertise and interest in Western neuroscience, quantum physics and psychology. He is the author of the 2007 New York Times bestseller The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness.

WIRED: Researchers test Yongey Mingyour Rinpoche's state of happiness during meditation.

“Mingyur Rinpoche’s visit to the Twin Cities is significant,” said Cortland Dahl, executive director of the Rimé Foundation, one of co-sponsors of the visit. “Having worked with some of the world’s leading scientists, psychologists and philosophers, he is able to discuss meditation in terms that we understand and to which we can relate. He has expressed interest in visiting the Twin Cities regularly in the future to provide ongoing guidance to those interested in learning more about meditation.”

Other co-sponsors of the visit are the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality & Healing, Allina Hospitals & Clinics, and the Shambhala Meditation Center.

While the practice of meditation stretches back thousands of years to ancient spiritual traditions, it has gained both secular and scientific attention in recent decades. A December 2008 U.S. News & World Report article, for example, touts meditation’s benefits in managing stress and dealing with anxiety, while a 2009 Emory University study reports the positive effects of meditation on human physiology, especially on the body’s ability to react less negatively to psychological and social stress.

While in the Twin Cities, Mingyur Rinpoche will provide practical advice on how ancient Tibetan contemplative practices can be used to deal with the challenges of modern life. The techniques he will teach are designed to enhance tranquility, happiness, and compassion and to allow the meditator to work constructively with powerful emotions and deeply ingrained habits.

“In three distinct events for health care professionals as well as consumers, Rinpoche will share his exceptional expertise of meditation practice, weaving together the principles of Tibetan Buddhism and neuroscience,” said Center for Spirituality & Healing Director Mary Jo Kreitzer. “These events represent something for everyone, so we encourage seasoned practitioners and those interested in meditation to come and share in Rinpoche’s wisdom.”

Schedule of Events
The first of these events will be a meditation workshop for health care professionals – “Understanding Meditation in Healthcare Begins with You” – from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Campus Club, Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus. The cost is $65 and includes a continental breakfast and a copy of the speaker’s book.

Mingyur Rinpoche will hold a public discussion entitled “The Joy of Living: Meditation as a Path to Happiness” on from 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Mayo Memorial Auditorium, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus. The cost is $35 and includes a copy of the speaker’s book.

Mingyur Rinpoche will also lead a three-day public seminar entitled “The Heart of Meditation,” during which he will instruct participants in the practice of tranquility meditation and mindfulness. This retreat will be fromm 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday-Sunday, April 17-19, at Bayview Event Center in Excelsior, MN. The cost is $175 for the seminar ($36 for lunch all three days).

To register for any of these events go to www.tickets.umn.edu and click on the Center for Spirituality & Healing logo. For more information, visit www.csh.umn.edu or call 612.624.9459.

What is it that we look for the most in life? On what do we place a higher value than love, money, health, sex, work and success? Above all else comes happiness. It is our No. 1 priority, although these many elements are clearly integrated in it. Happiness is the big umbrella that saves us from the rain.

So what is happiness? More important, how do you find it? Even more important, how do you hang onto it? It’s an age-old quest, as they say, and one that unconsciously drives most of us.

The first question may seem easy enough. Any thesaurus will throw up multiple synonyms – contentment, peace, gladness, bliss, joy and a plenty of variations on those themes. But happiness is, of course, quite individual and what fills one person with joy may send someone else into the pits.

It gets more complicated when we try to find it. Many of us believe that a person – a partner, lover or companion – is vital to our own well-being. A dog even. Events make us happy…the birth of a child, a trip to the country, an anniversary celebration, the local team winning after a deluge of poor results. We externalize it. We generally need our happiness to be created for us. It’s normal.

As for retaining the feel-good factor – well, the simple answer is that we don’t. It evaporates like mist under the morning sun. Very few people, even those who reside in Prozak happy land, can claim an ongoing sense of contentment in their lives. Because we have so much to worry about. And even if logic and our healers and analysts insist that these worries are unnecessary (they never seem to be), we can’t stop doing it. So we see happiness as a fleeting, elusive experience.

You may have read that happiness has to come from within. Well, that is basically true, but it depends on how you go about it. On that route there are detour signs all over the place and big holes in the road. It’s easy to go flying off into space and end up on Cloud Nine. And that’s not happiness, even if it appears to be.

From all of this, it might seem that happiness is virtually unobtainable on a long-term basis. Not at all, but it requires effort, often considerable effort, plus a willingness to look at areas of our lives that we would often prefer to avoid. Yet, we probably know people who go through life apparently unperturbed by its twists and turns. They are few, but they stand out.

The secret they have learned, if it can be called that, is simple but profound. Happiness comes from being able to live with your suffering. And if suffering seems too powerful a word, you can call it pain, stress, anxiety or any other that captures the difficulties of ordinary living.

Most of our suffering, indeed virtually all of it, originates in our childhood, usually in the early months or years. Just by being born into the physical, we encounter often minor events that generate fear. Although these fears are obviously wordless, they include rejection, abandonment, betrayal and others. And the wounds are inflicted unwittingly by parents who are generally doing the best they can. Simply, we cannot avoid being wounded.

We therefore guard against those wounds by building defenses that stay with us for the rest of our lives – if we don’t attempt to heal them. For example, a woman who suffered some form of abandonment in childhood will usually find it difficult to form relationships because she fears she will be abandoned again.

Unless we have a degree of awareness, all of us live our lives in ways that are determined by our defenses. There are people who have to be right all the time and in control. Some see themselves as perpetual victims. Others are completely self-absorbed or cannot cope with rejection. So we work hard to avoid putting ourselves in situations where the old wounds can be re-opened. We don’t take risks or want to change our life-long patterns.

Maintaining these defenses puts us under enormous pressure, leaving little room for pleasure and the enjoyment of simple things, the basic ingredients of happiness.

Suffering is never going to be totally eradicated. It is the human condition to suffer. How we deal with it is another matter. The first step is to recognize the old belief systems that cause us emotional pain. The second is to begin changing them, preferably with the support of a healer or therapist. Our energy fields can hold dark blocks where we store our grief, anger, shame and other negative emotions.

So deeply imprinted are our wounds that profound change can be long and arduous. The ego was created to protect us and it does this job only too well – in that it protects us from living our lives to the fullest.

But when we do set about healing ourselves, we begin to see the world from a whole new perspective. Old fears and anxieties diminish to the point where they no longer rule us – and happiness emerges.

A shift is occurring within the hearts of humanity. We are finding a new passion within and recognizing that who we are counts. "I Am valuable, important and significant. I matter and I have a contribution to make!" This passion is igniting within each of us.

This shift is taking place across the world in every town and village and in the hearts of each child, woman and man. A connection is being made one heart to another. In this connection of caring, sharing, giving and receiving, a spark within the heart ignites and grows. This awakening consciousness has no limits. It is a shift that is taking us all into a higher dimensional awareness; a higher, more aligned way of life. We are "becoming aware of becoming aware."

We are beginning to remember who we are. We are recognizing imbalances in our lives and asking ourselves, "What’s really important to me? What truly makes me happy?" The answer isn’t found by gaining more of the world outside but in gaining more of the "me" within. In our rush to the top we have left a part of ourselves behind. We have traded respect for competition, kindness for advantage, and giving for taking. We’ve lost touch with our "Inner Guidance," which always directs us to a higher, more vibrant place. This higher place is a place where cooperation, support and understanding create deeper trust, friendship and compassion.

From one way of life toward another

This transition is not only altering our consciousness, it is changing the world around us. A shift, by definition, is the "movement from one position to another" or a "change in direction." The third-dimensional world as we have known it is crumbling around us. The old ways were designed by governments and corporations to support and provide well-being to its citizens. These outmoded ways no longer work. All of these systems are deteriorating: governmental, legal, health, social services, education, food quality, political, monetary, protection of the environment, and more. All are broken.

But now, when we look a little deeper, we find there is a new passion growing. Individuals, groups, and companies offer new ideas that clean the Earth, recycle waste and create new power sources. More companies offer employee ownership, day care, equal pay and much more. The creation of Heaven on Earth is unfolding before us. We are at the beginning of this new way of life, not the end. But each of us must awaken now. Each must make the shift within. Many are awake while countless numbers are still fast asleep – but not for long. We will each experience becoming aware in our own unique ways. For some it will be powerful and alive; for others it will be slower and more cautious, but we will all walk a common path.

A tool to expand your choices

Allow me to offer you an exercise that will rapidly take you down this path. This exercise will interrupt your third-dimensional habits and assist you to remember who you are.

First, create a list of words. Pick words that make you feel good. Select words that you would like to be known by in your world. For example: insightful, kind, respectful, purposeful, gracious, gratitude, integrity, dignified, caring or helpful. Make it a long list, choosing words that will help you remember your "Self." It is within the words that you will awaken.

Next, choose four or five of those words that make you feel especially good as you experience them. Try each of them on and see how they feel. Then, take one word each day for a week and BE that word. Demonstrate this word in every situation and notice how it makes you feel. You will notice that when you become intentional about being the word, you feel more alert, aware, present in the "Now" moment and in charge of yourself on your own terms. If you find you have slipped out of the word, simply smile and become the word once again.

One note of caution however: This exercise produces side-effects that generally lead to feelings of certainty, well-being, command and happiness. Yes, there is a shift occurring and the shift is within you!

When you set out on a journey, the direction in which you are pointed at its outset makes a huge difference where and when you arrive at your destination. If you alter your course by one degree when you begin, where you end up could be altered by a hundred or a thousand miles.

So it is when we begin a new year. If you are clear on where you want to go, you will get there far more rapidly and efficiently than if you harbor intentions that are mixed or other than your true choices.

To upgrade your year, begin by upgrading your expectations. I know a woman whose father was the vice president of TWA Airlines. When she was a girl, her father took her on lots of flights with him. Since he was a VIP, the two always flew first class. When this girl grew up and travelled on her own, lots of airlines gave her upgrades without her even asking. "It’s sort of a miracle," she told me. "They just put me up front." The airlines did not know who her father was, but the Law of Attraction was operating flawlessly. The experience of flying first class was imbedded deep in her psyche. Although she did not think about it consciously, her expectation created results. The folks who gave her the passes had little idea they were agents of a system far broader than the airlines.

Take a few precious moments this month to decide where you really want to go this year. When touch typing on a keyboard, the first step is to position your right index finger on the letter "J." From that point your other fingers are aligned with the keys they are intended to press. Once your fingers are on the right keys, you can type for an entire session without having to look at the keyboard again. If you misplace your starting finger, all of your other fingers are out of position and nothing you type will make sense. The word "hello" will be printed as "jr::p" and "love" will come out as ":pbr." When you at the right place, everything that follows makes sense.

If you really want to make your year extraordinary, consider not just the material things you wish to accomplish, but place your spiritual experience at the top of your list of priorities. In addition to your "to do" list, make a "to feel" or "to be" list. Each morning choose a word that describes the primary experience you would like to enjoy during your day. Flow…ease… joy… connection… exhilaration… inner peace… wholeness… self-honoring… and expanded life are all good choices. Then decide that no matter how many items you check off of your "to do" list that day, you will consider your day a success if you stay true to your "to feel" list. What’s the use of getting 12 out of 15 things done if you feel harried, stressed and lacking as you go? Behold the blessed contrast between ongoing frustration and a sense of having danced through your day. This is the difference between hell on earth and heaven on earth.

The only true measure of success is happiness. If you grow happier this year than you were last year, the year will be a huge success. If you achieve more in the outer world but are no happier, you cannot count the year as a success. Imagine how different our lives would be if we all placed spirit at the top of our priority list!

In Paul’s famous letter to the Corinthians, he notes, "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things." Paul is not speaking of material things. He is speaking of spiritual growth. When we are spiritually immature, we seek answers and fulfillment primarily from the outer world. As we mature, we find satisfaction in inner wholeness. We move from a standard of material nourishment to a standard of soul nourishment. That is the degree of shift that makes all the difference.

It matters not how many mistakes you made last year or in previous years. Regretting or bemoaning what happened will only keep you stuck in that energy and move you to repeat those experiences. It matters only what you want to do this year.

Back to our typewriter analogy, if you find you have been typing on the wrong keys, the only reasonable action is to shift your fingers to the proper keys as quickly as possible. You don’t need to apologize to the typewriter, flagellate yourself or make an offering for your sin. You just need to get back on track. Any time you spend other than getting on the right keys is just more time wasted.

Imagine how powerfully your life and all of our lives would change if we all agreed to make this the best year of our life! The year will be great because we choose it to be so. As Thomas Paine declared, "We have it in our power to begin the world again."

EXPOS & CONFERENCES

OCTOBER 17-19
2008 Lotus Workshop & Conference: Reuniting Spirituality & Sexuality
www.lotusworkshop.com
Nine experts in relationship, sexuality and sacred sexuality will reveal tips,
practices and secrets of intimate relating from ancient cultures and modern
science during the first Lotus Conference in Minnesota at the Marriott Southwest
on Lake Minnetonka. Speakers will include Deborah Sundahl, Mary Zalmanek, Chip
August, Francesca Gentille, Ina Mlekush, Harold Taitt, Ann Maxwell and Deborah.
The journey begins with a beautiful ceremony, keynote speakers, overview of
the weekend and gentle mixers. Saturday is smorgasbord of 90-minute workshops,
with an evening of dinner, mingling with the experts and exhibitors. Sunday
is a day of intensive training and deepenings.

OCTOBER 24-26
2008 ECK Worldwide Seminar
www.ECKseminars.org
Are you looking for direct spiritual experience? Spiritual help and healing?
Expanded consciousness and inner knowing? Insights into past lives, dreams,
and Soul Travel? Attend spiritual exploration workshops and discussions, from-the-heart
speakers and Soul-awakening creative arts. Friday, Oct. 24: Workshops and discussions
such as the "Spiritual Wisdom Fair" (Spiritual wisdom on relationships,
conquering fear, and more), "Getting Answers from God through Past Lives," "Master
Your Spiritual Destiny with the Spiritual Exercises of ECK," and "Welcome
to Eckankar and This Seminar!" Saturday, Oct. 25: Two free workshops (Hilton
Minneapolis, 1001 Marquette Ave. S.):
• "Have You Had a Spiritual Experience?" – Have you had a spiritual
wake-up call in a dream, during prayer or meditation, or in daily life? Share,
discuss, and learn what your experiences mean, and take new steps on your journey
to enlightenment. 10 a.m.-noon (Salon G, Third Floor)
• "Keys to Secret Worlds" – You hold the keys to the vast worlds
of God within you. Come explore! 2-4 p.m. (Salon G, Third Floor) Saturday Evening
Program
Saturday evening program, free to all: 7-9 p.m. (Minneapolis Convention Center,
1301 Second Avenue South, Hall B, Level One). Complimentary registration to
see Eckankar’s spiritual leader, Harold Klemp, award-winning author of more
than 60 books on spirituality. Saturday events are complimentary for guest
attendees. Register at the Eckankar Guest Welcome Center. Hours: Friday and
Saturday 8 a.m.-7:45 p.m. (Convention Center); Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (Hilton).
More information at ECKseminars.org or 1.888.568.3463, ext. N28.

OCTOBER 24-25
Spirituality and Work conference
www.css.edu/spirituality.xml
This 12th annual spirituality conference will explore a variety of dimensions
on "Spirituality and Work": How does my work touch my soul? How does
my soul touch my work? And, indeed, what is the real work of my life? How is
my work a transformative influence in society? What is the work of a student?
What is the significance of professional work? What is the work of a retired
person? Aside from a paid job, what other "work" do I do that both
expresses and refreshes my soul? This is an opportunity to reflect on the sacredness
of work in its many expressions. Participants will explore connections between
the co-creative work of our souls and the work of all Creation. For more information,
call Mary Josephine Torborg, O.S.B. at 218.723.6659 or e-mail mtorborg@css.edu,
or the Office of Conferences and Events at 218.723.7000 or e-mail smaki@css.edu.
Register online at: www2.css.edu/epayment/spirituality/index.cfm

OCTOBER 26
Whispers of Spirit Expo
www.whispersofspirit.com
The fourth annual Whispers of Spirit Expo, featuring metaphysical, wellness
and intuitive exhibitors, will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct.
26, at Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center, Minn. Admission is $4
per person or two for $7. The event will include Qigong practitioners, intuitive
readers and energy healers, Feng Shui consultants, metaphysical gifts, wellness
products and much more. Speakers will present on the hour, including: Sol’Ara
An on "Channeling Divine Mother: A Journey of Spiritual Enlightenment";
Alison James presenting her Gallery Event for messages from the other side;
Brenda Hill will channel Nademus on "Love: The Great Balancer"; Rev.
Lisa Severson on self-healing techniques; and Michele Mayama and Chris LaFontaine
present "The Real Secret: Physical Manifestation and the Earth Connection
– Engaging the Heart, Honoring the Mystery." For a complete list of speakers
and exhibitors, or for more information, visit www.whispersofspirit.com or
contact Joan Turck at 320.220.7418 or Jennifer Salness at 651.330.9031.

SPECIAL EVENTS

OCTOBER 1
Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything Event
www.continuumcenter.net or www.sixtysecondsbook.com
Minneapolis freelance writer and Continuum Center member Phil Bolsta, who created
the book Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, will facilitate an evening
of life-shifting storytelling with guest contributors who appear in his collection
of 45 inspiring, life-changing stories. He will be joined: by Dr. Janis Amatuzio,
author and Chief Medical Examiner of Anoka County; Mike Veeck, co-owner of
the St. Paul Saints; Tom Gegax, founder of Tires Plus, Trent Tucker and Jim
Petersen, former NBA players; and Echo Bodine and Kathryn Harwig, psychics
and authors. A pre-event "Meet the Speakers" will be from 5:30-6:45
p.m. for Sustaining Members of the Continuum Center ($100 level). Social Hour
and Booksigning will follow from 9-10 p.m. The cost of the main presentation
is $25 ($20 for Continuum members). For registration, call 612.374.4948 or
visit www.continuumcenter.net and click on Calendar Coming Events.

OCTOBER 8
Happiness 101: Creating Authentic Happiness from the Inside-Out
www.experiencehappiness.net
What is happiness? Why is it so elusive? And how do we go about creating it
authentically, versus chasing a fleeting imitation of it? The Experience Happiness
team – Linda Saggau who channels the profound insights of "Michael," a
loving collective higher consciousness, and Nancy O’Brien, who co-authored
The Toolkit for Happiness – will present a life-transforming Happiness 101
workshop with "Michael" from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, at
The Marsh, 15000 Minnetonka Blvd., Minnetonka. Whether you’re an experienced
spiritual seeker, or simply facing challenges overcoming sadness, anxiety and
other life barriers, this workshop will help you create authentic, lasting
happiness that heals you and the world. Admission is $75 or two for $112.50.
For reservations, contact Michelle Webster at michelle@experiencehappiness.net
or 402.314.5189.

BEGINNING OCTOBER 15
"Jesus and the Awakening to God-Consciousness" Unity webcast with
Deepak Chopra
www.unity.fm
Best-selling author and spiritual leader Deepak Chopra will team up with leading
Unity minister Wendy Craig-Purcell for a bold six-part Web series on "Jesus
and the Awakening to God-Consciousness," based on Chopra’s recent book
The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore. The series is set to begin at
5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, at www.unity.fm, according to Paula Coppel, vice
president of Communications at Unity School of Christianity in Unity Village,
Mo. Each weekly half-hour segment will be available free. All segments will
be available after their initial airing until November 26. A study guide will
be available for groups and individuals. Chopra sees Jesus’ teachings as universal,
even though a particular religion – Christianity – was created around him. "There
is not one Jesus," Chopra explains in his book, "but three. First
there is the historical Jesus, the man who lived more than two thousand years
ago and whose teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought.
Next there is Jesus, the Son of God, who has come to embody an institutional
religion with specific dogma, a priesthood, and devout believers. And finally,
there is the third Jesus, the cosmic Christ, the spiritual guide whose teaching
embraces all humanity, not just the church built in his name. He speaks to
the individual who wants to find God as a personal experience, to attain what
some might call grace, or God-consciousness, or enlightenment."

BOOK STUDY GROUP

ECKHART TOLLE: A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE’s PURPOSE
Apollo’s Luminaries has launched a new book study group in the Twin Cities
to deeply explore Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s
Purpose. The group, which began in September, is open to new participants.
Call 952.945.9882 to reserve your participation. Building on the astonishing
success of The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle presents readers with an honest
look at the current state of humanity: He implores us to see and accept that
this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic
mind, is one of dangerous insanity. Tolle tells us there is good news, however.
There is an alternative to this potentially dire situation that involves
a radical inner leap from the current egoic consciousness to an entirely
new one. In illuminating the nature of this shift in consciousness, Tolle
describes in detail how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates.
Then gently, and in very practical terms, he leads us into this new consciousness.
We will come to experience who we truly are-which is something infinitely
greater than anything we currently think we are – and learn to live and
breathe freely.

BOOK READINGS

OCTOBER 26
Karen Casey and Codependence and the Power of Detachment
www.magersandquinn.com
Karen Casey will discuss her new book, Codependence and the Power of Detachment,
at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26 at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin
Ave. S., Minneapolis. The author will take participants through the steps of
detachment: admitting our attachment, surrendering outcome, forgiving, focusing
our attention on what works. When we give up judging others, we become accountable
for our own behavior and let others – spouses, family, co-workers – be accountable
for themselves. The power of detachment is a power anyone can claim. It’s the
power of sanity, of peace, of finding our own inner strength. Casey will share
insights and tools she’s discovered in her own decades of sobriety and in talking
with dozens of other codependents. For more information, call 612.822.4611.

Real Happiness empowers you to live the life of joy and purpose that you were meant to live.

Many of our definitions of happiness are shaped by Madison Avenue. They define only the outer shell, or the mask that we show to the world. They describe how we look to others, not how we feel about ourselves. If we accept these definitions, we probably believe that a happy person is physically attractive, rich, influential, liked and respected by others, and powerful in the world. Those are the people we see on television and in the magazines. But if we look a little more deeply at the lives of these models of happiness, we see that they are not really any more happy than the rest of us. They have the same struggles and frustrations that we do, and their lives also fall apart, just as ours do.

Just because we have a good "happiness mask" does not mean that we are really happy. We are just good at pretending to be happy when we really aren’t. It takes courage to pull off our mask and show up as a real person, especially if we have a public image to protect. Yet even if we aren’t famous, we are still trying to save face. We still don’t want others to see the pain that lies behind our mask.

Both Madison Avenue. and Wall Street give us a very superficial definition of happiness. They give us the veneer, not the heartwood. It is easily tarnished. Hollywood doesn’t do much better. Idols are not only made in a flash; they fall and crash just as quickly.

Real Happiness is not based on how we appear to others or what others think about us. It really has very little to do with that. Real Happiness is not about the outer shell, image or mask, but about the inner core. It is not about how good we look to others, or about our ability to please them and get their approval. It is about how we feel about ourselves in our hearts.

In other words, happiness is an internal state not an external condition. It is not about surface things like money, lifestyle, possessions, role or image. It is not about what we do or what we have, but about who we are and how we feel about ourselves.

This is a radical definition. While many people continue to define happiness by how good they are at what we do or by how much money or material possessions they have, the truth is that they can have name, fame and riches and still be unhappy. Real Happiness does not come from the outside. It comes from within. It must be measured from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Real Happiness is a journey

Another important characteristic of Real Happiness is that it is not a static state. It is not just a goal that we aspire to. It is a dynamic process. Most of us are in the process of becoming happy or, to be more precise, "happier" than we have been in the past. No matter how happy we are, more happiness is possible. That is because, at any given time, we are actualizing only a small percentage of our full potential.

So how do we maximize our potential to be happy? How do we take the next steps on our journey to self-actualization?

The same people who gave us the Madison Avenue version of happiness also gave us the most common prescription for happiness. That prescription was "make the best mask you can and put a big smiley face over your pain." In other words, "Deny your pain and pretend to be happy." That prescription doesn’t work for most people. Or else they need other more serious prescriptions to reinforce it. It’s not long before the mask begins to degrade and they return to the doctor for a back-up prescription of Prozac, tranquilizers or sleeping pills, or they might reach instead for a joint, a hit of cocaine or their second bottle of wine.

Numbing ourselves out does not lead to Real Happiness. It just helps us try to cope with the fact that we are not really happy. It helps us feel better for an hour or two when it becomes clear that our mask is not working and the pain behind it is leaking through.

To be really happy, we need to stop doing two things: Denying our pain, and medicating it. And we need to begin to do two very different things: Feel our pain, and heal and move through it.

Healing our pain

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if:

• You believed in yourself and knew you had a gift to share?

• You could move forward with your dreams instead of questioning them?

• You could face life problems without fear?

• You loved yourself no matter what happened?

You would be well on your way to manifesting your full power and potential as a human being, would you not? So what stands in your way?

There could be several things that stand in your way. For example: You could have childhood wounds and could be carrying a great deal of fear, guilt, anger or hurt inside. While you might have a handle on all that, there may be times when you lose control and what comes out it isn’t very pretty.

Your wound-driven behavior may undermine your relationship with your children and loved ones. It might challenge you at work. Because of your shame around your wounds, you may show up with a mask or a False Self, either apologizing for yourself and seeking approval, or taking charge and dominating others. You might be under-confident or over-confident. You might be hard on yourself or hard on others. You may be a victim or a victimizer. Either way, the bottom line is that you might not like yourself very much. You could judge yourself mercilessly. Or you could judge others harshly, which is the flip side of the same coin.

We don’t like to talk about our reactive behavior or the wounds and beliefs behind them, but they are the root of our deepest pain. If we don’t find that root and heal it, we cannot be happy. We will simply continue to recycle our pain and pass our wounds onto our children.

Loving without conditions

How do we heal? We learn to love and accept ourselves unconditionally. We learn to bring love to the wounded parts of ourselves so that we can heal and stand in our power as authentic human beings. Once we are able to bring love to ourselves, bringing love to our loved ones and our human family becomes a lot easier.

Now this idea is a fairly simple one. Yet, loving ourselves unconditionally seems to be the most challenging assignment for all of us.

Fifteen years ago I wrote a book called Love without Conditions. It was an international best-seller. Other books on this subject followed, including The Laws of Love, The Power of Love, The Presence of Love, and Love is My Gospel. Many people have read my books and subsequently come to my retreats and workshops all over the globe to learn how to heal, to forgive the past, and to love themselves unconditionally.

During the last year I have synthesized and condensed the transformational material from over 35 books into a weekend experience that can be life changing. Participants in my Real Happiness Workshop learn to surrender the False Self and connect with their True Self. They are empowered to stand in their strength, attract honest, fulfilling relationships, and create meaningful work that expresses their true talents and gifts.

A joyful and empowered life

This work assumes that genuine happiness is possible for all of us. There is no defect or deficiency in us that prevents us from being happy. However, there are false beliefs that need to be challenged and hurts that need to be healed so that we can open our hearts fully to love and to life.

I have spent the last 35 years of my life coming up with a roadmap for the journey of healing and transformation and concrete tools that can help us learn to love ourselves without conditions. The Real Happiness Work is the result. I feel that it is powerful, authentic and effective. I hope that you will experience it for yourself and, if it speaks to your heart, learn to teach it and bring its message of hope and healing to others.