LawOfAttraction

Being fully awake in a metaphysical context entails a heightened awareness of the ongoing processes within your field of consciousness. It involves a mindful recognition of the ebb and flow of thoughts and emotions, empowering you to navigate your mental landscape with clarity and responsiveness.

So instead of unquestioningly succumbing to the whims of your thoughts and emotions, remain vigilant and acknowledge the current state of your mind and emotions before they reach a tipping point, or the proverbial point of no return.

By staying attuned to the nuances of your inner world, you can foster a greater sense of self-awareness and follow through with conscious choices that align with your aspirations.

If the world seems to be telling you that you took a wrong turn, try to admit it honestly and put yourself on a different track. Sometimes we head off down the wrong path in life, often with the best motives. Maybe there was no way of knowing that it was the wrong

path until you embarked upon the journey. No one can be brilliant at everything, and sometimes you must try things to find out whether it feels right and compatible for you.

There is no shame in admitting it once you realise that things are not working out. It is not about quitting, but taking the courage to then look at different directions in your life.

Take up the challenge to stop scrolling through things on your smartphone for a minute after reading this. With the ever increasing use of modern technology, it is becoming increasingly common to find people of all ages continually being on their smartphones, immersed in VR or playing games.

So, take the one minute stop scrolling challenge now.

Turn down the volume of your smartphone, turn off the screen and put it away.

Use the time to focus your mind on the growing silence which fills the growing void or the seeming gap in time which has opened up.

As you breathe, allow the increasing sense of quietness to pervade every corner of your mind. If other thoughts start to encroach on the quietness, strive to push them aside, giving your mind one true minute of focus and calmness.

Do not be afraid of the quietness or silence, notifications, DMs and other interruptions can wait. Your ability to maintain the focus of your mind is a sign of your inner strength.

Build upon this challenge and do it at least once per day, you will be surprised how much of a difference this simple stop scrolling challenge can make you feel. If you have succeeded in the one minute challenge, try pushing yourself for a greater experience by reaching for a quiet time of 5 or more minutes.

Mindfulness is a helpful practice that can contribute to overall happiness, but it may not always be the answer you need or are looking for. Mindfulness, the hugely popular zeitgeist theory seems to have morphed into the concept that to be happy we must live fully in the present moment. Taken to the extreme this can lead to total focus on whatever you are doing or experiencing “Right This Second”. Some see Mindfulness as a revolution. It is sweeping through many aspects of people’s lives, from mindful parenting, mindful business dealings, mindful eating, and even mindful chores to mindful walking, promising all types of revolutionary changes in people’s lives.

Happiness is a complex and multifaceted concept that is influenced by many factors. While mindfulness can be a helpful tool for cultivating happiness, it is not a standalone solution to all of life’s challenges and is actually beneficial for many other reasons. Other factors in life should be an important source of joy and happiness. So, while mindfulness can be a useful practice for cultivating happiness, it is not a panacea or a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone.

Mindfulness simply involves focusing your attention on your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations as they arise in the present moment. Mindfulness does not magically create happiness or a better life, it is just a tool which can be used for intentionally paying attention to the present moment and not just with focus, but also with curiosity, openness, and non-judgment. It is often the later aspects which are overlooked in the rush to embrace mindfulness, or follow the latest mindfulness guru or influencer. Mindfulness should be taken as one aspect of many meditative practices which can be used for focus and the reality is that some people do really have problems with the proverbial “Raisin of Mindfulness”. It is important to explore a range of different practices and techniques to find one that works for you to cultivate lasting happiness and improve your mental well-being.

Remember that while Mindfulness is a great tool, it is like a hammer, you cannot do every job with a hammer, and sometimes you need to use a different tool.

Learning to pause for a moment is an effective way to control your reactions in a world which seems filled with conflict and triggers. Pausing for a moment is very important for your happiness and wellness.

Have you stopped to consider that you may be continually rushing through life, not pausing to notice all the wonder that exists around you? So even if you are not pausing as a means to control your reactions to what you are experiencing in life, try to pause now to savour the moment, whatever that may be.

Simple learning to pause for a moment can be a very powerful tool which not only allows you to moderate your thinking, it also allows you to connect and savour the moments in life.

Be mindful of the destination addiction where you become fixated with the notion that happiness is elsewhere. Until you surrender that concept of happiness is in another place, it is going to never be where you are. So on examination what does this all mean? If you were to answer the question, do you live your life only to get to the end of it? Then most people would say unequivocally no. However in the world today, many people suffer from the belief that success or happiness is the destination. They are always on the run, on the move, and their goal seems to be to get through the day rather than live each day. Such people become addicted to the idea that the future is where success will be found, happiness resides, and that each intervening moment is just a means to get there.

Rather than living in the now, more and more people seem to be living in anything but the now, being psychologically absent and disregarding everything currently in their life. If you find that you are thinking this way, then you are falling into the trap of destination addiction. You continually chase the illusive notion of happiness and literally suffer from your pursuits. In this case, you may find that your goal has not been to enjoy the day, but instead, you have focused on getting through the day. You have always been focused on getting somewhere, foregoing the opportunities to savour the moments of life along the way. When you arrive at the destination, the feeling of success or happiness seems to elude you, as if it has somehow escaped to the next day, week or year. Then the feeling of satisfaction is continually deferred, and you end up living your life in hot pursuit of some extraordinary bliss which you have no idea how to find.

Social media and an era of excess make a major contribution to the pandemic of destination addiction. In the never-ending pursuit of happiness, you may find that you spend increasing amounts of time or money on trying to acquire happiness. But if you are being honest, how often have you found that the happiness so acquired was only temporary? This is made worse by people and companies peddling items and experiences to “totally change your life” or “make you happier than you ever dreamed possible”. Cars with the newest widgets, fancier clothing, more exquisite jewellery or even the latest gadget, can all be symptomatic of this underlying trend to feed destination addiction.

As increasing numbers of us become engrossed in destination addiction, as we tend to rush through as many experiences as quickly as possible. You may find that you start living by the adage of “been there, done that”. Life should not be about destinations or endings; if it were then life would be very different. If life were about the destination then you would only read the last page of any book, have deserts for meals, or only attended graduation day at school or college. Destination addiction is frequently an attempt to get on with life faster, hoping that you will enjoy your life better. Yet constant rushing through life frequently means that you will miss or bypass golden opportunities along the way. In this way, destination addiction is working against you, as you become too busy or too focused on the objective to be aware of life happing around you. It can become increasingly easy to feel empty as if your life is lacking any meaning.

If you are prone to overthinking, then destination addiction is the perfect setup for failure. It can become very common for people to trade short-term gratification in the hope of reaching the ultimate goal. It could be manifest that happiness is the next deal, the next high, the next acquisition, the next drink, or even something seemingly as silly as the next hot-fudge sundae. In all these instances realise that your mind is overthinking and making you believe the proverbial adage that the grass is greener over the next hill. Destination addiction can cause you to become impatient as you attempt to reach your goal. You then end up with little time for yourself and grow evermore impatient as the destination always seems just out of reach.

It is important to be aware that none of us is immune to destination addiction, and we all have times when we have to convince ourselves that better times are ahead. The trouble with destination addiction is that it focuses purely on the end and not on purpose. Fortunately, there is an excellent remedy for destination addiction, but it is often hard to find.

The key to defeating destination addiction is to find happiness in the life you have and to achieve the goals that are important to you, not what you believe will impress everyone else. When you declare that you are content with what you have, where you are and who you are, it is possible to break out of this addiction. You may then find that you begin to live more in the now and savour the full experiences that life avails to you every day. You can then live intelligently with purpose, make the means the end, and also the end the means. Then you may come to the realisation that true happiness never comes from a destination. Happiness comes from within us as you experience and live in the here and now.

Energy is the catalyst and creative force of the universe and life within it, which brings into existence atoms, particles, worlds, stars and galaxies. The human form is made of the very same substance and controlled by the same energies; yet is endowed with a mind to think, examine, reason and learn. However, few of us genuinely understand how our mind functions, let alone realise that what is generally regarded as the human mind is a construct of many different aspects. Broadly speaking, the human mind can be categorised into four main areas. First and foremost is what the majority of people consider the mind, it is your intellect or what is referred to as Buddhi in some old languages such as Sanskrit. Various other aspects of the human mind include your personality (Ahankara), your mental form or body (Manas) and the Spark of Life (Chitta) which connects to the basis of creation within you.

What is perceived as the human mind, is typically that of the brain. This is the component of intellect, the domain of thoughts and thinking, however, this is just a small part of the bigger picture. Our minds are undeniably a lot more than our intellect, as they consist of multiple interrelated parts which function as a whole. The complete intelligence of us as humans is distributed throughout our being. The knowledge and understanding of how to access or use these other components of our intelligence is rarely understood.

We unconsciously use some of these other dimensions of our mind all the time, yet few people are aware of the complex interactions and how our minds function. Consider that you do not know how to conduct your mind, your energies, your emotions or your body, and any effort to understand this could be beneficial for you to fully engage in life.

Your thoughts are energy, but they are just the beginning, as your thoughts interact with the various other facets of your minds. Through obtaining an understanding that you are far more than the intellect of your brain, you can begin to comprehend that there is a great deal more to making life happen. Take the time to pause and think with active intellect is an excellent starting point in life, and can lead you to the greatest discovery of the human minds.

There is a strong correlation between being happy and optimistic to being physically well. Typically, people who express positive thoughts and emotions are at a reduced risk of becoming ill. Feeling happy or having positive experiences is linked with better general health or more content living. So is there more to this than just positive thinking?

Yes, this is more than just thinking a good thought. Positive psychology is a branch of psychology focused on the character strengths and behaviours that allow individuals to build a life of meaning and purpose. While many other branches of psychology tend to focus on dysfunctional aspects of the human mind, positive psychology is centred on helping people become happier on many different levels. This new branch of psychology encompasses a variety of techniques that focus on developing positive thoughts, positive emotions, and developing positive experiences. You can see how this new form of psychology extends beyond thoughts alone to bring forward the complete picture of the human system of wellbeing.

Positive psychology is often confused with positive thinking, which is purely about thinking positive thoughts, rather than changing your way of thinking into a different frame of mind. Positive psychology works at a deeper level on improving our positive character traits, such as loyalty, humility and integrity. It does not discount that there are negatives that impact our lives. Instead, positive psychology aims to look at the situation to better understand human experiences and determine how to best foster positivity and good thinking. These aspects of positive thoughts are then reflected and reinforced by positive emotions and feelings. As we live in a physical world, if these positive thoughts, emotions and feelings can be bolstered by positive experiences, it creates a more powerful narrative than any of the elements individually. We can all leverage aspects of positive psychology so that we can thrive rather than just survive.