Doing What’s Good for the Soul to Create Lasting Happiness!

One of the many benefits of meditation is that through daily meditation one carves out time and space away from the drama of life.  This one aspect of switching out of the limited, everyday world of involvements with people, places, and things into the inner world allows the unlimited self to feel into new attitudes, reflections, and perspectives that will color and shape your outer world.  This is an ultimate form of creativity.  This is a space to reflect upon your life goals not just projects, career, and health, but to discern what is your ultimate course for happiness, eternal happiness. What is the highest aim you have for yourself, the soul, the cosmic navigator of your life. What direction will set you on your course for ultimate, everlasting happiness…

A great example of our time is the Dali Lama who says that “kindness is his religion”. This is the rudder of his ship that keeps his thoughts, words, and deeds on course. Your aim or goal may start out as simple as that. Meditation will assist you in staying true to your aim. For as you accumulate time in reflection and meditation, your thoughts will continue to decrease and slow down and you will see what patterns have been set in place that no longer usher you into the right seat.  When this begins to happen, you are in a better place to change the old patterns and create new habits that put you into the seat of self-determination, self-respect, and sovereignty.

At the end of the day –  check inside and see how this day added to or detracted from your feelings of positivity and wellness.  Where were you on course, where did you go off course… What situations, people, or tasks contributed to achieving your aim and which didn’t.  Keep an account, just as a successful business must keep accounts of profit and loss to stay out of the “red”.  Shakespeare said in one of his great plays: “All’s Well that Ends Well”. At the end of every day, ask yourself, did this day add to my account of joy or did it add to my account of sorrow? Use this end of the day reflection as a rudder to gauge what adjustments you can make to create more joy than sorrow tomorrow!  Adjustments usually involve attitude…what attitudes will I cultivate to arrive at my destination at the end of the day successfully…

To be successful at this, you must be willing to see yourself.

Ask yourself, am I willing to look into the mirror of my own heart?

If you are hesitant about looking at yourself…ask yourself another question: would I rather listen to my conscience/heart or to the ego?

Granted, it isn’t always easy to look at ourselves.  It’s much easier to see the faults of others, isn’t it?  Practically speaking, there’s not much chance that you can change anyone else. Therefore you may as well love yourself enough to make the changes in you that will bring joy and contentment.

When you have mercy and love for yourself, it makes it okay to see what mistakes are going on and to share them with a Higher Power, the One who has an overview of the situation and who has your best interests at heart!  Stay honest, clear your heart each night, and see how you will attract a shower of Divine Love and assistance as you open up each night. This kind of love makes the impossible possible.

Talk to yourself sweetly:  assure yourself that “I believe in Love and I believe I can change”.  Then you can do what is good for the soul.   Be willing to let the ego die and do what’s good for the soul!

Doing what is good for the soul can feel like a blow to the ego. In your meditations, practice being the witness, ie. the detached and loving observer. The muscle of awareness or the consciousness of being the observer, the loving witness will become stronger than the ego as it is practiced in meditation.  This awareness is your true power and will begin to be activated and available when you are in action during the day. As you witness yourself as you act through the body,  each day… as you become the observer and the doer at the same time, self-checking becomes automatic and natural.

While each individual’s aim or ultimate goal for themselves will be unique to them, a common denominator for all souls at this time is to reduce the amount of negativity in their lives in favor of creating more positivity.

A simple nightly ritual to help you with this process is to have the determined thought to let go of a weakness that you are aware of and to replace it with a virtue. This ritual can help turn the negative behavior around. For example, if you wish to let go of arrogance and its offshoots, a virtue to replace it with could be sweetness, cooperation, or humility. Rather than focus on the negative feelings and obstacles that arrogance has brought into your day, use your imagination to bring into your feelings what it could feel like to act sweetly, cooperatively, or humbly.

You may even wish to replay a scene from your day which didn’t turn out well.  See yourself replacing the old, weakening behavior pattern that emerged with its opposite…replace the arrogance with humilty, the anger with understanding and care, or the hurt or disappointment with a feeing of empowerment. Enjoy this contemplation.  Anchor in to the new feelings that may emerge, allow new patterns of response to come into play. This is using the same visualisation technique that successful athletes use regularly and frequently before a practice, a game or a match. As well as physically practicing the skills of their sport, successful athletes will also ‘see’ themselves going through the motions in detail. It all happens in the mind first. They see themselves playing the game successfully and then they go out and play to win! This is a great technique that you can use to your advantage during your nightly checking and in morning meditation as you set the tone of the day!

This is a wonderful opportunity to remind yourself that life itself can be seen as a game and that you are a player, an actor who is playing a part.  To play your part well, takes knowledge, love, determination, and lots of practice.  Be gentle and kind with yourself and the other players you encounter in this game of life.

Another end of the day reflection is to recognize what judgments or criticisms you  imposed upon yourself and/or others today .  Also check to see what judgments or criticisms were received by you from others.   In order to sleep with a clean and happy heart, visualise bathing it all away in a pristine pool or under a waterfall. Clean yourself in this way until you are left with only pure feelings of  compassion for yourself and others.

A powerful mantra that can be done seperately or in conjunction with the ‘bathing visualisation is: I am a pure soul and So-and-so (the soul that disturbed you) is also a pure soul.  Repeat it as many times as needed til it feels real and true and your negative thoughts/feelings have been washed away, transformed.

Be creative as you gain ease and success with your nightly ritual.  Take up  different themes.  For example, you may wish to bathe in the Ocean of Contentment and release all uncomfortable, unsatisfying feelings, complaints, and nagging inner voices.  As a soul, you are unlimited.  Whatever you focus upon will increase.  What will it be…contentment or discontentment… love or hurt…the choice is ultimately yours.

Self-checking is about lightning up and feeling great, not about blaming yourself (or others) or feeling guilty.

Let your nightly reflections be your rudder moving you easily to the shores of happiness, lightness, love, well-being and success