Practising Happiness

Copyright Justus H Lewis, PhD April 2006 This article may be reproduced provided that this acknowledgement is included together with a link back to www.transformasia.com.au.

Practising Happiness

Last night I was invited to attend a Women in Epilepsy evening organised by the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria. One of the speakers was talking about her experience of living with epilepsy. She was a naturopath and looked a picture of health.

However, she explained that she owed her current quality of life to a combination of traditional and alternative medication. Without the drug she was on, she would be unable to live without a seizure – and the longest she had gone without a seizure was 12 years. Because she needed the drug that controlled the epilepsy, she also realised that she needed to be as ‘drug free’ as possible in the other choices she had. And this meant that she was on a constant process of ‘de-toxing’ by eliminating other potentially dangerous (to her) drugs such as caffeine and sugar, sticking to a low carb diet and resting when she felt she needed to.

By carefully and consistently focusing on doing whatever she needed to maintain the quality of her health, she had gone from a person with weekly seizures who was predicted never to be able to have children and to be dead by the time she was 30, to a vibrant and attractive self-employed professional and mother of two young children.

Just as epilepsy is different for each person diagnosed with epilepsy, so happiness is a different prescription for each of us. Unfortunately – or fortunately – depending on your point of view, there is no doctor to prescribe the ‘best’ form of happiness for each of us.

Of course, just as there are a variety of well-tested drugs that have been shown to control epilepsy, likewise there are time tested universal principles such as the regular practice of forgiveness, gratitude and meditation. But the specific variations that match our individual circumstances are for each of us to explore and decide for ourselves what we need to include in our lives.

Last night’s speaker emphasized how although she had been greatly helped by traditional medicine, it was only when she did her own exploration that she found the other information she needed to maintain her health in its optimum condition.

In my own experience, this all rings true. There is no such thing as a trouble free life. We all have our sorrows and suffering, whether it be chronic illness, loss of a job, loss of a loved one … the variations are endless. However, I have found over the years that I can choose to practice happiness or not.

The practice begins with the traditional wisdom of gratitude for what is in my life, forgiveness of myself and others for all the many shortcomings in our behaviour, and meditation to make space for new developments in the future. But I also need to add to this basic mix some of the activities that are specific to me: for example, I like to write and I like to work with others on creative problem solving activities that strengthen people’s relationships with each other. Neglect these activities, and I notice the frustration building: put a regular focus on them and I feel more peaceful and … happier.

Keys to practising happiness

1. Consult with the ‘doctors of the soul’ in your tradition, whether it be religious, humanist or something else. They each have their own particular way of expressing things but all agree there are spiritual principles such as gratitude, forgiveness and meditation that, practised regularly, invite inner peace.

2. Consult your own inner wisdom. What makes your heart sing? What gives you pleasure and satisfaction? How can you increase your happiness level by having more of these experiences in your life?

3. Imagine you have a ‘happiness gauge’ that measures your happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being completely happy and 1 being completely unhappy. Take a reading. Where are you now on the scale? 3? 4? 5? 7?

What would it take to move you up one point? What can you do in the next week to move up one point in your happiness scale? The speaker I listened to last night didn’t achieve her current level of wellbeing overnight and she stressed that she needs to be continuously monitoring herself to stay healthy. Whatever form your happiness takes, the same applies. You need to practise regularly.

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