How to live vibrantly & joyously

Living vibrantly and joyously being in general joy and total love is our essential nature. This is how we are meant to live. Unfortunately, we have forgotten how to do so! To get back to where we started from, we have to unlearn some limiting habits and attitudes.

In order for this to happen, we have to begin to live more consciously and with awareness.

" Every choice you make brings a possible future into your reality." - from the mind of the soul, by Gary Zukav and Linda Francis.

Awareness means exercising an introspective choice. Given the understanding, you have of the interactions between the mind, body, and emotions, and given your intention to live more fully and Joyfully, you are now going to choose your responses moment by moment. At present you may be reacting to situations in a knee-jerk fashion: An action triggers to the automatic reaction. People who are aware are able to make a small pause between the two and decide what their response should be.

" Awakening is a shift in consciousness in which thinking and awareness separate." - from A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle.

Instead of allowing your minds, thoughts, and emotions to manipulate you like a puppet on a string, you can choose which you wish to entertain. You may not immediately be able to choose your visitors. You know who's ringing the doorbell, but you can decide whether or not you want to let the person in and how much time you wish to spend with him or her. You may decide to just look through the keyhole and not open the door at all, especially when you know that your visitors are a drain on your energy. You have met before - if permitted entry, he or she settles down and shows no signs of leaving. Some visitors are clever, though. They sneak in through the back door. You wouldn't choose to offer a thief the best chair in your living room, would you? 

When you make a habit of deciding which kinds of thoughts and emotions you want for the company, you have already accepted an amazing truth. You can look at them and decide so you know that you are neither those thoughts nor these emotions. You are much more than that. They are, at best visitors. And you henceforth treat them as such. You make your own boundaries based on what's best for you! You cultivate close friendships with the ones that make you feel good and you refuse to associate with those that don't.

" The closest to being in control we will ever be is in that moment when we realize we are not." - Brian Kessler

In the following paragraphs is a process that offers a really easy way of becoming aware of what goes on in your mind! This is a beautiful little trick from Sally Perry, a native American healer. Don't fight or judge the thoughts. Just became aware of them and do what you need to: "burn" them and return to your essential Higher Self. ( You can do it with emotions, too.) 

Visualize a purple fire burning near you. You can "light" it anytime you like and keep it lit the whole day. It moves with you. Every time you think a "negative" thought, catch it, say " in the fire," and drop it there. Watch it burn. Replace it with a happy thought. Do the same with bothersome emotions.

You will be amazed by how many times you will be saying "in the fire" in the first few days you start this exercise.

Similarly, you became more familiar with the Ego, and it needs to control you. You treat it with compassionate firmness. As you continue to do that, it understands its place and increasingly begins to serve you. It provides you with a healthy sense of self you need, but it doesn't seek to alienate you. If it forgets and attempts to manipulate you into habitual patterns, you don't fall for the bait. And if by chance you do, at least you know that this time you got " hooked", and you do what you need to do to unhook yourself. Just like salt in food, you need just the right amount of Ego to make things tasty and palatable. Now you can align it to serve you and your life purpose instead of the other way around, as it was before.

Remember, though, that awareness is a soft-focus bulb, not a harsh floodlight. Don't practice it so stringently that you forget to live. The aim isn't to be judgmental of yourself as you continue to grow but to gently guide yourself out of the maze of limiting habits and conditioning. Don't castigate yourself when you slip or fall. Dust yourself off, learn from the experience, and move on. Become aware that each " troublesome" situation is a gift because it allows you to choose either the habitual " trapping" pattern or a new "empowering" one. You can choose to either expand or contract- the more you expand, the freer you become. The ultimate aim of growth is to respond from a vast space of Love in every situation. And that process starts with you.