Allowing Joy
I am sure that I have written about this in another post along the way, but I feel the need to write about it again, so I apologize if this feels too familiar! At times, it has been difficult to allow myself to feel joyful and happy without having the attached guilt and sadness of the fact that there are many people who are suffering and unhappy. It has taken me quite awhile to get to the realization that we are not all in the same place in our healing journey. Also, each one of our paths looks different. Some people are not ready to feel joy and happiness. That is okay. I can also see now that it is OK for me to feel joy whether or not others feel it or not. I have been holding myself back from realizing my own happiness, because I want others to feel the same happiness. I want it to be “fair”. I have learned that it is okay for me to feel joy and happiness, even if other people do not. I know that there is room in the world for every single one of us to feel happy and joy. We are all capable of this.
Expecting bad to happen
I noticed a pattern in myself when I am feeling good. I noticed that I wasn’t allowing myself to have the good feelings without also having feelings of fear and guilt. The fear comes from a place of thinking that something bad has to happen when I feel good. My thoughts were about expecting something bad to counteract the good. How can someone possibly feel this good, without something bad also happening? Somehow, I programmed myself to attach negative thoughts to my happy feelings. I am reminded of the expression of “when will the other shoe drop?” Somehow I taught myself to think that I can’t be “lucky” enough to be happy, without something bad happening. I am sure that this belief was used as a coping mechanism at some point. In order to cope with the downfalls of life, I taught myself not to get “too comfortable”. I thought I was teaching myself to make sure I knew that things won’t always go my way. I am not sure when I started thinking this, but I’m pretty sure it has been a belief for quite some time.
The mind is so powerful!
I am able to see now how powerful the stories in our minds can be! I had myself convinced that you can’t be happy without also experiencing something bad. I was able to convince myself that this story was true. Well, now I can see my story, and see that it is not true. I am allowed to be happy and full of joy. This is a birthright for each of us. I know there will be unhappy events in my life, but it is not because I have allowed myself to be happy. It is because this is a normal part of life. I have learned that I will go with the flow, and I will allow myself to feel happy without feeling like the other shoe will drop soon. Using the law of attraction has helped me tremendously with this. I am able to focus on how I want my life to look, not on what could possibly go wrong. This has made a huge difference in my process as well.
The Power of Thought
Our birthright is Joy
As I have said before, I do believe that we are here to learn how to feel joy and happiness, and to perfect the “art of self-love.” I really do believe that it is the state we are meant to be in. Until we add all of the conditioned baggage to our lives, we are in a state of pure joy and happiness. Look at a newborn baby. They are in a state of pure bliss, unless there is a physical problem. I feel like I have peeled back one more layer of my conditioned baggage, so to speak. Another layer of awareness that my thoughts and beliefs are not always true, nor are they always based on reason. I have another new belief to add to my new collection of TRUE beliefs. My new belief is, “I allow myself to feel joy and happiness, and it is safe.” That feels pretty darn good!
There is a really great video under featured videos on Positive and Negative Thought.
From Be Nurtured
