Power of Choice XII

Everybody desires happiness yet few are able to fulfill this simplest of desires. It’s not that one is never happy, it’s just that happiness is like a movie trailer for most of us. One sees a bit of it...for a while, a few hours, some days maybe...and then poof! It’s gone.

Yes, happiness is a choice, too, yet it’s a choice that needs to overcome one major hurdle. One may choose to be happy yet find it beyond one’s grasp. The biggest reason is the mind...a conditioned mind!

It’s called a ‘conditioned mind’ because the mind has been taught...programmed to ignore happiness. It’s been taught to equate happiness with goals...material goals, emotional goals, career goals, social goals and a thousand other goals.

Goals in themselves are not a problem and they can be useful tools but when the mind is conditioned to believe that happiness is a reward for achieving or finding or reaching or getting or whatever...you see? It’s become captive. Then, it’s almost as if feeling happy in the face of still-unfulfilled desires is wrong.

And, desires! Desires are like weeds to use an analogy. They keep popping up everywhere...in the most unexpected of places, in the most unusual circumstances. And, they never end. One desire fulfilled and any sense of joy or happiness sensed is soon replaced by a bigger, more unachievable, more demanding desire.

There! That’s the game the mind plays. The game of desire...endless desire. And, naturally endless desire means an end to happiness. Or, certainly, a big big break in the stream of happiness.

Desires themselves are hard to control and the mind, bolstered by haywire emotions, is a master at creating more and more of them.

So, having made the choice to be happy, one has to become a mind-watcher. If one learns to watch what’s happening in his mind, it will slowly start behaving itself. You have seen how people act when they know they’re being watched or when a camera is recording them. That’s how the mind will also act. After all, people modulate the way they behave when being watched because of their minds. And, that’s precisely how your mind will act.

Slowly, over time, the mind will begin to recognize that it has a master and like most people, their actions are largely dictated by the directions, choices, expectations of their masters.

Lasting happiness may not be ‘achieved’ in a day or in a short period of time but it can be achieved.

This is a wonderful way that can give amazing results to those who are disciplined. After all, disciplined people are equipped the best to enforce discipline.

Others need not worry. They can always learn to be disciplined in one way...by choosing to watch their minds.

- rajyogi

https://rajyogi.wixsite.com/lifecoach