Happy
Really?
What if anger, resentment or frustration are running strong? How can I choose happiness instead?
The problem is that most of us never learned how to actually handle emotions or feelings. We were never taught what they really meant. And we were left alone in dealing with the raw feelings running through our hearts and bodies.
Instead, as kids we were just told to stop being angry or sad. And that only taught us to ignore our feelings, or to stuff them away and dissociate.
Choosing happiness includes feeling negative emotions and letting them run through the body and mind and then to let go of them.
Being aware of emotions is important. Anger has a message – something is not aligned with our heart, mind or plans. Sadness has a message – we lost a connection, possibly to our own heart. Fear has a message – we’re entering unknown territiory.
Once those emotions have delivered their message , it’s time to let them go.
There is a process to come back to happiness:
1) Sense the emotion running through your body and mind. Listen to the thoughts you have.
2) Find the repeating words – and see how they represent the emotion dominating your body at the moment.
3) Choose a thought that feels better than the repeating one. You could even create your own happiness mantra that helps you release that negative emotion.
I use a lot of such mantras. One of them is this one:
Every day, I feel happier and happier.
Repeating this mantra definitely helps to improve my mood – and I mentally touch the tapping points while I think my mantra. That is highly efficient.
Here are some tapping phrases to get you started on the idea that you can actually choose to be happy:
Even though I never learned how to handle emotions, I’ve always felt like they overwhelm me, I’m okay the way I am, and I now choose to learn how to enter happiness more often.
Even though I’ve always felt helpless when dealing with negative emotion, I’m okay the way I am, and I now choose to practice being happy more and more often.
Even though it is a really new concept to actively shift my feelings and choose happiness, I’m okay the way I am, and I now embrace being happy!
How does that feel? What is your happiness mantra? Please comment!
Image source: F. Moebius
PS: In my newsletter, I offer a full tapping round (EFT) to go with the tapping suggestions on my blog. You can easily sign up to it through the form on the right hand side.
PPS: If you want some support around negative emotions and turning to more happiness, just click HERE and send me an email. We’ll connect and talk about how I can support you best. I work internationally through Skype.
Brilliant! So many of us need reminders that it is OKAY to feel sadness, anger, grief, but society has let us believe we have to be brave. Hold it in….many family and friends will turn away from us if we show these emotions. We need to be reminded that the fastest way to heal, the fastest way to BE HAPPY is to let these emotions come. Deal with each, accept each, and then keep choosing to live “HAPPY”.
Thank you, Beth.
Just a few days ago I watched my young nephew work his way through anger back to happiness, while I was giving him space to do so. I was so proud of him and told him exactly why.
Yes, we need to feel the emotions and then let them flow through us and out.