Project Happiness Articles

All of us are reliant upon the sun for energy, the earth for food, trees for air, and water for drinking. But when we go about our busy lives, it is easy to take the water, air and plants around us for granted. The practice of mindfulness takes us off autopilot, allows us to pause, experience the present moment and give gratitude for all the elements of the natural world that support our daily lives.

A vast expanse of birds, water, greenery, and calm await us. To turn in all directions and see only nature’s splendor, free from the engineering encroachment of human hands, brings deep renewal. As a family, we walk down a trail leading into seemingly endless waterways and grasslands. There are a few small fishing boats out on the water. Egrets fly overhead. I take a deep breath. I also needed this.

My critic’s been with me for about as long as I can remember, following me around with a lot of Very Important Things to inform me about: its opinion about what I’m doing, what I should be doing, and what I’m not doing.

We find solace within our solitary confinement where we are freed from the burden of forming any emotional attachment that could tug at our heartstrings. We might also attempt to numb our wounds from the past with substances such as alcohol, drugs, or any other compulsive forms of behavior.

Do you ever have those days when you feel stuck? You know, those days when it’s kind of foggy: Life is good enough but doesn’t grab you, move you or make you feel like you are even scratching the surface of what can be. When these times come up for me, I know I’ll get past them, but life is short and it’s not where I want to be parked. Here are seven ways to break through to your core, passion and purpose.

I once heard Dieter F. Uchtdorf speak about a group of men in Germany who wanted to move a full concert-sized grand piano from a chapel into an adjacent concert hall. There were many willing and able men, but with everyone trying to direct the piano in different ways, it kept going off balance and they were unable to lift it. Finally, one of the men said, “...Stand closer together, and lift where you stand.”

Children are wiser than most of us acknowledge and have a great deal to teach us. They interact with the world in an unassuming way, not yet programmed by the routine thinking of the adult world.

Look around. Do you know people who seem to be upbeat, and ‘bad days’ are only minor speed bumps on their life road? But others have a bad day and it puts them into a ditch? Have you ever wondered what the difference is? I sure have. It turns out some people have to work harder than others to experience ‘happiness’.  

It’s the one thing everyone wants and we spend our lives pursuing it, but in this day and age it seems to be becoming more elusive. The word ‘happiness’ is bandied about a lot these days, it appears in advertising campaigns around the world in a bid to sell us more of what we so desperately seek. In an age when we have all the conditions to be happy why does it feel like we are actually becoming more unhappy?

Restorative yoga is a practice that includes a series of postures designed to move the body into parasympathetic dominance and heal itself. We “get quiet” on a physical, cognitive, and emotional level. In areas of the body that have become tense or hardened, we practice creating space. By observing the mind, we allow ourselves the opportunity to access higher order thinking which can lead to more creative problem solving.