Happiness Completes You!

August 22, 2007
BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

Do you ever feel that you are incomplete? This is a feeling we have all experienced in our lives. Many people cannot recall ever feeling complete. We seem to internalize bad things that happen to us as a refection of our not being enough. We feel that we are not rich enough, not trim enough, don't have enough. Most of us don't feel that we are enough even if we do not have enough. One of the ways we come to this conclusion, is that we interpret aspects of our life as our inner incompleteness.

We have not been told that we can feel complete. We have not heard that we are enough, even when we feel we do not have enough. One of my favorite lines in the bible is the Lilies of the Field found in Matthew 6:27-29, "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." That line tells us that no matter what you have, or don't have, you are complete!

My definition of happiness is the following: Happiness is an inner state of well-being that enables you to profit from your highest thoughts, intelligence, wisdom, awareness, common sense, emotions, health, and spiritual values.

It has occurred to me that being happy has allowed me to feel more complete. I no longer evaluate my feeling of completeness by what I do not have. It would be nice to have certain things that I may not have, but they are rather meaningless to me, in comparison to my feeling of being complete and being enough. My thoughts of the things I do want, but don't have, are greatly diminished since I have become a happy person.

Happiness has enabled me to experience a part of life that is separate from what I have, or what I want, or even what I am doing. Those things are important, but only when I feel happy and complete can I seem to make a positive difference in all those exterior things. Feeling complete gives me a sense of fulfillment and a feeling of being whole. This is a wonderful feeling that leaves me undivided in my thoughts. I feel a total connection to everyone else as a result of the feeling of completeness that expresses itself in my life.

The feeling of completeness is available to every one of us. We can all have a feeling of completeness by not letting outer circumstances diminish our inner feelings. I know that bringing up the thought that we are perfect is very controversial. I will bring it up anyway! When I have talked about realizing our inner perfection, a few people become agitated. Some people have even cried because they don't think they are perfect. They realize that they judge themselves pretty harshly about what they think their faults are. Unfortunately, this does nothing to change their behavior.

A really interesting factor is, judging others produces some rather negative experiences within ourselves. This lesson has been with us for ages, but it seems to be a difficult lesson to learn. Once again, the bible has something to say about judging. Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment that you pronounce, you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Matthew 7:1-5

It seems that what we judge in someone else is something that may also be true for us. Bad things happen and people do not always do the right thing in this world. This is all very true, but I am bringing this up for a different reason. If you want to free yourself and experience completeness, it is necessary to reduce your need to judge other people. The practice of non-judgement detaches you from feeling upset every time you hear about the crazy things that one human being does to another. Judging others, even if you are right diminishes your feeling of completeness. Judgments affect your deepest inner feelings of well-being.

Another aspect of not judging another people is that your acceptance of the way they are seem so change the way other people relate and respond to you. It is as if other people know when you are finding fault with them even when you don't say anything. By feeling more complete with who you are you are free to accept other people for the way they are. You begin to notice that people are treating you better as a result of the way you are choosing to treat them. You are beginning to experience true freedom by feeling complete and embracing others.

Albert Einstein had said, "A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

What can you do to feel complete? There is nothing you can do. It is a matter of being who you are and accepting it. When you feel complete, you feel happy and loving. You have become whole again and as a result you can give love because you feel happy and complete.

Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club and can be reached at PrintLRK@aol.com. The website is www.HappinessClub.com.