Start Facing Yourself!

August 31, 2005

BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

Facing our boredom may seem very dull, but the truth is that it is liberating. I do not even mind getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. I don't try to find it but when it happens it is perfectly all right with me. I have been finding that in facing my boredom I do not experience any lack of interest. I seem to have overcome the need to run away from trying to face boredom.

We are all searching for peace. We think peace is having everything work out the way we want it to be. That is not peace, it is control. The problem with that kind of control is that our mind is never happy with anything that we get. Our mind goes right to work finding out what else we need or is not right in our world.

I am at peace. Why do I experience peace when most people want the excitement? I have been working on not being afraid to face boredom. Our minds seem to feed on drama and excitement to make us feel that we are alive and kicking. An essential component of this is not reacting to things that happen for which we have no control. It is our resistance to the situations that occur in life that creates all our problems. It is right at the moment when things get bad that your thinking becomes your worst enemy. It is better to remain calm in the moment. It is in this moment that our thinking becomes our worst nightmare.

To be bored is to be so uninteresting a person that you cannot face yourself. The problem with this is that you do a lot of activity to avoid yourself. We need to be occupied so we are not alone with our thoughts driving us crazy. I am learning to disregard my thoughts and enjoy the awareness of not thinking about every last thought that enters my mind.

If you have not tried this before it is truly a path to freedom. I have improved my ability to focus my mind on things when I need to. I have always felt my memory was not very dependable. Now that I carry much less on my mind, I have more room for the important thoughts. Most importantly, I have much more control of my thinking. I am not letting my thinking control me as much as it used to.

How is this possible? It is really very simple. I allow myself to experience being happy in the moment. I trust the moment to present me with what ever I need to experience. The most important thing about what I am telling you is that I have let go of the past. It is not in my present moment awareness. The past is dead and gone, unless we fan the flames. This is true for the good things as well as the bad ones. We don't need to think about either one of them. The present moment is more than enough, unless you don't want to be happy for the rest of your life. In that case hold on to the past and ignore the present moment.

It is time to start facing yourself. If you don't give up your unhappiness, you will never be happy. Start giving unhappiness up right now. Now is the time to give happiness a chance. If you want to learn more about what I am talking about I suggest you read a book called The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. It is a very simple and powerful book to help you find the stillness within you.

Our next Happiness Club meeting will be a presentation by international documentary photographer Daryl Hawk who will present a slide show and lecture entitled: ÒThe Last Shangri-La.Ó Hawk will share his nonstop, day-to-day adventures, experiences, discoveries, and valuable lessons he learned on this incredibly spiritual journey through this last Shangri-La in which the national motto is Ògross national happiness.Ó This past November Mr. Hawk spent a month alone traversing from west to east thought the mythical and medieval kingdom of Bhutan, which is hidden, high away in the Himalayas. Photographs of dramatic and rarely ever seen before landscapes, stunning Buddhist monasteries and fortresses, ancient secret religious ceremonies and festivals, the KingÕs birthday celebration and the lifestyles of the people who inhabit this kingdom will all be highlighted in this presentation.

The meeting is Thursday, September 15, from 7:00 - 8:45 p.m. at the newly renovated Fairfield Public Library, in the new Rotary Room at 1080 Old Post Road, Fairfield. Meet some wonderful people using happiness in their lives. Admission is free; everyone is welcome. For further information, www.happinessclub.com or call Lionel Ketchian at 203 258-7777.

Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club and can be reached at PrintLRK@aol.com. The Web site is www.thehappinessshow.com and www.happinessclub.com.