Yoga and Meditation

Many of us learn that it is hard to be happy. Happiness seems to be an elusive goal that you might “get” when you acquire enough stuff or achieve enough things. This idea highlights what many people believe - that you can only be happy when one or more external criteria are reached.

And that programming often continues strongly into adulthood. Sure, there are a variety of reasons motivating us to do the things we do, but one of them is surely the desire to be happy.

The belief that produces this behavior has usually been with us since childhood - that something or someone outside of ourselves is responsible for our happiness. We start off trying to please our parents or teachers, in an attempt to receive that happiness-producing approval.

Of course, modern consumerism does its best to perpetuate this myth of “external happiness’. Why? Because then we will buy more stuff, of course! We all need more things - the latest ipod, iphone, computer, car and so on. Only then can we be happy. Or so we think.

In reality, once we acquire the new whatever, we look straight for the next thing to buy - because the last thing didn’t really bring us happiness after all. So is there an alternative? A way that we can be happier and more fulfilled without buying into modern consumerism?

If the path to happiness is not outside us, then it MUST be inside. And the good news is - that it is! And not only that, it is accessible to everyone. So what is the path to true happiness? It is finding that quiet place within where you know that you are safe, and loved, and nurtured. No matter what is happening in the external world. No matter what you have or haven’t acquired.

That is where meditation comes in.

Meditation is easier than you think. It is nothing more than focussed attention - on a sound, thought or candle, for example. The trance-state so produced causes beneficial changes in your body that make your muscles relaxed, your blood pressure lower, and your heart beat more slowly.

At one level of understanding, happiness is produced by certain changes in neurotransmitter and neurophysiological activity in the brain. This is the Western way of explaining it.

Happiness is being contented and joyful. It seems that for most people it is an elusive and fleeting thing - imagine how our world might be different if most of us were happy most of the time.

And not only can you achieve amazing levels of happiness through meditation, it costs nothing, you always have it with you, and you don’t need to seek the approval of anyone other than yourself.

Because meditation brings you into closer contact with Original Energy, it promotes your psychic development as well. To see how much you’ve developed take this free psychic test or read more about psychic tests at Squidoo.