Take 100% Responsibility for Your Happiness

While doing some research for this message, I stumbled upon the following piece… not only once, but twice in just a few hours!

Synchronicity, you bet! And not only have I now learned the many benefits of paying attention to these spiritual signposts placed on my path to guide me in the right direction, but I am pleased to be given the opportunity to share this piece with you!

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer first introduced this insightful story in his book, You’ll See It When You Believe It. However, here’s for you the same piece as beautifully told by Jack Canfield in his best-selling book, The Success Principles:

Let’s face it: Other people and things practically never upset us. On the contrary, we are the ones who can choose or not choose to agonize about the unfortunate adversities that these people and things may put in our lives.

It is time we stop looking outside ourselves for the answers to why we haven’t created the happiness we really want in our lives. It is time we take responsibility for at least some of our acute and prolonged upsets.

Granted our disturbed feelings also have biological aspects. Granted as well our brain and body chemistry may catapult us into a state of emotional disturbance when few or no adversities are occurring in our lives. Nonetheless, the negative feelings we now experience about these emotional and physical handicaps are still largely our own doing – the result of our thinking.

And as late Dr. Albert Ellis kept noting, “You are lucky that you yourself help to create and perpetuate your disturbances, for that means that you personally can stop them in their tracks.”

Most of us have grown up believing that we cannot control our own emotions; that positive and negative feelings are things that simply happen to us; that when adversities occur, not only do we naturally feel unhappy, but that happy events must show up for us to feel good again. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Believe it or not: We do have the power to think whatever we choose to think. If something just pops into our heads, we have the power to make it go away. We may not have control over the thoughts that enter our minds, for we do not make ourselves think. However, our thoughts are our own – uniquely ours to keep, change, share, or contemplate.  We control our mental world. Simple as that!

By the way, if we don’t control our thoughts, who does?  Our spouse, our boss, our parents, or our children?

As Dr. Wayne W. Dyer ironically says in his best-selling book titled Your Erroneous Zones, “If these people control what you think, then send them off for therapy and you will instantly get better.”

But we really know otherwise, do we?  Do you?

You can achieve increased happiness in your life – that is, if you take your personal power and use it!

Believe me: When you will fully realize the incredible power you have over your thoughts, your feelings – your happiness! – not only will you be literally astounded, but you will wonder why you took so long to use it!

So go ahead… and make yourself happy!