Author Archives: Yucel

Presence and Gratitude

2 Replies

Have you ever noticed where happiness takes place?

Does happiness ever occur in the past for instance?  

Were you happy yesterday perhaps?  And, if you were, can you recall this happiness of yesterday by being in yesterday, or do you recall it in the now? 

Yes, yesterday’s happiness occurs in the now, through our current memory.  Likewise any future anticipated happiness, which if it occurs, we are thinking of in the now, or if it happens, happens in a now.  (See also: http://choose.ws/2009/06/23/positive-pivots/everything-happens-in-the-now/yucel/ ) 

Everything happens in the now, including happiness.  All happiness happens in the now.

It occurs to me, that we can often create unhappiness by trying to live in the past, or in the future.  As we have discussed, this is impossible.  Everything we live, we live in the now. 

In trying to live in the past, the good old days of yore, we create a kind of melancholia, either for good, or for bad days past.  We might feel victim to bad events past.  Or, we might feel sad that a past pleasure is, well, past.

For the future, we might have an optimism or a pessimism about what may occur in the future.  We expect wolves or chest of gold behind trees in the forest.  Finding neither or either, we are usually disappointed.  Optimism or pessimism is attachment to future outcomes, a kind of expectation attachment.  ( See also:  http://choose.ws/2009/06/11/allowing/positive-realism/yucel/ )  These invariably lead to sadness.  And, more to the point of this blog, keep us from being present to the now.

All happiness occurs in the present.  To be present, we must live in the present.  Be aware that everything occurs in the present.  If we think back on something from the past, what ever the thought, “good”  or “bad”  or “indifferent,”  we will find deepest happiness in the now by being grateful for that experience.   (See also:  http://choose.ws/2009/07/31/quotes/bill-martuge/the-truth-about-gratitude/yucel/  )

Anything which may happen in the future, we may look forward to.  However, care must be taken to do this without any attachment.  Again, gratitude for where we are, places us in happiness, which only occurs in the now.  ( See also:  http://choose.ws/2009/05/01/positive-pivots/hello-world/yucel/ )

That is, while looking forward to something may feel good, and through LOA may cause it to occur, any good feeling happens in the now.  And, any attachment to the outcome, may well cause disappointment in some now, and will in the present, detract from a true happiness, which results from gratitude, in the now, for what is.

The key to all happiness is gratitude in the now.

Gratefully yours,

Yucel

 

 

Becoming Who We Are

Leave a reply

“Truths For Living: The more generous we are, the more joyous we become. The more cooperative we are, the more valuable we become. The more enthusiastic we are, the more productive we become. The more serving we are, the more prosperous we become. The more outgoing we are, the more helpful we become. The more curious we are, the more creative we become. The more patient we are, the more understanding we become. The more persistent we are, the more successful we become.”

                                   –William Arthur Ward

 And the more willing we are the more of a blessing to others we become.

May you always be determined to be what, by your very nature, you already are: A blessing to the world.

Love

Bill Martuge

Denial of responsibility large factor in unhappiness

Leave a reply

Happiness and Denial.  How are these related?

Inversely I would think.  

As we have often discussed, allowing, accepting and gratitude are on the path of actualization of happiness. 

Contrawise it would seem, denial of our TOTAL personal responsibility in the condition of our lives are paving stones with which highways to our miseries may be built.

Journey on these highways of denial long and you may find then a growing misery founded firmly in this victim mentality. 

Why is this victimhood?  If we are not responsible, the fates or evil doers must be, yes? 

This kind of thinking builds denial quickly into a foundation upon which our now righteously indignant victimhood stands. 

We cannot when feeling like a victim feel good, except for the temporary pang of recognition we receive when we are acknowledged for how much our lives suck.  

Or perhaps when we find the holy grail, another victim who’s afflicted similarly to us and thus suffers perhaps as we do.   Sweet is suffering shared.  Isn’t it?   

Misery likes company and as it pursues company can spread like the contagion of plague.    Ever noticed?

This 15 minutes of fame through recognition for having a sucky victim life, however long it may actually be, is frosted with pain, grown lighter only by its recognition, which paradoxically, makes the pain the more real and permanent.

More freeing, more happy, more joyous, more free are we when we take full responsibility for the state of our lives and choose to change our lives by changing ourselves.

We can change our lives thorugh changing our thoughts, by doing the work which changes our thinking and by the actions and feelings which accompany these changes.

We all need love where we have acted like victims.   We have all acted like victims at one time or perhaps more honestly many times…  We feel all the more well when we get the love we need for our foolish actions and behave like the bright powerful responsbile spirits that we are.   Wouldn’t you agree?

Our thoughts are powerful in the journey of our lives.  We might journey the more peacefully if we take care to be responsible in our thinking. 

Gratefully and responsibly yours,

Yucel

Sowing Seeds of Peace

Leave a reply

“Lord make me an instrument
of your peace.
Where there is hatred,
let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy.”

 –St. Francis of Assisi

 Today we can sow seeds of peace with every thought we think and every word we speak. We can usher in a time when the power of love replaces the love of power because we have within us the divine ability to determine with every thought that such a holy state of love exists. Peace is our responsibility. It begins with us and the love and peace we are willing to bestow upon our fellow man, not in some distant time when all is well, but right now, in this moment, when it is needed most.

May you always be willing to sow seeds of love and peace. 

Love

Bill Martuge

Gardening for Life

Leave a reply

“All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.”

                                                                            –Abraham Lincoln

Creating a better life is a lot like gardening. We make certain we’ve planted the seed thoughts we want, pluck any weed thoughts that sprout, water our dreams with daily attention, and fertilize with joyful expectation. It’s amazing how quickly a beautiful life will grow when we pay attention to these simple gardening principles.

May you always be willing to tend the garden of your life.

Love

Bill Martuge