The Secret to Life

The account I write is faithful and true that many will not believe, for I still cannot.

It all started not very long ago. An ethereal figure, one who knew all, who came from the ether, told me the key to everything.

I will tell you here now what that key was that he relayed to me, though many will not believe. In truth, I did not believe myself, at first, but in time, I saw I had nothing to lose for giving it a try.

He told me my job was to be happy. It was to find joy where ever, however, I could, and to focus on that, especially when things were bleak, when they were not going as I had hoped. It was easy he said, and I forgot it as quickly as he spoke it to me.

Then one day, as I was cursing my lot in life, wondering what I had ever done to deserve such despair, his words came back to me. My job was to be happy, to look for joy.

With the last bit of hope that lay in me, I gave it a try.

I felt foolish being happy with all that was occurring. And it was a challenge. Each time my thoughts became heavy or focused on the external things I did not like, I, with great force of will, disengaged so that nothing was in my head. At first, this was all that I could manage.

Eventually, though, in trickles, joy started to creep in. It started with noticing a pretty tree while out on a walk with my dog. Then seeing a flower in bloom so bright against the greenery surrounding it. Little by little, one happy thought by one happy thought, the pathway opened up.

It took practice of course. When the sad came, and it still did make no mistake, it was easier to let it go. It was easier to see the things around me that lit me up. Even among the downtrodden, garbage, and unkindness in the world, I became lit up.

The more I practiced, the easier and easier it became. Until one day, it dawned on me. I had not had a sad or heavy thought in days, it may have even been weeks.

I became curious, which led me to play with this bit of infomation from the ether in a new way. If focusing on the pretty things in the world could change my internal thoughts to joy, what would, or could, it do if I used my imagination to think of a life I would like to be living?

The possibilites were so exciting to me that I had a hard time settling down to start to create, in my head, a life for me.

What it came down to was imagining events that occurred that would bring me joy if they were to occur. Make sense?

At this point, it did make sense to look at the so called problems in my life. I did not dwell on them though, nor did I look at them with any emotion attached. It was simply a scientific exercise. Analytical. Pragmatic.

Money was my first concern. No matter what anyone says, money is something we do require if we are to live a life that is comfortable, worry-free, healthy, and with endless choice.

I could not believe at this point that there was any one thing more worhty of changing in my life than that. Because, you see, from that point, all is possible.

When I first experimented, I tried thinking of ways money came to me (always in the past tense please, as if it has already occurred). That was futile, as I knew my thinking was limited, and also, disbelief would creep in.

I simply imagined my life as it would be had I all the money in the world. Or in my world. It did not matter HOW it came to me, that did not seem to be my job. My job was to be happy, and it made me very happy imagining my life, where I lived, what my days might look like, the things I might choose, with money.

I know the people in my life who's brain worked differently than mine thought I was crazy, or worse, an ostrich with my head in the sand.

But I knew. The ethereal being had told me. And I held on to that job of being happy as if my life depended on it. For I knew it did.

Then, gratitude came. It followed on the heels of joy. And when I added it to the mix of thoughts I had, and words I would speak, things sped up.

I started receiving more things to be grateful for which in turn produced more happiness. The disbelief that came now was me wondering how no one else was screaming this from the rooftops!

I continued with this for ages.

Eventually, money came to me in ways that surprised me, even now, as I sit here by my pool writing this.

If you take anything away from what I write, take this:

Focus on the things you would like to see, not what you don't. Look for things to feel good about. And definitely find things to be grateful for every single day.

It may not happen instantaneously, and it may not happen as it happened for me, but one day, you may just find yourself thinking back saying WOW, that happened.