"The Art of Happiness"

The theme for this Fall Issue of SoulArts Reflections, “The Art of Happiness”, has been a challenging and an intriguing one for me -- even though it was I who committed this issue of SoulArts Reflections to it! “Happiness” has never been very much a part of my vocabulary; not a goal for my life (at least not consciously); not even my sense of what truly most matters in life! …So why was “happiness” suddenly here, asking to be looked at? …And why did I make it the theme of an entire publication?  I could only hope and pray it was Divine intervention at play and not some new weird menopausal havoc!

I hope that as you read and contemplate along with me on the art of happiness, that you will likewise be challenged to see past any old or unconscious thoughts and beliefs about “happiness” so that you may graciously step through the doorway to your own greater truth, freedom, and peace! 

This quarterly journal is written to be a home processing guide for discovering your own inner guidance and truth. It uses the art of inquiry (or an objective inner contemplation or meditation on a question) to help release that which is false in each of our lives and thereby to realize and empower that which is true. It is like working with a Zen monk or seeking a wise elder… only we are doing it here through the demonstrated application of these reflections to stimulate your own inner wisdom through the active art of inquiry.

Those of you who have worked with me one-on-one in direct apprenticeship and private retreat intensives know, first-hand, that my life work is absolutely dedicated to facilitating the art of being wholly (holy) you!  This work together is one of listening and responding to the language of Soul. My intention and passion behind this quarterly journal is that it offer a personally-engaging process and a growing community where we can walk together and share this amazing journey of a lifetime – that is, the journey and process of becoming more consciously able to tap into our own inner wisdom and direction for living life to its fullest.

I am honored to introduce and share with you, the personal reflections that this community of subscribers has offered so far to this forum for inquiry!  Thank you! I have printed as many as I could and edited as little as possible. Each who has offered his and her own reflections, in so doing, further activates the light of conscious insight and inner wisdom available to you! (Key point.)  

For those of you who are new subscribers and therefore did not have the advantage of the last 3 months to inquire and reflect within your own life upon what “the art of happiness” means to you, I offer and suggest that you use the content of this journal as a stepping off point and do just that. Take some time over the next few weeks to look into one or more of these questions:

I hope you won’t just read what is here, and then put the whole thing away, forgotten. Rather, I hope you will really ponder what is here; take time to circle words or phrases that you have “a charge around” (whether it be disagreement, confusion, curiosity, or inspiration) and then engage your own living spirit to see what you discover about yourself!

What makes you happy? What gets in the way of your happiness?  Is happiness a choice? Is happiness a core value for your life? Does seeking happiness support positive growth or create greater dissatisfaction?

The reason for engaging in an inquiry like this is to “make conscious” the secret motives and unconscious beliefs that influence our living experiences. When we uncover our hidden motives and unconscious beliefs, we become conscious of the things that stand in the way of our true joy and our unique genius. …When we become “awake” to the totality of Self, then we have something of real power and service to offer our families, community and our world!

This shared home inquiry process is a powerful way to find or regain your path if you feel you’ve somehow missed, lost or come off it; to deepen and clarify your way if you’ve come to another one of those important crossroads in life sometimes called a life crisis or the dark night of soul.

If you are struggling with depression, stress, lack of clarity, dissatisfaction, or despair, then this inquiry into happiness will be an especially powerful inquiry for you if you jump in and really make it a quest for looking more deeply.

It is also a way for those of you who are already themselves teachers, healers, therapists, and life coaches to remain steadfast to the ongoing inner work of vulnerable introspection, humility, and the intuitive realization of one called to such responsibility.

If you take this contemplative process up in earnest, and use this inquiry to help awaken and stir your own living quest about what the art of happiness means in your life, I know you will discover that which stands in the way of your truth. And by seeing what stands in the way of your truth, your peace, (dare I say) your “happiness” … you will come to know the All of You and “the peace that passes all understanding” when we finally shed our darkened fears and dare to stand in the light of our essential Self. 

What greater value can you offer yourself, your God, your family and our world than your deepest truth of character?  If you make this process your way of life, you will in fact find, and offer to Life, an unimaginable brilliance that is yours uniquely to give and delight in.

So with this preface, I offer you the Fall Quarter of SoulArts Reflections: “The Art of Happiness”. 

May you be abundantly gifted with that which is most lasting, deep and true as you inquire, allow, and meet the All of your Self that lives and breathes within your reflections…

Namaste …In Recognition,

Go to Ronda's Reflections "The Art of Happiness"

Here are the contributions from our tribe of SoulArts subscribers for this Fall issue! 

I hope that you will also take up this "Journey of a Lifetime" and share your quest with us in the next issue...
See more on Submittals...
See Ronda's Reflections...

- Gienne Gabriels:
For me connection makes me happy, connection to family, friends, self.
I feel happiest when I can openly create a life that connects me with my inner self and I can express from that source.

When my values are aligned with my choices I feel in balance. I also believe that happiness comes from a grateful heart and the pursuit of being grateful.

Being happy is a choice.

- Jessica Soske:
Happiness is something I cannot effort my way into. Sometimes I find myself trying to create a feeling of happiness with intense purposefulness, only to discover that it becomes more elusive, the more I try to obtain it.

Most often, happiness comes to me when I am in a relaxed state of being, acceptance or surrender. When there is no effort or direction driving me, suddenly I will find myself filled to overflowing with joy at seeing my rabbit leap or watching the finches at the bird feeder. In this state, everything seems to feed the feeling of happiness.

I have learned that certain practices help me to create the internal environment in which happiness can flourish, such as meditation, prayer, walking, dance.  But none of these practices in and of themselves “produce” happiness for me. 

For me, happiness is about allowing.  It is not so much about what I do to find it as what I do that keeps it away.

~~

- Lanny Poffo:
Those who live in resentment will never be happy.
Those who live in gratitude will never be unhappy.

~~

On Happiness:
A Lost and Found Little Life Story
by
Vincenzo Santiglia:
www.thetayoga.com

(edited from Italian)

All of a sudden I found myself trembling, crying, small, desperate, confused, filled with fear. My eyes were looking into that silent and noisy crowded and empty street. I was frozen in frantic looking for something familiar. I was lost.

I felt like a puppy, a shivering little cat, until a woman asked me with such care to tell her what happened. Coming out of the involuntary paralysis, I exhaled it out: “ I am lost! I got lost! I lost my mom, my grand mom, my father, my home…I am lost, I… I…m”

She gently took my hand and helped me find and wind my way back home where I was embraced in kisses and held in the arms of my loving family.

Since that time, I have been lost, confused, sad, depressed, scared, and desperate many times through my life. But I have never felt abandoned. I just remembered to tell my name and my address to the Universe. “I am Here! It is me! It is Who I am! I am here! I am sad and I am here! I am afraid and I am here! I am confused and I am here! Please take me home!”

A lovely compassionate female voice tells me : “You are already home, the Earth is your home” A warm and strong father-like voice  answers me that all I need to do is to tell the Universe my desires! The voice says “Create your Home with the mortar of your feelings, your creative thoughts and your actions.”

In my mid-twenties I met an old gentlemen who devoted his life to sharing this simple message: “Happiness is your home, it is who you really are”. This simple Truth has helped me to return innumerable times, again and again, to Happiness, my true Home, who I really am! His name was Jean Klein. I thank him and the countless souls who are doing the same in their lives. Thanks Ronda!

~~

-- Amy Pharr:
I get mad at the way our government is spending my tax money. I become sad when I hear about all the people who are being injured at war; about children who have been abducted; and about God being slowly erased off the earth. I get depressed over feeling trapped in a relationship and seeing no way out-

And then I find my happiness when I realize the madness, the sadness, and the depression was merely an unwanted separation from my true nature.

That state of mind where I can and do break free of the doldrums is when I am fully aware of my uniqueness and the choices I make in life. Happiness is the little spot within myself that knows I’m free in my choosing...

~~

- Cathryn Sacks:
I believe the life search for who you really are (aside from all
convention and social formation) is the seed to happiness.

We need to live together in a social structure to survive, however the real gold and mystery is in you! The exciting adventure of the path to one’s authentic self, is, happiness.

~~

- Diane Yamamoto Skowron,
Chassom: The Ceremony of Tea:
To me, the "Art of Happiness" is a devotional, nurturing, and loving presence that extends from hope's core, shepherds and celebrates life force, and roots itself in the contentedness of what is, with grace and beauty.

- Theo Sijtsma:
(Translated)

Happiness is not something that you can obtain; it is like the air we breathe, it cannot be grasped and held onto.

Nobody can own happiness and it is funny to me that people talk like it is possible to manufacture happiness. And when I ask how, there comes no answer. It is just another belief that blocks them. What is not seen is that happiness is just here all the time, but overlooked. True happiness does not depend on anything. Happiness is like the sun, always shining even above the clouds.

~~

And as I drifted into the light, I Remembered happiness.
This happiness can only be known when you are your True Self.

~~

- Tracey Huguley:
As I think over the past year and a half and the journey I’ve been on, I’m amazed. 

In May of 2006 I felt a strong sense to look for a “spiritual retreat” for myself and my husband to go to. It was going to be his 55 birthday and I felt I wanted to do something to improve our marriage. We were having some problems in our relationship and I didn’t have the answers. So I did a search on the internet and found Ojai Soul Arts and Ronda LaRue . From the first time I saw her website with its soothing music, beautiful pictures and writings I knew I had to go there. Something was at work that was way beyond me and my marital problems, but my “mind” was unaware of this at the time. That was a good thing. If my “mind” would have been aware I would have never gone.

I arranged a weekend retreat with Ronda and started doing some of the prep work.  I will admit I was a little confused by all of this talk of asking my “soul” what it wanted to show me at this time. But I thought, “Oh well it couldn’t hurt anything.”  I did the exercises and waited until the weekend we were scheduled to go. As it worked out (quite perfectly) my husband had to work the first day so I went up alone and he joined me the second night. I fell in love with the place and Ronda immediately. It was like I was reuniting with a long lost friend.

I went to bed the first night but I tossed and turned most of the night. I watched the dark night, somehow knowing this was a reflection of my longing. I finally got a few hours of sleep and met Ronda in the meditation hut for a “soul speak” session in the morning. Here I journeyed into the deepest part of my soul/heart with Ronda gently guiding me.

She asked me what I saw or sensed at one point, and with tears rolling down my cheeks I said, “ I see an orphan girl locked in a room.” She asked, “What does she want to do?” I said, “Come out.”  And with this special guidance of soul, the little orphan girl slowly opened the door and came out into the light…

What does journeying into the deepest parts of my heart and making art that symbolizes my journey at a soul intensive have to do with happiness or life? That would be my question if I didn’t experience it first hand.

What this has done for me is it has revealed to me the deepest wounding of my heart and the things that have kept me from living the life I was created to live. Fear, debt, responsibilities, busyness, kids, job, husband and a ton of other excuses have kept me trapped.  It’s like the wounds have fed the excuses, which have kept me further away from my true destiny.

What I’ve discovered going deeper into my own spiritual self discovery with Ronda’s gentle facilitation over this past year and a half , is that the pursuit of happiness is not so much trying to “be happy” but having the courage to embrace everything life has to offer.

It is having the courage to continue “the journey of life” even when I don’t know what is going to happen. It is facing life with all its uncertainties. What I learned from Ronda is to continue on the “journey”, and when something is revealed, do something symbolic to show my recognition (create art, dance, walk in nature, write, take photographs, etc…) and create a ceremony to honor what I’ve seen, celebrate it, cherish it and release it to be what it is to become…

The “art of happiness” to me is having the courage to continue on in relationship with the unknowing and to notice all the blessings that happen along the way and in the most unexpected ways.

There’s so much more I could say. And one day I will, in a book. (wink, wink)  But for now what has happened as a result of trusting and following my soul is I’ve found a path of discovery. A path with no rhyme or reason as far as my “mind” would say. But my soul….it has something else to say. It says, “Follow me and I will show you the way.”

~~

- Carol Ackles … and Ronda’s amazing Mom:

Day 1 --- Pleasures in the marvels of nature. 
Happiness is recognizing  the contentment of a wild flower; the purpose of a wave; the freedom of a soaring seagull; the majesty of a storm; the metamorphosis of a caterpillar; the playfulness of a muskrat squirrel-baby.  Happiness is allowing the wholeness of the moment full expression – being in a state of reciprocal  relationship with the ISness of life.   

Day 2 --- Getting an idea and making something of it. 
Happiness is the fun of uninhibited and unique creative expression thru self discovery, surprising yourself by meeting yourself in a new acquaintance, and finding an exciting and intrinsically rewarding form for expression.

Day 3 --- Stillness
Happiness is being able to be still enough for long enough to hear the inner voice of truth – the voice of infinite intelligence, happiness being  the by-product of hearing and following the prompting of divine Mind, or the spirit within. There’s a happiness in the zone of trust which allows me to find contentment in being able to flow harmoniously with the currents of life.   

Gratitude is happiness.

Thanks to a thunder/lightning storm I’ve got to shut down the computer ---- definite happiness!!!!!!!! LOVE! Mom

I offer this personal and vulnerable section of the SoulArts Reflections, because sharing our own personal vulnerability is where the deeper truth resides and can grow and offer its many gifts. I learn from your vulnerable truth, you learn from mine. Truth expands as our consciousness grows. And our lives transform before our eyes as our greater inner seeing stimulates new authentic actions that give honor to what is realized. 

Sharing in this personal way also helps to point toward ways you can deepen your own process. It can help you to see past some of your own stumbling blocks standing in the way of your own truth, life direction, and peace of mind. You see, when we really “break through” to our own inner way – and share (i.e., manifest our insight into the world), then inner healing, life direction, and peace are the natural and automatic byproducts! (Key point.)

As I said in the Introduction, when I put out the theme for this Falls’s issue of SoulArts Reflections, I have to admit that a part of me was surprised – if not a little confronted by this self-appointed subject matter! 

Happiness has never really been a “goal” for my life (at least not a conscious one!)  I’ve always felt that the search for happiness was more or less an externally-focused, somewhat superficial misunderstanding of the deeper meaning of life. To me the deeper meaning of life has had much more to do with finding “Truth” (if truth can be found). If I was in the movie The Matrix and offered the pill of “happy illusion” or the pill of “truth”, I’d definitely have to pick the pill of truth even if it scared the (you know what) out of me! I have always been more interested in cultivating conscious awareness than with managing, manipulating, or needing any specific affective state or mood. (oh boy! Humility ready to pounce!)

I went on an inward search these past 3 months. This was stimulated in part and in truth by a lingering struggle with depression, made absurd, given the great beauty and meaning that surrounds my life.  The worries with finances, the sorrows over the death of my ex-husband last spring, and (I don’t know) just the day-to-day lists not getting done were somehow overshadowing my amazing depth of love for my work, the miracles of transformation I was seeing with clients, the natural peacefulness of my lifestyle. How could this be?! But here it was. I knew from experience that there was something very important to discover from this nagging ill-ease … if I would give it real inquiry.

I read each of the books that I recommended to you in the Summer issue so you could join me in this inquiry. And I had a few (pardon the expression but it’s a good one here) “come to Jesus” meetings with myself in terms of facing up to my own patterns, beliefs,  and potential blocks to allowing the experience of joy to be a bigger part of my life. I really studied (internally as well as culturally) the questions of to what extent we have a choice in being happy; what blocks happiness, and how does happiness fit in with the larger call to a life dedicated to spiritual truth and the living expression of one’s wholeness? …Good questions. Good process…

If I’m more vulnerably honest with you, as I started to read and inquire into the difference between people who are happy and people who are not, when I looked at the research on happiness and the predictors of happiness, it was pretty mind blowing! (I will leave you to read this body of research and see for yourself! If happiness is eluding you,, and you don’t know why, read these books and really take a look within!)

After reading these materials and reflecting inwardly on my own thinking, beliefs, and unconscious habits, what I discovered buried underneath the “spiritual belief” that I was “above and beyond” being attached to happiness, is that happiness (and its lack, often called depression, boredom, confusion ….dissatisfaction) is something that I have struggled with a good deal of my life, and without really fully recognizing it. I realized I had held a certain little belief about happiness that was a cover-up for a certain conditioned inner dread. Together, this previously hidden dynamic was, in effect, holding me hostage from my true self and withholding my greater radiance in the world. …And that, my dear ones, is the transformational power of inquiry to reclaim one’s greater wholeness and thus free one’s unique genius. You see, I had just put a light on an area of “subconscious” stress-making, depression-inducing beliefs that kept me from seeing a deeper truth.

The How and Why of Personal Insight & Transformation:
This is why I always have an inquiry theme or concept of contemplation going on at any given time as I go about my daily living… and why I am encouraging you to do the same thing! This kind of active and receptive inner watching and reflecting is the doorway to healing insight, true transformation, clarity of purpose, and compassionate, mature wisdom. The doorway to our Divinity is through the vulnerable humility of our attention.

We’ve become sloppy with our lives and with the use of our minds and emotions, and then wonder why we’re unhappy. This is not surprising when you stop to realize that we have not been trained in our culture about how to master the mind and to open the heart through the art of conscious living. It’s no wonder we struggle so. We’ve literally never been shown the ways of consciousness and how to access our responsible co-creative power! We let our mind and attached emotions lead us around through life by the nose, and think that whatever we think or feel IS being conscious …and that we’re really trying. This following the mind and emotions around is not conscious living and yes, we are really trying (just in the wrong ways!).  It’s really this simple: When we learn to see past the limitations of the mind and its attached emotions, then do we discover our true power and rightful joy.  (See my article on the real purpose of meditation for more.)

The art of living (the art of happiness too!) is a never-ending and constant vigilance in conscious Presence. It is how we grow and evolve and live with conscious authentic character and service in our world. This is also what distinguishes a gifted mentor from merely a well-schooled technician. Real authority (authorship) is one born out of the realness and humility of direct experience through inner seeing. This is true of any profession ….or of any kind of relationship, whatsoever, for that matter (a worthy contemplation in itself).

The courage of self-observation through a deep and soulful inquiry literally has the immediate power to illuminate one’s places of stagnant darkness. Making oneself more conscious (moment by moment using inquiry and observation as we go about our daily living) is a HUGE pioneering act of co-creative brilliance! It is the radiance you are meant to live as!

When you gain insight from an active inquiry, and you give it your conscious recognition and honoring attention, you have literally stepped into the soulful realms of inner wisdom. In the moment of in-sight, you have just accessed the flowing power of your true presence of being! This is exactly how the alchemy of awakening and the healing power of transformation work!  And, on the worldly level, this is what it takes to become a real force of evolutionary, radiant light in our world.

It takes humility to look honestly at oneself.  And that very humility is where the Divine has its healing and transforming power to fuel your gifts into the world!

Here’s the secret: when we meet ourselves in an honest “eyes wide open” and curious self-discovery, we have just freed ourselves from the very thing keeping us blocked.  When we actually meet and see and accept our self we have just accessed our greatest inner source of transforming wisdom, strength, and compassionate power.

To put this another way, when you can see something of your own hidden beliefs and motives, and the operations and antics of the human mind, you are no longer trapped in this human condition, because something other than the human condition is required to see the limits of the human condition! This is the biggest breakthrough for people who come to work with me: the ability to see past the limitation (and the “looping paralysis”) of the thinking mind! 

You can’t see the limits of the mind by using the mind!  So you might ask yourself Who or What is seeing in the moment of “aha” when we, like an excited electron, suddenly leap to an entirely new level of self realization? This is the age old question that sets one free… and why I offer you the path of inquiry. (Are you sensing a glimpse of this?)

The art of being truly wholly YOU; of seeing and accepting yourself (foibles and all) is (paradoxically) your only real shot at happiness when you really look at it!  

Being whole is the art and the act of shining the light of Consciousness (your Authentic Self , your Divinity) onto your darkness (the conditioned ego states of confusion, strife, separation, dissatisfaction, worry etc.).

When you find and shine the light of Consciousness onto any situation, the darkness no longer remains in the dark. It is seen. When you shine the light of Consciousness onto your days, the black and white ego states of confusion, strife, dissatisfaction, stress, good/bad (and so on) are seen within the light of something fundamentally and radically bigger: they are seen from the perspective of the master artisan who gathers each of the ingredients of his life and combines and mixes and paints them into a master work of art with a bold and honoring celebration of color, grace, movement, and genius.

**

The Art of Happiness:
So what is “the art of happiness” to me at this time in my life and through this process of inquiry we have embarked upon together in this forum?  I have the feeling this is going to sound Zen:  The art of happiness to me, is when happiness and not-happiness cease to hold my focus of attention, but when I remain attentive to truthfully seeing and curiously contemplating where I am. It is in such curious looking and truthful seeing, that we break free, so that what is authentic can be expressed in its spontaneous right action, here in the present living moment.  This is the ultimate act of responsibility (respond ability). We forget this again and again, but we are only ever really alive in the NOW…So to be responsibly in relationship to what is really being asked of you in the NOW (and not acting out of habit or conditioned expectations) is the key to your joy and evolving creative purpose.

The artistry of Seeing is, itself, the happiness!  Happiness is the art of flowing; the art of change; the art of being conscious; the art of allowing life – all of it – to show its great Breathing.

I know some of you will probably feel agitated by this last paragraph.  It niggles a part of me too.  So let me say one more thing about this whole subject and from the “other side”—from the very difficult side of depression, struggle, confusion and dissatisfaction.

How to Work with Depression:
I do not in any way deny or diminish the tremendous power and incredibly difficult challenges of depression. Feeling “unhappy”, and particularly feeling depressed, is very debilitating to life and to living. My own genetic and biochemical predisposition toward depression has in fact been one of my greatest teachers as I have fought against it, tried to accept it, attempted all the various techniques to overcome the drag of depression. I have practically earned a self-taught doctorate degree in biochemistry and nutrition in my research to get a handle on the real debilitating effects of depression.  …And still I say it has been my greatest teacher and a tremendous gift!

Each of our personal struggles, when met head on, becomes our greatest teacher holding the key to a tremendous gift.  Amazingly, our struggles hold the key to our true freedom of being and our unique genius! The trick is to begin to work and see holistically and soulfully. This is precisely what I help facilitate in the private intensives. When we allow an open-hearted consciousness to have voice over the noise-making of the circular mind, it takes surprisingly little work to find our true life direction, healing, and peace!

To work holistically with oneself, requires becoming adept at discerning two levels of our being: The physical form and the spiritual self. We must dance with both if we are to become what I call Holy Whole.

In the physical level I include our biology, our psychology, our social selves, and our sense of the bi-polar opposites that come with the territory of being in the physical form. On this level, we are right and wise to become conscious of our inner thoughts, our early conditioning, the health of our body, and our larger responsibilities to our families and community. In fact addressing our wellbeing from the level of the physical is essential …but alone, it is not sufficient.

So yes! Understand and take active responsibility for creating healthy thoughts, and nourishing a healthy body and caring for others. In fact after many years of study and personal experience, I am convinced that we cannot fully know or express our true destinies, nor can we effectively extend ourselves to others in meaningful ways,  until or unless we have also addressed and taken responsibility to care for our health and wellbeing.  The self discipline and self love required to care for and nourish ourselves, is an act of sacred responsibility in service to Life.

A Wireless Cultural Malaise in the Making:
Today, with our over-processed diets, proclivity for a daily “Starbucks”, social over-use of alcohol, lack of time under sun, sky and air, insufficient sleep, and more and more anonymous social relations, we are literally creating an excited and wired-out nervous system that is neurologically incapable of feeling good, balanced and connected!

We are literally overloading our immune systems while depleting our complex hormone systems of balance and weakening our organs of detoxification… And then we wonder why we’re feeling sluggish, depressed, exhausted, unconnected …and wired!  So we take pills, grab another caffeine or sugar fix and keep going. This high-paced disregard and/or ignorance about our own natural healing systems and how to nourish and protect them, becomes a vicious cycle:  we’re too toxic to get the energy and optimism to change, and we can’t change until we feel or find the energy and optimism.  When you’re depressed or stressed, exercise is the last thing that sounds good, and probably the a#1 most important thing to get out and do!  Diet and exercise remain the primary and essential tools available to each of us for restoring our health and maintaining our wellbeing.

Phyical Approaches to Happiness: Some Specific Recommendations for Healing Depression, Addiction, and a Toxic Biochemistry:
There’s a very real biochemical component to many if not all of our emotions. And this brain chemistry is altered by our thoughts as well as how we nourish and take care of our bodies.

Thanks to my own personal experience with the shocking impact of significant hormonal changes during the change of life at mid-life (which made the awkwardness of puberty a “walk in the park”),  I have made quite a study of neurophysiology and the effect of hormones and brain chemistry on our sense of wellbeing.  Addressing this physical functioning can be absolutely critical to one’s wellbeing!

If you suffer from chronic unhappiness, depression or despair, mid-life crisis and difficulties of menopause (and for the record: I take back every thing I EVER said about “wimpy menopausal women”!) you really owe it to yourself to research and understand the critical role of diet, exercise and the functioning of our amazing nervous and endocrine systems!  To mine the gold in these debilitating experiences, one must really address health from the physical, psychological, social, and the spiritual levels. 

A Note on Brain Chemistry, Endocrine Functioning and Hormone Balance:
Probably the biggest breakthrough that is revolutionizing our understanding and treatment of depression is an area called orthomolecular medicine.  Google it and follow the track… It is absolutely fascinating.  Along these same lines, one can easily now order and take a home-based lab test that will show you what is working or not working in your own brain chemistry (including the level of the calming “feel good” brain chemicals, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA and so on) in your body. You can then obtain a customized supplement protocol for building and restoring that which is depleted in your system.

I encourage anyone who is looking for an alternative to antidepressants or who is seeking a holistic or natural approach to curing depression to make this one of your starting places on the physical front (with appropriate professional care of course).  (See  https://www.neurorelief.com/  for how to order your own home-based neuro testing.)  In addition, if your own physician is not familiar with this pioneering level of testing (and many are still not) there are a number of physicians and certified nutritionists you can locate on the internet and who can help with the testing and personalized program. The woman I have worked with has an extensive content site and will customize a protocol with you: (See http://evenstaronline.com/brainchemistry/index.html )

In addition, the herb St John’s Wort has gained quite a bit of recent recognition from blind research studies, where it has been shown to be as effective, in many cases more effective, than the pharmaceutical antidepressants on the market, and without the side affects. The brand called St. John’s Positive Thoughts by Source Naturals offers a good additional nutritional support in addition to the herb. And I know many people who have noticed its physical support toward feeling clearer and better in a matter of days.

Psychological and Social Approaches to Happiness:
In particular, I recommend the books I suggested in the past summer issue for understanding and addressing the psychological forces that influence and effect one’s sense of wellbeing. (See last month's suggested reading list in the Summer Issue of Soul Arts.) These books offer great and inspirational insights into the core values and human character of spirit that it takes to live a fulfilling and happy life. They will awaken a lot inside of you if you make them an active inquiry for unleashing your own unconscious beliefs!  In addition, an emerging discipline called “positive psychology” is making tremendous strides in providing a deeper understanding of the art of happiness. I highly recommend you do your own research into these.

So yes! If you seek wellbeing, and are suffering from depression, or chronic unhappiness, by all means take stock in what you can do on a physical level to boost your natural healthy functioning.  But don’t stop there… because what you really seek lives in the breath of Consciousness, and ultimately not in the objects of form…

When we approach life’s challenges from the physical, social and psychological levels only, we remain forever on the sea-saw of duality. On this “worldly level” of attention, we can only have very human experience of outwardly projected cause and effect on the roller coaster game of wanting this and not wanting that; of seeking this and avoiding that. We will never find the real peace and contentment of a lasting happiness here very simply because nothing lasting exists in the physical!  We know this, but boy do we forget it…

Enter Soul…

Happiness and the Soulful Artistry of Living:
Accessing our inner wisdom requires a subtle attunement to the language of Soul. And that is precisely why it so often takes a deep longing of the heart, a crisis in the home, a dis-ease of the body/mind to break through our dogmatic mind-barriers and finally seek, hear and learn the musical language of our more vast intelligence!  Its truly a miracle I have the honor of seeing at each private retreat.  And that’s why my work starts with awakening the gift lying underneath the strife.

If, and whenever, your sense of life opens to include the great Mysteries of the spiritual domain, an intuitive intelligence of expanded awareness way beyond the limitations of physical form and the thinking mind can be tapped into as inner guidance and direct knowing. This vast intelligence is not arrived at through the mind -- and never can be! …Trying to “get it” with the mind is exactly what keeps us unhappy!

During the course of my evolving life work as a spiritual mentor, and through many years of psychological and spiritual study, I have increasingly come to see and understand the lopsided danger (individually and culturally) of rejecting and hiding from the important messengers that ride on the wings of what could be called the negative, dark and unwanted parts of ourselves.

We have become so culturally-biased toward a consumerism of “fix-its” that we are unwittingly destroying our individual sanity, dispiriting our souls, and damaging our collective wellbeing… if not the planet too.  In our mechanistically biased and linear mind-set, we’ve become addicted to “the war against” and “anti-isms” (anti-depressants, anti-aging crèmes, anti-fat pills) …anything other than change the root cause inherent in our behavior and our psyche to release and realize our soul’s brilliance!

The problem is, whenever and wherever we try to “fix” something by rejecting or burying one part of experience through a one-sighted and willful grasping of its opposite, we have just missed the real opportunity for true healing and the alchemy of reclaiming our deeper wholeness.  In fact, as many of you have heard me say in my books and other writings or in private mentoring, the Way to wholeness is through the doorway of our wounds – those things we hide from or cause us fear, embarrassment, and denial of ourselves. 

To me, happiness (or any other quality) when sought after solely from a self-fearing kind of neediness or as an end goal in itself, is an act of closing off from one’s deeper integration and wholeness of Spirit.  …And ironically, when achieving happiness is treated in this partial way, it has been separated from the wholeness, and can therefore never be truly realized at all …except on the level of fleeting fancies that will come and then go again and again and again. 

When happiness is our focal object of desire, it will remain just that: A fear-driven and self-separating desire for whatever next object we hope will give us happiness. We will forever be riding the roller coaster of desire …and thus never be truly happy. We’ll be high when the object of happiness is present, and frustrated when the object of our happiness has disappeared, or has lost its luster, or has become replaced by yet another desire for something more...

What am I saying then? What is “the art of happiness”?

When we commit to honest self-awareness of what lies behind and beyond our thoughts, beliefs, words and deeds, this very act of making-conscious, transforms our experience quite naturally into an artful livelihood of adventurous contentment. In the act of making ourselves more conscious, our lives become the art that they are meant to be. 

When we realize we are in fact our own work of art, and when we learn how to live within and celebrate that realization, all of our unrealized potential becomes available to us. (That’s really what the trendy film, “The Secret” and its somewhat emergent treatment of the law of attraction is more deeply getting at.)

Each of the conditions, circumstances, and experiences in our life is the material from which we are called to create our unique master work. Until we learn how to see and then mix color from the palate of our experience (good bad and ugly), all we can do is draw our lives in black and white: seeking this and avoiding that.  It will never stop, this seeking for more of one thing and less of another. Happiness will only come and go until you learn the true art of living. 

When your life – and everything about it, becomes the material that you gather and selectively use in a conscious artistry or tapestry-making, then can the real and flowing colors of living (rather than the black and white objects of temporal happiness) be realized.

Dis-ease, despair, depression and dissatisfaction actually offer sacred keys to those who are drawn by their suffering to seek and discover the doorway that releases the limits of the mind and offers the grace of one’s reclaimed wholeness.

There is a very important (in fact an essential) “harvest” to be gained from one’s difficult or “negative” life experiences. When we stay attached to seeking happiness as a strategy to make our lives more comfortable rather than actually discovering how happiness is crafted from the materials of our own unique life experiences, then we have unknowingly just shut the door to the very peace and contentment we seek!

When we make our life ever more conscious by reclaiming (not disguising or dismissing) our humility, then we will know our true selves; then we will become enabled and ennobled with the peace, joy and contentment that we have been seeking to find through all the various happiness-purchasing enterprises of the mind.

Here’s a question:

Where, do you think, is the place happiness can be found?

…Within each and every moment that one actively offers oneself to the art of conscious relationship with what is truly present, here, now… and in so doing, gives his life true honoring respond-ability…

Happiness, Life Purpose and Giving to Your Gift to the World:
The reason this paper has focused on the art of inner knowing, is so that your true power can be released from its bondage of self-fearing and unconscious beliefs and habits that no longer serve you or your world of influence.  Some would say, “just get off yourself and go help somebody else”. And in a way, they’re right: Getting the focus off of oneself and helping others is an amazingly powerful way to cure depression, to stimulate the great healer (gratitude) and to realize deep and abiding satisfaction and joy. But to just go out and help others without also doing the inner work of reclaiming one's authentic self too easily becomes a kind of social “do gooder” martyrdom… and it doesn’t even scratch the surface of unleashing the power of your true potential and unique purpose and gift in the world.

When you read some of the books I suggested as part of our inquiry on “happiness”, what did you discover is the secret that happy people know?  It’s all right here, within you. It is in the consciousness that you bring to your life that you come to know and recognize and express your unique gift in the world.

It is in the work in progress of being truly and uniquely YOU – that you discover the truth that sets you free.  …This is not merely a platitude in the Good Book, it is the direct realization of each who step into his or her life as a Master Artisan by becoming consciously attentive to the co-creation at hand.  

As I said at the beginning of this paper, being consciously and truly alive in the reclaimed and realized wholeness of who we truly are, is our ultimate responsibility to our Self, our God, our family, and our world. This responsibly takes a daily commitment to the art of living.

When the keys of dissatisfaction and confusion are used to open the doorway to the Soul, rather than being discarded in favor of keys that offer a technique to “get rid of” the unwanted feelings, the most amazing miracle occurs!  I’ve seen it in every single private mentoring retreat I’ve had the great honor to host. Again it’s the paradox:  When we stop fighting with ourselves and our unwanted experiences, and instead turn to face them from a vulnerable willingness to inquire and discover what is actually beneath them, the illusory house of cards collapses and we invariably discover the true secret of the ages: That these struggles and strifes – the goods and the bads -- are merely the tools of Creation’s trade that are used in bringing us Home to the reclaimed fullness of our own Self-Harvest! 

When we step into that kind of artistry with each and all of the experiences of our lives, we have just said “yes” to our divine humility, “yes” to being conscious creators, and “yes” to reclaiming and expressing our unique life purpose.  When we live with bold gusto and open humility in the “yes” to Life, we cannot help but to know then, the real meaning of the art of happiness. 

I will stop with you here, at this Doorway…

Home Exercise: 

1) After reading this Fall issue, and as you contemplate what you've read, see what one "seed word" or  "inquiry phrase" comes up for you.

2) Let that word or phrase become your own inner quest (or personal inquiry) for the next couple of months.  Research it, meditate on it, observe your thoughts, words and actions in the context of this inquiry as you go about your daily living... Make it a living quest!

3) And then honor what you are seeing and sensing and realizing by submitting your insights or reflections on The Art of Transformation to ronda@rondalarue.com by January 12, 200 8 . ( Ronda's birthday )  

Build your self-development "spiritual muscle" (and this is KEY!) by putting into daily practice the 4 steps to transformation as highlighted in Summer, 2007 issue of SoulArts Reflections: "The Healing Power of Creativity". (You can get even more detail in my 48-page ebook: The Art of Living Your Destiny available on either of my web sites.) And then...ACTIVATE and nurture your growing insights by SUBMITTING your experiences!

Submittals to SoulArts Reflections:
I'm looking for real examples and real life stories of your use and experience with using a personal process of inquiry to discover and open the doorways to your own inner guidance, innate wisdom and fullness of being YOU!

Submitting and sharing what you discover through this process of personal inquiry will strengthen and quicken your own depth of insight as well as to help to inspire others! 

Ronda will contact you if your material is selected to be included in this next issue.

Until next time: "don't worry, Be...Here, Now!"