You may know by now that Alex Shalman has done it again! He has created a Personal Development phenomena with his Happiness Project. I love his ideas and was quite fond of his Gotta Get Goals campaign in mid-2007.

Originally begun as both an enlightening series of articles, as well as a participation contest, The Happiness Project continues on as a group writing project, which I am glad to participate in. (I just love a great, uplifting idea!)

Tell us all what happiness means to you!!! I am tagging:

Paula Kawal at Journey Inward Productions
Angela-Eloise at Blogickal
Anmol Mehta at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen

The Happiness Project has featured some very wise and insightful people talking about their own views on happiness. My favorite, for it’s truth and simplicity, is Happiness Project: Timothy Ferriss Of Four Hour Work Week

So here is my contribution to The Happiness Project:

1. How do you define happiness?

Happiness, for me, is feeling comfortable in my own skin. It is a level of self-awareness that remains consistently grounded in the connection to all things and an underlying belief in the divine nature of creation. And yet it is a self-awareness that allows one the freedom to focus on one’s own physical, spiritual and emotional needs without guilt and without dismissing the needs of others.

Happiness is walking around with a smile for seemingly no reason and trusting that the universe has your best interests at heart, that what is right will prevail. It is the knowing that your personal empowerment serves to empower not only your own success but the success of those whom you love.

Happiness is found in the unique outlook that my spiritual faith gives me and in my firm understanding that this life is a mere moment in the vast and continuing metamorphosis that is the journey of the soul.

“All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within.”

~Horace Friess

2. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?

How can you put a number on happiness? When I was a child my life was rather turbulent. There were days when my happiness was clear and perfect and, other days, when circumstances collided to bring me low. Perhaps I would rate my childhood as generally care-free and leave it at that. :)

Today I am more aware of, yet still effected by, outside factors that I cannot control. The difference is that I am more able to separate who I truly am from what the world happens to place before me. I have love and acceptance in my heart and remain balanced even in the midst of a storm. I would say that my normal state of being is generally very happy and optimistic.

3. What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness? (How consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day?)

Although I am not an avid exercise buff at all, my fiance and I usually do either 15 minutes of yoga every morning or go for a half-our walk out in nature. These moments, plus the times when I sit down to share a healthy meal with friends and family, are the moments that keep me grounded and calm. They are the foundations of my successful approach to each day.

Sometimes the little things can get me down, such as an especially gray and rainy day, or a little flash of disappointment, such as missing the UPS guy when I am expecting a delivery. These are just momentary blips and never last long.

My work allows me to inspire people on a broad scale with my spiritual writings, and also to assist them individually by providing a channeled connection to guidance from their higher self. I have seen how just a little bit of spirit energy can profoundly effect peoples outlook and self-confidence, and I feel blessed to be able to bring light into people’s lives.

Overall I feel brighter and brighter everyday, with constant hope for the greatness within myself and all of humanity. The birds singing to me in the morning are now a beautiful chorus of awakening, instead on a painful nuisance to remind me of my sleepiness. :)

4. What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life?

The biggest self-improvement focus at present is a quieting (or re-scripting) of the inner mind-voice. It has had an overriding tendency, throughout my life, to randomly attack me with cruel situations and self-defeating phrases that were experienced or spoken somewhere in my past.

Now when it spontaneously throws one of these phrases out, I stop whatever I am doing and immediately tell it that those are not my words, and then give it a positive truth to replace them with.

It works very well. :)

5. What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness?

The answer is just to continue being a more-and-more authentic version of myself. Happiness is not necessarily in WHAT you do with your efforts, but is more tied up in the simple action of the DOING.

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