Don't worry, be happy!

I’ve been meditating 24 days in a row now. I’ve been drinking lemon water every morning for over a week. I received a “Harmonizing Energy Session” from a new friend in Australia yesterday and we cleared a blockage I had to receiving money. We have eaten about 90% organic this weekend as well. 

I feel amazing.

This journey has been one of insight. I’ve had to look at myself over the past few weeks, not because it’s required for spiritual growth, but because spiritual growth requires it. It becomes voluntary. If you want to move forward, you have to consistently become a better person than you were yesterday. It’s no easy feat.

I look back at my Facebook posts from a year ago and it’s full of images of Marine emblems, advertisements for the Marine Corps Birthday, and a smattering of insightful memes that indicated the beginning of me getting serious about myself and my personal growth. When I regress and think back to how I was feeling at that time, all I can muster is this staggering sense of pride over being a Marine. The Marine Corps birthday was more cause for celebration that my own birthday. I was – am – part of something bigger. I felt purposeful and important because of the hardships I’ve suffered to make other people rich on the blood of strangers.

As you can probably tell by my last statement, I don’t hold those same values today. Don’t get me wrong, I will always be a Marine. I will always look on the men that I served with as giants in this world. Because they are. The Marine Corps will always be a part of my life, they taught me how to be a man. I joined when I was 17, I grew up in the Marines.

But in 2016 I think I will celebrate me. I will celebrate the fact that I make my own decisions in life now. I will celebrate the fact that I belong to an even bigger organization called the Human Race. Our area of operation is the globe, and as long as people suffer on this self-sustainable planet, I will spread my message to all that will listen.

Stress and anxiety are my enemies now. I choose to conquer hatred and spread love. Mine is a path of peace.

I look back on all the years I have lived and wonder, just briefly, what my life would be like right now had I not started this journey. I stay there just for a second, then I release that thought into the cosmos because it just doesn’t matter. It’s impossible to know. All I have is right now, and right now is pretty amazing.

The fun part is that this is a never-ending path that only gets better the more time you spend on it. Once you’ve tasted how sweet this feels, it’s nearly impossible to go backwards. It would actually take effort for me to stop acting happy. Besides, I don’t want to do that.

Living in the moment doesn’t mean that you don’t even look ahead. I get so excited when I think about where I will be in a year. I get excited when I think about what our garden will be like next spring. I can’t imagine loving my wife and kids more than I do now, but I know in a year, I will be even closer to them. 

Living in the moment means that you understand this moment is all you truly have control over. And the control you have is limited at best. It means that you actually stop and smell the flowers. It means you stop worrying about how bad traffic is on your commute because you can’t make the cars in front of you move any faster than they are now. You control your own actions, not those of anyone else. It means finding the beauty in what used to be mundane. 

When you start doing that, you have no idea how much lighter you feel. Stress doesn’t even figure into you day. If other people want to get worked up over a deadline, or that the boss is coming, then let them. You sit there and just do what you do, do it to the best of your ability, and honestly just let the chips fall where they may. How much of your work (your job is a dictatorship in most cases) do you really have control of? Once you can apply it at work, start to apply it at home.

Stop trying to control the mood of your partner. Stop feeling responsible for their happiness. Work on your own happiness. Your energy will be contagious. You are never responsible for anyone other person’s happiness. The only person that can make someone happy is themselves. Period. Sit on that for a minute if you need to.

So today, I’m sure you’ve guessed, your homework is to let go of all negativity in your life. Stop trying to impress people at work. Do your job, do it well, and do it because you want to. Do it because it’s the “right” thing to do. Don’t do it for praise from others. Don’t do it to get ahead. And if your work doesn’t resonate with you on a soul level, then why are you even doing it? Find what makes you giddy inside, and do that.

Today, just be responsible for you and how you feel. Don’t leave your happiness up to someone else. They will never be capable of making you happy all of the time, only you can do that.

Pay attention to people around you. Thank them when they say, “you’ve changed." Tell them you love them. Be that person that everyone in the office jokes about because you are always happy and it “makes them sick” to see it all the time. After all, nobody can be that happy all of the time… Right? WRONG! Happiness is a choice.

Make happiness your choice today.

Namaste.