Holding onto Happiness - 6

6 - Holding a butterfly

To master the art of holding onto happiness is to become an adept of mindfulness, and mindfulness is being aware of what is occurring within your mind.

An example might be the use of mindfulness when we are driving... Some might say that this is concentration, but actually we do not concentrate generally when we drive, as we listen to the radio, watch the weather, chat with our passengers and so on, but what we are doing is being mindful and aware that we are driving along a road, maintaining our speed and direction, and avoiding obstacles.

The practice of maintaining a happy and peaceful mind is like this too, maintaining our train of thought, avoiding pitfalls and staying in lane…

Too much intense concentration and we lose our happiness, and if we let go too much our happiness can slip away - so this can be considered by the visualisation of holding a butterfly in our hands.

Too much pressure and we will crush the butterfly, and if we open our hands too wide it will fly away, but if we cup our open hands, gently, the butterfly will remain, unharmed yet remaining within our presence.

Another descriptive analogy is holding a bar of soap - grasp it too tightly and it will squeeze out from our fingers, and if released it will slip out of our hands into the bath... oh well, never mind, we can pick it up again.

Mindfulness, or maintaining a thought is like this, a gentle, even and consistent line of thought, not too tight and not too loose.

Oh, to be happy. Oh, to be at peace - well, we can choose. We can find our happiness, we know where it resides, maybe arising now, or maybe recalled in memory - yes, that is it, happiness does arise with a smile... Now, not to let go...

It can be as simple as using your imagination. Yes, imagine you are happy, and then keep imagining the same thing, and the funny thing is that if you imagine you are happy, you are happy - this is because happiness is found only in the mind, nowhere else.

Just a simple game, an activity, imagining happiness, but one that brings beautiful rewards.

Time to turn down the noise, listen to your mind and watch your happiness... Click here... BREATHING & RELAXATION MEDITATION