Learning To Be Happy

This episode discusses the four types of meditation and the attitude we need to take for the practice to be fruitful. Meditation is not about control, but understanding.

It's been nearly two years since I worked on this Podcast but I'm back! Starting with a summary of where we left off. You can never hear these thoughts too many times!

In this episode we look at how to keep a useful journal for the purpose of questioning our beliefs and confronting our negative mental and emotional patterns.

This episode introduces listeners to the practice of mindfulness in daily life. Mindfulness can be used to improve concentration and increase our enjoyment of everyday things. It can be relaxing, stress reducing, but perhaps most importantly, it can be insightful. Contrary to what many think, when we start practicing mindfulness we become more aware of our thoughts, and this will help us understand how they shape our feelings.

This episode discusses habit and familiarity in relation to the way we think and feel. 'Wanting', as a thought and feeling is a habit like all others, and if we're ever going to feel content, we need to make a habit of "having".

This episode's a summary of the first three episodes, touching on important points, like what we really want, where our feelings come from and what will really make us happy. As we develop our appreciation, gratitude, love and compassion for the present, we soon realise that happiness has nothing to do with getting what we want.

A true cause of happiness should only make us feel good, never make us feel bad, and make us feel better the more we have of it. Do the things you crave and spend time pursuing really meet this definition? In this episode we look at what can and cannot make us truly happy.

We tend to assume that events cause us to feel good or bad, that when someone compliments us and we have a nice feeling, that they have -made- us feel that way... but how? There are no feeling molecules entering our body. How are physical experiences translated into happiness and unhappiness? "How", is the magic question for breaking down the assumptions we've let rule our lives... where do our feelings really come from? They come from our mind!

In this episode we ask ourselves... what do I want, and more importantly, why? Knowing what we really want is not so much a 'thing' but rather, a felt experience, puts us in a very powerful position. Listen now and find out how.

This is the introduction to the Learning To Be Happy podcast series. All the content is inspired by my personal experience in pursuit of happiness and my wish to understand the source of negativity. I hope what I have to share proves useful on your journey.