Feeling Good

“It is good to be alive”, said someone. Yes it is. But is it enough? Being alive, that is. One has to work towards sustaining this good feeling throughout one’s life.

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be,” said Abraham Lincoln. It is not what happens to us in life that determines our happiness so much as the way we react to what has happened to us. Feeling good is pretty much in our control. To feel good, we need to concentrate on happy reactions. It can be hard work sometimes, quite like maintaining a nice home – you’ve got to hang on to your treasures and throw out the garbage.

Most people remember a compliment for a few minutes, but an insult for years. Who suffers? The person who insulted us happily breezes through life, while we lose sleep over the insult. Inability to forgive, a tendency to blame others and feelings of guilt are a greater cause of sickness than any infection, because a sour mind creates a sour body.

  

We can learn so much from the children. The most beautiful thing about them is that they absorb themselves totally in the present moment. They do not waste time thinking about the past or the future and know more about having a good time than us. As we mature, we learn to think and worry about past problems and future concerns. Children are eternally fascinated. A rock or a beetle is a source of wonder and excitement to them. The adults may not know much about these things either, but they do not even try to see the magic around them.

  

In his best selling book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote:‘‘… our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and by means with which no man is familiar, these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.”

   

As the things that we love most and fear most tend to occupy our thoughts much of the time, so we tend to attract those very things. Focus must be on what we want and not on what we fear. Saying that, “If you study hard enough, you may come in the top five of your class,” is immensely better than saying, “if you don’t study hard enough, you might just fail.”

      

There is an inner core in all of us, which is simply beautiful. However, we rarely focus on our inner strengths. If we did, we would not treat ourselves badly or allow others to treat us so. Have you ever noticed that when you are feeling good about yourself, other people seem very nice! The world is a reflection of ourselves. When we hate ourselves, we hate everybody else. When we love being who we are, the rest of the world seems wonderful!

   

In order to feel good, we must first develop a good self-image and recognize our own worth. It is worth remembering that time is an abstract concept, the present is all that we have, so we must enjoy whatever we are doing for its own sake and not for the end result.