We are very close to midnight.
This is when the world will end from our own dangerous technologies, like a nuclear holocaust, according to the doomsday clock, a system designed and maintained by concerned scientists and experts.
To be precise, we are only 100 seconds away from midnight, figuratively. This is the closest it has ever been in the last 75 years.
Before we go on any further, I will propose this shocking, counterintuitive, simplistic, and perhaps even insensitive solution: choose to be happy.
Yes, choose to be happy precisely during turmoil, and confusion. Train yourself to be happy, to feel happy.
The global crises we are living through are a direct manifestation of our inner state of consciousness.
. . .
We Have Become Addicted to Pain
Everything that is happening points us to our addiction to unhappiness.
As one humanity, we haven’t really understood happiness because we refuse to feel it. We have been living with the illusion that we can solve big problems through thinking.
There’s one more thing left to try. Stop thinking and start feeling the peace and happiness that we have direct control over. This is how we can change our own mindset, and perhaps inspire others to change theirs.
The thinking mind or any type of “mindset” in that sense, cannot solve our problems. They created them in the first place. Our situation, both global and personal, begs for a novel, simple way of living.
The world wants us to be happy. The global crises want us to be happy. Feel happiness first.
. . .
A Need to Look Inwards, Not Project
No, it was hard to feel happy when we saw people falling off an airplane that took off from the airport in Afghanistan. We felt intense emotions. There was sympathy towards the victims, anger towards the governments, and even an appreciation towards the life standards many of us have.
So we did what we always do — project our ideologies, mindsets, and opinions. That there should be a certain way that people should live their lives, we/they should do better than this. This is the easy and normal thing to do, after all. The media did it well. We did it well.
What we missed, as one humanity, is what was hard to do — to look at the very state of our own consciousness.
Am I happy? Is the way of the world making me sad or angry? If so, what right do I have to expect a happier world? Perhaps I should experience happiness first before I go on projecting how others should live their lives?
Our advanced state of technology allows us to be informed and see what is happening all around the world in real-time. We see wars, famines, natural disasters as they happen and even take an active part in alleviating the suffering of the victims.
And we are still angry, frustrated, and unhappy.
Stop right there and think of this statement for a moment:
Happiness is a choice. A decision.
It’s instant. When we are happy, we feel it right away.
If happiness is a chemical in the brain, why not train our brain to produce that chemical first before we advise others on how they should live their lives? Before we go into someone’s culture, country and teach them how to live?
. . .
Beware of Empires
Remember the British Empire. They weren’t happy.
They didn’t know how and didn’t value it. So they went on searching the entire globe never to find it. They colonized the entire world and thought they achieved greatness. But did they? Maybe. Along with growing power came the hunger for more, and in the end, they lost. Because they just didn’t understand human life.
Empires exist because the people who run them are looking for something they can’t feel but want badly.
They live with a faulty belief that what they want is “out there”, so they need to go and get it from others.
Historically, all empires were founded on this belief. None lasted. The British, Turks, Mongols, and the Greeks.
They didn’t consider for a moment to think about the meaning of life, the value of a single life. No empires did that. So they all vanished. The notion of an empire was just that — a notion. It doesn’t really serve anybody.
Had they focused their hunger inwards, they had better chances of finding happiness, peace, and greatness that could last a lifetime, and possibly even pass it on to following generations.
But no, they were all busy trying to win. And so they lost.
They didn’t pause to reflect on what matters most — peace, happiness, and the inner victory that is needed to live a purposeful life. They went on projecting by force. And they taught us to do the same. Now, we go on projecting.
. . .
The Mindset Empire that Runs Us
Let’s take a look at the empire we are living in today, the one that is much more subtle. This empire doesn’t have an authoritarian ruler or a group of muscular men on his sides. It is an empire of a specific mindset, a belief system.
We still believe that there are “experts” who can guide us better, and it is easier to align our own values and decisions with them because they have the spotlight. They make our lives easy because they give us the very satisfying and ego-boosting mindsets that work like a drug. Then we feel like we are the best, and our way is the way.
And gradually, we outsource our decision-making power to them. We don’t even know who they are, but we end up feeling, talking, acting like everyone else around us.
But happiness cannot be outsourced. It is a decision. It is a virtue we must practice on our own. That’s the beauty of it. Practicing and feeling happiness makes us aware of our own biases, especially in troubling times.
. . .
Don’t Follow Unhappy Leaders
We can’t be led by others who project their emotions during crises. This is when we must choose to be happy to ensure that our authenticity and decision-making power is still with us.
I remember 9/11 when it happened during my junior year in college. I was an Asian student living in the southern region of the United States. I felt sad about what happened, followed by confusion when I saw people’s anger being directed at me for looking different. Their misguided anger made it easy for me to be angry, unfortunate, and go into hiding waiting for it all to pass.
9/11 made people angry, blind, so the majority lost compassion. They blindly followed authorities that fed their weakness. In doing that they gave up their freedom. The freedom to choose happiness. Governments made mistakes, big ones. Those mistakes cost tens of thousands of lives.
By being fearful of being victimized and giving up my happiness, I gave up my freedom too.
It is especially in times of turmoil, we must stay vigilant and practice our right to be happy.
Only in feeling happy and peaceful, we can make sound decisions.
. . .
Practice Happiness to Grow Out of Traumas
Let’s go back further in history. California was taken by conquest from Mexico. The United States was built from the lives, blood, and sweat of African slaves and the massacre of Native Americans. These facts cannot be contested nor changed.
Today, as the United States stands a free nation of diverse cultures, we live those traumas of the past. Traumas for those whose ancestors were oppressed and traumas for those whose ancestors were the oppressors. Our ancestors’ traumas live through us.
Therefore, we must actively practice our right to be happy. Choosing happiness in troubling times heals us by giving us a deeper understanding through compassion and collaboration.
Yes, I value my US citizenship which was a grueling 13-year process. I feel privileged. With that privilege comes the responsibility of staying vigilant to what is going on, and practicing my choice to be happy at all times. It is a choice I have to make. Others can’t do it for me, nor will I allow it. I certainly am not outsourcing that to any global crises of the past or present.
The more anger we have inside, the worse world we create. Compassion, love, and understanding must take the front seat. Practicing happiness allows that.
How many wars do we want to fight? How long do we want to live with the illusion that our aggression will save us and make the world safer? As the saying goes, eye for an eye will make us all blind. With advanced science and technology, a nuclear holocaust is more likely than ever.
Show-off of might simply cannot work anymore. Wars and competitions void of compassion will not work anymore.
. . .
Let’s Slingshot to Happiness
Slingshot innovations are happening in education, science, technology, and healthcare because of high-level collaboration between companies and organizations all over the world. For the first time in modern history, philanthropists, scientists, and innovators are working together to solve problems on a global scale.
Why can’t we do the same for peace and happiness? Why can’t we start with ourselves, and radiate outwards instead of projecting our fears and hunger on others? As the saying goes, there is no way to peace, peace is the way.
If we feel happy inside, we can have governments that function from a state of internal happiness. We can’t solve problems with hatred that started with the seed of hatred in the first place. We have to plant the seed of love and compassion first. That planting of the seed has to happen in us.
Hatred is always stuck in the past. It is a disintegrated part of us. Happiness is always in the present. By choosing to be happy, we help integrate our parts that are stuck in the past, like hatred.
We can’t live in empires anymore, because they don’t work. We can’t try to be the “best” country in the world, because there isn’t one. The very notion of a “best country” is built on an empire mindset. The mind creates borders, but the heart wants to integrate what lies beyond the borders.
The dissolution of discrimination, supremacy has to happen in us first. Start with yourself. Give yourself one of the most meaningful gifts — happiness.
Practice feeling happiness first. Perhaps then we will understand better how to make the world a better place. Peace is possible. It must be felt. Happiness is possible. It must be felt.
Happiness is a choice. It’s always available in the good times and the bad.
This feeling can be practiced like anything else, independent of what is going on outside. The outside is the manifestation of our inner state, collectively.
. . .
The Empire Doesn’t Want Us to Be Happy
Being happy is dangerous to the empire.
The empire mindset hates it because happiness spreads and integrates. Integration by choice is what the empire fears. The empire wants to colonize, conquer by force, by fear.
The empire mindset no longer serves us. Shall we abandon it?
In times of trouble, let’s practice happiness first. So the empire mindset cannot enter our system. Our feelings of fear and vengeance can then transmute to compassion leading to creative and collaborative solutions.
History is full of mistakes. So let’s start with the simple and revolutionary practice of feeling and being happy, especially in turbulent times like these.
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This post was previously published on Change Becomes You.
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