Homa psycho Therapy

SO, IF I’M SO SMART, WHY AM I NOT HAPPIER?

Happiness: “positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy,” says the dictionary.
 
In the Broadway show, ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ “Do you Love me?” asks the husband to his wife in one blockbuster song. “Do I what?” the wife responds. Then she lists the duties and chores she has provided her husband, from preparing meals to washing his clothes, etc. for the past 30 years. She eventually concludes, “Then I guess I love you.”
 
Perhaps the same thing might be said of happiness. You’ll recognize it when you see it, one might say. In any case, as we wrote recently, am I better off–or happier—now than before? Most reading this no doubt would say yes.
 
So, perspective and attitude play important parts.
 
If you have not had severe tooth pain, empathy for someone having it, is difficult to conjure up.
 
If you haven’t experienced grief, likewise, it is alien to you.
 
If we all had not experienced a pandemic, the relative absence of it now could not be as appreciated as it is.
 
Happiness is less tangible. It is also on a spectrum, meaning on a scale of 1 to 10, what number would I give it at this moment?
 
Were it not for the Grace of God, there goes I. With the preponderance of difficulties and life-threatening situations all over our besieged planet, it is easy to appreciate how blessed we ourselves are. Is this part of happiness? I should think so.
 
Dado que cada vez es más difícil distinguir la realidad de la ficción, As it is growing increasingly difficult to distinguish fact from fiction from delusion from outright lies from massive attempts to coerce and control, where does that leave us? Between a rock and a hard place seems almost a quaint understatement.
 
So going within may have even more relevance and importance than at other times.

APOYANDOSE – Cuando estás atrapado entre la espada y la pared.
If we are to believe what we experience, we must be truly aware of our experience and process it meaningfully and cogently.
What does ‘processing it” mean in fact? First, if there’s more than meets the eye, it makes sense to go beyond what we see, hear and smell and find more.

Psychology provides some clear examples.
 
A mother expresses distaste for her daughter’s behavior in the social arena. How much may Mom’s tone and tenor reflect the
daughter’s behavior as opposed to the “when I was your age…..”chant which relates as much to Mom’s youthful experience?
 
In science, double-blind protocols are the standard because even subtle influences can effect experiment outcomes.
 
Double-blind study:
“A type of clinical trial in which neither the participants nor the researcher knows which treatment or intervention participants are receiving until the clinical trial is over.

This makes results of the study less likely to be biased. This means that the results are less likely to be affected by factors that are not related to the treatment or intervention being tested.”

IN OTHER WORDS, THERE IS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE.
In a love/romantic relationship, whether or not love is blind, looking at a relationship only externally, certainly may result in false negatives, false positives and just plain falsifications.

So, despite the feeling these days that karmic debts are being called in, that we are indeed between a rock and a hard place seems real. The good news is we aren’t being delusional. That is also the bad news (because the situations are real).

Just like some days feel balanced and smooth and others as if a Mercury Retrograde combined with a solar eclipse is upon us, we are mired in dangers seen and unseen.

So the tools we have been graced with best be sharpened and kept ready for these are indeed times that try our souls.

So even though we may indeed be living in a very tight place, we can still:
 

  1. maximize the positives
  2. minimize the negatives
  3. prioritize service
  4. push ourselves to experience increasingly higher and deeper levels of happiness.

Might this lead to peace, contentment and even positive or pleasant emotions? Maybe yes, maybe no. Life is more complicated than this for that results.

What is likely, however, is an easing of the pressure that the rock and the hard place are exerting. And even that is a reason for which to be grateful. After all, we can control and pursue our actions. What comes next is not up to us—which is why nonattachment and surrender are the balms to soothe us and propel –or at least push–us in the direction of peace, love and happiness.