What does it really take to be happy?

What is the secret to happiness and to joy in life? Is this a question that you've ever asked yourself? Maybe you tell yourself you don't know what happiness is and you’ve really wondered what life is all about. What's the point. When we come into this world, we forget everything that we knew before we got here. Yes. I'm talking about encarnation. Yes, I am talking about our soul. Yes, I am talking about spirituality. We've all been in this rodeo more than once. And we forget when we come into this life, what it was that we knew before, but we all come in with something that is unique to us and no one else. For those of you who don't know, I apprentice with an indigenous shaman. He was brought up by shamans in Mexico. And what he shared with me is that the one thing that we all have that no one can ever take from us is our authenticity. It's the uniqueness of who we are. And it's part of our lesson in this lifetime to remember who we are. One of the ways that we remember who we are is to get out of our normal every day, 3D thinking. In other words, we have to get out of our head.  [00:02:55] I never knew that I was going to be on this path when I first learned about hypnosis. And when I reopened my hypnosis practice in 2018, I certainly never dreamed my journey would take me to where I am now. Part of the lesson in remembering our authenticity is to follow the bread crumbs that life is giving us. We follow the bread crumbs of what feels good. Sometimes we can have an experience where we just know something is right. We can't put our finger on it. That is a part of us that is remembering who we are, and it's bringing us that wisdom to know yes, go that way or no, don't go that way. People call it their intuition. They call it their gut. Has there ever been a time where your instincts, your intuition said go left and you're like, nah, you know, that sounds good, and that feels good. However, I've been told I should go right. And you went right. And you ended up in a place where you were either in a job that you hated or you chose to go to college for something, when all you ever wanted to do was to be a writer or to create art or to start your own business. And then someday you're looking back and you're like, Jesus. I like wasted this whole hunk of my life. It's because we didn't learn our lesson when we remembered.  [00:04:42] So each and every choice that we make takes us on our path and it guides us in a direction. Now here's the thing. Do we need to beat ourselves up when we look back and go, damn, I didn't get it. Like I wasted all this time. No. Be in the present moment because when we start looking back and we have our shoulda, woulda, coulda, we're living in the past. When we're living in the past, we are unable to move towards our future. So how do we clear those things out? it's interesting that Don Javier, he is the shaman that I work with, t's interesting that he used an analogy that is identical to the analogy that I learned in hypnosis, except the application is slightly different, but the same, and that is of a hard drive. We all come in with our basic system and when we're born, like, I, use this with clients for a long time before he taught me this from a different perspective. From the time we are born, we are programmed. Our basic operating system is our needs that need to be met. We're seeking love. We're seeking safety, food, water, sex. Those are our basics, right? That's the operating system. We come with everything else that comes to us is programming that the world put into our head. It is programming that we were given by our parents, by our environment, and our perceptions and interpretations of it.  [00:06:31] I'm gonna drop a serious truth on you in this. You might hear this and you might be like, you know what? I'm not listening to this anymore. And that's okay, because this is, this is a time where a lot of things are changing in our world and there's room only for the truth. The truth is that 100% of everything that we believe. And that includes me 100% of everything we believe is biased, and it's not truth. I want you to think about that. It's biased and it's not truth. So we have all this programming that comes in. It influences the way we think, it influences the way we believe, it influences what we choose for ourselves. We're choosing based upon what someone else put in our head. And there are things that we observe that we learn. There are things that sink in that we have no conscious awareness of. It happens all the time that later in life, it influences our decisions, our choices, it influences how we feel. So our job is to take our life experiences, and when we notice that we're being triggered, a trigger is a sign that there's something inside of us that we need to address because a trigger is based on a past experience. When we react, we're reacting because the subconscious mind is taking over because of past experience. When we respond we're in the present moment. So the first thing he told me is you have to clear out the programming that doesn't serve you. You have to clear out the programming that doesn't serve you. Then on a day to day basis, the things that happen, these things fill up our RAM. So think about, you know, you go to the office, there's gossip going down at the office or someone didn't do their end on a project, or maybe somebody's cheating on somebody, whatever it may be, the 3d stuff that happens. Right. All of these thoughts are being processed mentally and emotionally, even if they have nothing to do with us. It's one of the reasons why I do not watch the news anymore. Periodically I will check in the snippets and as soon as I check into it, I'm like, you know what? I'm checking out because I can choose to allow the news to influence how I decide for my life or I can just be me and decide for my life. [00:09:03] So when these things come into my mind, I have to work, I shouldn't say work, I have to stay in the practice every single day of clearing this stuff outta my mind, because if we just kind of do a one time clean up, and we don't clean up again, then the garbage is gonna pile up. So imagine a college dorm room where the kids all go, they clean up, they empty out all the trash and then they never had to empty the trash again, just say they only had to do it once a year. Well, at the end of the year, the garbage is gonna be piled pretty high. It's gonna be a stinky, smelly dorm, not a very pleasant place to be. The same thing happens with our thoughts. If we're not doing the practices that clear our thoughts, that clear our mind, that set us free from living according to the news, or the gossip, or what other people are constantly in our ear telling us we should do, we shouldn't do, what we should think, and how we should feel, and all of those things, then we're not gonna be able to make a choice for us. We're not going to be able to connect with our authenticity because our mind is gonna be like a little hamster on a wheel.  [00:10:19] It's going to be constantly ruminating and processing these things, and we don't want that. Where we want to live is in a place where we can be present every day. And this is truly what mindfulness is, is that when you're going through a task, whether you're working on programming on your computer or your designing something, you're in a meeting with someone you're preparing to have a conversation, an interview, whatever it might be. You want to be present in that moment instead of going through the motions, because for so many of us, the jobs that we do, or at least I used to do not now, but when I was in anesthesia, my job was so routine that I didn't have to think anymore. Like there are certain steps that they are just always, always the same. And when we get in the process of going through the steps mindlessly, that's when we make mistakes, that's when we miss something that's important because we're moving through it, mindlessly. There's actually a study in anesthesia on mindfulness in anesthesia, instead of getting caught up in that rut and just following that rut and not being mindful with each and every choice that was made in giving an anesthetic. [00:11:57] So the same thing is true in our life. We need to be mindful. In everything that we do and something that is interesting, and I'm always wrapping my mind around it and reminding myself, as we remember things, we realize that we, know things. As we remember things, we realize that we know things and we don't understand how we know them. However, when you have truly remembered who you are and understand, and I'm still learning this lesson, you realize you know nothing. And when you come to the point that you realize you know nothing, then you're truly in your being. And that's really something to wrap your mind around. And I always will laugh at myself because sometimes, I'll be doing something and someone will say something and I want to come back with the right answer. And I just kind of have to laugh and stop myself and say, you know what? You know, nothing. You know, nothing. Am I perfect? No. Am I a work in progress? Yes, absolutely. But if you're looking for happiness, it comes down to remembering who you are because as you clear out all the head trash, and you can quiet in your mind, and you can just really observe and be mindful of where you are, you get back in touch with your intuition, you get back in touch with your knowing and with your knowing, your knowing will guide you. As you're asking yourself, when you make decisions, does this bring me joy? Does this move me closer to happiness? Does this move me closer to what I'm here to do? And if you're don't know what you're here to do, that's okay. I think most of us start out that way. Probably all of us start out that way.  [00:14:42] And we all find out as we learn our lessons in our own time. But when you allow yourself to just be curious and to follow that intuition, to follow that knowing, and to make choices based on that, then you will reconnect with that part of yourself. Not that you were ever disconnected, but it feels. disconnected. So that's my piece on really digging in to find that happiness. We have to remember who we are and to know that there is purpose to our life, that we are learning lessons along the way. And it's about being in the present moment and moving forward, not looking back because it just simply does not serve us. I'll catch you next week. Thanks for tuning in today! I’d love it if you could head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a positive review, so we can reach even more people, so they can change their lives. That positive energy of sharing comes back to you as we spread this message.