Compassion Leads to Happiness – what will you choose?
by Dr. Susan Burger
“Compassion leads to happiness,” says Michael Pritchard from the movie HAPPY. Sounds simple. So why does it seem so hard for us to do?
As the holidays near, it seems that both the joys and the challenges increase. My goal this year is to stay present, and make a different choice anytime I feel myself being judgmental, annoyed, or otherwise “triggered” by the people and situations I am around.
You see, over the years the past takes control and we live not responding to what is happening right in front of us, but from all the past hurts, resentments, and experiences that formed our view of the world.
Energetic patterns are created in families and in fact across generations. Each person experiences his or her own hurts, pain, sadness, and sometimes excruciatingly traumatic circumstances. Now mix us all together and you get a lot of hurt people wanting to feel loved.
We all want to feel loved, and we all want to be happy. And we all have our story why we don’t, or didn’t, or why it’s someone else’s fault that we can’t seem to be happy.
This year, one of my commitments is to choose compassion. First to myself, by being present to how I feel and honoring those feelings. Then choosing to stand in the present moment, where the past is the past. Knowing that any other person I am with has their story too that I will never fully understand, and at the very core of their being they yearn for love, as we all do.
Please remember, we can have compassion and still keep healthy boundaries. And we can cease to allow the past to have it’s hold and power over us – it doesn’t have to influence the present moment. I know when I shift the energy in my consciousness it impacts everyone else involved in the drama and the story.
At Christmas we hear “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men”. First I choose peace for me, and that is my first part in creating peace on earth. t may not be easy, but the gift is that every day I get to choose again.
What will you choose, and who will you BE from this day forward? For a great movie to watch with friends and family I highly recommend The Happy movie (http://www.thehappymovie.com)
Peace~
For more information on Susan Burger, go to www.LiveWithVitality.com.
