When You Feel Suffering,
It’s Time to Choose Joy

There are days when I want to chew nails, throw the laptop across the room, then go under the covers and hide. Everyone on the spiritual path has times when problems arise, when there is upset over circumstances, when there is grief and pain. So, if you feel the ups and downs of experience, you are in life.

You Have Been Conditioned to Suffer

Family, cultural, religious, societal, and political programming tells you that suffering is inherent in the human condition. Then, the programmers offer you redemption, peace, and joy in the future if you do something you are not doing now,  i.e.,

• If you consent to continue to work at a job you hate, you will have a lovely retirement in the future.
• If you take care of others today, someone will take care of you tomorrow.
• If you purchase this alcohol and drink this lovely martini, you will feel euphoria.
• If you buy a pack of cigarettes and smoke one, you won’t feel as anxious.
• If you buy this popular brand of diet food, you will feel better about your body.
• If you buy into the doctor’s opinion of where your body is at and purchase the medicine he/she recommends, then you will be symptom free.
• If you are a good person, support the church, and then you die, you will go to heaven where there is no suffering.
• ad nauseum…

As you can see, suffering and temporary relief programs are not only marketed by the people we know from our birth, they are also all over the television, radio, magazines, videos, and internet. Did you know that you are being controlled by the information that tells you that your only choices are brief respites from suffering while alive and permanent relief when you are dead? Buying into this notion separates you from your power, and when you are ready to take your power back, you will see…

The Lies

Fortunately, suffering programs are lies. They are based on erroneous information that you are powerless against consensus reality, that you really have no choice. That is the Lie that the few use to control the many. That is the Lie you use to keep yourself separated from your power.

The Truth: You Can Choose Joy

The fix for your suffering, the process to use to reunite you with your power, is so simple and easy, it’s almost laughable. It only takes a bit of willingness to try a fresh approach to make the changes described by my new friend, iON:

What Is the Fastest Path to Your Joy?

When you can answer that question and use it as your guidance system in your day-to-day activities, then nothing else matters. The only homework you’ll ever need do is to determine whether your next thought or action is the fastest path to your joy. It’s your road map. As you relax and allow and come into your knowing, finding the fastest path to your joy will work without fail or exception. Enjoy the ride. iON

Transition

First, since they are contaminated with conditioning, know that your perceptions lie to you and reinforce your programming. So, thank them for sharing and then ignore them. When your monkey mind reviews its perceptual memories about decisions you’ve made in the past and starts spinning excuses about why you can’t choose joy, e.g., I will lose my job, then I won’t have any money, my house will go into foreclosure, my family will be out on the street, just know that those are reinforcing programs surfacing. There is no law, except your own, that says you have to own them. After all, they are future projections and might not be true. Instead, you can imagine a life that you would enjoy. Let me give you an example of a practice run:

So, you wake up in the morning, running late, because you hit the snooze button too many times. You wanted to stay asleep because you hate your job. Your co-workers are lazy and your boss demands you take up the slack. It’s just not fair.

STOP. BREATHE. REALIZE THAT YOU ARE MENTALLY REHEARSING HAVING A BAD DAY.

NOW, IMAGINE SOMETHING YOU COULD ENJOY, EVEN IF IT’S UNRELATED, LIKE:

I retired early as a millionaire. I wake up when I feel like it to the sounds of the housekeeper cooking breakfast. I smell the coffee, taste a bit of zest from the fresh squeezed orange juice in the air. I open the sliding glass doors to my deck and sit on the comfy chair in the sunlight and read my favorite book.

Now, let’s lock the joyful mental rehearsal in. Stop talking about how you hate your job and only talk about what you enjoyed about the early retirement scenario. Embroider the scene as you talk about it. Make the coffee taste better. Let the sounds of nature pop. Feel the warmth of the sun caress your body. Make what you imagine more real than your old program. Keep mentally rehearsing whatever joy you can imagine. Continuously expand your vision. Know that when what you imagine is more real to you than your old, programmed reality, you will begin to see the new move the old out.

Choose Joy

After you become acquainted with practicing choosing joy, then you’ll feel more free to choose joy. Begin with small decisions like when you wake up, don’t go on automatic pilot. Ask yourself, “Would it feel better if I do stretches or rinse my face off?” Then, do whichever activity feels better. Then ask yourself, “Do I want a hot or cold drink now? Hot drink, great! Would I enjoy herbal tea or coffee more?” If it’s herbal tea, make yourself a cup. Start chaining the activities of your day together based on the “feel good” “feel better” “feel best” choices. Then, one day you will wake up and realize how much you enjoy life, and all your choices will be consciously made from a feels good perspective.

Acknowledgement

I’d like to thank Bob Dobbs, Dr. Carolyn Dean, iON, the iONettes, Wendy Samuels, and Tolen May for all their support during this leg of my Transcendent Journey.