HEALTH

The Power of Joy

Looking on the bright side is a habit, just like exercise, drinking water or smoking. Finding the silver lining is a way of being in the world. Choosing to see the positive over the negative takes practice, but will change your entire life utterly and completely.

Most of us are criticized as children and so we grow up to criticize everyone and everything in our life. We are especially critical of ourselves. This is the training we learned as children, and we continue it into adulthood, complaining of our jobs, our mates, our lives.

The good news, however, the bright side of this negative life’s blueprint is that this constant critique of our lives is only a habit, and we have the power to unlearn this negative behavior pattern. When you want to stop smoking or eating fatty foods, you begin by replacing the negatives with positives. You substitute carrots or lollipops for cigarettes and you choose broccoli over bacon.

Eventually, making positive, life affirming choices becomes the new habit and you begin seeing the world and your life in a completely different light.

Stopping a negative, critical thought mid-sentence is a great way to start replacing darkness with light. Take the next step and replace the critical words with positive words, even when you do not completely believe what you are saying.

Words have power and when you make a critical statement, you draw that exact criticism to you. Instead, see the bright side of a situation and ignore the darkness. You will then draw the light of the situation to you. Every single situation, event and person has an innate light and when you focus on the light, the dark becomes unimportant and loses all value.

Health, happiness and life-affirming behaviors are all interrelated. They are connected and when you find the joy and the happiness, you find the health, the prosperity and love that are like-energies.

Joy and love are the highest energies in the universe. Shame is one of the lowest. When we criticize or gossip about another person or our jobs, our lives, we are attempting to shame and degrade the person, job or life of which we are critical.

We are creating life-depleting, low energy. When we create shame, we create a life filled with darkness and life-depleting energy. Joy, prosperity, love and happiness do not dwell in the low, critical energies, so we eliminate the environment in which the “good stuff” inhabits.

Choosing to find the bright side, the silver lining or the good in a situation or person, creates the exact environment in which exists all the things we truly want in our lives.

No one wants to have a bad life or to be in a bad relationship or job, yet, by constantly criticizing our lives, our jobs, our mates, we create precisely what we are trying to avoid.

We actually invite the negatives into our lives by being negative. Choosing a dark perspective or being critical is like an engraved invitation, inviting more darkness and things/situations/people to criticize.

Choosing to see your life, your job, your mate, your body, whatever it is with which you feel unhappy, in a positive light will not only make you happier, but improve the object of your unhappiness.

If you dislike your body and feel it is fat, you are constantly focused on the fatness, the ugliness of your body. You may stop dressing and grooming well. You may buy ugly fat-people clothes, and find yourself growing into them.

Instead, if you focus on the beauty of your body, you may find you are buying better fitting clothes. You may find yourself exercising. You may find that broccoli is far better than bacon. You may even lose weight.

Whether you lose weight or not, you will feel, connected to and pleased with your body by focusing on its beauty and svelteness. You will be happy with your body and that is the whole point in the first place.

You may even find that being a size or two larger than Ricky Martin works for you. You may not only accept your body, but yourself. In accepting self, we begin the process of choosing joy over criticism.

The next time you find yourself uttering a negative whether about yourself or someone else, stop! Instead find a positive. Replace the words and eventually you will replace the perspective. Replace the perspective and you will find yourself replacing the feelings. Replace the feelings of darkness with light and you will find yourself living a life filled with joy.

Maria Etta Anabell is an Energy Therapist who specializes in helping people create their message to the Universe. You can reach her at: elloboproduction@sbcglobal.net.

By Maria Etta Anabell