Today’s daily dose is dedicated L’iluy nishmat Akiva Moshe ben Dov Ber Schor z’l. May his neshama bask in the Divine radiance together with all of the tzaddikim who have departed from this world, Amen.
Some of the studies coming out of the science world indicate that our emotions physically reside in a section of the brain. They are placed there by us and it is our choice to change them as well. We can think differently and as a result feel differently.
It is a matter of rewiring and rebooting the way we think, and this takes training. Training of the mind to think and react differently to the bitter circumstances that we may be enduring. In essence, we can literally think our way out of negative thinking patterns. The lesson here is that we are in full control. Thoughts belong to us as we allow them to be.
Let’s look at this more closely. We govern the way we think, and therefore, we determine the way we see life. We paint our lives whatever color we choose to see it in. Our life critically depends on the way we view life and how we respond to life and its struggles. Our level of happiness affects the choices that we make and the way we respond to Hashem, others and to ourselves. The conclusion: happiness is a given choice available for everyone to grab!
We make happiness and happiness makes us. This is very different from the way we were trained to think. It was once believed that happiness is something that is influenced by the outside, maybe even luck. It was never believed to be a mental choice. However, this certainly supports the reason why people who seemingly have everything are not happy. They ‘have it all’ but choose not to see it so.
Acquiring the trait of living happily is a life-long goal. We are summoned to develop our capacity to think, feel and live happier lives. The pathway to achieving happiness is not decorated with spontaneous people or occurrences that will magically appear in our lives and bring us joy. Happiness is the feeling that stays with us long after the circumstances that seemingly made us happy have already passed.
