3 Day Happy Class

3 Day Happy Class

You don’t need to have any certain belief to follow this exercise but…

for those of you who are religious this exercise is based on these principles:

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”-Proverbs 23:7

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.” -Siddhartha Gautama
and…

for those of you who are not religious this exercise is based on the principles of Quantum Physics used to prove that when you look at the world with certain expectations the world reflects those expectations back to you by reacting as you thought it would.

You will need the following items to complete this project:

1. 3 consecutive days (doesn’t matter what days you pick even if you are working, playing, busy, leisurely, sad or happy)
2. Yarn, string, rubber band or any bright colored item you can place on your wrist like a bracelet. Let’s call it your awareness reminder.
3. Awareness

That is all you need.

We are going to limit this exercise to 3 days only because I don’t want to ask you for a large commitment on the front end. I figure the less I ask of you the easier it will be to commit. I do think that once you have done this for 3 days that might be all the motivation you will need to make the changes permanent. You might decide to stretch it into a week, then a month and then maybe the rest of your life.

I am not going to tell you why this exercise will alter the way you look at things. There will be plenty of time to discuss this once the 3 days are up but it will change you hopefully enough you’ll commit to keeping it up.

Let’s just get started.

1. Pick your day to start.
2. On the night before you start place whatever object you chose as your awareness reminder on your wrist and do not remove it until the exercise is over.
3. Get ready to pay attention.

Here is what you will do for the next three days:

• Turn off thinking about your normal worries for these three days. Look at this a as a vacation from worry, anger, jealousy, envy, impatience and taking time to disciple others. You’ll have the rest of your life to pick back up on these practices if you decide to. You can surely take off 3 days, it’s only THREE DAYS .
• You will not correct another person in any way unless the situation is life threatening. This is key. If it is life threatening do whatever you must to help.
• Every time you start to correct someone else’s actions try to make yourself aware of where your head is and stop before you do it. This is where your awareness reminder might come into play.
• If you have children and they are doing something destructive I don’t want you to correct them using words. Simply take them from the situation and place them in another situation. For example if they are fighting with a sibling stop what you are doing and maybe play a game with them, have them help you with what you are doing or maybe just take them to the park or for ice cream. If they counter you with argument then you may use words to defuse the situation but do not argue back. Talk it out by letting them vent and by simply explaining your point of view. The key is that they must be allowed to speak their thoughts. If there is no resolution then you may tell them you have a difference of opinion but you hear what they are saying and understand why they feel that way.
• If you have a disagreement with your significant other let them vent and tell them that you understand their point of view and move on.
• If you feel jealousy towards someone know that that’s on you. You have to fix this issue not the other person but not during these 3 days. You are on vacation from jealousy and fixing things. Put your jealousy on hold.
• Try not to judge others.
• Try to stay as much in the moment of the current day as possible. Anytime that your eyes land on your awareness reminder bring yourself back to now and what is happening in the current moment. Use it as a tool to become aware when you are thinking on something that is not real like worrying about the future. You wouldn’t worry about your dog getting ran over if you didn’t have one. That would be crazy right? The future is the same idea. What is happening in the future has not happened and the idea of anything in the future is an idea about something that is not in existence. If you are worrying about the future you are worrying about something that is not yours in this moment. Come back where you are now. Know that all the worry in the world will not change the end result.
• Let us try to look on these days with the wild eyes of a child that doesn’t know all your rules yet or hasn’t made up their mind about who they are and how everyone else should be. Unlike you, they have not stepped into the figure of who you decided you were years ago that started you on a path that would ultimately make you unhappy when you forgot how to just “BE”.
• Enjoy your surroundings. Pay attention to where you are. Take in your area and explore those places you pass daily but don’t take time for.
• Simply play.

Here are a few things to think on over this 3 day period and think on them even more once the 3 days are up:

• Your life is your own and no one can do the experiencing of your life but you.
• No one can see inside your head.
• If you want something you have to ask for it. You cannot place hints out into the world thinking someone will get it and do what you want. Again, you have to ask for what you want. IT IS OKAY TO ASK. The people in your life will be grateful to you for asking instead of hinting and getting mad when no one figures it out.
• Your opinion about how others interact in the world does not matter.
• Your opinion about the way others complete their daily tasks does not matter.
• The world you know is only your world. Your thoughts about the world are only your version of the world based on how your life has gone so far, how people in your life have interacted with you and the events of your life that shaped who you are now. The world you know is unique to you and no one knows this world but you. Everyone else has their own world made up of what they have witnessed it to be through their own eyes. You have no charge over their world, only your own. There in your world you are the master, but only there. Others are the masters of their own world. Allow them to be.
• Don’t think to the future for happiness and don’t look back on your past to explain why you are not happy now. The past is the past and you can’t go back there and fix it so that you can be happy in the future. The future does not physically exist so your thoughts on the future are a dreamlike vision of days that are not real. Why would you waste your time on those days that aren’t real when you have a real day before you that you could use to make yourself happy in this moment?
• Be where you are and know it is perfect for you if you let it be.
• Money does not buy happiness. Wishing you could be like someone else does not buy happiness. You are perfect exactly how you are deep down when you can remove all your insecurities and let the real you rise to the top, leaving behind your wish to be something else. You can be happy with others when you allow them to be exactly who they are and when in return they allow you to be exactly who you are. When you accept others you open the door for them to accept you and for you to begin to accept yourself.
• Stop trying to make your life in the future and make it in the now.
• Remember if you want to move forward you have to start with being happy where you are. That is the price you have to pay.
• Stop feeling like a victim. You will never find lasting happiness there. When you play the victim and everyone pities you, you might find joy in that because you get to be the prince or princess in your world who doesn’t deserve whatever you are feeling victim of but it will always be something with you. Be honest with yourself if you enjoy feeling like a victim. There is real happiness to be found in standing strong with your head up. If you can do that you won’t have to find something else in the future to garner pity once everyone grows tired of your current situation and moves on.
• During this process you are building the ground floor for finding happiness with others in your life. If you are single this is the base for you to find the right person. If you are married this is the base for making your relationship strong and lasting. Without this base there can be no strength to your structure. If you want a relationship and are still alone you might have skipped this step. Being happy with a significant other begins with being happy with yourself.
• If you are looking for a person to spend the rest of your life with you are looking to the future. Be happy now and the future will care for itself.
• When this exercise starts to work and down the road you find yourself unhappy again pay attention to your awareness. Have you slipped back into thinking on what should be instead of what is? Are you feeling a victim again? Just jump back on the horse of staying present. The present is still standing right beside you waiting for you to turn toward it.

One last thing:
Do your 3 days and do not question it, wonder if it will work or try to figure out where it’s all going. Anything that results from the 3 day exercise can be addressed once you have completed the practice. I cannot tell you more now or I might kill the magic. We shall talk later on a day that does not yet exist.

Go find happiness.

Namaste