After I finished writing this article, I realized that it was a follow-on to Finding Happiness and Fulfillment blogpost.  This post provides specific things that we can do to help us find contentment, fulfillment and joy in our lives.

Are There Any Good Vibes Left?

During turbulent times it can be challenging to find those upbeat, positive feelings of joy and contentment we had when life was flowing freely — you know… like when things were normal.

We can wonder, are there any good vibes left, or did someone use up the last bit and forget to open a new container?

The Lost Coin, Wrong Spot

When I was young, my father told me a story about a man who was looking for a lost coin next to a city lamp post at night.  The man was asked where he had dropped the coin?  He pointed away, saying that he lost it 25 feet in that direction.  Quite logically, the man was then asked why he was looking under the lamp post instead of where he had dropped it.  He simply replied, “Because there is no light over there.”

The moral of the story is that it was easier to look under the lighted lamp post even though the man most certainly knew he would never find his lost coin there.

Look Where it Can Be Found

The same is true of finding contentment, fulfillment and joy, even some happiness each day, especially when things are unpredictable.  We have to look for them where and how they can be found, not necessarily in the manner society or others would shine the light.

Otherwise, most of us will just end up amassing food staples, buying new televisions, cars, and other stuff trying to find our good vibes.

It may be hard to believe, but those good vibes are located nowhere outside of us.  They are found through our emotional and spiritual connections with our higher spiritual guidance, friends, associates and others.

Creatures of Habit, Low Self and Subconscious

It is said that we are creatures of habits, which is almost universally true of everyone.  For instance, when was the last time you had to think about how to brush your teeth?  You don’t, you just do it and move on to the next thing.

Habits are the domain of our Low Self and subconscious.  Spoiler alert — the subconscious is mainly negative in its orientation. 

Except in spiritual masters, the subconscious is not the uplifting sort.  You don’t want to bring it to a party because everyone else will leave.

In fact, this is the level where our emotional and psychological baggage is stored – whether from this life or a past one is a matter of personal perspective.  (We talked about emotional baggage in Intuitive Readings from Our Guides’ Point of View blogpost

Survival Mode

Even for those people who are normally upbeat and cheerful, a change or disruption in their personal or social environment can cause them to hunker down into survival mode, altering their physical behaviors and emotional outlook to baser patterns of their lesser self.

This is the realm of psychological primal forces and subconscious programming.

However, knowing this about ourselves is incredibly useful.  It can allow us to take simple steps to help us change our unhelpful behavior patterns to positive ones and our pessimistic outlook on life to be cheerier and more positive. 

Few people will try something new, because they don’t believe it will change anything.  Yet, all we have to do is believe and take the first step!

Decide to Choose

We have to decide to choose to experience contentment and joy, causing our mind and emotions to work together toward an uplifting purpose – our own happiness and fulfillment.  Then we need to engage in activities, whatever they may be for us, to positively shift our focus and our habituated behaviors and attitudes.

Deliberate Use of Intention

This employs the power of deliberate intention, which as mentioned in previous posts, cannot be overstated.  Successful CEOs and self-made, mega-wealthy people know they can be successful because first, they believe they can.  Then they set their intentions then act upon those intentions, which is what we must do.

Defining Success as Fulfillment

In this case, we are merely defining success in terms of fulfillment, contentment, and even happiness instead of traditional wealth and achievement.

We just have to believe this state of being and positive attitude is still there to be found, i.e., good vibes.  And, it is!

We are Wired for Fulfillment and Growth

We are wired by the Divine (God) for connection, fulfillment and growth. All we have to do is engage in those connections (spiritual and emotional) and actions (behaviors) that will naturally bring the desired change of focus from the lackluster to the uplifting.

Again, these may not be the things we would intuitively think to do.  

Here are a few simple, easy things we can do to change entrenched habits and attitudes and create new activities and engagements that will naturally uplift us to be more positively involved, fulfilled and content, even happy.

15 Simple Activities

Since our subconscious is the domain of habits, one of the best things we can do is to make ourselves do something out of the ordinary, something really different, and outside of our comfort zone.

1. Meditate.  This is the one I’m-doing-nothing activity that has powerfully uplifting benefits!  (See later paragraph, below.)
2. Be your inner child.  Play like a kid.  Swing on the swings, slide on the slides.  Have fun, especially if you don’t want to.  Kids live joyfully in the moment.
3. Sing or listen to uplifting music.  Inspiring and moving music opens our heart to joy and fulfillment, and sets us free to be radiant and beaming, filled with life.
4. Write an appreciation letter to yourself or someone else; or a “Thank You” post on a website, Facebook, etc.  Expressing thankfulness helps us connect with our own source of upliftment.
5. Help a friend or family member with something they need.  It really gives us a perspective on our own situation and makes us feel good by helping someone else.
6. Volunteer at a local food bank or homeless shelter.  It is heartwarming to help others.  Again, it gives us perspective on what tough times really look like.
7. Begin that project you’ve been putting off.  Achievement intrinsically makes us feel positive about our self and our future.  Achievement creates fulfillment, even when doing small tasks.
8. Start a hobby, especially one that you can do with others or as a group.  Doing fun activities with others opens us to new perspectives, experiences and energies helping foster self-fulfillment and contentment.
9. Go on a daytrip somewhere new and really get out and explore it.  When we see and experience fresh things, it brings us renewed optimism and joy.
10. Learn Yoga.  It offers meditation with a physical component that helps, as well.
11. Exercise or walk.  This helps the body create its own mood elevators, plus we get healthy in the process.
12. Write a poem or start a daily journal.  Expressing ourselves helps us release the negative and hold on to the positive.  We grow spiritually as we write.
13. Don’t Worry.  Psychologically, physically and spiritually, worrying about things releases unhelpful chemicals in the bloodstream, focuses us on the negative (negative energies), thus attracting other negative events into our lives.
14. Spend time with people who are content, fulfilled and happy.  These people are naturally uplifting and share their bubbliness with everyone.  They are a helpful part of the solution to releasing worry.
15. Empty out the closets and clean out the garage!  Give away unused items to homeless shelters, Good Will, etc.  It lightens us up and helps others.  It has spiritual benefits, too (see later paragraph, below)! 

Helping Others Creates Contentment

When we engage in activities that help others, we naturally feel better, especially when we can see how our situation isn’t as tough someone else’s.  We can have a genuine sense of contentment and self-worth knowing we have made someone or some under-served group’s condition better by doing just a little.

New Activities Create New Neural Pathways

As we learn and do new behaviors, our brain is forced to create new neural pathways as we figure out different ways to do things we have not done before.  These neural pathways help us emotionally and spiritually, as well, by creating new linkages allowing us to see the same things in our life in new, refreshing ways.

Huge Spiritual Benefits from Giving Away Possessions

I want to talk about the last item on the list, giving away our used possessions.  Spiritually speaking, there are energetic cords that connect us to our “stuff”.  They are called AKA Cords.  (Discussed in some detail in Life Has Changed – Connections in Transition blogpost).

These energetic cords keep us “bound” to old behaviors associated with those items or possessions.  When we give things away to those who need them, we can cut those connections and make energetic space for new things, people and activities to enter our lives. 

Giving things away can be really life-transforming by freeing us from our own past, and its connection to stuff.

Meditate

Meditation helps us physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally.  It’s a win-win-win-win proposition!

Any technique is fine.  They all work well, some in different ways.

If you don’t already have your own meditative technique, Vipassana is a method that will allow you to release limiting emotions and thoughts without having to do anything but breathe and focus a little.  There is nothing extra to do and it can really clear our minds and emotions, and make us feel calm, clear and revitalized.

There are many organizations that teach it and several ways to learn it.

The book Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana teaches Vipassana meditation.  The main thrust of the technique is for us to learn to silence our minds by focusing on our breathing.

Personal Example of Using These Techniques

As a personal example, when I was in the Navy everyone was required to attend the organization’s extracurricular events from time to time.  We all called it “Mandatory fun.”

Oddly, after going to some of these events, I felt a lot better even though it was definitely something I would not normally choose to do.  It was different.  And, “different” can replace our tendency to do the same old thing at the same old time, with new, revitalizing and activities that bring us contentment and joy!

Know the Source, Use the Solution

Knowing the subconscious and our emotional baggage as the source of many of our lesser behaviors is insightful.  When that “knowing” is combined with the power of using Intention and the 15 simple activities, we gradually transform our old patterns into activities of purpose and feelings of contentment, joy and fulfillment.  We can even use them when things are normal and calm.