To Knit To Love To Laugh is Life

I want to share with you a secret that has helped me find happiness and contentment.

This 'secret of happiness' is a principle understood by the greatest minds in history.

Most people don't understand the relationship between their thoughts and feelings.
The Buddha said, "We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. If a man's mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also become pure."

And from the Bible we get "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

Does anger spring from nowhere? No you must first have a thought or image in your mind and those thoughts create the feeling of anger.

Henry David Thoreau knew that, "Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be."
And the point is not to try and think your way to happiness. The point is to understand that thoughts are just thoughts and create feelings.

Happiness is already within you. Just realize that thought is the link. You can have thoughts that make you happy, but these thoughts will come and go.

Ralph Waldo Emerson knew that, "The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom."
Once you understand the relationship between thought and feeling just having the understanding can liberate you from depression.

The absence of negative thoughts creates a natural happiness and contentment within.

The key is to not let thoughts themselves become props for being happy. Let the natural happiness within rise from the absence and understanding that thoughts are just thoughts.

Now the key is to be aware when you feel anger, depression, or any uncomfortable feelings. When you are aware then you know your thinking is off.

This will allow you to stop, step back, take a deep breath and experience the release of these thoughts. When you can catch yourself being caught up in bad feelings you can quiet the mind, focus on your breathing and be amazed at this wonderful thing we call life.