The Basics of Living a Happy Life

      

By Barbara Berger

Here at the start of 2025 is some important information that can help you live a happy life!     If you want to learn how to take care of yourself and live a happy life, it’s important to start by looking at the basics – the basic mechanism of mind. Because this is what determines your experience of life and whether or not you are happy.    So what is the basic mechanism of mind? The basic mechanism is that thoughts arise in this field of consciousness which you are and then – when you believe what you think – you get to experience it. It’s really that simple.    We rarely (or never) experience life directly – instead we are experiencing our interpretations of whatever is going on in front of our noses.    So yes – this is the great law of life on this plane: Thought is cause – our experience of reality is effect This means that our thinking—the thoughts that we entertain—determine our experience of life. In other words, our experience of reality (or this thing called life) is the result of the thoughts we are having about life or reality—and not the result of experiencing reality itself directly.    This is an impersonal, universal law. It has nothing to do with who you are or what you do. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are or if you are rich or poor. This law applies to everyone—without exception—which is why it is a law.    This law says: Whatever you think, you get to experience.    When you think something is great, you get to experience that. When you think something is terrible, you get to experience that.    Nothing else is going on.    Reality is what it is. Life is what it is.    But as far as we are concerned – we get to live our interpretation – not life itself.    Your first reaction to this concept might be “Oh but that’s not true. Everyone can see that ‘such-and-such’ is a terrible thing. It has nothing to do with my thinking!” But you have to look more closely and ask yourself if this is really true. Because you will discover when you look closely, that everything under the sun is interpreted in a multitude of different ways by a multitude of different people. And by this I mean the exact same event is experienced in very different ways by different people. And this applies to our health, finances, relationships, you name it. What is excellent health for one person is poor health for another. What is a lot of money to one person is definitely not enough for the next. A big issue in one person’s relationship doesn’t matter at all to another. What seems politically correct to one person is completely wrong to another. And it’s the same at the workplace. One person experiences working on a certain project with a tight deadline as highly stressful, while another thinks it’s an exciting challenge. One person hates working late and just wants to get home to the family while another person loves working late because he/she doesn’t especially want to go home to the family!    So our experience is always entirely subjective—always. It is always based on who we are and what we believe is good or bad for us. There is no neutral, objective definition of a “good” or “bad” event that everyone agrees upon. It all depends on the point of view and the belief systems of the person (people) involved. And our points of view depend on a multitude of things including how we were programmed, our culture, our religion, our background, our sex, our age, and so on.    So please consider this carefully and honestly. If you do, I can assure you that you will discover that all our reactions (yours and mine and everyone else’s) in any and every situation are based on the thoughts and beliefs we have about life and what we believe is the meaning of these situations and events.    And so we find that in all situations, the basic mechanism is thought is cause and experience is effect. This is what is going on—at all times for everyone.    Thus we see that all our experiences are the effect of our thinking.    This is the law of cause and effect in action.    When we understand this, we understand the incredible power of our minds and our thinking. And we also understand that if we’re unhappy with our lives – it might be a good idea to look at what we are thinking! Because it’s here and only here that we can find the way out of our suffering.    When we see this, we also understand that for most of us, this is a completely new way of looking at our lives. And we realize that no one ever taught us about this basic mechanism – that thought is cause and our experience is effect. And this is because almost no one knows this – so almost no one could teach us how to take care of our thinking. So we never learned this – and the lack of this knowledge is the cause of so much unnecessary suffering… because when we are ignorant, we mistakenly think that suffering comes from Life itself. But Life doesn’t send suffering, Life just is.    So yes, this is what living a happy life is about… learning to understand the mechanism of mind so you can take care of your own thinking. And yes, this is something you (and only you) can do for yourself! Oh Happy Day indeed!    For more about the amazing power of your mind and how to use this power wisely, see my international bestseller “The Road to Power – Fast Food for the Soul”.  You can find the book on Amazon or on my Web site http://www.beamteam.com   To see all my many articles on MysticLivingToday, click here:  http://beamteam.com/en/barbara/barbara_berger_articles_mystic_living_today.html _____   About Barbara Berger American-born Barbara Berger is the best-selling author of “The Road to Power – Fast Food for the Soul” (published in 30 languages), “Are You Happy Now? 10 Ways to Live a Happy Life” (published in 21 languages), “The Awakening Human Being – A Guide to the Power of Mind”, and "Find and Follow Your Inner Compass".  Barbara’s latest books include “Healthy Models for Relationships – the Basic Principles Behind Good Relationships” and her autobiography entitled “My Road to Power – Sex, Trauma & Higher Consciousness”.  Barbara lives in Copenhagen, Denmark and works as coach and therapist, helping people around the globe come into alignment with their own true power. For more about Barbara see her Web site: http://www.beamteam.com