Choosing Happiness
How can we benefit from choosing happiness? How can we find happiness in this world? In this episode of Wisdom of Ages, host Ayn Cates Sullivan and guest Lauren G. Foster revolve their conversation around happiness as a standard and wonderful part of life. They share that it is the natural state of our co-creators. And Buddhists believe that happiness reveals itself when we discover our True Nature. On the other hand, in the Christian perspective, God is the source of bliss. Tune in and learn how happiness is an authentic part of who we are and how we can attune into its frequency.
Ayn Cates Sullivan:
Welcome, friends and mystical travelers. This is Ayn Cates Sullivan, host of Wisdom of the Ages, and author of the Sparkle Series for children and the Legends of the Grail series for adults. And today we’re exploring the frequency of happiness.
Now, is happiness a choice? I think this is what we have to ask ourselves. As far as the frequency goes, it’s one of the highest. It leads to the understanding of true nature. And as far as a choice goes, yes, we have free will.
So from the Wisdom of the Ages perspective, we know in the Hindu Vedas, the word ananda means bliss, the eternal bliss that marks the ending of the cycle of rebirth. And the Hindu god of joy and happiness is Krishna. From the Christian perspective, God is the ultimate source of happiness. In the Buddhist tradition, happiness is obtained when the reality of true nature is discovered.
Now that’s rather interesting because it indicates that we need to understand the unreality of the personal ego structure in order to understand the reality of true happiness. So, we might get back to that in a minute.
So, today we will also explore what might block happiness and what might invite happiness. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung says that happiness is found within, and he indicates that there are other happiness factors, such as the survival drive. Like, do we have enough food, clothing, and shelter? Do we have good physical health, mental health? Do we have healthy relationships?
Also engaging with music, myths, and the arts. And potentially the archetypes can lead us to happiness. And he also indicates that a spiritual, mystical, or philosophical view of life helps us really establish happiness as part of our beingness.
So we’re going to get into this a little more deeply. My guest today is Lauren G. Foster. She’s written a book called Happy and Free On Purpose. She is the host of the Happiness and Freedom podcast, and she does private coaching.
Lauren G. Foster has a noble mission, which is to help one million women learn to be happy and free on purpose. I think that’s very noble. It’s amazing. One million women, men, 10 million people around the world. Can you imagine if we were all, billions of us, established in happiness and freedom, how everything would change immediately?
So Lauren and I also share a deep love of the Appalachian mountains. Just walking in these old hills here gives me a great sense of bliss, being with the trees and having my feet on the ground. So, let’s discover if happiness is a choice. So welcome, Lauren G. Foster.
Lauren G. Foster:
Thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be here.
Ayn Cates Sullivan:
I’m glad to have you. Okay, so here’s the big question. Is happiness a choice?
Lauren G. Foster:
Yes. You know, happiness absolutely is a choice. Any feeling that you want to allow and stay in is your choice. And your feelings are like the first manifestation of your thoughts. And if you choose happy thoughts, you will feel happy feelings. And to me, happiness is like a bucket where all the good feeling things go. So that’s joy, and anticipation, and a feeling of belonging, and a feeling of comfort, and confidence, and all those things that feel good. That’s what I mean by happiness.
And so, yeah, that’s there. And everybody’s purpose is joy, and everybody’s path to joy is theirs to choose. And so, when we say happy and free on purpose, that’s got a double meaning. On purpose means deliberately, like, “She did that on purpose,” like your little brother said when you were little.
And it also means that you are on your path according to the purpose that you get to choose. And so many of us are living lives that are what we think we can have, what we think we’re supposed to do, how we’re supposed to be pleasing other people, instead of getting to the root of our own soul and what our soul is yearning for, and building our lives according to that. And that’s what I want to see. I want to see a million women completely.
And I say women because I feel like from a female perspective, I can reach women easier. And then it will be their job to go and reach the people in their lives. Does that mean I don’t coachmen and I don’t teach men? No. So a million women and a million men.
Ayn Cates Sullivan:
No, I like that. I’ll change it to a billion for you. So anyway.
Lauren G. Foster:
There you go.
Ayn Cates Sullivan:
Why not? Why not? I mean, Thomas Jefferson, our founding fathers really believed in the pursuit of happiness, so Right?
Lauren G. Foster:
Yeah. Well, and it is what we all want. Everything that we want, we want it because we think we’ll be happier by having it. And that never ever happens. Because as soon as we get that, we see something else that we want, and we say, “Oh, I’ll be happy when I want that.” And we push happiness beyond our cognitive horizon because we never get there.
Instead of being happy with this amazing body that we’re in, we are mad at it because it’s not skinny enough, it’s not tall enough, it’s not whatever enough. And postpone our happiness till we reach some level of fitness that we’ve plucked out of a hat or the media has told us is what our ideal should be. Or we’ll be happy when we find our lover. We’ll be happy when we get a better job. Or infinite ways that we choose to postpone happiness.
Ayn Cates Sullivan:
I think that’s a great idea. I’ve got to take a quick ad break. Where can people find you? What’s your website?
Lauren G. Foster:
Ayn Cates Sullivan:
Okay. So, stay tuned, everybody, we’ll be right back and we’ll get into the depths of happiness.
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