Glad To Be Here! by Marie T. Russell (InnerSelf Magazine publisher)

Glad To Be Here!

by Marie T. Russell

Human-kind seems to be constantly searching for happiness. Even the Bill of Rights focuses on the pursuit of happiness. By the same token, we go around 'pursuing happiness'—looking for it, searching in all kinds of experiences, thinking that one day we will find the right place, person, or feeling. We seek happiness, or at least the key to it. While we pursue this goal, we are looking ahead to the future...and maybe forgetting to look at today.

Recently, while taking my morning walk, I began enjoying the feel of the sun on my face, the fresh air, and the dampness of the grass. Suddenly, I realized that I was happy to be alive! I dove into that feeling and immediately began enjoying the beauty of this planet, its inhabitants—human, animal, vegetable, mineral or spirit. It felt so good to be amidst the beauty and the experience of life that I was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude for the experience I was having.

As I reflected upon this feeling, I remembered a time when I was unhappy at being 'stuck' in my life's drama as a child. As a young adult, I would often wish 'they' would just come and get me. You know, the old 'beam me up Scotty' routine. I was constantly resisting my experience thinking that somewhere else, or someone else, or something else would be better. Ignoring the beauty in the now, I kept dreaming of a different reality—anything but my 'tedious' existence.

It was not until I began to understand that: 1) I had chosen to be where I was; 2) I was not "stuck" in any situation unless I chose to be; and 3) I was the one that was in charge of my life, that I began to transform my life.

Immediately, I made drastic changes. I moved, traveled, changed lovers, etc., all in an effort to change my life. Then it finally dawned on me. Although I made these wonderful outer shifts...I could not run away from what I was inside. After many moves, I learned that wherever I went, there I would also be...with all my inner fears, insecurities, beliefs, etc.

Are you happy to be alive? Do you wake up in the morning excited to have another day to express yourself and create your life? Do you feel the surge of Life through your veins? If you answered no to these questions, you can change that.

Ask yourself what you dislike about your life, and why. Look at that situation and ascertain why you are in it. Are you playing the martyr, or do you feel you don't deserve any better? Whatever your reason, you can now STOP! Say: "I choose to be happy. I choose to live my life to the fullest - feeling love, joy and dynamic energy daily."

This is possible. When you live according to your dream, when you follow your heart and listen to your intuitions, this is what you will have as a daily life experience. We do not have to resign ourselves to a life of the `blahs'.

There has been a lot of talk lately about ascension. From what I've read and heard, there seems to be two varieties of ascension plans. One is the old come and take me away, I've had enough routine, and the other speaks of raising our vibration so that we become ascended masters.

The first version, reminds me of an escape fantasy or a fairy tale. In other words, "I hate my life and I want someone to come and rescue me." We have moved from the prince in shining armor, to the extraterrestrial in shining light. I feel we need to look closely at our motives when we start wanting to ascend. Are we solely wanting to run away, to escape, or are we seeking to improve our life, and ourselves?

It's time to come to terms with ourselves and our life as we have created it on this planet. Begin raising your vibration. Ascend to your own beingness from a purely physical dimension to one where we are consciously playing with energy and radiating Love and Harmony. Ascension is not about running away. Ascension is about raising our energy to one of pure Love, Faith and Light.

The first step in ascension begins by loving yourself. Next, focus on loving everyone and everything around you, here and now.

We need to be more concerned about our day to day reality. For example at the end of the day ask:

Did I deal with everyone from Love?
Did I spend my time worried about tomorrow, and what's going to happen?

We should focus on the present and let tomorrow take care of itself. If you live today to the best of your capacity, always striving to live from a 'higher' perspective, then tomorrow and all the other tomorrows will follow from whatever energy we have chosen to go with today.

We are alive! We can make that experience a boring, sad, tedious one—or we can choose to step forth with grace, with enthusiasm, expecting the Universe to shower us with blessings.

Happiness is a choice and now is always the time to choose it – every now that presents itself every moment of out lives.

Focus on today, on being the best person you can be (and that you really are). Let go of your fears and insecurities. Live life fully. Love life completely. Love the Radiant Being that you are and happiness will be yours.

Latest Comments

Connecting Emotional
In my intentional community I am bringing this research to the members and we are experimenting with dyads applying the skills revealed in t

How to Heal a Broken Heart
I just wanted to say thank you for writing this article and sharing your wisdom. I tried this years ago when I was in a lot of pain and didn

Esotericism What Is It
To whom it may concern; Good day;I have a great deal of interest in this topic; all my life I felt like I did not live my real life. Almost

Are We Having Fun Yet
Hi Marie, enjoyed reading your article. I think many people are coming to the conclusion that they have been lied to and manipulated by the

Meditation Through Dance
Beautiful article on sacred dance thankyou! Dance is such a powerful way to connect to the divine energy of Life. I enjoyed reading about