where does happiness come from?

credit {here}

i, like many people, can confuse true happiness with that momentary contentment that arises from getting something, achieving something, or doing something.  that passing pleasure that arises from receiving the latest tech gadget, eating a particularly delicious treat, or hearing a compliment from someone you admire.  but things such as these, though pleasurable in their own right, are not true happiness - they are ephemeral joys.

so where the heck does real, true, authentic happiness come from then?  if it doesn't come from gifts, and dinners out, and holiday celebrations?  undeniable happiness comes from connecting with your inner bliss.  have you ever had a moment when you felt like everything in your body, mind and world were aligned in perfect harmony?  you may have felt physically lighter, like a weight had been lifted from your shoulders.  happiness felt effortless, and even though it was a somewhat ordinary day, everything you experienced in that moment felt truly extraordinary.  in that moment, however fleeting, you were tapping into your inner bliss.  that glowing wisdom and clarity that exists within us all.  that "knowing" that everything is and will be ok, even in your darkest moments. 

it's not always an easy thing to find.  so much of our lives are lived on auto-pilot - wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed, repeat.  but bliss doesn't require you to go elsewhere and escape your routine, it asks you to move inward.  and the more you work to align your body and breath to bring mindfulness into your life, the more inexplicably blissful moments you'll cultivate.  look around your world, don't be blind to it.  be kind to yourself.  and be grateful for all your blessings.  your bliss is here and now.

i want to share with you all a poignant poem my dad shared with me earlier this week.

love after love

the time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. eat.
you will love again the stranger who was your self.
give wine. give bread. give back your heart

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
sit. feast on your life.

by derek walcott

meditation prompt for your journal or cushion:

recall a time when you felt connected to your inner bliss.
what did it feel like?
what are some things in your life that offer you glimmers of your bliss?  (for me it's yoga and good conversations with my husband :)

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love got you tongue-tied?

as much as we’d all love to be able to write profound, epic, heart-string tugging, earth-shattering words for our loved ones (especially this time of year). sometimes it is best to leave it to the professionals. you know, the old-school pros who definitely got it right. below i’ve compiled a short (but sweet) list of some of the best-loved (and longest lasting) words on love. so this year, if you’re feeling a little tongue-tied, maybe let someone else do the writing.

picture by m2 photography - our amazing wedding photographers

for the poet: (may know it from “did you hear about the morgans?”)
shakespeare sonnet 116:
let me not to the marriage of true minds
admit impediments. love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds,
or bends with the remover to remove:
o no! it is an ever-fixed mark
that looks on tempests and is never shaken;
it is the star to every wandering bark,
whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
within his bending sickle's compass come:
love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
but bears it out even to the edge of doom.
if this be error and upon me proved,
i never writ, nor no man ever loved.
 
for the traditionalist: i love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.
-elizabeth barrett browning
 
for the sentimentalist: the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  they must be felt with the heart.
-helen keller
 
for the non-conformist: one should always be in love. that is the reason why one should never marry.
-oscar wilde

engagement photo shoot with m2 photography

 what else does lifestyle maven have in store for february?
check it out {here}..