A Voice in the Wilderness
HAPPINESS CAN BE A REACTION
OR A CREATION
Happiness can be a reaction or a creation. That is one of the most important lessons I learned in my conversations with God. It is so important that I want to repeat it here, so that you never forget it.
Happiness can be a reaction or a creation.
Most people think that happiness is a reaction. Something happens in the exterior of our reality and we become happy. Only the Life Master knows that happiness does not have to be a reaction. It can be a creation. A decision. A choice.
The proof of this is that an identical event can occur in the lives of two people and those two people can have two entirely different experiences. The first can be deliriously happy while the second is utterly unhappy. What’s going on here? Why are their experiences so different? If happiness (or unhappiness) is a reaction, why aren’t they both reacting in the same way to the same stimuli?
But wait! Not only can two people have different experiences of the same event…one person can have different experiences of the same event at different times. That’s how complex this whole happiness business is!
The fact is that exterior circumstances or events do not have to have anything to do with happiness. We can make a decision to be happy or to be unhappy, regardless of exterior circumstances. The only question would be why we would make such a decision—and how we would do so. That is, would we do so consciously or unconsciously; from a place of awareness or lack of it?
Hard to believe, I know…
Much of this is difficult for many people to accept, and I am aware of that. “Hey!”, they say to me, “I just lost my job today. How can I not be unhappy about that?” Or, “Have you taken a look at the world and how it is? Are you telling me I am making a choice to be unhappy?”
Tough as this is to hear, the answer could be (and almost always is)…yes.
I have actually been in the presence of people who have not been unhappy even in the face of the world being the way it is. They were sad—in some cases terribly, terribly sad—but they were not unhappy. (See previous chapter) I have seen people who were not unhappy when they lost their jobs. They may have been sad, but they were not unhappy.
These are people who intuitively understand the difference between sadness and unhappiness, and who are clear that these two are not, and need not be, one and the same. They allow themselves to feel their sadness—indeed, sometimes to feel it deeply —yet they maintain their inner peace, their inner happiness, their equilibrium, in the midst of the most challenging circumstances.
What do they know that we do not know? What do they do that we do not do? How do they manage this?
Which brain are we using?
Most people think that happiness is a reaction. Something happens in the exterior of our reality and we become happy. Only the Life Master knows that happiness does not have to be a reaction. Masters know what I have told you here. They know that happiness can be a creation. It can be a decision, a choice.
A reaction is something that one chooses instinctively. A response is something that one chooses deliberatively. A creation is something that one chooses proactively. A reaction comes from the Reptilian Brain, a response comes from the Mammalian Brain, a creation comes from the Human Brain.
The brain of human beings developed in stages. The first stage of development was the Reptilian Brain. It reacts to exterior data taken in by the Body. It does not store the data (reptiles have no memory), it does not analyze the data (reptiles have no emotions), and it does not call the data forward and recommend alternative responses (reptiles do not ponder their decisions, nor are they ever “confused”).
Reptiles merely encounter data and react to them. Their reaction to exterior physical circumstances and conditions is instant and instinctive, based not on evaluation of prior experiences, but on cellular encoding. Therefore their reaction is also identical and predictable, given identical exterior stimuli. (The same cannot be said about humans!)
The Mammalian Brain is the second stage of brain development. Elephants are reputed to have a long memory. Lions can become angry. (A snake cannot.) That is because mammals store data and call it forward the next time similar data appears in their environment. Mammals then compare present data with past data, and if the comparison brings them unwelcome information, they become angry. Or scared. Or happy. Whatever the case may be.
Mammals respond, reptiles react. A response is a reaction tempered and influenced by past data.
The Human Brain is the third stage of brain development. Humans not only store data and bring data forward and compare data, humans also analyze data. That is, they think about what they think about. “Should I do this, or do that…?” A lion does not ask itself, “Should I roar now?”
Humans also reflect upon their decisions. A lion does not roar and then say to itself, “Gee, I wonder if I overreacted there. Do you think that roar was too loud? What will the other lions think…?” Humans do. Humans ask themselves these kinds of questions all the time.
This is humanity’s great gift. It is this ability to analyze data and create rather than react or respond that marks a more highly evolved species. It is this skill that gives humans their power; the power to create their own reality.
The process of reality creation
Human beings have options that other creatures of the earth do not, as far as we know. (I say “as far as we know” because there are some who believe that certain mammals—namely, whales and dolphins—might live in a more advanced civilization than we do). Humans can react to exterior conditions, they can respond to exterior situations, or they are create interior realities regardless of exterior circumstances.
If they choose to create their reality, they also have two ways of doing this: (A) by using the Mind; or, (B) by using the Mind and the Soul at the same time. This second method is what I have called The WECCE Technology, from the book When Everything Changes, Change Everything. The technology involves a joining of the Mind and the Soul in a collaborative process. It is using the brain at its highest level. It is using the Divine Brain.
Thus, humans have four options:
- They can react to exterior conditions
- They can respond to exterior situations
- They can create interior realities regardless of exterior circumstances…or…
- They can recreate themselves anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever they held about who they are.
HAPPINESS IS A CHOICE AWAY
So now we see that there are actually four stages of brain development. There is the Reptilian Brain, there is the Mammalian Brain, there is the Human Brain, and there is the Divine Brain. Using the Divine Brain, happiness is always one choice away.
It has been said that we live in a constant conflict between our human self and our divine self. Which self are you expressing most often?
Is your life a process of Reacting, Responding, Creating, or ReCreating your Self anew? What is, most often, true for you?
A FASCINATING EXERCISE YOU CAN DO:
- Can you think of a time when you just “reacted” to a certain situation and event? Most of us can. If you can, write out a brief description (a paragraph or two) about that experience. Your reaction, by the way, could have been Positive or Negative. Just let it be a time when the energy came out of you instantly, instinctively. You simply did what you did, said what you said, felt what you felt, without thinking. (You were happy or unhappy, quite instinctively.)
- Now, think of a time when you “responded” to a certain situation or event. You thought about what was going on in the moment, and you allowed the energy created by those thoughts to immediately flow through you as a result of your thoughts about it. (You were happy or unhappy, quite spontaneously.)
- Now, think of a time when you “created” your reality regardless of an exterior situation or circumstance. You thought about what was going on in the moment, and you analyzed that data and choose deliberately to experience yourself in a certain way, allowing the energy of that choice to flow through you as a result of your decision. (You were happy or unhappy, quite intentionally.)
- Finally, can you think of a time when you “created” your reality regardless of an exterior situation or circumstance, and regardless of your own prior thought about it or your limited mental analysis of it, but with, also, the benefit of your Soul’s Awareness of the Soul with regard to it? You thought about what was going on in the moment, and you analyzed that data and felt yourself experiencing an event in a certain way, then opened to a Larger Experience, moving into the space of the Soul and allowing the Soul’s Data to enlarge the Mind’s Data, and then watching the energy of that fullness flow through you as a result of your ascension into Beingness. (You were happy absolutely, because there was nothing else to be!)
- Now, be honest with yourself and tell yourself: On the average day, how many times do you react to exterior circumstances, how many times do you respond, how many times do you create your interior reality regardless of exterior circumstances, and how may times do you recreate yourself anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about who you are? Give yourself a % for each of the categories, and look to see what this tells you about how you are living your life.
- React ___%
- Respond ___%
- Create ___%
- Recreate Anew ___%
(Please Note: The above is one of 36 lessons in the CWG Spiritual Mentoring Program. You may find more information about this program here: http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/SpiritualMentoring)
