# Happiness/Everyone needs a spiritual centering

<Happiness
The most important thing in life is the spiritual centering. The spiritual centering consists of the personal philosophy of life. A spiritual centering should include the five principles of love, peace, truth, strength and joy. If we live with wisdom according to these five principles, we grow into happiness, into enlightenment, into a life in the light (in God, in fulfillment).

## The path of inner happiness

Basically, the path of inner happiness consists of health practices and of mental work. Health exercises are sports (walking, jogging, biking - if necessary on the exercise bike), yoga and meditation. Add to this a healthy diet. Mental work means to avoid negative thoughts and to encourage positive thoughts. Negative thoughts lead to internal tensions, the destruction of the health and to bad social relationships. They are often associated with feelings such as fear, anger and addiction.
Positive thoughts create positive feelings and a constructive external behavior. Positive thoughts we get by self-reflection, positive intentions and reading in positive books. Importante is a constant attention to the inner thoughts, feelings and positive life principles (love, peace, truth, strength, happiness). Recommendable are the philosophy of happiness (Epicurus), Buddhism, Christianity and Yoga. The positive psychology found many good ways to live a happy life. It is important that we are always in touch with ourselves, our inner truth and love. A spiritual teaching gives us an orientation. For proper application in our concrete situation we are responsible for ourselves. What is good for us? What brings us forward on the path of happiness? What is useful to build up a happy world?
The easiest way of spiritual centering is the daily reading in a spiritual book. We can also read something positive in the internet. We must not read much. A small text, a meditation a day is enough to keep us on the path to lasting happiness. For many people a daily oracle card is helpful to get a positive outlook on life. For this we need each day just a minute. That time has everyone. The gain is long term immeasurable.
Think about your daily happiness practice. How can you integrate The Five Principles of Health into your life? What is your main way of spiritual centering (Yoga, Buddhism, Christianity, Philosophy, Positive Psychology)? Which spiritual role-model inspires you and gives you energy for a positive life (Buddha, Jesus, Epicurus)? What exercises do you want to practice regularly?
--> Buddha oracle, Angel oracle, I Ching oracle, Yoga oracle, Happiness oracle (Tarot)

## The Way of Love

1. Live in inner peace (calmness, stillness) and act for the happiness of all beings. For some people it is important to live in the outer peace, to achieve the inner peace. Basically, the inner peace is the result of a calm mind. A calm mind we get when we focus in wisdom (Spirituality, God, Yoga) and work continually on our negative qualities, addictions, fears and aggressions.
2. Everyone should find his personal balance of rest and action. Those who live in the right inner balance, save their energy, their physical and mental health.
3. Our mind grows into the light, if we strengthen the positivity and the love in us. We should constantly practice positive thinking, positive speaking and positive doing. When we facilitate the desire for a happy world, then we grow further towards enlightenment. The secret to this wish is the connection from the inner to the outer world. We are not spiritually separated from other beings. Their happiness affects us. When we visualize other beings as happy, then we also feel happy. Those who encourage the goal to a happy world creates positivity within. When we send light to all beings, then one day light will come through to our souls. When we do something good for the world, the world will reward us with a positive psyche.
4. We should make the inner happiness, not the outer happiness to the center of our lives. If we follow the two principles of love for God (inner peace, spiritual practice) and love for all beings, we will transform our minds. Our inner tension will dissolve and happiness will appear.
5. With inner happiness, we can see the positive in the world, in our fellow men and in ourselves. We live in the light and in the love. The longer we live and the longer we practise the way of love, the more we grow into the light.

## Discussion

Michael: Spirituality should for us only be a fun factor. Otherwise we quickly get a religious-related neurotic disorder! Everything comes by itself?
Nils: From nothing comes nothing. If you look at life, religion and enlightenment as a fun factor, then you will shrink spiritually in the long term. Who lives primarily his outwardly pleasures, who sees the sense of life only in fun, external wealth, career and relationships, gets attachments, gets internal tensions, he uses up in the stresses of life and blockes his happiness energy more and more. Unfortunately, it is true that a man must choose between God and the world, between fun and spiritual practice. The path to enlightenment is persistent inner work. The more you practice, the faster you progress.
A religious neurosis arises when you are practicing spiritually wrong. You should feel exactly what you need, what is good for you and what brings you forward spiritually. Many Christians practice their religion without inner feeling only formally. It is also inconvenient if you are too dogmatic. Religious fanatics live out their religion from the ego and hurt themselves and the world.
If you undertax yourself on the spiritual path, you will not grow spiritually. If you overtax yourself, you produce inner tensions and block your enlightenment. You should find out exactly what fits you best on the spiritual path. And you must be persistent until the end. Shortly before you get enlightened comes a stage where you have to let go of the goal of enlightenment. Otherwise you tense up yourself to strong by the sense of purpose. Many New Agers and many evangelical Christians believe that you just have to live your life and enlightenment (the grace of God) comes by itself. That's a big mistake. The Lord loves spiritually hard-working people. Otherwise, he gives not his grace.
Woman: My inner happiness is important to me. Because it's good for my soul, it is also good for my body. If your body and your soul are happy, the whole person is happy. If a person is happy in himself, he can also have happy relations with his fellow man. Yes, I care for my happiness ... I try to think positively.

## Swami Sivananda

I was tired of this false life of sensual pleasure.
This prison of my body disgusted me.
I sought the company of great masters.
And sucked their nectarine instructions in me.
I wandered through the harrowing forests of love and hate.
I wandered far beyond the world of good and evil.
I came to the land of astonishing silence.
And the glory of the soul caught in me.
All my suffering is over now.
My heart overflows with joy.
Peace has moved into my soul.
I suddenly live in the light.
A new life begins.
Love fills my soul and my heart.
I bathe in a flood of ineffable bliss.
I see God behind all names and forms.
And realize that I am light
which gives all people light.