You grow up under the influence of your parents, your teachers, your family, and your friends. You live in a world where everything is set in the way that your culture dictates.
but...
is that the right way of living?
You always thought you had a normal life. Normal feels right and normal was whatever you grew up with, your family, your society, your culture.
The thing is, that's the case for everyone.
There are people all over the world who live in completely different ways than the way that you were brought up, and they do so happily.
I grew up with my own version of normal, and I have started to learn that there are many different ways of living. It dawned on me that the way that I was brought up was one way of living but, interestingly, wasn't the right way for me. It was wrong in a lot of different and fundamental ways. As an adult, I have begun to shift the way that I interact with the world: the way that I think, the way that I buy things, the way that I interact with people. These changes have fundamentally altered the course of my life.
Breaking open your reality, changing direction, and being able to see life with new eyes can be frightening. Understanding that your habitual framework of life can be changed and become something more suited for you erases that fear and replaces it with a closer cosmic connection to happiness. You are shaped by the environment you're in, and by seeing new ways of existing, you can change your environment to support a new, happier life. This may require you to bravely look outside of what has been your habit, your normal, and to see what might be really right for you what makes you comfortable. Ultimately, what will make you whole.
In Western countries, we are very lucky to have choice. We can choose where we live, what job we have, whether or not to have children, whether or not to have a partner or a spouse. We can choose to change our direction, to shift our expectations, to set new goals, and to live differently. We may find that doing so allows us to reach greater heights of achievement and makes us happier than we ever thought possible.
Such changes are not without challenges. We may find that in shifting, in changing, in behaving differently that there will be naysayers and detractors, particularly among those who were formative in our youth; our parents, our siblings, our friends, our teachers, our mentors of the past who have followed a different path may see your rejection of that path as a criticism and rejection of their own ethos and existence.
You will expect to find a lot of internal resistance even within yourself to changes. Cognitive dissonance or the inability to take in a belief contrary to one that you hold is a very real challenge in making these shifts to a new way of living. You must absolutely be of an open mindset and open frame of mind to be able to consider new ways of living and new ways of being in order to meet paradigms and shift them.
Those with the strength, courage, and grace to follow this path on their own and with like-minded partners and friends are the ones who will ultimately find greatest success in life because they are following their true pathway to happiness .
All this being said, you may find that the way you are living does not support the shifting of a paradigm at this particular time or in this particular circumstance that you find your life in at the moment. That is okay. You will still be able to take some steps, and make progress in the pursuit of your shift to happiness.
Happy reading!
Rachel
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