9 Ways To be Happier
For Both the Soul And The Ego
In my interview with Jessica Dibb for the Enneagram Global Summit 2016 going on from June 7th to June 10th 2016, I explore the topic of happiness from both the soul and ego’s point of view. I also talk about The Happiness Contract, which is how the ego tries to deserve happiness: and I’ll introduce nine soul meditations for experiencing unconditional happiness and greater joy.
Here’s a sneak preview of what I will be covering.
The Happiness Contract is a term I coined, and wrote about in Be Happy, to explore your personal psychology about happiness. Your Happiness Contract exists beneath a pile of thoughts at the back of your mind. It’s just a metaphor, but its effects can feel very real. This contract is a statement of belief about how much happiness is possible, and how much happiness is too good to be true. It’s a personal agreement drawn up by your Continue Reading
Self-acceptance is about being honest with yourself. It is the ability to hold up a mirror and see the original truth of who you are, as opposed to learned self-judgments. Thus, one gift of Self-acceptance is that it improves your awareness of your true self (the Unconditioned Self), which, in turn, helps you to be more authentic and fully integrated with yourself. Another gift of Self-acceptance is accountability-the willingness to 
In the course I often talk about the paradigms of happiness. A paradigm is a pattern of thinking based on concepts, values, and beliefs. Your happiness paradigm, that is, the way you think about happiness, is reflected in your speech and it arranges the shape of what you experience. Hence, your paradigm either opens you up or closes you off from a greater experience of happiness right now.
My training in psychology, with its almost exclusive focus on pain, is a very common story.
I first became aware of the fear of happiness in my one-to-one psychotherapy private practice, where I experienced three repeating patterns with clients-patterns that my training had in no way prepared me for.
“Satisfaction” is the name given to the type of happiness that is most commonly studied by positive psychologists. It also fits with what some philosophers call “desire theories,” which focus on the happiness that comes from “getting what you want.” Other words used to describe this happiness include “contentment,” “fulfilment,” and also the scientific term “subjective well-being.”