Have you ever been around someone who seemed to leave you in a better state than they found you? Someone who seemed to exude peacefulness, happiness, thoughtfulness and sincerity regardless of the circumstances around them? Someone who made you feel so appreciated that you just didn’t want to part company with them? Someone whose radiant kindness just spilled out onto everyone and every event around them? Someone with no noticeable traces of their own ego, only a profound aura of gentle spirit?
This is a rare person(guru?) indeed but they are out there. If you have in fact been around a spirit of this caliber, did you wonder what was at work in them that was creating the spiritual horsepower that made you feel so alive?
The truth is, they are operating from a vastly different perspective than most. I’d like to shed some light on that perspective and how we can all not only peer into their universe but how we can actually learn to step into it.
The first principle at work is presence. By that I mean they have learned to live in the moment and not in a constant preoccupation with the future or the past.
When you speak, they are listening to you – intently. They are fully immersed in the immediacy of you without thinking about what they are going to say next, what they did yesterday or will do tomorrow. They have come to understand that the present moment is the only one where life happens. You become the complete center of their experience.
The second principle is gratitude. They are operating from a place of sincere appreciation not only for their own circumstances, no matter what they happen to be, but for the opportunity to communicate with you. They understand that they have drawn you to them for a reason and they are steadfastly watching and listening for that reason.
They know that everyone has something to teach them in some way, including you (even if you consciously have no idea what that is) and for that they are both mindful and grateful.
When you come into the presence of someone like this (you’ll know it when it happens), take special care to be present, to be grateful, and know that these same principles are available to you as well. With a little practice and patience, you too can become that spirit and have the same transformative effect on all you come into contact with.
You can’t imagine not only what you will learn when you truly begin to listen with your heart open, without judgement, and with gratitude, but how differently you will begin to perceive the world around you. It will feel as if you have been seeing the world through dirty goggles and someone finally removed them. The colors are simply magnificent.
~Edward G. Dunn
Check out the Happiness 2.0 Podcast – https://podcast.edwardgdunn.com/
