How to Have Overwhelming Gratitude and Joy Leading to More Peace and Happiness

Go on a serious search for everything you can think of to be thankful for. It helps you to get out of your head and into your heart.

I sometimes feel sorry for people in North America. The land of the free, home of the brave, and big mortgages, fancy cars, and often way too many gadgets like iPods, Palm Pilots, cell phones, DVD players, large screen televisions, computers, etc. etc. We are bombarded in newspapers, on television, on billboards, and everywhere else we turn with all the things we supposedly need.

And if there isn't enough money to easily afford all that "stuff," it is sometimes easy to feel well poor, less than, like a failure, etc. Which quickly leads to feelings of unhappiness. It is a fear based thing. And love and fear can not occupy the same space. So you have to choose one over the other. If you are focused on all that things you don't have, you can not be feeling connected to Source and feeling the love and joy that naturally goes along with that. And if you are focused on all the things that you don't have and are not feeling love and joy, you will most likely never get the things you really desire. Law of attraction.

If you have read my book Freeway to Freedom , you've probably read about all that stuff I used to have. The little red sports car, the limos in Manhatten, the cruises, the weekend getaways to fabulously fun locations.

There is alot more to the story of course. I was extremely unhappy. I had a complete stress-induced melt down and eventually left the glamerous life to find myself, love, and peace of mind.

I ended up with my husband, Raven, living on top of a mountain in Southern California in the middle of a state park. We lived in a very old, run-down mobile home that didn't even have a stove. We bought a large toaster oven at a Good Will store and used a camp stove for things you need to cook with pots and pans. We burned wood in a barrel that had somehow been miraculously connected to the original heating vents in order to keep warm. It was massively dangerous and definitely not up to any kind of building code. There was so little water pressure that I finally gave up on showers and resorted to baths twice a week.

Now some might be horrified by these living conditions and say how very sad it was that I had really fallen off the edge, living in poverty, and such.

But that would be a shame. Because they obviously hadn't seen the rest of the story.

Our home, although an old run-down 20 foot x 80 foot mobile home, was larger than countless dwellings throughout the world used to house large families. There was just the 2 of us and our twin silver gray cats, Smokey and Shadow. So in some locations, what we had would be considered an enormous place. And it had heated running water and a bathroom inside. Again, high standards if you are looking globally.

The home did have one truly unusual feature. If you placed a compass at the exact location where my chair sat at the kitchen table, it would spin around in circles. We were literally living on top of an energy vortex.

But it wasn't what was inside the house that mattered to us. Although there was so much love there it felt like a palace. It was the outside that was so glorious it still brings tears to my eyes when I think of it.

We lived literally in paradise.

All alone on a secluded mountain with deer eating fruit right off the tree outside the bedroom window, cougars leaving fresh paw prints in the snow next to the front porch, fox, and squirrel, and countless other creatures blessing us with their presence.

Every day I went outside with my notepads and pen. I had this perfect little spot. It was a grass covered circular opening in the forest. I was surrounded by trees and birds singing. The sun was smiling down on me. And I would sit and write. I wrote for hours every day for months. And while I was basking in the radiance of this nature nirvana, Raven was doing what he does best. He was off on an adventure in the woods, hiking, having conversations with the herds of deer he encountered, and lots of other simple awe inspiring pleasures that many people have never ever experienced. We were so joy-filled and happy.

Every day I walked a mile alone to the only store around, bought one or two little things, and walked a mile back. All along the way I would commune with every clump of wild flowers along my path.

The tiny little purple one's that refused to be photographed. Well every time I tried to photograph them they simply presented themselves as violet light. Beautiful, glowing, violet light with a hint of yellow. I have tons of photos like that of those little flowers. Some of them later became the Dancing Dolphin Essence "Ordination."

The gorgeous and wildly uplifting yellow ones that made me feel giddy just looking at them. They later became "Solar Initiation."

The miraculous realization that the new plant I'd noticed was now growing a giant bloom. And I absolutely positively "knew" that it was only going to bloom 1 day when it opened.

And, as always happens when I'm to make an essence, I woke up promptly at 4 a.m. knowing that today was the day. I gathered my things, called in my guides and helpers, requested permission, and made "Transcendence." I can hardly put into words the power in that essence.

And there were many more.

It was a place of miracles. A place of joy, happiness, and miracles.

The miracle of getting in touch with myself, with my creator, of sharing my life with my Beloved. The miracle of conceiving a child and feeling and observing the joyful changes of creating a new life. The miracle of Dancing Dolphin Essences being born.

The miracle of true joy. I was a certifiable bliss bunny. I have never been more happy. And I have never felt more grateful.

So you see, although I had an old car, and no real stove, and lived in a truly pathetic mobile home, I experienced more happiness than most people will ever know. And we did it for almost a year. And for that short period of time, we didn't need to work. We taught the occasional class here or there with great appreciation from our students.

And then we re-entered upper middle class society and had a child.

Raven put on a suit and rode the train into the city to work at the largest bank in Canada at their main office downtown Toronto. We had radically switched gears.

Now I have to admit that I love my new Palm Pilot. And I probaby couldn't function at all without my computer. The big screen TV is so much fun to watch movies on.

What you probably don't know is that we got the TV as a trade. The Palm Pilot was a gift from a dear friend. Our cars aren't new and we rent our home. But it's in the country on over an acre of land and we have dogs and a beautiful sanctuary full of big trees, grass (a rarity in New Mexico), tons of flowers, and a fountain.

Sure, like most people, I'd love a nice new home. I'd love a Nissan Murano. I'd love to visit . . . well everywhere in the world.

But the truth is I'm happy. Truly happy. And all that stuff is nice, but it isn't at all what really matters.

How you feel about yourself is what really counts.

Feeling an overwhelming love and joy in your heart because of your connection to Source is what makes all the difference. Your peace of mind and knowing that everything is as it should be is paramount.

I actually began writing this article in order to tell you about the overwhelming feeling of gratitude I experienced recently while visiting Taco Bell. I found it an unusual place to be so overcome with gratitude that I cried, but it is where it happened.

My son, Jess, is a pretty picky eater. When I discovered that he would eat a Chicken Burrito Supreme at Taco Bell I was overjoyed. So we stop in about once a week.

We went in the other day and I found myself looking around at all the little hispanic ladies and gentlemen who work there. It is always the same lovely people who serve us at lunch. And as I saw these people that I've seen many times before, I was overcome with such a feeling of appreciation for the service they provide us, for the great tasting meal that they prepare for us to enjoy, I literally had tears running down my face.

Like everything that truly matters, it is a state of being.

Gratitude is a state of being. Love is a state of being. Joy is a state of being. Peace is a state of being. It is those states of being that you are seeking to experience, cultivate, and maintain.

I encourage you to dare to do whatever it takes to discover and become one with them.

My favorite quote:

"Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing." - Helen Keller

Blessings,

Takara

P.S. Dancing Dolphin Essences assist you in achieving and maintaining a specific state of being, helping you with gratitude, peace, happiness, and joy.