Shownotes
What is happy anyway? Do I know how to be happy? Society places so much emphasis on happiness, yet it often seems so elusive.
I talk about happiness in this episode because it is so arbitrary and subjective: my happiness is not your happiness and is not theirs over there. Happiness is a goal for many people, and it really is so attainable, so I want to describe what I believe happiness is and is not and how to achieve it or be it at last.
Everyone has the right to be happy, not just pursue it, so let’s talk how to be happy
In fact, society is so wound up about being happy that we even want to make sure our pets are happy!
Do you know the number one question I get asked as an animal communicator is: “Is my animal happy?” We might not even be happy ourselves, but we want to make sure our pets are happy!
In this episode you’ll learn:
- ~The two paths to happiness
- ~How to be happy! (hint: it’s not in that new tech or kitchen gadget you want so bad).
- ~This episode’s personal, life-changing, spiritual connection exercise
You may be interested in Episode one that explains why I think it’d be super if everyone were happy! Check it out here The Connectedness Podcast – It’s all about connection for an easy, happy, and meaningful life
I really hope to connect with you personally so please send me a message here or join me in my Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/connectednesswithrevkaren. And in the meantime, enjoy the show!
Transcripts
Welcome to the Connectedness Podcast.
Rev Karen:Just as you might have guessed, I talk about connection in this
Rev Karen:podcast, our connection with everything in the world around us.
Rev Karen:We're connected, whether we see it or not.
Rev Karen:Whether it's your connection with your dog and your.
Rev Karen:Or your connection with your God.
Rev Karen:Also, I talk about things that are more abstract, like your connections with your
Rev Karen:career or your land, your community, your family, your emotions, your body Life
Rev Karen:is truly all about connections, and the sooner we recognize this, the sooner we
Rev Karen:get to have an easier, more enjoyable.
Rev Karen:I'm gonna talk about these connections through different lenses, but things
Rev Karen:like synchronicities and coincidences, or everyday little bits of magic or
Rev Karen:miracles that we tend to dismiss, it's important we pay attention to
Rev Karen:all of this to help us, like I said, live an easier, more satisfying life.
Rev Karen:So welcome to the show.
Rev Karen:I'm your host, Reverend Care in Cleveland.
Rev Karen:Hello.
Rev Karen:And welcome back to the show today.
Rev Karen:I want to talk about happiness.
Rev Karen:What is being happy.
Rev Karen:Are you happy?
Rev Karen:Be happy.
Rev Karen:Am I happy?
Rev Karen:How do we know for happy?
Rev Karen:We hear a lot about finding happiness and things that are going to make your happy.
Rev Karen:Sometimes I wonder.
Rev Karen:Do people actually know if they're happy or not.
Rev Karen:Because there's an awful lot of stuff out there that tells us we should be happy.
Rev Karen:Especially if we buy that new gadget, if we buy a happy meal,
Rev Karen:I get caught up in that too sometimes.
Rev Karen:I thought I was going to be so happy when I bought my air fryer.
Rev Karen:People had raved about it for years.
Rev Karen:And it was always like, what is that?
Rev Karen:Look at that recipe.
Rev Karen:What is she making in that AirFryer.
Rev Karen:And so I was so excited when I finally decided to buy one.
Rev Karen:Unboxed it.
Rev Karen:Put it on my counter.
Rev Karen:And I think it's obligatory that you make French fries with it.
Rev Karen:One of your first meals.
Rev Karen:So cut up the potatoes.
Rev Karen:Put them in the basket, put a little oil on them, put some salt on them.
Rev Karen:Mixed them up while they were cooking.
Rev Karen:And then pulled them out.
Rev Karen:And I looked at them.
Rev Karen:And I thought to myself, These are roasted potatoes.
Rev Karen:And then I looked at my Air-Fryer.
Rev Karen:And I said to myself, this is a mini convection oven.
Rev Karen:I've been duped.
Rev Karen:But the point was, I thought it was going to make me so happy and I did
Rev Karen:make some really good things in there.
Rev Karen:But the amount of use it got and the satisfaction it brought
Rev Karen:compared to the real estate, it took up on my kitchen counter.
Rev Karen:Was, um, not proportionate.
Rev Karen:It was not a good ratio.
Rev Karen:So it had to go.
Rev Karen:And I do still have it.
Rev Karen:I do pull it out sometimes, but.
Rev Karen:It wasn't that magical thing that I thought it was going to
Rev Karen:be, that was going to make life.
Rev Karen:Oh, so good.
Rev Karen:And I think we get caught up in that.
Rev Karen:Sometimes we think that next new thing is going to be so great.
Rev Karen:We're going to be so happy.
Rev Karen:In fact, coming into Christmas season, as I record this.
Rev Karen:Uh, certainly a lot of kids are having a lot of expectations about the toys
Rev Karen:that they want Santa to bring them.
Rev Karen:And how great life's going to be after they get that hot, new toy.
Rev Karen:And I'm sure some of you have.
Rev Karen:Experienced, at least once that.
Rev Karen:Life isn't really that good after that new toy, sometimes it
Rev Karen:breaks right on Christmas day.
Rev Karen:And then what.
Rev Karen:You know, it's done.
Rev Karen:And that's still a trap that people get caught in every once in a while.
Rev Karen:Is that thing.
Rev Karen:Or that person.
Rev Karen:Is really going to make me happy.
Rev Karen:I know I'm going to be happy as soon as I have that.
Rev Karen:I wonder.
Rev Karen:Do we learn?
Rev Karen:Do people know that.
Rev Karen:The latest thing.
Rev Karen:Is only temporary.
Rev Karen:That the magic wears out and.
Rev Karen:We're just left with this thing and looking for something
Rev Karen:else to make us happy.
Rev Karen:The number one question, I get asked as an animal communicator.
Rev Karen:Is is my dog happy.
Rev Karen:Is my cat happy.
Rev Karen:Is my horse happy?
Rev Karen:Are my animals happy?
Rev Karen:That's the number one question.
Rev Karen:Are my animals happy.
Rev Karen:And I understand that we want our animals to be happy.
Rev Karen:I totally get that.
Rev Karen:And I also know.
Rev Karen:That.
Rev Karen:Us judging someone else's happiness.
Rev Karen:Never, never goes well because.
Rev Karen:Well, first of all, this was coming from the place of a person.
Rev Karen:Me who is happy.
Rev Karen:But I'm not expressive.
Rev Karen:So, if you look at me, if you visibly look at me and if I'm not
Rev Karen:jumping for joy all the time, if I'm not laughing all the time,
Rev Karen:You might not know that I'm happy because I'm not expressive.
Rev Karen:I'm not matching the expectations of what happiness looks like.
Rev Karen:And I think our animals get caught in that trap as well.
Rev Karen:We think that in order for an animal to be happy, they should look a certain way.
Rev Karen:They should act a certain way.
Rev Karen:And our expectations of another's expressiveness of our emotions.
Rev Karen:Only leads us to trouble., now I can't remember if it's a podcast or a book by.
Rev Karen:Malcolm Gladwell about this.
Rev Karen:And it's quite possibly the reason Amanda Knox got put away in the Italian
Rev Karen:jail for several years, because.
Rev Karen:Her expressions.
Rev Karen:After the murder of her roommate did not match what people expected.
Rev Karen:So we need to watch that.
Rev Karen:We need to, to be aware of.
Rev Karen:How we feel like people should express themselves.
Rev Karen:Just like when you get a present, you receive a present from someone or you
Rev Karen:give a present to someone and you think they're going to absolutely love it.
Rev Karen:And maybe you're a little bit let down as the giver because they didn't act.
Rev Karen:Joyful enough, grateful enough.
Rev Karen:And maybe the person is, they just don't act it.
Rev Karen:. So when people ask me about their pets being happy.
Rev Karen:And wanting only the best for their pets.
Rev Karen:And wanting to make sure their pets don't have any needs that they're
Rev Karen:not in pain, that they're not.
Rev Karen:Missing something.
Rev Karen:In their life, something important.
Rev Karen:What they really want to know.
Rev Karen:I believe.
Rev Karen:Is if their content is, if they're satisfied with life.
Rev Karen:'cause I know that's how I am.
Rev Karen:I am.
Rev Karen:Perfectly content and satisfied with life.
Rev Karen:And so I often use these words, synonymously, happiness.
Rev Karen:Contentment.
Rev Karen:Satisfaction.
Rev Karen:And even though they're not exactly.
Rev Karen:So now synonymous, I think it's close enough because what more
Rev Karen:would you want for yourself than to be content and satisfied?
Rev Karen:To me being content means.
Rev Karen:I have found some meaning.
Rev Karen:In my life.
Rev Karen:I have some purpose in my life.
Rev Karen:And life is going well.
Rev Karen:Yes, we want laughter once in a while.
Rev Karen:Yes, we want to move the body and dance and leap every once in a while.
Rev Karen:Jump for joy
Rev Karen:And I believe because I am content and satisfied.
Rev Karen:That the smallest thing will bring a laugh to me will bring a smile to my face.
Rev Karen:I do see.
Rev Karen:Humor and joy in a lot of different areas of life.
Rev Karen:That I might not, if I wasn't content or satisfied.
Rev Karen:And happy.
Rev Karen:Just because a person might be happy or content or satisfied does
Rev Karen:not mean there's not hard times.
Rev Karen:There's always hard times.
Rev Karen:There's always.
Rev Karen:Grief anger, sorrow fear that comes in these things don't go
Rev Karen:away just because a person is happy just because a person has content.
Rev Karen:They always enter our lives.
Rev Karen:That's one of the great things of being a human is being able to feel
Rev Karen:the full range of emotions, the ones that we like to feel, and the
Rev Karen:ones that we don't like to feel.
Rev Karen:. And trust me, I have spent a lot of time.
Rev Karen:In the less desired emotions.
Rev Karen:Before reaching this point that I'm at.
Rev Karen:So, how can you reach just a general level of satisfaction and contentment?
Rev Karen:So that when the bad things happen, you know, you go back up and when the
Rev Karen:great things happen, you go up much easier to that to reach that level.
Rev Karen:How does a person get there?
Rev Karen:The way I see it.
Rev Karen:There's two roads to happiness.
Rev Karen:There's the quick manifestation road, which is things situations.
Rev Karen:Trips people.
Rev Karen:Okay.
Rev Karen:It's the buying the new car.
Rev Karen:It's taking a trip somewhere.
Rev Karen:You've always wanted to be.
Rev Karen:It's going out with that new person.
Rev Karen:These things are pretty quick manifestations that make us happy.
Rev Karen:Immediately.
Rev Karen:. But these things don't last.
Rev Karen:Taking a trip and making memories.
Rev Karen:Yes.
Rev Karen:Those memories last.
Rev Karen:You're not always going to be swimming in the warm ocean or sightseeing on safari.
Rev Karen:Eventually you have to come back.
Rev Karen:To a place.
Rev Karen:That might not be as much fun.
Rev Karen:So you want to make sure that contentment, that satisfaction comes back with you.
Rev Karen:So these things are great for temporary happiness boosts.
Rev Karen:They elevate you, they elevate your mood.
Rev Karen:But they're generally short-lived.
Rev Karen:And it might be a day, am I be a month?
Rev Karen:And it might be a year, but.
Rev Karen:If it's something that's outside of you.
Rev Karen:It's probably not going to last very long.
Rev Karen:So the other path to happiness, I believe comes from connection.
Rev Karen:And this can be connection to your soul.
Rev Karen:Connection with life around you.
Rev Karen:Connection to the universal power of love, the divine power of life.
Rev Karen:Cultivating happiness is just a reminder.
Rev Karen:I have that connection.
Rev Karen:So, how do you cultivate this, this connection?
Rev Karen:How do we cultivate contentment?
Rev Karen:Through connection.
Rev Karen:Well, it has to be intentional.
Rev Karen:It has to at least start out intentional until it's second nature.
Rev Karen:I talk about these very things.
Rev Karen:When I am.
Rev Karen:Working with people about their money mindset and what they need to do to change
Rev Karen:their money stories and make more money.
Rev Karen:And I realize this sounds contradictory.
Rev Karen:But hear me out for a minute.
Rev Karen:Making money does not make you happy.
Rev Karen:Making money and buying things does not make you happy.
Rev Karen:The reason I work with people , To get a grip to master.
Rev Karen:Their money situation.
Rev Karen:Is because in order to cultivate connection,
Rev Karen:And in order to spend time doing the things we need to do
Rev Karen:to cultivate our connection.
Rev Karen:To self, to soul, to spirit.
Rev Karen:We sometimes have to pay other people to do other things for us.
Rev Karen:If we are so busy.
Rev Karen:Cleaning the house.
Rev Karen:Doing the dishes.
Rev Karen:Cooking dinner.
Rev Karen:Mowing the lawn, washing the car.
Rev Karen:Going to our job every day.
Rev Karen:There's no time.
Rev Karen:For cultivating that connection.
Rev Karen:And that's where money can help.
Rev Karen:Money itself is nothing.
Rev Karen:Money itself has . No value.
Rev Karen:To our life.
Rev Karen:Unless we use it to do the things.
Rev Karen:That are going to help us be satisfied.
Rev Karen:Long-term.
Rev Karen:So when I.
Rev Karen:Work with people.
Rev Karen:And I talk about how.
Rev Karen:We cultivate these things.
Rev Karen:How we find.
Rev Karen:The time.
Rev Karen:The space.
Rev Karen:To do these practices.
Rev Karen:That's where it's at.
Rev Karen:That's why I do it.
Rev Karen:That's how I do it.
Rev Karen:That's.
Rev Karen:The reason behind it is.
Rev Karen:For eternal.
Rev Karen:Internal.
Rev Karen:Contentment satisfaction and happiness.
Rev Karen:How do you spend your time?
Rev Karen:I've mentioned on others episodes that.
Rev Karen:What you spend your time?
Rev Karen:Your money.
Rev Karen:And your energy on.
Rev Karen:Those are your values.
Rev Karen:Those are the things that you're valuing in life.
Rev Karen:Are you really spending your time, money, and energy on things that
Rev Karen:you think you want to be spending your time, energy and money on.
Rev Karen:Or are you doing it because you think you have to do it and you haven't
Rev Karen:figured out the other way yet.
Rev Karen:So sometimes we just have to start where we are.
Rev Karen:How did you spend your time today?
Rev Karen:Busy.
Rev Karen:Doing things for other people, making money for other people.
Rev Karen:If you had a choice, do you know what makes you happy if you had a day off?
Rev Karen:That you didn't have to go to the doctor that you didn't have to run errands, that
Rev Karen:you didn't have to take care of someone.
Rev Karen:If you had a day off.
Rev Karen:For just, you.
Rev Karen:What would you do?
Rev Karen:Sometimes we don't even know the answer to that.
Rev Karen:And sometimes there are so many options that it's hard to narrow it down to just.
Rev Karen:One, two or three things.
Rev Karen:And that's how, you know, you need it more.
Rev Karen:If there's too many options.
Rev Karen:Then you need to have more days like that.
Rev Karen:And if you can't think of anything.
Rev Karen:Then you absolutely need more days like that because.
Rev Karen:That's where you're going to find the lasting satisfaction
Rev Karen:and happiness in your life.
Rev Karen:Back to the first question.
Rev Karen:Do you know what makes you happy?
Rev Karen:Or let me rephrase that.
Rev Karen:What are you doing?
Rev Karen:When you're happy.
Rev Karen:Maybe it's by accident.
Rev Karen:Maybe you don't even realize how happy and satisfied you are when you're doing it.
Rev Karen:Find that find those things.
Rev Karen:And if you're happy cleaning the house, that's awesome.
Rev Karen:Don't let.
Rev Karen:Anyone else tell you, you can't be happy doing something.
Rev Karen:Whatever.
Rev Karen:Takes you to that place of contentment and satisfaction.
Rev Karen:Cultivate that.
Rev Karen:Cultivate your connection to yourself, your connection to your body.
Rev Karen:Your connection to.
Rev Karen:Life around you really?
Rev Karen:today, here's what I really encourage you to do.
Rev Karen:Pretend you have a week off.
Rev Karen:You're not going on vacation somewhere.
Rev Karen:The house is empty.
Rev Karen:The animals are taken care of.
Rev Karen:It's just you to plan out an entire week of things that you love to do.
Rev Karen:What's on the list.
Rev Karen:What's the first thing you're doing.
Rev Karen:What are the things that are a priority and what are the
Rev Karen:things that are your backup?
Rev Karen:Have that list and work on doing it.
Rev Karen:When you're done, you're going to say, I need to do that more often.
Rev Karen:So you're going to prioritize it.
Rev Karen:And this begins the cycle of getting to that place of constant contentment.
Rev Karen:Happiness.
Rev Karen:That allows the spirit in to start doing its thing.
Rev Karen:And keep that list because that list.
Rev Karen:Some of those things are also going to be the things.
Rev Karen:That you use to celebrate yourself?
Rev Karen:When you do something that you're proud of, that you took a risk,
Rev Karen:no matter how big or small, and you did it, you accomplished it.
Rev Karen:This is your, how I celebrate list.
Rev Karen:And don't forget to celebrate every single win.
Rev Karen:Every single success.
Rev Karen:The more we celebrate and recognize ourselves.
Rev Karen:The more we have to celebrate and recognize.
Rev Karen:And wouldn't that be an awesome thing.
Rev Karen:I wish you great happiness, great satisfaction, great
Rev Karen:contentment in your life.
Rev Karen:Love to hear any feedback you can.
Rev Karen:Connect to me on.
Rev Karen:Facebook or on.
Rev Karen:My website.
Rev Karen:Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful year.
Rev Karen:Bye-bye.
Rev Karen:If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to head over to rev karen podcast.com.
Rev Karen:That's R E V K A R E N podcast.com.
Rev Karen:There you're gonna find the tools for finding more meaning
Rev Karen:and happiness in your own life.
Rev Karen:Plus, if you have a story that you want to share with me, either on or
Rev Karen:off the air, be sure to look for that.
Rev Karen:Make sure you follow me so you get notified when new episodes drop.
Rev Karen:And also I'd love to connect with you in my Facebook group,
Rev Karen:connectedness with Rev, Karen.
Rev Karen:So head over to rev karen podcast.com.
