Finding the Path to Happiness

It sounds easy to “Choose Happy” like the magnet on my refrigerator says. In Verse II.33 of the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali wrote “Upon being harassed by negative thoughts, one should cultivate counteracting thoughts.” The journal Neuron reports that a study by the Medical Research Council in England shows that when people associate pairs of words and then substitute one with another word locks the brain from calling up the first word. One can substitute negative thoughts with positive ones in this way. Julia Cameron, in her book The Artist’s Way, asks her readers to use affirmations, positive reminders of the best qualities of self, the preferred way to live, a choice to think in a particular way, to help them achieve happiness. When we choose happy, we choose the way of love, forgiveness, and acceptance of the other people in our life.  Choosing happy is the same as choosing the life of the spirit, intellectual seeking, and being in God’s hands.  If we choose happy, we choose a positive thought instead of a negative one, we choose to believe there’s a deity who would like us to make that choice. Maybe I’m a Godian, part of a new co-existent religion that embraces happiness. Or maybe I’m just a yogi finding my path to happiness:
http://email.yogajournal.com/t?ctl=1E6B0D:569EBAB889C6D62258D9BEDFC2AE45E9&