Nine Easy Steps to a Happier Life

A recent scientific study* reports that you can improve your happiness by up to 37%** by simply looking up! While we don’t yet know the exact mechanism that produces the effect, lifting your gaze momentarily (Sky-Gazing) prevents you from doing useful work and allows you to become aware of the world that always surrounds and embraces you. Raising your eyes to the sky may also activate healing memories of being young in the summer and being on vacation and having nothing much important to do.

In just a few minutes, you too can begin to experience the benefits be on your way to a 37% happier life.

Most of us have been trained to constantly look down in order not to trip and to stay focused on the task at hand. Looking up interrupts this functionalist perspective and begins to re-weave our connection to the world around us. The simple practice of sky gazing is a way to break free from the trance of everyday life and return to a healthier and more realistic relationship to life, the earth and the cosmos.

Sky-Gazing in Nine Easy Steps:

1. Go outside or find a window with a view
2. Sit down in a reasonably comfortable chair, couch or chaise lounge
3. Slouch (and put your feet up if possible)
4. Lift your chin several inches
5. Let your gaze rise (must be 45 degrees or above for maximum benefit)
6. Look up and out with relaxed focus
7. Notice little things up high — like how the breeze moves the leaves near the top of trees or how the shape of the clouds is always changing or the specific color of the sky
8. Take a couple breaths
9. Remember that the sky is always above and is never rushed or worried

Some people report their experience Sky-Gazing as ‘a mini-vacation’ and say they re-enter their daily activities with more spaciousness, ease and equanimity***. In the interest of scientific research, I would urge you to try this right now and see what impact it has on you.

(After you have done this practice from the seated position for some time, you may want to try the advanced practice which involves doing this same practice while lying down outside – preferably under or near a large tree.)

Enjoy.

notes:
*conducted by me as I sat out on my porch one afternoon
**23% of all statistics are made up on the spot
***the productivity impact of this practice merits further study as some employers might find their workers less willing to efficiently do meaningless work after sky gazing

Wriggling to Consciousness

Four months now
he has squirmed and wriggled.
Arms flailing spasmodically—
legs kicking randomly—
torso twisting this way and that.

From the beginning
he has been devoted—
determined to expend
vast amounts of energy
in this essential commotion.

Now his wild investment
is beginning to pay off.
Unrelenting mistakes are
surely leading toward
creeping mastery.
When the fuzzy bear
dangles in front of him,
one small chubby hand
or two wavers its
way in the desired direction
and tiny fingers clutch
acrylic fuzz bringing it
at last to the mouth
for satisfying inspection.

With no conscious plan,
he surely weaves himself
into worldly consciousness.

Perhaps we are all
like this—flailing away
with pretense of purpose,
but fundamentally ignorant
of final destinations.

How providential that
our ongoing wriggling failures
occasionally lead the chubby hands
of our soul to find their way
to some fuzzy love
that surrounds us—
and that we may
even innocently receive
it into our hearts
and, for a moment,
be satisfied.