Something has been changing.
I’ve been noticing that my general level of happiness seems to have risen. I don’t know by how much. I couldn’t put a number on it. But there seems to be a higher happy quotient—and, perhaps even more interestingly, it seems to be more stable.
I still have uncomfortable moments. Thoughts arise. Feelings arise. My body changes posture. Happiness doesn’t mean that none of this happens.
What seems different is what happens next.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with what I call the torch circle. I imagine my attention as a torch spinning around a circle, with four positions.
One position is thinking: What am I thinking?
Another is feeling: What am I feeling?
Another is breathing: What is happening with my breath?
The fourth is knowing my body posture: Am I sitting, standing, walking, or lying down?
When I notice something uncomfortable, I can imagine the torch spinning around the circle. Where is the torch now? Which quadrant is it illuminating? Is it on a thought, a feeling, the breath, or the knowing of my present body posture?
I don’t have to change what I find. I simply notice where the torch is and let it move.
I might shift from the uncomfortable thought to my feeling, then to my breath, then to the posture of my body. I can continue around the circle, coming back to any position again if I want.
The original discomfort seems to lose some of its stickiness.
It doesn’t have as much time to become deeply established. I don’t have to wrestle with it or figure it out. I simply notice that attention can move.
And when it does, some energy becomes available again.
Perhaps that energy was happiness all along.
Spiritual Gravity 