The Meaning of Life with Dr. Bob

When it is about meaning and happiness, you are a being-in-progress. Everyone is.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with instant gratification. It feels good to want something, say a filling meal, and be able to consume that food almost as the words to order it come out of your mouth.

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Besides, it saves time. Time you could use doing something more important than eating.

Of course, there is the downside of instant gratification. We expect everything to come to us very quickly. Not everything can or should. Take relationships for example. Perhaps it is far better for relationships to develop slowly, over time.

At the very least, effort must be put into a relationship to maintain it and help it thrive. That usually cannot be done instantly.

There are other things that take time as well. Not the least of which will be the discovery and maintenance of meaning and happiness.

Don’t get me wrong. Happiness and meaning are there, right there, waiting to be plucked from the tree. All ripe and ready to go. But you need to take your time in cherishing that fruit.

If happiness were an apple, all you would have to do is wait for it to ripen on the branch. When it is all nicely red, simple pick and eat. Almost instant gratification.

But of course, happiness is not a ripe, red apple. It is fruit of a different nature. And the harvesting of it takes a different approach.

Here’s how it works.

You need to employee the meditative arts. Some form of prayer or meditation needs to be used. There are many types and practices. You need to explore your way to one that is right for you. This can be part of your in-progress work – finding a method that suits you.

You can begin by just being quiet for ten minutes and letting your mind quiet down too by concentrating on your breathing. That in itself is a start. Then you progress from that simple start to something that moves you toward enlightenment.

Along the way to enlightenment you will discover meaning. You see, enlightenment is probably a ways off, maybe even lifetimes. But meaning can be found in this lifetime and only some small effort away.

When you have found your life’s meaning, which I believe is to happy, you will have found your connection to the Divine. You can name that Divine anything you want. You could call it “Joe” if you wish. You get naming rights.

Call It Divine Consciousness, the Universe, the Source of All That Is. Any name you wish. You can name It right now, if you want. The point is to make the connection real and your own through relevant meditation or prayer on a regular basis – best every day.

You will pick up the other benefits of meditation along the way, automatically, as well.

But here is the part that is the essence of this article. You will always be in progress. If you do not like this “always being in progress,” then I suggest you not undertake to find meaning and happiness, for they are long-term projects.

Yes, you can and will find happiness and meaning relatively quickly. But the maintenance of them in your life is always in progress. Just as the maintenance of your life is always in progress.

You cannot maintain your weight without vigilance. You cannot maintain your health without watchfulness. You cannot maintain your happiness without exercising your meditation muscles in a steady-going way.

Meaning, once it is found, does not easily atrophy. Happiness needs reinforcing on a regular basis by letting it spill over into the world. Helping others. The energy to do that comes from invariant and constant progress of your self through meditation.

There you have it. Your simple guide to your being-in-progress. Get to it.

This has been Dr. Bob 4 U, and I invite you to change your life for the better by claiming your Free Instant Access to a Force-Source-Resource including a monthly newsletter titled The Force-Source-Resource Newsletter. Just Click Here. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of satisfaction.

My Vlog: http://themeaningoflifewithdrbob.com/drbobslifephrases

One Person Can Change The World

The meaning of your life, which is to be happy, is a work in progress.

I still slip up and fall, sometimes quite heavily, on my proverbial rump. I am not the way I want to be, yet. I argue with my wife when it is not necessary. I get angry too often. I still lack the compassion for others I want to have.

How about you? Are you where you want to be yet? Have you slipped up recently, to your own embarrassment?

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We both need to keep in mind that we are works in progress. My work is not finished. Your work is not complete. Unless you have reached complete and total enlightenment, you are yet a being-in-progress.

Everyone who thinks they have arrived at the total of … something, is mistaken. Yes, some individuals, perhaps Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth, have reached complete enlightenment. But I have not and I am all too well aware of it.

You need to be aware of it as well. Yes, definitely you can find meaning almost immediately by a relationship with the Source of All That Is. When you find you are unconditionally and eternally loved and accepted just as you are, you will find meaning.

From that meaning you discover your purpose which is to experience on behalf of the Source of All That Is. You experience in rapport with everything and everyone you come across. Some of those affiliations are deep and some are shallow.

But each liaison reinforces the purpose of your life. Its pathway shows the following mile-markers: meaning – purpose – happiness; or sometimes meaning – happiness – purpose. When you reach the mile-markers of meaning and purpose, you will quickly find yourself at the “happy” milepost.

But continuing down the path, along the way, you blunder. We all do. You cannot and need not expect yourself to be perfectly enlightened in one lifetime. Rejoice in the capacity you have developed thus far. Time enough to gain more.

Time enough? You have all your future lifetimes ahead of you. In each one you will grow even closer to total enlightenment. There is no hurry.

As a matter of fact, hurry may be the enemy of enlightenment. You can possess meaning and happiness, greater than you had, beginning almost immediately. This is done through meditative contact with the Source of All That Is. But enlightenment will come to you when it will.

Trying to quicken the pace of enlightenment by force will not make it arrive any earlier. Awakening comes to you when it is ready – when it knows you are ready. Yes, it could be done in a lifetime. But the masters through ages have declared that it may take many life times to fully achieve enlightenment.

So, you are a work in progress. You will indeed be happier than you have been beginning right now as you make and keep association with the Source of All That Is. You will remain a work in progress.

In that you very much need to rejoice for you have begun. You may already understand that “begun is half done.” Beginning is the most difficult part of any journey. To develop the will and determination to start down any new road is a significant achievement in and for your life.

Be not discouraged when you stumble. The stumbles are part of the process and, therefore, part of the progress. Without the mistakes you would be lulled into the false sense that you have achieved all. When you realize you have not yet summited, you can add the continuing effort you need to reach your goal of complete enlightenment.

Welcome the challenges as you welcome all else that occurs in your life and mind on the track. They keep you hungry for the end.

Allow yourself to be a work in progress. Knowing that you are working and progressing is great reinforcement in your meaning and happiness. Progress – more – beginning today.

This has been Dr. Bob 4 U, and I invite you to change your life for the better by claiming your Free Instant Access to a Force-Source-Resource including a monthly newsletter titled The Force-Source-Resource Newsletter. Just Click Here. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of satisfaction.

My Vlog: http://themeaningoflifewithdrbob.com/drbobslifephrases

Most people do not think about what it might mean to them to be happy. They think happiness is only for the lucky few. They do not realize how much greater their lives could be when motivated by what happiness can do for them.

Here is a look at ten consequences of happiness.

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1. In order to be happy, you need a divine connection, the foundation of happiness. This connection, however, is also a benefit.

Forge a link between yourself and the Cosmic Consciousness and in that relationship know what happiness really is – understanding that you are totally, unconditionally accepted just you are. What better benefit can you begin with?

2. From your connection with the Universe, you also discover mindfulness. You are far more aware of what is happening in your own interior life and in your world.

The gain from mindfulness allows you to increase the measure of your own life in many, many areas. These include less forgetfulness all the way to enhanced health, as you think about healthy choices.

3. Another asset from happiness is less absented-mindedness. When you have the centering effect of being happy, you are far less distracted by unimportant events.

The noise of the world is dampened into background hum that is easily disregarded. Your focus is sharper both in terms of your actual vision and your internal intuition.

4. Greater focus in your life can lead to better health. It is entirely intuitive to understand that being happy can help you be healthy.

You spend less time trying to ward off negatives and more time trying to maximize the positive when you are elated. One positive that is easy to work at is better health.

5. When you are raising your own health, you become aware of the health of others. This is almost a natural progression. You enjoy the advantage of wellness and see that others are in misery of some kind.

Your natural inclination is to help those others. When you aid others, you give yourself a boost in the “feeling-good” department. It becomes a very pleasant cycle.

6. Another aspect of health that comes through well-being is the observation that you can, and ought, to live in this moment only.

You can forget about yesterday, except for its lessons. You need not be anxious about tomorrow’s events. Trying to be healthy through happiness means you live now. Now is, actually, the only time you have which is discovered best in vivacity.

7. When you are happy and you know it, you accept yourself. When you live in this moment, you consent to being just who you are in this minute.

No need to confuse yourself by trying to be someone you are not. No time to do that either, for you are living in just this moment. You enter into a gratifying rhythm wherein self-acceptance produces greater happiness and happiness promotes greater self-acceptance.

8. From this greater self-acceptance you develop a more wholesome sense of self. You neither puff yourself up, nor tear yourself down.

You see yourself as you are in this moment. You find yourself perfectly human in this minute. From a better sense of self you, once again, evolve grander contentment – and around and around it goes.

9. In contentment, then, you enjoy what you have, now. You do not brood about what you do not have. (Assuming, of course, that you have enough to eat and shelter from the elements.)

Being content with what you have is a sign of, and a result of, being happy. This does not mean you ought not work for better conditions for yourself. It means only that you are not disquieted about what you do not possess.

10. All of which means you know that doing your best is good enough. This is not good enough in the sense of settling for whatever is.

It signifies that you are being your best in any given moment. Happiness leads to and grows into the best, in any given here and now. And your best is good enough.

There you have ten consequences of finding your own happiness. Begin in this moment. You can only grow.

This has been Dr. Bob 4 U, and I invite you to change your life for the better by claiming your Free Instant Access to a Force-Source-Resource including a monthly newsletter titled The Force-Source-Resource Newsletter. Just Click Here. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of satisfaction.

My Vlog: http://themeaningoflifewithdrbob.com/drbobslifephrases