WAYS TOWARDS HAPPINESS:
How to Start a Happy Day
Perhaps you know the feeling of being grumpy in the morning after having slept too little or not well enough. If you were not aware of it—the people around you were, for sure! In Austria we have a saying for that condition: we “got out of bed on the wrong foot”—and sometimes we stay on that wrong foot for quite a long time!
Not to go down this path in the first place is our choice and I will show you a powerful and short way for a peaceful, loving and happy start every day.
The basic idea for this is very old—the earliest records of it comes from the Hindu tradition, but it is found in different forms in all of the great religious and spiritual traditions: meditation.
Its meaning stems from the Latin verb: meditari, meaning: “to think, contemplate, devise, ponder” and we can choose from a variety of different forms and techniques (the broader categories being focused or concentrative meditations and open monitoring or mindfulness ones).
Before I introduce you to my Hawaiian HUNA approach and the special blend of techniques that I practise in my mornings, I want to highlight the various benefits of meditation, which are more and more proven by Science:
In her article “20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today[1]” Scientist Emma M. Seppälä,[2] from Stanford University, refers to hundreds of studies, showing that MEDITATION BOOSTS our HEALTH, HAPPINESS and SUCCESS:
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HEALTH: increases immune functions; decreases pain; decreases inflammation at the cellular level,
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HAPPINESS: increases positive emotions; decreases depression, anxiety & stress
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SOCIAL LIFE: increases social connections & emotional intelligence; makes you more compassionate and feel less lonely
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SELF CONTROL: improves ability to introspect and regulate emotions;
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BRAIN: increases gray matter & volume in areas related to emotion regulation, positive emotions & self control; increases cortical thickness in areas related to paying attention
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PRODUCTIVITY: increases your focus & attention; improves your ability to multitask; improves your memory & creativity
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WISDOM: gives you greater perspective and clarity
Based on the ancient wisdom and practises of the Hawaiian HUNA philosophy in the tradition of my teacher and mentor Serge Kahili King (Kahili Huna), I created my personal favorite morning meditation, called: The Lovelight Meditation. I prefer it over a sitting, longer, open monitoring meditation, because you can do it in bed right after waking up. It centers AND energizes you and it just takes between 5 minutes (The Short Lovelight Meditation) and 20 minutes (if you want to do a longer breathing phases and focus your lovelight on more than one purpose) and you can actively harmonise and even heal your own energies and those of your surroundings by practising it.
The pre-assumptions for this meditation are based on the 7 Huna principles and you can read those at the end of this article before the actual practise if you are new to HUNA. If you are already familiar with this Polynesian “Ancient Science of Happiness”, a priceless knowledge that is nowadays more needed than ever, you can jump to the meditation right away:
The Lovelight Meditation:
An easy, short & comfortable (still lying or sitting in bed) way for awakening and harmonizing your body, mind & spirit for a happy & successful day ahead:
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Take a few deep breaths while stretching in bed like a cat and moving your wrists and ankles in circles.
If you like to get your blood-flow curculating nicely do some cycling moves with your legs and then stretch them up in the air, quickly pointing your toes up & down (very good for your veins) -
Energize your whole body with the Piko-Piko breathing variation about 3 times: Inhale with your focus on the crown of your head, exhale with your focus on the soles of your feet, last Piko-breath: Inhale with focus on crown, exhale with focus on navel
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Bless your body, mind & spirit compliment & acknowledge them, be aware & grateful for them
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Bless your heart/center and the Lovelight (La’a Kea[3]) in your heart/center
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Visualize this Lovelight in a color of your intuitive choice (white always comes in handy as it has all the colours of the rainbow in it anyway) energizing every cell and your body as a whole
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Let the lovelight radiate from your heart/center into your aura
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Set your intention with intructions like: Bless my family & friends, bless a special person in need, energize my day ahead, inspire my work, empower myself/ somebody else to do something specific… what ever your good intention for the day ahead might be…
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Visualise the target of your intention surrounded, energized & harmonized by your lovelight.
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Close with “Amama” – So be it!
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Remember throughout your day the following HUNA practice guidelines: Bless the present, Trust yourself & Expect the best!
If you do not want to remember the individual steps right away, you can easily follow my guided love light meditation. Click here for the free download!
Short Lovelight Meditation:
If you are in a hurry or have overslept already J:
Advice: Practise the previous one (“The Lovelight Meditation”) at least one more time before the “Short Lovelight Meditation” to be able to “turn on” your lovelight faster and easier.
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Stretch yourself like a cat, take three deep breaths (Piko-Piko, see above)
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Be aware of your lovelight, let it flow through you and into your aura with some more Piko breaths
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Set your intention for the day: I am … today.. (at peace, loving, working efficiently..) or send out your lovelight for a specific purpose
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Come back with moving your body and remember to: Bless the present, Trust yourself & Expect the best!
And—if your mornings are already happy and full of energy—you can practise this meditation during your day or before sleeping as well. To wind down into a good nights sleep, I recommend as well the stretching-part to physically let go of tension, but maybe don’t activate yourself anymore with cycling moves or deep inhaling, choose more gentle breathing with emphasis on the exhaling instead. Then harmonise yourself and the ending of a day with the lovelight of your choice, feel gratefulness for the good things that happened and send lovelight to the not so good ones, to harmonise your memory of them in retrospect. Like all meditations and other helpful techniques this one, as well, has to be practised regularly to harness the positive effects best!
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The 7 HUNA principles and derived pre-assumptions for this meditation:
IKE: The world is, what you think it is: Start your day with happy, grateful, healing thoughts. Keep your vibrations hight and your experiences throughout the day will manifest themselves accordingly. Quoting Rick Hanson, PhD[4]: “As the mind changes, the brain changes…for instance, when people consciously practice gratitude, they are likely getting higher flows of reward-related neurotransmitters, like dopamine. Research suggests that when people practice gratitude, they experience a general alerting and brightening of the mind, and that’s probably correlated with more of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine.”
KALA: There are no limits: Body, Mind and Spirit are connected and influence each other. We are connected to everything around us through a quantum field (Hawaiian name for it: AKA web).
MANA: All power comes from within: Within all of us there is a powerful connection to all that is: you may call it universal life-energy, spark of the divine, light of god, love-light, spiritual force…
MAKIA: Energy flows where attention goes: Assume that this light/energy will follow your intention, focus and instructions.
ALOHA: To love is to be happy: Body, Mind & Spirit work better together if we acknowledge and appreciate them & people respond positively to blessings & appreciation on a subconscious level— Blessing in HUNA means in short: to admire, praise, affirm, appreciate, express gratitude, anticipate something good to come.
MANAWA: Now is the moment of power: in the here and now we can love, heal, be effective, help ourselves and others – so be aware of yourself and all your senses and abilities.
PONO: Effectiveness is the measure of truth: Try the Lovelight Meditation out for a couple of days (21 days in a row will help you install it as a healthy habit) and feel the difference in your daily experiences. A happiness-diary could help you to find out about the positive changes and if you feel that it doesn’t work for you—experiment with different kinds of meditation!
[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/experts/emma-m-sepp-l-phd
[3] For more specific work with La’a Kea you can download Serge Kahili King’s La’a Kea Guide in a technique bundle together with more Piko-Piko variations and other useful techniques online in PDF format here: http://www.huna.net/HBM/Books/techbundle1.html
[4] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_trick_your_brain_for_happiness