Ascension Journal 5th May '22

 'If we are to awaken out of the trance that keeps us grim, we have to inquire what blocks the encompassing joy that's not mental: most of the time when we're not feeling that presence & aliveness, it's because we're in a trance of wanting Life different(either something's missing right now["If Only" mind] OR something's wrong). If it becomes a HABIT, we'd come to end of our lives & find that we'll have "if only"-ed it right through to the end.

1. Unconditional presence

Habits of thinking sustain the set point of happiness. To change the set point, we develop unconditional presence, absolute cooperation with the inevitable, the heart space where everything that is, is welcome, an openness to Life(trained by practicing mindful awareness: being with whatever arises moment to moment). That our life isn't dependent on things being a certain way.

2.Gladden the mind( to counter -ve bias)

Gladden the mind via spontaneous events/experiences(eg walking in nature) or gratitude. Turn joy from state into trait by pausing & feel it in the body. That gives it "stickiness" that it gets stored in our implicit memory, to install +ve states so that they becomes traits.' :TB