Do we create our own luck or is it found through looking at the world more positively?
I often question how I got to be so lucky, and how the luckier I get the more I seem to notice the potential to expand my life further. My personal journey has involved obstacles & hard decisions but I have always kept my internal belief that I am lucky- that somehow things will end up being better for life’s challenges or the change in direction. At times I have questioned my own belief…but is this belief system something provided through my nature or nuture?
I sometimes teach a relaxation based around looking at the world more positively. That noticing where place our awareness changes how we view things. In that what interests us is what we notice or see in the world around us! So if we have a particular colour preference- that is the colour we often see first before noticing other colours. Try this for yourself by focusing your awareness for a few days on one colour and notice how much more often that colour appears in your world.
Hence if we feel happy we notice the positive opportunities whereas a more depressed individual may only see the negative in the same situation.
Yoga Sutra 4.17 Taduparagapeksitvat cittasya vastu jnatajnatam discusses the perception of an object depending upon the individuals’ motivation. This builds upon the preceding Sutras which discuss the difference in perception dependent upon guna (essential characteristics) & the mental state of the observer.
This concept within the Yoga Sutras appears to answer my quandry…that if I feel positive I will see the good in the world. So does it work the other way- does only trying to see the good, or always finding a positive slant to a situation, allow an individual to feel happier &/or luckier?