Hello, Salam, Shalom, Aloha, Hola, Sat Sri Akal, Namaste!

So, in case you don’t know me, my name is Samia Bano and I am your Happiness Expert and author of this book - “Make Change Fun and Easy: How to Create Inner Peace to World Peace in 3 Simple Steps”.

So, I love talking about this topic of make change fun and easy. In fact for the last so many weeks, we have been talking about themes related to this topic. We have talked about how to be calm and relax in the face of adversity, and we talked about how to be happy in the face of adversity. And actually today, I want to take a sort of step back and think about why care about being happy? Why care about making change fun and easy? You know, because I’m telling you one of the things that I have found in my work as a Happiness Expert is that there are so many people in the world who treat their mental health and their happiness, their inner peace, their contentment, sense of fulfillment in their life and so forth, they treat these things like luxuries.

They, they have this attitude of, you know, “If I have time one day maybe I’ll get around to taking care of my mental health and doing something about feeling more happy and peaceful”. You know, so it’s either that, that you think a lot, so many people think they don’t have the time and it’s a luxury to focus on your mental health; or they’re people who really want to be happy, they really want to be more peaceful and content and feel more fulfilled in their lives. But they are sort of going about trying to achieve this happiness in an unfortunately very unwise way, a way that is doomed to failure. You know, so for example, there are so many people who are striving really, really hard in their lives to get better jobs, so they can earn more money, so they can get more status, so they can get more things in their lives that they think will bring them happiness. That will allow them to be more peaceful and more happy and so forth and that’s what they really want. They want to be more happy. They wanna be more peaceful. And they think that the way to get more happiness in your life and feel more peaceful in your life is by chasing after and achieving these other things, you know money, success, fame etc.

And you know you define success in life by how much these other things you have, right? How much money do you have? How much success do you have? How much fame do you have? And so forth. And you think to yourself okay, when I have these things, that then I would be happy. And if, if that’s your mindset, I’m very sorry to inform you, but you are seriously on the wrong track, you really are. Because, it’s just, if you look at scientific research on what actually leads us to be happy, you will see that this is not the path that leads to happiness. If you look at the spiritual wisdom of any tradition you know, you will find the same, same, same thing that the path to happiness, the path to peace, it’s not about how much money you have, how much fame you have, how much, you know, of any worldly thing you have. It really has nothing to do with it. I mean, not that... okay I will correct myself here. It, it’s not entirely true that there’s... that and inner peace have nothing to do with our worldly conditions and what we have in life and what we don’t in terms of our worldly achievements and things that we possess, that’s... there is a relationship. But the relationship is not what we were talking about before.

Okay so what is the relationship? So that’s what I wanna talk with you about, is you know the relationship more specifically I want to share with you one very important point today and we’ll deal with the rest of the aspects of the relationship between happiness and peace and joy and all these other positive emotions and, and, worldly success and prosperity and so forth. But today the point that I wanna focus on is how quite literally it is our happiness, our sense of happiness, our sense of peace, our sense of joy, these positive emotions… how these positive emotions quite literally lead to success.

Even in worldly terms, even if you are looking for success in terms of more money, and a better job, better relationship, or whatever. It is actually happiness, and peace, and joy, and other positive emotions that quite literally lead the way to success. And what do I mean by that? How does that happen? Why is that true?

So the simple, short and simple answer to that is that our emotions, our positive emotions more specifically, are actually a compass that we have been given. Now, if you believe in God and so forth, you can be like, ah it’s God who has blessed us and gifted us with these positive emotions as the compass to, to success. They point towards true success in our life. And so the things that make you happy, things that make you more peaceful and feel more joyful , feel more content, more fulfilled, those emotions are telling you, they’re giving you feedback, “Hey! You’re headed in the right direction, in the right direction for success, in the right direction for true prosperity,” and so forth.

And on the other end of the spectrum, you know of when you think about what we generally label as negative emotions, whether it’s sadness or anger or hatred or jealousy etc... Those are in fact just signals letting us know that hey, there’s something wrong. And in the context of you know, like if you’re thinking about a path to success, a path to prosperity when you’re experiencing those negative emotions , they’re letting you know that you are headed in the wrong direction.

So that’s the primary, that you know, even research in science and positive psychology and even general psychology shows us that this is the real function of our...of our emotions. That they give us feedback on if you’re going in the right direction or if we’re headed in the wrong direction. And of course our emotions are extremely powerful motivators, right? Right. So when we’re heading in the right direction, by generating these very positive feelings, and experiences, emotions, our brain, our heart is actually trying to encourage us to keep going in that direction. It’s giving us positive feedback. Because when you get that positive feedback, you’re more likely to actually continue to engage in those behaviors that are helping you stay on the, or head in the right direction, or stay in the right direction. And similarly when you have negative emotions they’re very powerful in motivating you to go in a different direction, you know. So just think of it in that sense.

Now if you are a more, a more spiritual person, you know inclined to that perspective that I mentioned earlier that it’s God that has blessed you with these emotions, has gifted you with these emotions, then you know there is something I wanna share with you from a Muslim perspective. I’m a Muslim, in case you didn’t realize it, that’s right I am a Muslim.

So one thing that Muslims are taught is that God is the source of peace. That is actually one of the names through which we know God, “The Source of Peace”. So think about that, if God is The Source of Peace, then anytime that you’re experiencing peace, what does that mean?

It means you’re connected to that source, right? That’s how you’re able to experience peace -- because you’re connected to the source of peace . And if God is the source of peace then logically follows that the more peaceful you feel actually the more deeply connected you are to God in the moment, right?

Because the experience of peace, happiness, love, joy, any positive emotion or even negative emotion for that matter, it’s not an all-or-nothing thing. You know there are degrees to how much you can experience any emotion, there’s depth to how much you can experience any emotion. And so you know the extent to which you feel happy, the extent to which you feel peaceful, joyful, relaxed, calm... that’s the extent to which you are connected to God. And so by doing things that help you to feel more of these positive emotions you’re quite literally connecting yourself more and more deeply to God.

And so you know as a person of faith, for me there is no stronger, better motivation to keep pursuing and doing more of these things that make me feel more happy, more peaceful, more joyful, than knowing that these things are connecting me more and more deeply to God. Because as a person of faith, as a Muslim, for me that is my ultimate goal, that is my ultimate joy. That is my... yeah, that is the whole purpose and point of my being as a Muslim, right.

And so I’m very very committed to you know make change fun and easy. Why? Because when I’m experiencing fun, when I’m experiencing ease you know then I’m also feeling happy, I’m feeling joyful, I’m feeling calm, I’m feeling relaxed. And so then I know I’m headed in the right direction not only in terms of, hey, this is going to lead to success in my life in this world, but it’s also what’s leading me closer and closer in my connection, in my relationship with God. And that, that is the most amazing thing.

So that’s the main point I wanna make today. And so happy that you joined me today, thank you so much! And please do share your comments. And if you gain any specific insight from what I shared today that touched you, please share that. And I will see you next time. And in the meantime, Salam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha and Hola!