How to Create Lasting Happiness with Sufi practices

Jan 24, 2011 | Sufism

I feel happy when I am experiencing the ocean of love in my heart.  Sufi meditation practices help open divine love so that it  overflows from my heart.  As a result,I naturally want to touch my husband, my animals, wanting to give the Love which is overflowing from my heart.  When I am in that state, I take time to connect with people.

For example, when I walk in the neighborhood I share the love with a smile.  Sufi practices give me access to this love.  When I start the day without those practices, it is a whole other experience and my day is often jumbled.

I have discovered happiness is all about my relationship to God.  Throughout the day when I look to God for guidance, when I am aware of His guidance and follow it, I feel happy in my heart, which is like everything is ok with the world.  I am looking for God’s signs as I go throughout the day.  I pause throughout the day to see what God is guiding me in that moment.  The “signs from God” are sometimes like an inspiration or an inner intuition or desire that moves from the inside of my heart.  Sometimes it is a visual or audio clue that happens in the normal occurrence of my day.  For example, the next song on the radio is EXACTLY what I needed to hear.  This experience is like a divine dance in my relationship with God.  When in this divine dance or divine flow, I feel happy.

When I resist His lead in the dance of life or am experiencing  my human stubbornness, I have blocked the divine flow that sustains happiness.   I am grateful that whenever I stop and realize my mistake of blocking His love, and say yes to His lead in the divine dance, the flow of love begins again because of God’s infinite generosity and love.

Chantelle Qamara Kurtz has earned her Masters in Spiritual Ministry and Sufi Studies from the UOS and is an ordained minister.  

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