Introduction: I Intend...Happiness!

Allow me to (re)introduce myself.

My name is Allie Becker, and I am a reformed pessimist and purveyor of negative energy in general. I went through the vast majority of my life on spaceship earth—a near twenty-nine years—thinking that my life was happening to me.  I sat, reticently, not even in the passenger seat of my life—hell no, gals.  I felt like I was blindfolded, gagged, and bound.  Oh, and then tossed in the trunk. Driven to a nondescript location. Out of control.  I allowed my fears, disappointments, and negative energy to kidnap me and take over almost every waking day of my life.  I spent a lot of time wishing for things to be different.  I spent even more time blaming other people and events for the problems in my life.  I didn’t take responsibility for anything happening to me. I judged people who I perceived as doing better than I was, and I judged those who weren’t.  I was sarcastic.  A joy-sucker. In layman’s terms, I believe one may have called me a Negative Nancy, plain and simple.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I wasn’t completely miserable ALL the time.  I doubt you are miserable all the time, either. But we’ve got to face it—we’ve been raised in a society where it is normal to believe that we have little control over what is happening to us.  This is the only way to market the “magical, mystical cure-alls” of contemporary culture to us, after all.  Those in misery love do love their company, and it isn’t hard to log onto Instagram or Facebook or the internet at-large and find someone somewhere to complain with you, to confirm your beliefs that things aren’t within your grasp, that confirm the bias that yes, “life is so unfair” and “it’s not your fault, sweetie.”

    My friends, I finally snapped out of this cloudy, depressive way of living.

    Thank God, the Universe, and Spirit.

I need to tell you—it wasn’t easy.  It took seven months of spiritual bootcamp, and it’s not over yet.   The first step I had to stomach was the hardest one of all.  I had to actually admit that, yep…I am the master creator of the life I’m currently living.  I had to pony up and take responsibility for the life that I was painting for myself.  I had to erase a lot of limiting beliefs.  I had to build gratitude practices, meditation time, spiritual beliefs, and harness the power of manifesting positive outcomes in my own life.  I found out that in order to be happy, one really has to work for it.

Guess what?  It’s the most fruitful work you can do, I promise.  I’m excited to share with you, weekly, some of the most transformative practices I’ve adapted in my journey.  I want to share my voice with you, to share ideas.  I don’t want to preach to you or pass judgments—that will get us nowhere.  But if you feel willing to put in a little bit of introspection to manifest a shit ton of happiness, I’m going to be your gal the next few months.  I am going to roll out other features as we move through the year, but we are going to begin with our “I Intend Happiness” segment as the crux.  Here’s what to expect every Sunday evening:

• A weekly intention.  You might want to call it your manta, maybe you’ll like the word affirmation.  Those are both legit, but I like to think of these small phrases as intentions—because our intentions are what power our personal universes.   Each week, we will intend to shift a different portion of our life.  These intentions are going to be crucial, so I will suggest you find a frame you’d like to display them in wherever you like to meditate, read, or do your personal development.  You don’t have a personal development space in your house, you say?  Well, this will be the very first piece in the most important room in your house.  Each intention is hand lettered with care by my partner in crime, Ms. Laura Clemenson.  You can find her work at @lauradoeslettering on Instagram, and you’ll be able to find all the .pdfs of our intentions right here on my website.
• A video and blog post.  I’ll be the first to tell you, I’m not an expert at this.  But, I’m passionate at helping people feel as happy as I have been able to in the past few months.  This is where I’ll offer your an explanation of the intention—it’s origins, relevant connected reading material, anecdotes—-all the context!  Consider this your virtual happiness classroom.
• The mission.  Each intention has a corresponding task—a secret mission, if you will.  I’m a huge proponent of journaling, even though when I started this endeavor I’d rather die than write my feelings down. Knowing that you have a task or a small assignment to complete keeps you accountable for your work, and it allows you to track your progress.  These missions can be kept secret, or you can join in the discussion in the comments (both on youtube and on the blog) and share the outcomes of your assignments. At the end of each month, we’ll host a livestream to discuss your progress and how you’ve felt about the work you’ve done that month. It’ll also be a time to connect with our community.

I know that’s a lot to digest. I can be a little verbose sometimes.  I’m just so excited to start this journey with you all!  Tune in next week for your first intention.  Remember, I’m still practicing these right along with you.  None of us are going to be perfect, and all of us make mistakes.  That’s part of the human condition.  But wanting to be here and working for happiness?  That’s the first step into a life where you are seated squarely in the driver’s seat of life.  

Love to you all—and I hope to see you back next week!

Allie B.