About Happiness! Australia
Welcome Home!
Happiness! Australia invites you home to where the heart is.
Happiness! Australia is a new sensation for Australia and the world to emulate. Susan Carew-Holmes is the founder of Happiness! Australia. The motto for this vision is: Our Happy Destiny is Unavoidable. Our joy in life is to find our happy place and live in harmony. To achieve this we can dedicate our lives to being happy first then the rest falls into place. Peace is the realisation of happiness that is when you know you are happy. It is also when you get the joke! HA HA. This is the vibe of happiness. Happiness is the truth. Be YOU.
Happiness! Australia is to be a light in the darkness as Susan has REAL HOPES for the World.
Each smile is like a candle passed from one to the other.
It is to know that happiness is finding your own truth. It is not trying to please others, make your parents happy, be seen to be doing good but to actually follow the silent prompts that lead you home. What does this mean?
When you feel happy you are following your own heart. That is, following what you actually want. This does not mean ignoring advice, it just means when it doesn’t feel right for you, you may say no in a gentle way and hold onto the candle which enlightens the vision to not give up no matter the odds. You realise nothing is impossible when you believe in yourself.
Making choices from the heart can appear unrealistic and challenging as some may say it is all very well to sugar coat life, put fairy floss on it but the reality can be harsh and we have to get things done. They will say: I can’t just go off and follow my heart – who is going to pay the bills? Who will put food on the table? There is too much to do I don’t have time for happiness. I am exhausted and have no time for this? You are a dreamer ‘get a real job’.
Susan realised that peace and happiness is a choice that can seem ‘crazy’ to others. However, this dream became true in reality and the wise will remind you, you teach what you are here to learn.
Let’s sing the Happy song.
Disruption or Celebration?
As we go through uncertainty, economic downturns and social disruption with our family and friends, we can either join in the unhappiness and hate or we can start to focus on what we actually want rather than what we don’t want. Do you know what you focus on expands? We have been taught to criticise, complain and feel powerless. The real work is to know your true value, your purpose and to commit to the life you truly want. Life is full of disruption but it is how we face change that changes our face from a frown to a happy smile. This is how you create the change in your own life.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said: ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’. These are not just cliche’s he practiced it and created unity. This is what he said when he despaired. Go to 1.42 mins.
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it – always.’” M.K. Gandhi
When I worked in London I met Richard Attenborough the maker of this movie. I had the privilege to meet two men who actually knew Gandhi. I interviewed one for radio and he cried as he explained his feelings as a teenager meeting Gandhi. The other gave a speech at a Gandhian university in Gujarat. I was invited to give a talk about my world trip. Through one film he changed the future possibilities for the world.
Life is about choice. Happiness! Australia chooses celebration.
What Do You Truly Want?
Do you want to be truly Happy?
Do you want to feel Peace?
Do you want to live in Harmony?
Then you have come to the right Happy Place. Our joy in life is to find our happy place and live in harmony. To achieve this we can dedicate our lives to being happy. Peace is the realisation of happiness. That is when you get the joke! HA
My Dream of Peace
I dreamed I was teaching peace in 1998. I had worked as a market analyst for 10 years and suddenly I had this dream. On awakening I realised this was the real currency and real wealth of who we are. When you are happy you are at peace. They are two sides of the same coin.
Declaration of Independence
Below is a declaration I wrote in 2019 as sovereignty for me means self determination. I choose to be who I am.
Declaration of Independence is the Sovereignty of Our True Nature in the End
Happiness is a Decision
I recall an invitation to clown at a Principals Conference in Canberra. I flew to Canberra and found myself feeling really sad. I was in a dilemma as I am a clown. I said to myself I have to be happy. So I started putting on my clown suit and heard the bells, then suddenly I felt happy. For four hours I clowned in joy. Later I realised that happiness is a decision.
When we resolve inner unhappiness or the lies we tell ourselves (shadow puppets), we naturally feel happy as it is our true nature.
Fear or Happiness is a Choice?
Do we live our lives from fear or happiness?
Do we find ways to turn lemons into lemonade? What does this mean?
It means finding the good in what seems unpalatable or unbearable.
Is that rose coloured to look for the good?
No, always there is a flip side, the art of happiness is not to keep repeating ‘it is all good’ but rather ‘it is what it is’.
Happiness Opens Up Possibilities
Happiness is not about facts, it is looking through a problem for the real answers that may not be obvious until you ‘see differently‘.
I met Patch Adams in 2002 on his Healing with Humour tour of Russia. This clip below from the movie Patch Adams is of Patch meeting a famous scientist people believed was crazy. His act of kindness fixing a cup was how he was named Patch. He tried to fix problems by becoming a solution. Patch had to come to a mental institution to understand the real meaning in his life. So don’t judge those deemed crazy or excessively happy or a current term, toxic happiness, they may well be the ones who lead you home as they took the risk to be themselves despite the ridicule.
Below is a extract of the footage and dialogue of when Patch sees ‘fingers’ the crazy scientist realising he is not insane. His name is Arthur Mendelson (patient in the mental institution).
Arthur Mendelson says: How many do you see (fingers)?
Patch: Four
Arthur Mendelson: No look beyond the fingers. How many do you see?
Patch: (blurs) eight.
Arthur Mendelson: Yes, it is a good answer….
See what everyone else chooses not to see out of fear and conformity and laziness. See the whole world anew each day. The truth is you are well on your way. If you didn’t see something here besides a crazy, bitter old man you wouldn’t have come in the first place.
Patch: What do you see when you look at me Arthur?
Arthur: You fixed my cup. I will see you around Patch.
Arthur Mendelson : You’re focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can’t see the solution. Never focus on the problem!
It was Albert Einstein who said: “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it, we need to learn to see anew.”
So do we ignore the crazy scientist or we can see through the disguise? When we take a risk to speak to those many have judged crazy, maybe life has just introduced you to your purpose of your own life as you took a leap of faith to trust your intuition. Patch knew he (Arthur) was brilliant.
In Russia, Patch told we clowns, “everyone is great….get to work”.
The Fools Journey
When happiness is the goal, like the Fool you will carry the Fool’s gold which is not the money or riches but the wisdom that you have learned by taking risks, seeing differently, facing fears, resolving conflict, and loving until it no longer hurts. My trip around the world was to awaken the Fool.
In 2010, Susan aka Peace Fool clown chose to travel the world as an opportunity to face all fears. Susan had been a World Peace clown in hospitals, schools, non-profits and service clubs. The next step was to teach peace around the world, as our world is crying out for peace.
Below are links to Worldpeacefull peace albums depicting a fool’s journey around the world and subsequent free pdf book ‘A Fool for Peace’ documenting the real time blog of what happened when she stepped out with no plan. Susan was self funded and following a vision alone like a Fool on a Quest to teach peace and learn from the world as a mirror. the Fool’s Journey is to ‘Know Thyself’. She discovered:
“…I was in danger of making friends. I was helped all the way...”
Travelling the World for Peace Albums
Susan’s free pdf book A Fool for Peace, click below:
Peace & Sustainability
This experience has been transformed into 8 e-books which can be purchased to support this peace vision. Click below:
Author
Remembering ‘happiness’ is really a self mastery. At first we take it slow. Little steps where we notice what we feel, we observe our fearful thoughts and we make choices and see what turns up. Sometimes we drop the balls. Some times we can juggle life really well.
Self Mastery
When we master life we realise fear creates our limits, impossibilities and defines what we believe we can and can’t do.
Are we okay if we fail? Can you face failure with a smile?
What if life is turning up exactly as it is meant to and that there are no mistakes in hindsight?
As we grow we start to see differently and expand possibilities to notice that as we intend happiness, things ‘magically’ change. We can dream a future that is happy, that is Peacefull and where all thrive, and then choose it.
We can have what we thought was impossible realising there are no limits to love. We can and do change our world by our thoughts then actions, but in what direction do things change? You become the author of that future.
The wise know there is more. What was said in Shakespeare?
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
So we must unlearn what we learned. Remember the scene in Star Wars…
Yoda: Always with you it can not be done, do you hear nothing that I say? Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.… No, Try Not. Do or Do Not. There is No Try.
Yin/Yang (Finding Balance)
The Yin/Yang is an old ancient Chinese symbol which symbolises the dark/light or up/down and changing feelings as we move through Life. This symbol can be: Happy/Sad, Wise/Foolish, Love/Hate, Good/Bad, Kind/Cruel Success/Failure etc. The shadow represents the dark side of denial of who we are and the light side is seeing life without a story ‘as it is’, beautiful. Life and light is information offering infinite possibilities. We all get to choose.
Many will resist looking for what is good (white dot) or wise solutions as typically people need to be right and seek to prove the other wrong to feel better about themselves. They will seek to criticise (put down), judge (lesser, stupid, worthless), or seek revenge or punish to feel power. They will not be aware they are feeling insecure, fearful or hurt (angry). The really hard work is to look at ourselves, the games we play, the role we believe is who we are, and self deception. In a group this can be powerful as no-one will tell the Emperor s/he has no clothes.
This expression is used to describe a situation in which people are afraid to criticize someone because the perceived wisdom (authority) is that the person is good or important (powerful).
Fighting Injustice: What is True?
Sometimes we have to face what is wrong (out of balance) in our experience to find the truth of it. At the same time it is to understand life has its own natural order, that in hindsight led us to a point where we could ‘see differently’. So, what is out of order can lead us to what is in order (balance).
To find the truth of matters does not mean believing what we see (black and white). We learn to look beyond the facts of what we physically see, hear and feel. An example is the internet where any image can be projected to the world as truth but to later find it was a false image or a deception.
Truth requires inner reflection to look beyond the apparent facts.
Remember Arthur Mendelson in the mental institution reminding Patch Adams when looking at 4 fingers “You’re focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can’t see the solution. Never focus on the problem!”
What does this mean? It means open to possibilities, do not follow the news, other opinions but instead look within yourself for your own answers as subtle prompts present themselves as answers to come.
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian Independence Leader in India whose policy of nonviolence was followed by 600 million people during the campaign for independence in India from British Imperial rule. There is a well-known quote that express the sentiment for a non-retaliatory philosophy:
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
The same sentiment is mentioned in religion (bible) in respect to perceived evil:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well…”
This is how yin/yang works we bring light into darkness but curse it not. Those in the dark will use you complaints, anger and violence against you. Happy people do not need to fight, destroy or seek revenge as they see the light in truth and love realising violence is self defeating and arising from ignorance.
Change is Inevitable
We can change our lives even in the darkest times.
This is what it means to see the light in the dark. Susan visited this nursing home and the elderly man wore the love glasses. She noticed he was seeing differently.
In fact those life changing moments have only ever come when we are at our lowest ebb. So the dark can bring us self realisation as we decide we are tired of the dark. We look for our own light and lift our candle to the world and allow it to shine without fear or favour.
So be sure that when you are at rock bottom, something life changing is waiting for you to make critical decisions as if they will happen:
I AM breathing
I AM alive
I AM eating
I AM sleeping.
You start to remind yourself of what you are grateful for, step by step.
This is like the magic wand as your thoughts dispel the old ‘you’ and work towards the ‘new’ you who is getting stronger. This is called the Law of Attraction. What you think about you bring about. Every life matters. Not one is worthless. Not one. But it is you who decides your worth.
Happiness! Australia is here to remind you that: