Discovering Your Path to True Happiness: Lessons from Hector's Extraordinary Journey
Unlock the Secrets of Happiness and Embrace a Life Filled with Joy, Connection, and Adventure
Peace Overtures Today is a weekly newsletter dedicated to guiding individuals on their personal quest for inner peace. Each week, I share a movie that helped me discover balance. It’s a process of awareness and healing that leads to sparks of joy. I’m sincerely grateful to have you here with me.
I talk a lot about the power of focus, and let me tell you, it's something we still haven't fully figured out. Especially in these crazy times, there are so many things that come along and steal our focus, leaving us feeling drained and off balance. I don't even need to give you examples, because I know you get it.
But here's the thing: I want to offer you a little escape from all that. A chance to take a vacation from whatever it is that's stealing your peace of mind. Just writing this post and watching the trailer of this amazing film, I can already feel my happiness levels rising. Seriously, it's one of the most delightful movies I've ever seen, and it's part of this incredible Alignment Movie Process (AMP) that brings such relief.
I dare you to watch it and not be moved to tears of joy. It's truly the best of the best, and I really hope it brings you as much joy as it has brought me. If you have a similar happiness experience from this AMP session, why not start a happiness contagion and forward this post to some loved ones that need an “exhale” from the chaos? Or better yet, invite some friends over and watch together. Oh that’s a powerful way to AMP happiness!
The following post is edited from our Peace Overtures Radio podcast included in this post. If you prefer the podcast, you can listen to it below.
Have you ever found yourself questioning the true meaning of happiness? It's a concept that often eludes us, leaving us unsure of what it really entails or how to identify it in our own lives. In the Alignment Movie Process (AMP) film, Hector and The Search for Happiness (2014), Hector, brilliantly portrayed by Simon Pegg, grapples with these very questions.
As a psychiatrist facing a stagnant professional life, Hector embarks on a globetrotting journey to unravel the secrets of happiness. Join him on this captivating adventure as we explore five practices that can lead us to a happier existence.
Be Open to Diverse Experiences
Living by rigid rules limits our emotional experience and passion. Often, we follow a predetermined formula for success, slipping into routines that put our lives on autopilot. We go through the motions, repeating the same cycle day after day, without realizing the limitations it imposes and the resulting dissatisfaction. In the film, Hector, stuck in a monotonous routine, embarks on a journey to break free from his life. While he initially sets out to "research" happiness, he soon discovers the importance of reconnecting with his emotions.
Be Social - We Need Each Other
According to Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychologist and best- selling author of Stumbling on Happiness, there is a secret to happiness: social connections.
“We’re one of the most social animals on our planet. We need each other for just about everything... when our social connections are strong, we’re happy; when they’re lost, we’re devastated.”
Prior to his adventure, Hector's social connections were limited. However, during his world tour, he encounters a rich diversity of people, cultures, professions, and belief systems. Remarkably, Hector embraces these differences without judgment, approaching them with curiosity and a light-hearted spirit
We can all do this in our everyday life. It takes practice but is well worth it. I have fun talking to people in elevators. It is always a delight to watch someone’s face light up when you connect with them.
Spread Happiness - It’s Contagious
The Framingham Heart Study conducted a comprehensive investigation into the heart health of over 15,000 individuals, studying their social connections for over three decades. Surprisingly, the researchers discovered that human happiness depends on large clusters of people, even those we don't personally know. They found that if a friend becomes happy, it increases our own chances of experiencing happiness by 15 percent. Happiness spreads through social networks like a contagious virus.
Notice how Hector’s emerging happiness affects those he meets. Also notice how Professor Coreman’s happiness transfers to his students. They walk out of his lectures energized and happy.
Create Your Own Celebration Practice
Another way you can discover happiness is to create your own celebration practice. This is a daily habit of looking for the surprise and delights throughout your day.
At the end of the day, you’ll have several examples of ways your day delighted you. It can be as simple as a phone call with a friend, or a delicious lunch. Before going to sleep, write down at least three things that either surprised you or delighted you. This is a good way to end the day and prepare you for a pleasant sleep.
Remember, the emotional state you’re in when you go to sleep at night will be the filter of your dreams. So why not go to sleep happy and in joy? Try this practice and watch how your happiness expands. It really works.
Embrace All Emotions
To experience true happiness, it is essential to embrace the full range of emotions. Denying yourself certain emotions limits your potential and hampers your internal compass. Imagine a compass that only shows east and west but ignores north and south. It would be of little use in guiding you. Similarly, when you suppress your emotions, you lose direction and become lost in an internal fog. When you embrace all emotions, you unlock profound joy and discover happiness like never before. In this AMP film, Hector taps into his emotions towards the end, gaining clarity about how he wants to live and taking inspired action toward a new life.
When you embrace the full range of all emotions, you’ll experience expansive levels of deep joy. You’ll discover happiness like never before. Notice at the end of the film how Hector taps into his emotions. It provides such clarity of how he wants to live that he doesn’t hesitate and takes the inspired action to his new life.
Ultimately happiness is an inside job. As professor Coreman (Christopher Plummer) says,
“We should concern ourselves not so much with the pursuit of happiness, but with the happiness of pursuit.”
Throughout Hector’s journey he chronicles a list of lessons on happiness which we’ve included in this AMP session. Here’s a quick recap:
Hector’s Lessons learned:
1.Making comparisons can spoil your happiness
2. A lot of people think happiness is being richer or being more
important
3. Many people only see happiness in their future
4. Happiness could be the freedom to love more than one woman at
the same time.
5. Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.
6. Avoiding Unhappiness is not the Road to Happiness
7. Does this person bring you predominantly A) Up or B) Down?
8. Happiness is answering your calling
9. Happiness is being loved for who you are
10. Sweet potato stew
11. Fear is an impediment to happiness
12. Happiness is feeling completely alive
13. Happiness is knowing how to celebrate
14. Listening is loving.
15. Nostalgia is not what it used to be.
This alignment movie is a terrific time and we hope it makes a shift towards happiness like it did for us.
The Top 8 Resonance Benefits from Watching Hector and the Search For Happiness AMP session:
1. The ability to provide love and compassion in everything you do and everyone you meet.
2. The support to find peace in every moment
3. A release of any clinging to routines that no longer serves you at this time.
4. Permission to be happy regardless of what is occurring in your life.
5. Release the belief that money is the only path to happiness.
6. A deepening gratitude for being alive.
7. Release the fear of living and of dying.
8. A letting go of the obstacles to discovering your own happiness.
To get the resonance benefits from watch Hector and the Search For Happiness, please do the Intention Session below and then watch the film in its entirety.
The Intention Session
Getting started on aligning with this movie session is easy. All you have to do is review these statements and do the modality at the end. Once you’ve completed these, you’re ready to benefit from any Alignment Movie Process (AMP) movie sessions you choose. This includes any movie referred to in our books and blogs.
Say These Statements Out Loud and Then Do Modalities At The End
I allow the changes in my timing and only integrate what I’m ready to.
I have faith that I’ll receive the benefits I desire.
I’m patient with myself as I make my changes.
I let go of feeling I’m too busy to take the time to read these books and watch these movies
I let go of having to understand how these Alignment Process movie sessions work, allowing me to get the full benefits on my terms and in my timing.
Modalities:
Please do all three of the following actions to integrate this intension session. All three activities are a good habit to embrace prior to beginning an AP movie session.
Nod your head up in down as you would when saying yes.
Drink some water
Slow rhythmic breathing through your nose