Getting started with a brief pause for happiness.
Step one – Notice that you are tense or in pain or frustrated or just not as happy as you would like to be. Right in the middle of it all just to become aware of what and how you are feeling is a great beginning.
Step two – Pause for a brief moment and make the choice to reach for a better thought or feeling.
Step three – Allow your eyes to widen and focus attention on the images at the edge of your visual field. You can do this by softening your focusing on the center while still looking straight ahead. Or hold you hands out in front of you and wiggle your fingers. Then move your hands out to both sides and without turning your head, see how far to each side you can still see your fingers wiggling. Do this with both eyes as your gaze widens and widens. What you want is to maintain looking straight ahead with a soft gaze. Your attention is set equally on the entire visual field in front of you as well as all the way to the edges of the field.
You can practice this at home wiggling the fingers of both hands as you move them from the center out to the sides and then back again while keeping a soft gaze looking straight ahead. It’s a bit like being outside at night and looking up at the stars. The bright ones in the middle are easy to spot but then as you relax your eyes you start to perceive feint dots of starlight further out to the edges of you visual field. But if you shift your attention to the edges to see them better they disappear. This is due to the way the rods and cones of the eyes work and is really a different phenomenon but does create a similar effect. By maintaining your gaze straight ahead you can still see images at the edges of the visual field.
With some practice this pause takes about three seconds and can usually be done without stopping whatever you might be in the middle of. When you return to whatever you where doing it is now with a greater sense of calm, renewed enthusiasm and happiness. For even more calm, enthusiasm and happiness continue with steps four and five.