Vibrational Surfing to Happiness & Purpose
Riding frequencies to our ideal destinations in life is a far scarier, but more rewarding journey. How to surf vibration and find genuine happiness.
*For your listening pleasure there is also an audio version of this article read by the author. It may include a few sidebars ;)
Quick Announcement:
My new website is finally ready! It’s why this month’s newsletter was late. I invite you to visit, and some of you will likely be excited we no longer have to email back and forth for appointments. Hurray for online scheduling. I look forward to meeting some more of you readers! Now, back to the surfing.
Doing What We Want Doesn’t Mean Feeling What We Want
So often we achieve what we want to be… and then find life lackluster because doing what we want is not always accompanied by feeling what we want.
The vibration of what we achieve doesn’t pair with the emotional vibration we want to experience.
We’ve all experienced events where we strive for a goal, only to find ourselves a bit bummed, because neither the road to the experience, nor the achievement itself, feels as satisfying as we expected.
I have certainly projected feelings on to future events in my mind that don’t come to fruition. The logic flaw I’ve observed in all these experiences, is I think a path without very many of the emotions I want to experience… will somehow lead to those emotions.
A low vibration path loaded with anxiety rarely equals a high vibration relaxing outcome. We didn’t ride in to our destination on the right frequency.
It’s like baking a cake with salty ingredients; then being shocked it tastes salty instead of sweet. The emotions we feel as we journey down our life paths are letting us know the emotions we’ll likely find in the big field at the end.
Let yourself drift back to being a child, and your grandparents ask you what you want to be when you grow up. Then, imagine they ask you what you want to feel when you grow up. How would those two life trajectories track?
Keeping the second question in mind, we might be less likely to suppress feelings in pursuit of goals. Suppressing exhaustion or stress might work in pursuit of what we want to do, but through a vibrational lens they are red flags. Strong warnings of low frequency bandwidths we don’t want to surf to find out where they go.
“Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.” ~Ella Fitzgerald
Vibrationally Surfing Our Way to Purpose
Our purpose in life is not always about what we were “born to do.”
If one of our main goals is to experience extra high vibration love we’re likely to put a lot of time in to our relationships, learning how to communicate well, and being vulnerable. What we “do” may be a second or third priority that earns enough to live, but isn’t the focus of our life most careers become.
We could measure things like self worth not against how many promotions we’ve earned, but if we’ve developed skills to respectfully disagree with someone without turning it in to an inflammatory situation. Both are displays of prowess.
Sometimes we are so focused on finding this thing we want to “do” in life that we miss our strongest vibration can be found experiencing creative flow, or ridiculously good balance.
I have a lot of respect for what capitalism can provide, but this singular focus on what we want to do with our life narrows our focus so much we lean toward expressing ourselves through our jobs… and I doubt that’s the highest vibration path for everyone.
When we are our most authentic selves we find our highest vibration. Starting off our society with questions like what we want to do when we grow up can orient a whole bunch of us down lower vibration pathways.
Really we all want to learn to surf the waves of frequency. Find a bandwidth that feels effortless, playful, fulfilling (or whatever your adjectives are) and get on that. Make decisions that keep you riding that wave. You’ll know if you’re on it by how you feel; does it feel like emotions you want? See where it takes you.
Surfing vibrational frequency is about going on a journey where we release most of our need to know where the wave we’re riding is heading. We just trust that if we’re on the right frequency, it’s somewhere good.
[Full disclosure: I still fall off my frequency waves all the time.]
Candidly, I’ve found it to be a far scarier, but more inspired way to arrive at fulfilling destinations. I can even admit I created most of the scary parts in my own mind. It’s just hard to give up control and surf through tons of uncertainty. Yet looking back after the wave, the path is often richer than anything I would have consciously picked.
When we intellectually decide what we want to do, and pursue that even if it doesn’t feel right vibrationally, who knows where we end up? Yet, in the latter example we have the illusion of control along with journey which makes it feel safer than vibrational frequency surfing.
There’s Happiness, and Then There’s Alignment
Taking this childhood questioning to a larger societal level, I wonder how Thomas Jefferson penning it in to the Declaration of Independence that we all have a right to, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” has shaped 200+ years of Western society.
Many use happiness as a measuring stick for life. We have generations of people striving to look happy and share epic images of their lives. Yet, I suspect all of us can sense the images and smiles cultivated for a camera insinuate a vibrance that often isn’t as present in the actual moment.
If we measured the genuine contentment/peacefulness/happiness reflecting from the inner worlds of a people taking a group photo for the 7th time, I don’t think we’d be shocked to find the insides often wouldn’t match the photo.
Sure there’s bad angles, and there’s when inner worlds don’t match the vibe we’re hoping will show up in the photo. So we keep trying. (We’ve all been there.)
The truly epic group photos don’t need to be taken more than once- because the glowing emotion captured is genuinely radiating from people.
If we had a stressful week and we are happy at brunch with friends both emotional vibrations will reflect in our face on camera (as much as we’d like only one to show up).
This is why most photos of children are magnetic; they are still highly aligned, aren’t trying to be anything, and own their authenticity. Even a photo of them grumpy can be captivating.
Having anger/sadness/worry inside while acting happy outside is subconsciously uncomfortable to be around. We are all better at sensing vibration than we think.
When the emotional vibrations we sense from people don’t match the facial expressions and body language it creates unease. We are receiving conflicting messages, even if on a subconscious level.
The more we align this rift of what we portray externally to what we feel internally, we shift in to a higher vibration. We feel more ease, it makes us more magnetic, and calming to be around. Hence, is the pursuit of transient happiness keeping us from expressing our authentic selves, and ironically keeping us from a happier and higher vibration life?
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
I’ll never forget the time I walked in to a massage and when the therapist asked how I was doing I said, “Today has been humiliating.” I then got on the table and began to cry in to the face cradle. Double humiliation.
(After holding it together at the office I guess the faux beach wave sounds were just too soothing.)
I ended up spilling out the whole story during my massage and it was one of the most connective moments with a stranger I’ve experienced. At the end the therapist gave me a huge genuine hug and thanked me for being real.
I wasn’t the burden I thought I would be. My vulnerability was appreciated in a world where people act like they’re happy when they’re not.
Alignment is often more appreciated than we give it credit for.
Can Pursuing Happiness Cause Unhappiness?
Could the idea that we are supposed to pursue happiness be causing more unhappiness? For me the answer is yes. Human existence is challenging. I’ve started to reframe my life as if Jefferson wrote the Declaration to say we strive for, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Self Mastery.”
Because that’s often what it really comes down to, isn’t it? The higher our self awareness and self mastery the more our life shifts in to a higher vibration, and we experience genuine lasting happiness.
Through the lens of vibrational surfing, fleeting happiness is burning energy repeatedly taking the little beginner waves, and happiness as a side effect of self mastery is the deep fulfillment that comes from surfing the big waves in Nazare.
If we continually go out with friends to avoid depression or emotional discomfort inside us we’re locking ourselves in to a lower vibration life thinking we’re supposed to stay happy through fleeting experiences instead of self mastery.
The quality of our consciousness will only elevate when we face the challenges inside us. As we untangle our inner world our vibrational frequency soars, and true happiness blooms.
When we pursue fleeting happiness the rough patches that come with personal growth can feel like roadblocks to avoid. We may orient away from embracing the difficult and awkward choices that eventually lead to a calmer and more content consciousness in lieu of ephemeral experiences of happiness.
I’d even hazard the theory that as a society we are often trying to stimulate ourselves with short term happiness and dopamine to cover up the quality of our resting consciousness- which could be improved through practices that also enhance our vibration. How sustainable our pursuit of happiness is over time even affects how we look as we age; our vibration reflected back to us in the mirror.
I suspect we may be a society chasing the symptom that is happiness thinking it’s a starting point. This slightly haphazard pursuit may lead us away from less obvious, but more rapidly vibrating pathways we might otherwise be curious to explore.
The ideal for vibration is to combine fleeting experiences of happiness like concerts and cocktails with a lifestyle of self mastery that develops sustained happiness and contentment. If we rely solely on happiness from fleeting means we’re the proverbial hamster on a wheel that doesn’t ever really reach fulfillment.
Plus, the more of ourselves we explore the more of our personal gifts and talents we find to unwrap, and these often offer sustained sources of pleasure.
I’d also like to think that Thomas Jefferson, the well read inventor, violinist, singer, author and political figure, who spoke four languages, and was notorious for his study of botany and horticulture experiments… might ironically agree with me on the self mastery over happiness bit.
If you enjoyed this article you may enjoy another article I wrote with surfing pics. I can’t help myself. There’s nothing like getting up at 6am to watch surfers get the big waves; it bleeds into my writing.