I was going through a box of books separating the wheat from the chaff when I came upon how to he HAPPY, dammit – a cynic’s guide to spiritual happiness. It was a gift and I never had any interest in reading it. Wincing once more at the garish cover I was about to toss it in the trash when on a whim instead I cracked it open, just to see what kind of wisdom about happiness I was about to forgo…

Life Lesson #15

You must unlearn.

To get what you want, you must be open not only to learning – but un-learning. You must sign up for un-lessons – where you un-learn learned fear, guilt, anger, jealousy, insecurity – and that’s just for starters.

Hmm. This is interesting. I know I’ve got a lifetime of guilt-tripping to un-learn. Eagerly I turned the page…

In other words, before you write your to-do list of what you want, you have to write your un-do list and to-don’t list. So you get a piece of paper and you write down the following six categories: money, love, sex, family, power, happiness. Next to each of these categories you write down your negative views – your fears, your guilts, your insecurities – that you must un-learn and un-feel.

Hmm. Well, those aren’t necessarily the categories or priorities I would pick, but let’s see where this is going…

For instance, you ask yourself what negative views you have about money. Like: Do you believe all rich people are superficial jerks – hence if you become rich you too might become a superficial jerk? Do you suffer from Keeping Down with the Joneses syndrome? Do you feel guilty about surpassing your friends – and/or parents – in wealth? If so, you must un-learn and un-feel these negative ideas and negative emotions…And you find that when you trade in these negative beliefs and emotions for positive ones, you start getting more in harmony with receiving money. You start seeing money everywhere.

Even in the word harmony, which suddenly now looks to you like harmoney.

Wait a minute…what kind of spiritualist wrote this materialist crap?

karen salmansohn

Oh.