You can shape your life as you choose, this is the gift of free will. Humans are the only species on earth that have this opportunity. This is a major gift to be grateful for. Go deeper than lip service when giving thanks, let it penetrate deep in your heart and flow into all your words and actions. Gratitude helps accentuate the positive in your life and attract even more reasons to be grateful. When it appears that life is going against you and nothing goes as planned, it can be difficult to find a reason to be grateful. If you are in this situation, simplify things by just watching your breath as it moves in and out of your lungs. Feel the gratitude for this life force that keeps you alive in the human body.

 It is easy to take for granted essential things you need for survival such as air, water, food, clothing and shelter. We have moved a long way from our hunter gatherer forbearers and our focus in the modern world is on the accumulation of material comforts and emotional security. Material forms are just objects and hold no real value unless you have an emotional attachment to them. This is the reason you find yourself holding onto old items that have no practical use but are of sentimental value. Material forms in themselves do not bring joy and fulfilment. It is their association with certain people or events that places value on them.

 Perhaps you think you need some object to bring you contentment but it is out of your reach. Not having the object of your desire arises out of resentment, annoyance and unhappiness. It could be a house, a car or perhaps attention from a certain person. You believe if you could acquire the object of your desire, you would be happy. This way of thinking puts terms and conditions on happiness and emotional wellbeing. You are associating objects and certain people with feelings of happiness. This erroneous belief has you constantly chasing a person or material things to find happiness. Everything starts from within. First, connect to your feeling of joy and it attracts more reasons to be joyful. Joy cannot be bought because it is an intrinsic part of your being, stemming from the universal field of awareness.

 You cannot put a price or condition on wellbeing. Set your intention to feel joy, to feel love, and to feel free. When you invoke these positive feelings within, you attract more reasons to be joyful. When you are aligned with vibrations of joy, gratitude is natural. It exudes from the core of your being for this phenomenal experience we call life. Your intention to be grateful allows universal power to infuse you with gratitude. Feelings of gratitude are reflected in the world around you. You behold joy in simple things and gratitude emanates from you. You begin to realise feeling good is what is most important and not the things you possess. What you have is relative to how you feel but it is not the cause. The cause is your connection to joy and gratitude.

From ‘In Quest of Love’ by Collette O’Mahony

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I began writing the original manuscript for In Quest of Love eight years ago. I wrote it as a personal manifesto for change. At that time, I was very unhappy and I was questioning my life choices. I believed, like many, I needed a relationship to feel loved and fulfilled.  Within six weeks of writing the manuscript I left my job and moved to another country. While I experienced feelings of fear and moments of terrible anxiety, the feeling of freedom was incredible. I felt like I had been given a new opportunity to live the life I wanted to live, rather than a life set out for me through my early conditioning and societal beliefs.

Once I set my intention for healing and growth, I noticed subtle changes within me. I felt love emanating from the core of my being as a radiant energy, whereas before it was a romantic idea. The bliss of simply being expanded love within me. I realised I had found love when there was no need for someone to complete me. The need for something or someone to make me complete was the root of my unhappiness.

The misperception I held about love was I needed someone to give it to me. Through writing this book, and then putting it into practise, I discovered that love is expressed in relating, but the source of love was not a relationship. The source of love is within me.

Love takes me to the places I want to go, whereas fear kept me imprisoned in dull routine. I am now living in India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. I came on a visit two years ago and found I had much more to learn from the people, philosophy and religions. The new edition of In Quest of Love stems from new perspectives derived from living in a culture that contrasts my own. It has challenged any lingering preconceptions I had, while giving me new insights into relationship with others and with the universal field of awareness. 

Writing this book eight years ago, set me on an odyssey of inner transformation. By setting this personal manifesto, it was then up to me to live it. My life became a canvas to experiment with the truth.

The best way to find out who I am, and who I am not, is through my relationships with others. I am deeply grateful to all the wonderful people I have met on this journey of self-discovery for being my guides and teachers.

 Collette O’Mahony (May 2017)

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