Everyone’s key to happiness does not look alike. In fact the spectrum of perceived happiness is quite broad. People’s definition of happiness can range from financial security to adoration. And while achieving your defined brand of happiness may bring you emotional contentment, mental peace of mind, and/or physical safety, you must be careful not leave out your Spirit.

So how can you guarantee spiritual inclusion in your happiness? One way is to keep up to date with your heart’s connections. Let me explain. Recently I vacationed close to where I grew up. Of course memories of long lost relatives, high school friends, and even guys I dated came flooding into my mind. Emotionally I wanted to contact every one of them to learn what had happened in their lives, but mentally I knew that would turn me towards the past rather than embrace my present happiness.

I chose to sort through, and enjoy the memories, but then came the hard part. I realized that while I will always appreciate the role each of them played in my life, they are no longer an active player in my heart’s script. They have done their part, and I am grateful. But to hang on to them as current material in the journey of my Spirit creates dead air space in my present spiritual expression, which will diminish my happiness quotient.

I am not saying that friends and family from your past can’t stay current in your life’s journey. However, it is important to discern if a past relationship still feeds both of you spiritually, or have you just failed to defrag.

If you are not a computer person the word defrag may have little meaning, so let me explain. By reorganizing and deleting what is stored on your hard drive, you can condense space and make your computer more efficient.  Now apply that concept to the energy stored in your memory banks. As you can see, occasional defragging can make your heart connections more efficient.

So before I took my vacation back to the land of my youth, I acknowledged, with gratitude, the heart gift each person from my past had shared with my Spirit. I enjoyed the memories for awhile and then let them go. Sounds easy but in actuality separating the memories and the heart gifts can prove a bit of a test.

My way to defrag is to go back in my memory and visualize how a person’s heart gift joined with my Heart to enhance our Spirits. But you must find the way that works for you. You might find it helpful to write the memories down and then throw the paper away. If you are a visual person, looking through old pictures and saying goodbye may do the trick. But don’t get caught up in the correctness of the doing, because all that counts is making your heart exchanges present tense. Defragging is just an energetic tool for keeping your happiness active.