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Inner Peace and Happiness

May 12, 2013 by Admin Leave a Comment

What Is Inner Peace and Happiness?

You can look up the definition for peace and happiness, but only you know what these words truly mean to you on a personal level. Everyone wants to feel good about life and not be tormented by self-sabotaging, negative thoughts. Self-sabotaging thoughts are the whispers in your mind that sound like this:

“I can’t”
“I’m ugly”
“I’m not good enough”
“I don’t know how”
“I don’t deserve it”
“I’m stupid”
“I don’t matter”
“I’m going to fail”
“No one cares about me”
“I’m a loser”

Self-sabotaging thoughts are false and come in all different forms. They are false because they make you limit or doubt yourself and your worth. Worst of all, they make you feel uneasy, unhappy, and depressed. If you ever make the effort to get past them, then you will see that you can achieve so much more than your thoughts lead you to believe. Letting go of false thoughts releases fear and negativity so that you can:

be more at peace with who you are,
be more accepting of yourself and others,
be happier and more relaxed,
allow more positive experiences to flow into your life,
be more receptive to all possible solutions to your problems,
allow the people around you to enjoy you more, and
be consciously in-touch and in-tune to what’s really going on around you.

Why Is Inner Peace Important?

Inner peace is important because how you feel on the inside will manifest itself in your reality. That’s the law of attraction 101, which states that you attract into your life whatever you focus on. See, “Does The Law of Attraction Work?” If you want to attract more positive experiences into your life, you have to be sure your inner feelings and thoughts are mostly positive. What you think about and how you feel is a choice that you make at any given moment, whether or not you realize it.

How Do You Achieve Inner Peace?

You’ve probably read many self-improvement books about ways to achieve inner peace but were left wondering, “How do I apply this in my life?” It’s as simple as being conscious and then making a choice. Conscious means being fully aware of your inner and outer world. Being fully aware of how you feel and what you think, offers an opportunity for you to make changes that result in being at peace and happier more often than not…

Visit ClassicHealing for more interesting self improvement articles. Visit Amazon.com to purchase your copy of Negative Thought Changers! Negative Thought Changers is a short, sweet, and to the point step-by-step guide on how to achieve inner peace and happiness.

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Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: Happiness, inner peace, self improvement

Practice Happiness

March 30, 2013 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Cynthia L. Smith –

There are many causes of depression. External as well as internal. The death of someone we love or care about. The falling out of a friendship. A local tragedy. An unwanted divorce. A serious illness. The constant sense of “impending doom”. Perhaps we realize we haven’t lived up to a set of standards that we have chosen to abide by, making us feel shame or guilt. I call this my conscience. Perhaps we feel constant loneliness. Or worse than that, being stuck in a “bad” marriage. A chemical or hormonal imbalance. The list is as extensive as there are people. Some of these causes can be rectified by us. Some cannot. It is these issues that can seem to have a death-like grip on our emotions.

But what if I told you that you could still “change” your mood as easily as you could change your clothes? Would you say I’m not being realistic? Would you say that I’ve just never had happen to me what has happened to you? I have had several of these scenarios happen to me or to someone I love. Don’t get me wrong, if any of these things happen to any human being, the natural response is to get depressed. For awhile anyway. That’s normal. Think about that word “depress”. What exactly gets “depressed”? Our natural ability and desire to be HAPPY. There is a scripture in the Bible where God says “you must be happy because I am happy,” so since God is happy, and He created us in His image…

So how does one go about getting happy, truly, genuinely -as opposed to “artificially” – happy anyway?

Good question! Have you ever noticed that sometimes you can wake up in a good mood, then other times you wake up in a bad mood, and don’t really know why, either way? For whatever reason, either our subliminal dreams and the states of emotion they produce, our hormones, that “time of the month”, a sense of dread of either a test at school, some particular project at work, an upcoming bill that’s due, etc., can subconsciously put us in a “bad” mood, then again, maybe we are expecting to receive a tax refund, or a gift from someone, or are about to go on a fun vacation, these can put us in a “good” mood! Do you see how our thoughts can affect our mood? So in reality, what we therefore choose to think about can also affect, manipulate, guide, and control our mood and THAT affects how we FEEL! Do your thoughts make you feel sad or happy? Mad or glad? Realize also that no one can make you feel any emotion unless you give them the power to do so. Here’s proof: think about when you’re driving down the street and out of the blue, someone cuts you off and yells some obscenity out the window at you while making an angry hand gesture. That might make you a little mad. But you’d get over it pretty quickly. But what if, during a disagreement someone you love behaved towards you in this same manner. That would likely hurt wouldn’t it. Because we give those we love the power to affect our own assessment of ourselves. They matter to us!

So again I ask, how does one go about “getting” happy? Really, how can someone “practice happiness”?

One of the many NLP presuppositions says “if anyone can learn to do something and learn to do it well, you and I certainly can!”

There have been, throughout history, countless examples of people who have had horrific things happen to them, and yet they draw on resources within them that enabled them to stand tall, move forward and actually succeed in life, and sometimes succeed so well they are written about! That’s how you and I have come to learn about them. What resources do they draw on?

The very first thing is their thought patterns. What kind of “self talk”, or “pep” talk did they give themselves? Positive or negative? Well, for one thing, there is NO negative talk! None of this “I can’t” or “they won’t let me” or “I don’t know how” business! No, but it might go something like this: “I am not sure how to go about (accomplishing some task, or surviving for that matter) but I am going to ask someone for advice, or get help to learn what to do first!” If you’re a God fearing person, pray for guidance and direction. God won’t let you down. Remember, everything is temporary. We can make the best of a bad situation by remembering THAT, or we can wallow in the bad situation, getting stuck there, and milking it for all it’s worth! We can actually make a bad situation last longer, without meaning to, because we ultimately do nothing to change the situation or how long we “stay” there!

So here’s a little exercise to do when you find yourself “stuck” in depression. And it will take “practice”! In the morning, when you first get up…

Consciously think about how you are feeling. Don’t spend a lot of time there. There doesn’t need to be a reason for the “bad” or depressed mood. It just is. Think about where you feel those negative feelings in your body. Notice where your eyes go when you are deeply in those feelings.

Now consciously think of some good memory, not attached to the subject of your depression. Think of something or someone and an experience where you were happy, perhaps even laughing. Everyone has memories of that sort, no matter how far back you must go. Give it some time. Involve yourself in those thoughts. Then, raise your eyes up to the ceiling. This is important. Now say out loud, in as cheerful a voice as you can muster, “I am having a GREAT day today!” And I know this sounds silly, but start singing — even if it is through tears — and as you begin to walk away, walk with a bounce in your step! It matters not how depressed you are or have been. This works 100% of the time. But it might take some time. It is guaranteed to work! Just give it some time. If you do this every morning for 21 days in a row, you will notice a change in how you feel!

The dynamics of this exercise are these: it is your subconscious that decides your behavior. Your subconscious is where your drivers are. And remember, we wake up in the mood set by that very subconscious. We are hardwired to a certain set of behaviors but we can consciously change them by telling our subconscious what to do! When you wake up in a sad, bad, mad or depressed state, it is either because of our chemistry (which, by the way, can be changed by changing our thought patterns) or what our subconscious has been thinking about in our sleep, IF we sleep(!) When we take control of our thoughts, rather than let our thoughts “run amok”, we essentially “reboot” our mind / thought patterns!

If we really want to improve our mood, if we really want to be happy, we can! Once we “get the hang of it”, once we “fake it till we make it” — living in an “as if” we’ve already achieved our goal, the everyday problems of life won’t get us down, and the bigger issues won’t keep us stuck. We are in control, and we get to decide to practice happiness!

Cynthia is an NLP Master and Health Practitioner and practices in the Modesto, CA area.

http://www.NLP-stanislaus.com

My name is Cynthia (many call me Cindy) Smith and I am a certified NLP Master and Health Practitioner and live in the central valley area of California. I have a coaching / counseling business which I conduct in the Modesto, CA area.

I absolutely LOVE NLP and helping people reach their maximum potential using the various processes and techniques I learned in 2006-2007 at NLPCA in Burlingame, CA.

http://nlp-stanislaus.com/

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Filed Under: Happiness, Health & Happiness Tagged With: being happy, getting happy, Happiness

The Components of Happiness

January 27, 2013 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Luke Russell Broad –

Is life a tragedy or a triumph? Are we born to succeed or destined to fail? At some point in our lives, we will all have a crisis of faith; and when we do, we will turn somewhere for help and guidance. Some of us turn to religion, some of us turn to self-help, some of us resort to alcohol or drugs and some of us become reliant on medication. Other people will blame something else such as fate or bad luck or even someone else such as God for their misfortunes. But what about those of us who refuse to blame external influences for our lack of success?

The truth is that we are all responsible for our own lives, though many of us fail to acknowledge this responsibility. But if we want to, we can take charge and turn our lives around. Most of us are familiar with the phrase ‘you create your own luck’, but how many of us actually believe it?

Taking responsibility will allow you to create your own good luck and turn failure into success. You can benefit from taking responsibility even if you are already happy and fulfilled because doing so would ensure that your happiness and fulfillment continues.

Happiness is something that we all seek and many of us become lost whilst trying to find it. This is because many of us adopt the belief that the key to happiness lies in the material things that we seek, such as an abundance of money, a good car, the best clothes, all the latest gadgets, or a large house. Whilst it is not wrong to want these material things, this delusional belief that happiness lies in the acquisition of them is the reason that so many of us have a tendency to notice what we haven’t got, which, in turn, causes us to feel unhappy.

The truth is that material things by themselves do not bring us happiness – even some lottery winners have stated, a few years later, that it was actually the worst thing that ever happened to them. Many people have striven for material things only to find that when they acquired them, there was still something missing from their lives; they did not have the fulfillment that they expected to have.

It can be quite damaging if we believe that our happiness depends on the possession of material things because we can easily lose our sense of self as we search for this happiness that we so desperately seek.

For example, imagine that you are driving to your desired destination and that you get lost along the way. You continue driving around trying to find your way back to the road that leads you to your destination. You try new roads only to later find that they are taking you even further away from your destination. You then make u-turns and so you end up driving in circles. You are constantly looking for the road to your desired destination, but you are just going round and round and you are getting no closer to where you want to be.

After a while of aimlessly driving around, you begin to feel frustrated, angry and irritated. As you continue to drive around, with no idea of where you are going, these negative emotions become stronger and so you become even more stressed. In the same kind of way, the more we lose ourselves in this search for happiness, the worse we feel. The more we look for happiness, the less satisfied we will become with our lives as they are and so the less happy we will be.

True happiness can sometimes feel like a distant dream. Perhaps you have relationship issues, excessive debt problems or ill health. It is often during the most challenging times in our lives that we develop ourselves the most. This is because unwanted things are often the catalyst for change.

Inner-peace, acceptance, love and belief are all fundamental to true happiness. Inner-peace requires us to remove all detrimental thoughts and beliefs. Acceptance requires us to make peace with things the way they are. Love requires us to let go of all anger and resentment. And belief requires us to be hopeful and optimistic, rather than fearful and pessimistic.

The constituents of true happiness all come from within, thus happiness is a state of mind. Therefore, it is possible to find true happiness even in difficult circumstances, though intentionally achieving true happiness means mastering our own minds.

For a free eBook, visit: http://www.thesecretandthelawofattraction.com

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Well-Being: A New Paradigm or Just a Fad?

January 13, 2013 by Admin 1 Comment

By Dr Neil Thompson –

As someone with a long interest in language and how it is used, I am often fascinated by how changes of terminology take place. Suddenly people are using a new term, sometimes to refer to a new concept or approach, but sometimes the new term simply replaces an old one. Well-being is not a new term or even a new concept, but it is certainly being used much more these days, and in different ways too.

I am a great believer in the idea of ‘confluence theory’, the notion that significant changes happen when a number of forces or factors come together, sometimes for an underlying reason, sometimes just by chance. Well-being, for me, is one of those confluence phenomena, with different forces coming together. To reflect this confluence I developed the idea of ‘Getting WISE about well-being’, with WISE spelling out:

Workplace well-being • Individual well-being • Social well-being • Environmental well-being

• Workplace well-being has grown out of the increasing recognition that poor work-life balance and other destructive workplace processes can be detrimental – catastrophic even – for not only the individual staff members concerned, but also for the organization and potentially all its stakeholders.

• Individual well-being has two separate but related strands. One is the increasing emphasis on spirituality, based on the recognition that, whether religious or not, everyone has spiritual needs – needs that often go unmet in a highly materialistic and competitive world. The other is a focus on health promotion, recognising that there is more to being healthy than avoiding illness. Such important issues as diet, exercise and sleep are now being recognised as part of everyone’s well-being and that we neglect them at a significant cost.

• Social well-being is partly about a greater emphasis on having a sense of community and ‘connectedness’, again perhaps a reaction against the competitive materialism of modern life, and partly about the need for a more inclusive society, with less poverty and inequality. This latter aspect is reflected in how social policy seems to be increasingly moving away from potentially stigmatising, dependency-creating notions of ‘welfare’ to more partnership-based, empowering notions of well-being.

• Environmental well-being is also, of course, appearing much higher up the political and cultural agendas. It is not that long ago that ‘green’ issues were seen as the preserve of environmentalists, those with a particular interest in ecology, but now environment well-being is clearly a mainstream issue all round.

But there is more to this confluence than the very term ‘well-being’ uniting people around four disparate themes. If we look closely we can see that they are inter-related. For example, the emphasis on healthy lifestyles is also part of the focus on workplace well-being (and spirituality in the workplace is also receiving greater attention). Likewise, the emphases on social well-being and environmental well-being have in common a concern with moving away from our resource-intensive consumerist lifestyles towards something more meaningful and less destructive (and thus linked with spiritual well-being).

Sadly well-being is often oversimplified. For example, I have come across so many documents and websites that have ‘health and well-being’ in their title, but then talk almost exclusively about health. Similarly, there is a tendency to confuse well-being with happiness. The latter is something episodic, whereas the former is something more stable and long lasting. What we need, then, is to continue to explore these complex issues so that we can develop a more sophisticated understanding of what is involved. That way we will be better equipped to make well-being in its various forms a more realistic goal to aim for.

Dr Neil Thompson is an independent author, educator and adviser. For more information about Neil and his work, visit http://www.neilthompson.info This article first appeared in the THE humansolutions BULLETIN. For details of this and other free resources, visit http://tinyurl.com/freeresourcesfromneil

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Filed Under: Happiness, Health & Happiness Tagged With: Happiness, well-being

Mind-Blowing Truth About Boosting Health and Happiness

September 23, 2012 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Kevin Schoeninger -

What if your feelings conveyed the instructions that activated your DNA and determined your health? What if your happiness was an effect of your dominant thoughts? What if your life was the result of your inner state? Though those might appear to be sound-bites from a New Age science fiction movie, scientific research is beginning to back them up. In this article, we’ll explore how you can shift your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to realize greater health and happiness.

In his groundbreaking book, “The Genie in Your Genes,” (Elite Books, 2007) Dawson Church, Ph.D. shares a wealth of research to substantiate how your consciousness shapes your health and happiness. He tells the story of one experiment reported at the American Psychosomatic Society in which 42 couples were given small suction wounds on their skin. They were then instructed to discuss a neutral topic. Their wounds were monitored for healing time.

Two months later, the same couples were given similar wounds and then asked to discuss an issue upon which they strongly disagreed. Their healing times were again monitored. Results of this study showed that the couples wound healing time directly correlated with the hostility levels in their discussions. The most hostile discussions resulted in 40 percent longer healing times than when those same couples engaged in neutral discussions.

The point of this study is not that you should “avoid conflict,” but that your emotions powerfully affect your physical health and ability to heal. The thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that you consistently engage in affect your biochemistry which in turn affects your health and well-being. This is true all the way down to the DNA level!

The interior environment of your cells is shaped by how you think, feel, and act. These self-initiated, “consciousness” factors have a great impact on how your genes “express”-which potentials are turned on and activated and which potentials are turned off and de-activated. In other words, your life is not determined by your genes, but by which genes are activated and which ones are de-activated by your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as by external environmental conditions. Your health and happiness are not ruled by your DNA.

What does this mean for your life? Could you monitor and manage how you think, feel, and behave to experience better health and greater happiness? Wouldn’t that be awesome?

In contrast, many of us live as if we are the slaves of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors rather than their master. We live as if mental-emotional-behavioral events control us rather than us controlling them. However, if your thoughts, feelings, and actions have such power when they are allowed to randomly roam freely, imagine how powerful they could be if you consciously cultivated your skill in using them!

What if you conducted an experiment in which you sought to demonstrate how positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors made a significant positive impact on your own health and well-being? This could be as simple as taking some time every day to focus on experiencing positive thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. For example, you could make it a practice to begin your day with a short period of time in a positive state of appreciation, gratitude, and trust. This would get your day started on the right foot and set in motion a cascade of positive cellular reactions that support your being healthy and happy. Doing your practice first thing every morning would create a positive reference point that you could return to whenever you got caught up in stress, frustration, or negative thoughts and feelings.

Now, certainly, old patterns of negative thinking, feeling, and acting may seem strong, but they are just habits you’ve learned. What if you could re-program yourself, little by little, in just a few minutes every day? What if you could grow a new positive consciousness so strong, that you’d immediately recognize when you’ve wandered away from it, be able to put a mental pause in your old response, and insert your new outlook at will, at any time. It’s not so far-fetched as it may sound.

For a wonderful way to start your day in a positive mind and mood, check out the resource box below.

Enjoy your practice!

Are you ready to quiet your mind, relax deeply, and manifest what you truly desire? Discover how to take your practice to the next level. For the best meditation techniques, information, and tips, be sure to visit us here.

Kevin Schoeninger graduated from Villanova University in 1986 with a Master’s Degree in Philosophy. He is certified as a Life Coach, Reiki Master Teacher, Qigong Meditation Instructor, and Personal Fitness Trainer.

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Filed Under: Happiness, Health & Happiness Tagged With: boosting health and happiness, self improvement

Happiness and Joy – What’s the Difference?

September 16, 2012 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Mike W Bell -

The more I reflect on happiness, the more I come to see that perhaps happiness is not an emotion at all, but a state of being. The Ancient Greeks would say that happiness is ‘the joy you feel when striving after your potential’; so how are joy and happiness different and what does this mean for us?

We could, for example, begin to think of joy – that emotion of deep pleasure – as an intensely personal experience that wells up within us. Happiness then would be the consequence of this joy. It emanates from us, in a sort of energy field, which touches others. We all know we would rather be around someone who is happy rather than unhappy. It touches us in some way.

Do we need internal joy therefore before we can share happiness with others? I find it an attractive idea that happiness is our joy seeping out and being shared with others.

Yet the more I read the more I find confusion between happiness and joy. Some say, like I have outlined above, that joy is the emotion and happiness a state of being.

However others would argue the opposite. That happiness is merely the experiencing of pleasure, a fleeting experience that comes from ‘striving after your potential’ and achieving it. Only to find that the experience fades and there is more striving needed.

We could think of this as relative happiness. It is what we experience most of the time, and it is temporary. If there is something we really want – a new car or latest phone – we might experience sadness or unhappiness. Once we get it, we become happy – which is important to us. But the happiness here is relative, it is happiness compared to our previous situation or compared to someone who doesn’t have the same. Only it is short-lived. As soon as we find out that our friend has a bigger, better or newer one, our happiness disappears despite the fact that we still have the car or phone.

It is suggested that there is also an absolute happiness that is not dependent on what we possess or on external conditions. It is not relative to anything. It is not the sort of pleasurable feeling that comes and goes. It seems to exist deep within each one of us. When we talk about the pursuit of happiness, I think it is this absolute happiness we are talking about.

It seems to be a challenge for us to manifest this state of absolute happiness for very long. But most of us have had experiences of it from time to time. Sometimes we can feel it in our daily lives; a deep sense of strength within, for example when some tragedy strikes, and even this worst of circumstances doesn’t overpower us.

Perhaps it does not matter whether we call it joy or happiness, relative or absolute. We need to be aware that there are distinctions and that a happiness or joy sourced from within is of a different and much preferred quality.

Mike W Bell has over 15 years international experience teaching people how to be happy. You will find this expertise here http://www.mutualinspiration.co.uk/behappy/ Learn about his free 8-part Strengthen Your Inner Happiness course here http://www.mutualinspiration.co.uk/behappy/strengthen-your-inner-happiness/

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Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: Happiness, happiness and joy within, joy, self improvement

Can You Recognize What Makes You Happy?

September 9, 2012 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Tawawn Lowe -

Everyone wants to be happy. However, a lot people don’t take too much time in thinking the real meaning of happiness. They also fail to know the exact ways on how to achieve it. Getting new things like cars, clothes and electronics can make you happy, but they will not last for a longer period of time. Once your personal things got obsolete, you will crave for more stuff to make you feel happy again. How can you discover the real long-term happiness and satisfaction?

Recognizing your real happiness is quite easy. All you have to do is to examine yourself, know your passion, and follow your heart. The main question is, what actions will you take to know your real passion? To understand your passion, simply do the following:

Make a List – The best way to recognize your own passion is through listing. Jot down all the things you want to do, either small or big. In listing, you don’t need to limit yourself. Put anything as long as it brings happiness to your life.

Ask yourself – What are your goals and desires? You have to know what makes you feel happy and satisfied. If you are planning to work, what will it be? Once you answer these questions, you are sure that you have an ambition that will make you feel contented.

Combine your talents – If you love singing or playing musical instruments in front of the crowd, then you need to do great tricks to amaze your audience. Once you fulfill these acts, then expect that you will be happy and satisfied.

Never quit trying – If you can’t find your passion, never stop trying. As you keep on trying, you will soon find that best passion and be successful. Success doesn’t come easy. That is why you have to be patient until you reach your goals.

Analyze Your Passion – After understanding your likes, dislikes and ambition, you have to think and analyze. You have to find ways on how to achieve your happiness. Say for instance, if your passion is to visit around the world, then you have to earn more money for your daily expenses. At this point, you have to think the best job that fits your qualifications. After earning sufficient money for travelling, you can enjoy life every day.

Finding your passion is the key of total happiness and fulfillment to your life. There are several ways on how to recognize your passion. Just think, dream and believe. Once you do, you can easily weigh the different things that you want to do, whether it is big or not.

Everyone is free to dream, follow their heart, and pursue their goals and passions to achieve their desired happiness. Whatever it is, you have to achieve it accurately. Real happiness will never be achieved if you hurt someone while going on top of your success. Make the right decision and start doing what you want to do. It is your passion that would bring you happiness and not anything else!

Tawawn Lowe http://www.tawawnlowe.com

To get from where you are to where you want to go – you need directions. It’s time to purchase your own goal planning system (G.P.S.) and set in place a process to get you to that final destination SUCCESS. To use is simple – just lock in your destination and follow the routes best designated to reach your GOALs.

Get a FREE 15 minute consultation and see how investing in your own goal planning system can help you live a life of purpose and own your own success.

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Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: Happiness, self improvement, what makes you happy

Are You Trying Too Hard to Be Happy?

September 2, 2012 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Georgiana Carollus -

Do you hold yourself to a measure of happiness that you think you need to obtain and maintain? Is trying to be happy adding to your stress level? Do you need some stress relief from your pursuit of happiness? A simple and effective way to increase your happiness is to broaden your definition of happiness to include the full range of your emotions.

Happiness seems to be the new thing today and there is a high premium placed on it. However, while there is a very real value in pursuing happiness, maintaining a constant happiness high is unrealistic. By over-valuing happiness, we run the danger of denying our other legitimate feelings.

When we insist on happiness we are judging our emotions as good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable. If we only choose happiness, we are refusing to embrace all the aspects and parts of ourselves that make up our wholeness. All feelings, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, joy, grief – every feeling! – is impermanent. Every feeling is there so we can experience life to the fullest.

As humans, we naturally want to embrace and enjoy those feelings that make us feel good and we tend to avoid those feelings that make us feel bad. We push away those bad feelings and try to escape them as soon as possible. Ignoring or trying to bury our uncomfortable feelings, however, isn’t enough to banish them forever. Those feelings still remain and, as the saying goes, what we resist, persists.

The best way to transform and release uncomfortable feelings is stay with them. If it is not possible for you to do this at the first moment of these feelings, go back and revisit them when you are in a safe environment. When you have some privacy and feel safe, allow yourself to feel those uncomfortable feelings. In much less time than you expect, they will release their grip on you. Many report that they experience an intense feeling of peacefulness and deep happiness at the moment of the release and transformation of these feelings.

Everyone has a desire for happiness. One way to increase our happiness is to expand our definition of happiness to include our ability and courage to experience a full range of feelings.

Love every one of your feelings because they add to the richness of your life. This richness is where your true happiness lies. Be a friend to yourself and congratulate yourself for your ability to have and experience all of your feelings.

How well do you treat yourself? Visit http://www.FriendYourselfProject.com to find practical tips on how to recognize your brilliance and to treat yourself as well as you treat your friends and loved ones. For daily inspiration, subscribe to a free Daily Moment of Inspiration! Georgiana Carollus, MA, personal, spiritual, and intuitive coach offers coaching and resources to help accelerate your process of friending yourself at the Friend Yourself Project website.

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Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: Happiness, self improvement, trying to be happy

Two Steps Toward Happiness

August 26, 2012 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Dr Neil Flanagan -

The pursuit of happiness is a life-long quest for most of us. If we believe what we’re bombarded with by advertisers, you could be excused for concluding that all it requires is acquiring stuff-cars, houses, a beautiful body, a particular brand of shoes, and so on. If only…

The pursuit is hardly recent. To highlight what he considered essential for happiness, Epicurus (341-270 BC)-the same bloke who reckoned that a cucumber sandwich was good tucker-divided our needs into three classes. He identified the desires that are natural and necessary-basic food, shelter, clothes, friends, and freedom. Then there are others that are natural but unnecessary-a big house, a new car, and the latest in fashion. And there are those desires that are neither natural nor necessary-power, fame, status, and all that who’s-got-the-biggest stuff. Epicurus reckoned that if we want to be truly happy, we must satisfy the desires that are natural and necessary. Money, therefore, was important only in so far as it provided the means to purchase things that are natural and necessary.

Even before Epicurus’ time, the role of money in delivering happiness was under the microscope (or its BC-equivalent). Aristotle’s two-bob’s worth was, ‘… it’s difficult to do fine deeds without resources’. While we know that money alone may not bring happiness, there are two often-quoted sentiments that strike a chord with many people. First, there’s Mae West’s ‘I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. And rich is better’. Then there’s Spike Milligan’s plea: ‘All I ask is a chance to prove that money can’t make you happy’.

As we acquire the wisdom that seems to come with grey, blue, or no hair, there is an acceptance of John Ruskin’s view that there is no wealth but life.

The ongoing pursuit of happiness has uncovered agreement about two ‘must-do’s’. The first is to remove clutterbits from our lives. Clutterbits are all the stuff that we can live without-just like Epicurus alerted us to a couple thousand years ago. The other is to focus our energies on appreciating what we have rather than what we don’t have. As we age, we come to realize that the main reason the grass on the other side of the fence is greener is because we keep watering it.

In addition to single malt whisky, the Scotts gave us this great proverb: ‘Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead’.

If you’d like to progress any of the issues raised in this article, just go to http://www.neil.com.au and join-in the blog, talk to Neil on Facebook, and so on.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr_Neil_Flanagan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Two-Steps-Toward-Happiness&id=7246026

Two Steps Toward Happiness

By Dr Neil Flanagan

As we acquire the wisdom that seems to come with grey, blue, or no hair, there is an acceptance of John Ruskin’s view that there is no wealth but life.

The ongoing pursuit of happiness has uncovered agreement about two ‘must-do’s’. The first is to remove clutterbits from our lives. Clutterbits are all the stuff that we can live without-just like Epicurus alerted us to a couple thousand years ago. The other is to focus our energies on appreciating what we have rather than what we don’t have. As we age, we come to realise that the main reason the grass on the other side of the fence is greener is because we keep watering it.

In addition to single malt whisky, the Scotts gave us this great proverb: ‘Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead’.

If you’d like to progress any of the issues raised in this article, just go to http://www.neil.com.au and join-in the blog, talk to Neil on Facebook, and so on.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr_Neil_Flanagan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Two-Steps-Toward-Happiness&id=7246026

Two Steps Toward Happiness

By Dr Neil Flanagan

As we acquire the wisdom that seems to come with grey, blue, or no hair, there is an acceptance of John Ruskin’s view that there is no wealth but life.

The ongoing pursuit of happiness has uncovered agreement about two ‘must-do’s’. The first is to remove clutterbits from our lives. Clutterbits are all the stuff that we can live without-just like Epicurus alerted us to a couple thousand years ago. The other is to focus our energies on appreciating what we have rather than what we don’t have. As we age, we come to realise that the main reason the grass on the other side of the fence is greener is because we keep watering it.

In addition to single malt whisky, the Scotts gave us this great proverb: ‘Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead’.

If you’d like to progress any of the issues raised in this article, just go to http://www.neil.com.au and join-in the blog, talk to Neil on Facebook, and so on.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr_Neil_Flanagan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Two-Steps-Toward-Happiness&id=7246026

Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: Happiness, self improvement

Happiness: Where Can It Be Found?

August 19, 2012 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Gabriel Chibuike Okeke -

What is the meaning of life, if not to be happy and useful? The term happiness has been an object of discourse among some great psychologists, philosophers, scientists and theologians. Some have asked and answered the questions: “What is the meaning of happiness? Do all people seek happiness? Do all people believe happiness is attainable somewhere? Where can happiness be found?”

Man strives for happiness and led some to seek it in materialism, others in knowledge and so on. Ancient philosophers like Socrates and Plato viewed happiness as a content of virtuous life. They are normally taken to be the founders of ethical determinism. To know God is to do good. For Epicureans, happiness consists in the life of enjoyment, while some find theirs in religion or honor. The primordial question remains “What constitutes true happiness?”

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore you have the power to change anything about yourself. As you go through all kinds of feelings and experiences in your journey through life, in all delights, surprises, chagrin, dismay, disappointment, difficulties etc., try and hold this question as a guiding light: “What do I really need right now to be happy.” What you will come over and over again is that only qualities as deep as love, kindness and conviction will really make you happy in any sort of enduring way. When we allow frustration, failure, disappointment and sadness to snatch the main purpose of living, then we will be left with nothing more than great submission to the world of uncertainties and depression and as clinical or counseling psychologists stated depression left untreated can become fatal. One should never allow failure and difficulties to weigh him/her down because when those things are well managed, they become key to enviable height. Heroes emerge out of adversities. After all people like Abraham Lincoln succeed to be the 16th elected President of the United States after many series of great failures. It doesn’t matter how long we may have been stuck in our imaginations. If we go into a dark room and turn on the light, it doesn’t matter if the room has been dark for a day, a week or twenty thousand years, we turn on the light and it is illuminated. Once we control our capacity for love and happiness, the light has been turned on.

Happiness according to Plato borrowed by Aristotle and confirmed by Thomas Aquinas is the ultimate end of man. The goal of all striving, this is because happiness is not something you can feel on experience at a particular moment as one feels joy or gladness on when one is favored by fortune but it is rather a lasting State of being. True happiness is not found in wealth, honor or power as some people say: “What is happiness without wealth” this is just an argument because if such were the case rich men would not also cry.

However, true happiness is to be found in the philosophical quest for good i.e. God. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God” says St. Augustine. Life without happiness is useless. While some seek it in wrong places; some also allow the activities of life to snatch it from them. Honor, intelligence, health, friends, virtues etc. can bring us passing feeling such as joy or gladness. But they are not happiness. Each of this is a means to attain happiness. A happy life is a good life. Happiness is not something that can be met in a day or a year, but in the whole cause of man’s life. True happiness is sought not caught. A happy mind is a great mind that’s why when one is happy, he is moved to perform all sorts of good works even beyond imagination.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gabriel_Chibuike_Okeke
http://EzineArticles.com/?Happiness:-Where-Can-It-Be-Found?&id=7227081

Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: finding happiness, Happiness, self improvement

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