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[Eldon]

Hello Everyone,

As it is in my nature as well as the others on this forum, i would like to share this bit of information with you for additional ENCOURAGEMENT.

Should you decide to ADD to the list, by all means please DO post with your comments as well. Please leave the negative out as this thread is of a positve nature.

How to be Happy

•Unhappiness may be due to a specific circumstance in your life, but the feeling is all encompassing.

•It is hard to feel happy about some things and unhappy about others at the same time.

•Small things can tip the scales to make us feel happy or unhappy.

•We all have happy an unhappy moods – feelings that do not last long.

•Often we shift from unhappy to happy just with the passage of time.

•Or something happens to tip the balance towards a happy mood.

•Something as simple as warm sunshine on a cool day or a refreshing breeze on a hot day.

•But what if you are unhappy most of the time?

•What can you DO to shift yourself to a happier mood?

•Unhappy people may have real problems with relationships, career, finances, etc.

•Changing your circumstances might make you happier but this may not be very easy.

What else can you DO?

•Try to avoid dwelling on what makes you unhappy – but thinking alone won’t get you far.

•It helps to be active – doing what makes you happy and taking more pleasure in them.

•Even physical exercise can shift your brain chemistry towards a happier state. It’s all about getting out of yourself.

•Try to take a different perspective on your life as a whole.

•Imagine that you just arrived at you dream holiday destination.

•Would you let the fact that your holiday has to end spoil your holiday?

•What about mishaps and setbacks – short of being killed, seriously injured or mugged?

•Would you not strive to enjoy your dream holiday in spite of minor mishaps?

•Or would you waste your whole holiday feeling sorry for yourself?

•If you thought of your life as a dream holiday, would you not seek to make more of it?

•Why should you regard your life as the holiday of a lifetime?

•But can you imagine the great things you would have missed if you have never been born?

•Just being born is like winning the holiday of a lifetime.

•You can view your life however you want. It’s your choice.

•But if you have a negative attitude towards your life or circumstances, ask yourself if it isn’t your self esteem that’s a problem rather than your external circumstances.

•It is easy to be defensive by dumping bad feelings on convenient external scapegoats.

•Constantly criticizing everything around us helps us feel better about ourselves,

•But this way of eliminating unhappy feelings is no better than abusing substances.

•So, becoming happier requires being active, changing what we can change, accepting what we cannot change, trying not to blame others or circumstances for our misfortunes, valuing what we have and developing a more positive attitude to our lives.

Make the BEST of each Day!

[Jeffreyj]

Thank you very much Eldon. Great stuff in here. FUN IS ALLOWED!

[cph9680]

Thanks for sharing, Eldon!  I see a few things on there that I could definitely stand to work on

CH

[DanielMark]

• When you are feeling needy, give to others. Giving will come back to you in time.

• Like unhappiness, joy is a choice you make.

• Love is not a feeling; it's an action.

Daniel

[Christine]

Thank you Eldon!!

Christine

[Teresa]

Thanks Eldon,

I really needed this post!

Hugs
Teresa

[tryingforhope]

Thanks for bringing the happy back to me today!

[allopathicholistic]

Should you decide to ADD to the list, by all means please DO post with your comments as well.

           Eldon - you knew it was only a matter of time before i said the A word - aromatherapy oils! - they go right to the brain! 

[Eldon]

Hi Alex - NYC,


Aromatherapy: aro·ma·ther·a·py - noun - The use of volatile plant oils, including essential oils, for psychological and physical well-being.

A very good suggestion to ADD to the list.

Make the BEST of each Day!

[wellington]

• Without unhappiness, there could be no happiness!

Let's just hope that the balance is toward the latter.

[Eldon]

Actually Wellington, it is within YOU who control that balance.

If YOU should decide to be unhappy then that is the result you will get.

If YOU choose to be happy, then this is the result you will get.

True enough there are some circumstances that we cannot control. However, the decision resides within YOU on how YOU would choose to deal with the circumstance. A circumstance is merely a fork in the road of life and YOU choose the direction in which YOU will travel.


Make the BEST of each and every Day!

[wellington]

What I was getting at is that happiness is amplified when we have unhappy times.  It's not about control, for me; it's more about permission - to express a healthy range of emotion.  I just can't be June Cleaver every freaking day! 

[Mattinsrq]

it always makes me nervous when someone tries to verbalize evoking an emotion, and then gives advice to others.  A range of emotions is  what I strive for and I try to do that in as heathly a way as possible.  I try not to pretend my feelings don't matter by trying to diduse them through some deverionary outlet like sniffing oils or spending 5 hours on a tread mill.   For me, happiness comes from balance.   oh.. and sex