Giving Attention To Happiness

When I left England in 2000 there did not seem to be much happiness around. People in modern western society tend to be self focused to the extreme, prone to criticise rather than support or applaud, and with little time or inclination to devote to others. Relationships can be a battleground rather than a haven of mutual support. Thinking about it now, I did not know anyone who I could say was really happy. I was acquainted with a few who might have been in a state of happiness, but I did not know them well enough to be sure.

I think by nature I am a basically happy person, but modern life and attitudes can have a way of pummeling that out of you. When you are surrounded by unhappy, discontented people who are devoted to chasing the shadows of pure materialism, then it is going to affect you. People lose touch with what happiness is, and may even be dismissive if they sense that someone might actually be happy.

Happiness is no longer a natural state of being in Western society, and to those who have lost touch with what happiness is, a process of re-education may be needed. Here are a few things that may help you in that process:

1. Give time and focus to the things in your life that can make you happy; how can you be happy if you do not know what will make you happy?

2. Give time and attention to making those around you happy. If any of them are habitually self pitying and miserable, with no good reason, then maybe they should not have a place in your world.

3. Give time and attention to eliminating those elements of your life that are dragging you into the unhappiness mire. Pinpoint them, and then set about methodically either removing them or diminishing their influence.

4. Vow never to be jealous. If you see somebody else who seems happy and elated, feed positively off that happiness aura, and do not mutter such negative responses as "oh, it's alright for her, she doesn't have my problems." Reprimand yourself if ever you feel a twinge of jealousy.

5. If you find an element of your life that brings you happiness, remind yourself about it regularly. Feed it, let it grow. Never, ever take it for granted. Give the happiness itself attention, and it will burrow more deeply into your being.

I will now test you on number 4. I am very happy, and have been for a few years now. I have all I need of a non-material nature: a wonderful wife; a beautiful and joyous 17 month old daughter; the ability to work online from home doing as I please; life on a magnificent tropical island that fulfils a childhood dream; and living amongst people of a generally happy disposition. All those things come together to give me as close to a perfect life I could have dared thought possible.

I say that not to arouse envy, but to get you to think: happiness is still possible, and should be celebrated, whoever the one who has the benefit. If you are not already doing so, you could soon be the one spreading that aura of happiness; but it needs your attention, piece by piece.

Finding Your Happiness

Research has identified a number of attributes that correlate with happiness: relationships and social interaction, extraversion, marital status, employment, health, democratic freedom, optimism, religious involvement, income and proximity to other happy people. Moreover, the structure of the social network appeared to have an impact on happiness, as people who were very central with many friends and friends of friends were significantly more likely to be happy than those on the periphery of the network. Albert Camus: You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. Be Happy University of Pennsylvania's Martin Seligman offers questionnaires for assessing your happiness, beating depression and developing insights into how to be happier on his web site.

He observed that men sought riches not for the sake of being rich, but to be happy although the term we translate as 'happiness' in Aristotle cannot be adequately defined as either an emotion or a state. Happiness Find out how to beat stress and take control of your mood with our simple and easy tips to get happy. Why we're Happy Research suggests the key to happiness is a life that reflects values and practices like faith, hard work, charity and freedom. Happiness People are happy when they are "in control", that is, when they feel competent to satisfy their needs and reach their goals. Now, some people argue with the term "happiness" and maintain that it's not possible to be "happy " But even people who can't agree on what it means to be "happy" can agree that most people can be "happier ".

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us " -. Wikipedia "Happy" and "Happily" redirect here. For other uses, see happy disambiguation. He observed that men sought riches, or honor, or health not only for their own sake but also in order to be happy. The happy person is virtuous, meaning they have outstanding abilities and emotional tendencies which allow him or her to fulfill our common human ends. Abraham Lincoln: Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be -. Albert Schweitzer: I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to. Anne Frank: We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. Anne Frank: The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy - because we will always want to have something else or something more. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. Carl Jung: Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Charles Schulz: My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. Edith Wharton: If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time. The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind. Eric Hoofer: You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy. Fran Leibowitz: Remember that as a teenager you are in the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear the phone is for you. The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy. It must come from within It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be ". Interestingly his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately happy, not unhappy. For Americans, the happy or ideal life is sometimes referred to as the. From the observation that fish must become happy by swimming, and birds must become happy by flying, Find out how to beat stress and take control of your mood with our simple and easy tips to get happy.

How to Be Successful & Happy

Life Is Not A Race To Be Won; It Is A Journey To Be Enjoyed.

What is success? What is happiness? Are they one and the same, or do they differ? Most equate happiness with success. Others, although they may have accomplished many of the things they set out to do, still are not happy. They have achieved their goals, but without happiness what good has it done them?

People are not searching for success. There are thousands of books on success - all containing steps, formulas, and techniques on how to succeed. Many are great books, but much of what they teach doesn't bring happiness to a person's life. People want to be happy. Happiness isn't a gift God gives to some and refuses to give to others. You can be happy. In fact, you have a right to be happy.

Are you happy?

Let me ask you, do you think all happy people are successful? Are all successful people happy? Interesting questions, aren't they? They are difficult to answer. How you define success and happiness determines how you answer.

What Society Would Have You Believe:

Society would have us believe that happiness is what we have, not who we are. You probably have heard people say things like, "I would be happy if I had a million dollars," "...owned a yacht," "...lived in a mansion," or "...drove an expensive car." Sure, it is possible to have these things and still be happy, but these material possessions do not produce happiness.

Ask the wife who has all the jewelry and all the clothes she could ever imagine who discovers that her husband is cheating on her. Is she happy? Certainly not! Ask the celebrity who supposedly has it all, but winds up in the mental institution. Is she happy? Although someone may have all the money, cars, houses, and toys one could ever want, that does not mean they are happy. Life is more than achieving your personal goals and acquiring material possessions. True happiness is the direct result of knowing your purpose and making forward progress toward its fulfillment. Without purpose, life is meaningless and ultimately very dissatisfying.

How To Choose Happiness

Welcome to Spirituality Inside and Out and the Daily Universal Insights.

We welcome the whole world into this community as One, as we connect people to people to create Oneness.

I love you. I love you. I love you. FOR WE ARE ALL ONE.

Bless you.

Happiness is a Blessing. Go for the Blessing.

How to Choose Happiness

Here are words of wisdom that you shall never forget. Are you ready?

"Simply choose Happiness."

Wow! What a revelation.

Wouldn't be great if we were taught as children to simply choose Happiness?

Can you imagine what the world would be like?

Can you imagine how each human being would act and behave?

Can you imagine the Peace and Joy around the world?

Can you imagine anger, hatred, resentment, frustration, repression and de-pression in the past as Happiness takes over the world?

Can you imagine the children always being Happy as children, teenagers and as adults?

Can you imagine the world leaders sitting around and chatting with Happiness as Happiness?

Can you imagine yourself Happy?

Do you want to be Happy?

Is anyone stopping you? You know, saying words such as: "You are Not allowed to be Happy".

Do you stop yourself from being Happy?

Do you know what Happiness Is?

Do you care to take time out and inquire as to what you can do to create Happiness within you?

Do you depend on people to be Happy or to make you feel Happy?

Are you willing to choose Happiness and break the cycle of Unhappiness?

Are you familiar with the Power of Choice? Well you are Now.

You and I and all always have choice. This is a given. And in fact we all assume that we have choice and yet we always pretend that we don't. Why? Do we feel that if we choose then we are responsible for our choices and actions? How wonderful it is to know that we are responsible for our choices. This means that we have chosen by our own free will. This is Power. And this Power is a Gift from God to Create Goodness and Oneness inside and out.

Happiness is a Blessing.

Let us all choose Happiness as we awaken and as we sleep.

Let us choose Happiness in our daily activities.

Let us choose Happiness with our Loved ones and with all.

Let us choose Happiness continuously and consistently and reap the benefits with the support of the Universe.

You see when we choose something, anything, then the Universe responds. The radio waves within our unconscious minds send out vibrations and these vibrations are answered with like vibrations and creation takes place. Creation such as Happiness. One way or another the Universe will and does support your choice and desire to create Happiness.

Keep the momentum going. Keep the thoughts of Happiness going. Never ever quit. Do Not allow petty fights, arguments and disappointments to dis-empower you. You have the Power to dis-empower the unwanted circumstances and issues in your life.

Choose Happiness over despair, sorrow and grief.

Choose Happiness over anger and hate.

Choose Happiness over sadness and envy.

Choose Happiness over loneliness.

Choose Happiness over revenge.

Choose Happiness and Happiness will Happily choose you. For you are truly worthy and deserving of living this life as a Happy life.

What is it that we are so afraid of? Why won't we let go?

A shark cannot rest, it cannot stop swimming or it will die, it will drown.

Humanity seems to be acting in the same manner. It is though we are running for our lives. We are being chased and if we stop we will die.

There is an urgency to get somewhere, anywhere, and we do not know what to look for or where, but it is always out there, somewhere.

Unknowingly we have left the place that we are looking for. From the inner peace that we experienced so long ago as children and as the person we once were. We seem to have lost our way and are running just for the sake of running. It is as though we are in a cattle stampede. One starts running and we are following blindly.

What happened to the peace, the serenity and joy of just being, what happened to our innocence? Somewhere along the way we believe that we have lost it, and that we cannot have it again. Someone told us to run and we haven't stopped.

The industrial revolution has pushed us forward in a frenzy to acquire things, the latest is always best, always desirable and it is the carrot that moves us beyond our means, away from what we really desire.

It has taken us away from our natural ability to be at peace, to be happy and content. 'Things,' have promised us happiness, but we do not feel happy when we have them. There is always a promise of happiness but never delivery. Things may be symbols of our happiness but they do not bring the promise with them, because there is another thing dancing in the shadows, calling to us, beckoning, luring us from one thing to another.

We are so far gone that we now believe that we cannot be happy unless we have a thing. We have forgotten how to be happy naturally without being stimulated. We have been told that we cannot go backwards; we cannot go back to the way it was before because we would not have our things.

This is one of the greatest lies that have been passed on from one generation to another. Happiness is where you find it we are told, and this is absolute true if we understand that we can find happiness anywhere if we are happy first. The thought of being happy brings happiness into our lives. Happiness comes from within and is not put upon us by things.

Unhappiness is created from the thought that we need something to be happy and this unhappiness comes from the very things that we are depending on to bring us happiness.

If illness, accidents, sorrow, suffering, lack and loneliness comes from an error in thought, then only the thought has to be changed in order to achieve the happiness, and once our basic needs are met, there is only room for happiness. When thoughts turn towards wants then they turn away from comforting human emotion, natural love, joy, pleasure, contentment and belonging. The simpler life is the closest we get to true happiness, because we become focused on it, it is what we think about and all thought becomes manifested in our experience.

"I can't go back, I won't, I worked too hard to get where I am and what I have; I won't live in a cave.

If all we really want is to be happy, why would we not live in a cave and live simply if it brings us back to happy. If we are heading in a direction that leads away from happiness, why do we keep going there? Is it that we are happy to be unhappy or that happiness does not really exist except in our thoughts? Is it that we believe that happiness does not last, so why pursue it? What is it that we do with the butterfly once we catch it? Is the happiness found in catching the butterfly or letting it go once we have been there, or is it both? Can we experience happiness without experiencing all its opposites? Is the joy of letting go a precept in experiencing happiness once we have found it? Must we turn away from happiness so that we may find it later? If we are happy and remain that way, will we forget what it means to be happy?

All of our experiences are this way, they are cyclical, and we cannot know what we have or experience it until we no longer have it. We must move away from it so that we can come back to it. So if living our complicated lives is not bringing the happiness that we choose, is it because we forgot what it is or are we now ready to return to it?

Is it that we are running from something or is it that we are now running towards it? The trip will stop when we know that we already have what we desire, we simply need to choose it. Happiness, joy, fulfillment, belonging are things that we do not have to look for. They are what we are naturally and we simply have moved our thoughts away from them.

Our things, our toys are symbols, but they are not symbols of happiness, they are symbols of trying to be happy. They are symbols that we have moved away from what we already have, what we know. In trying to make our lives easier so that we have "time," to be happy and enjoy our lives we have created less time to be happy. Happy is scheduled for events and things and then we are too tired. To numb our loss of the sense of happiness we drug ourselves so that we don't have to feel anything.

The truth is and always has been that we can be happy without "things," or doing anything. The sacrifice is that we have to give up on the notion that we need anything and we must be prepared to give up things that do not demonstrate our happiness. Happiness comes as quickly as thinking about it. Be happy first then go out and do things that represent happy to you. Happiness comes in the silent moments between events, when there is nothing left to do, when we have given up on finding it, and when we have done everything else. When we have given up on the notion that we have to find it, it finds us.

I don't know anyone that is happy all the time or even most of the time. I think happiness must be dessert. We have to go through the main course to find it. If dessert was the main course we would still move away from it once we had finished or had enough of it.

I believe that we can be happy all the time, but not experience it. As we get involved in doing the happy things we forget that we are happy until it enters our mind that we are happy. Too much happiness or dessert becomes irritating and mundane, like sex, you got to move away from it in order to appreciate it and be grateful for the times that you are experiencing it.

An emotion that comes from happiness is contentment, which is not as intense. But even contentment as happiness must be recycled. Life without extremes is none life. Life moves in waves and begins on the edge of all our emotions. Once you hand gets used to being in warm water, it is no longer appreciated as warm until you pull it out.

Once we let go of the thought that we will not longer experience happiness, then we will have time to focus on simply experiencing this emotion and it will be drawn into our lives. We won't have to do things to find it. Stop running, move away from the crowd, simplify your life become aware of your environment, learn to appreciate what is already around you and happiness will enter your thoughts always. Find the beauty in the simple rock, a blade of grass, or the people around you. You have created them, they are your wonders, and you brought them to you as opportunities to experience happiness.