Life is crazy isn’t it? And sometimes being happy and content just seems impossible. Life is hard, long, and at times painful. But the good news is that it is possible to find joy and be happy. It really is. Here are a few tips that can change your dreary day into sunshine and smiles. And you can make that happen.
• Realize that rain falls. When you accept that life will and does get tough and sometimes for entire season you can smile. Sure ,what you are experiencing may be really painful and even difficult, but those very things can help you grow. Know that this life will be filled with hard things but strive to overcome them and look for the light on the other side. You really can smile even in a thunder storm. Remember that things don’t stay the same and seek to learn all you can about yourself and other people when life hurts and feels unfair.
• Smile at a stranger. Take the time to care about other people. Even people you don’t know. It really is true that even small things like smiling are not only helpful. They are contagious. Be kind to the grumpy salesperson, let the rude driver pass you and buy a coffee for the person you don’t even know. Why? Just because you can. Make the world a better place.
• Forgive and move on. Most of us carry around hurts from the past. Some are huge and some go way back into our childhood. But guess what? You gotta move on. Don’t dwell on the past. You don’t have to forget or give up boundaries to protect yourself from an unhealthy relationship but letting go and forgiving can do wonders to your heart. Realize all the wrong and hurt you have caused, yes maybe even back in elementary school. Give grace to people and let yourself heal and grow by forgiving.
• Slow down. We all move way too fast in life. Sure there is a lot to see and many responsibilities but busyness steals away from the simple joys of life. Take time to visit that grandparent, pick up the phone and call a friend you miss. Pause and see the new flowers budding in the middle of the city. Open a door for someone or simply slow down when walking to your next destination. Cancel meetings that don’t need to happen, hug that little one that is changing by the minute, sip your coffee and quit making your schedule so full. Enjoy the time you have been given. Life moves fast. Don’t miss it. You know there are no dress rehearsals so get it right the first time.
• Be grateful for where you are at. Even if you are in a terrible divorce, have been wronged by a boss, or are grieving a major loss, seek to find the good. It may feel impossible and against what you want to do but you can choose to focus on the positive. Even in the worst of situations there are things to be grateful for. How about a healthy child? Food to eat? A family or even one person who loves you? Be happy and thankful for the big and small things you have in life. If you focus on what isn’t or what you don’t have you will only make life exasperating and no fun. Each day seek to focus on what you have to be grateful for. In fact, why not make a journal. You can do that right now. List all you can rejoice about. It may be as simple as a new bloom on a flower, or a hot shower, but even these little things will help your heart enjoy the life you have been given.
Try these things and see that happiness is right in front of you!
This is a guest post by Diane Johnson, who primarily writes about online classes and anything else that interests her. She enjoys traveling, reading, and sports.
A new study published in the April issue of the Journal Of Happiness Studies reveals that Americans who work harder tend to be happier. The “Protestant work ethic” is alive and well – and making people happy – in America.
Americans tend to be like Doozers:
Work you cares away, Dancing’s for another day. Let the Fraggles play, Down at Fraggle Rock.
In Europe, the story is completely different. Europeans are happiest working shorter hours.
Europeans tend to be like faggles:
Dance your cares away, Worry’s for another day. Let the music play, Down at Fraggle Rock.
“Those who work longer hours in Europe are less happy than those who work shorter hours, but in the U.S. it’s the other way around,” study author Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn says. It seems that Americans are happiest working and building
The researchers speculate that happiness has less to do with actual hours spent working on each continent than about how people on either side of the ocean view success. The “American Dream” is about how anybody can make it big if they just work hard enough. Europeans seem to focus more on “quality of life”.
Not surprisingly, Europeans are surprised by the results of this study. The UK’s Daily Mail says it all in it’s headline: “America’s bizarre secret to happiness: More work”.
So what contributes to your happiness more – work or off-time?
Every person in their life at some stage or another experience lots of worries. It could arrive by death for a loved one, money problems or probably a romantic relationship. Everybody on this planet experiences grief many times more than. What we need to understand is that grief is a regular part of our existence, and is something that you can’t avoid of. It’s normal for us to attempt and steer away from the emotions of grief as we generally don’t know how to cope with it.
Their are a several points that we ought to take into consideration when confronted with any form of grief. Down below, I have detailed these points for you to think about on how to cope with grief. This is a short stage procedure for anybody to adhere to:
Basically, we should accept what causes us the individual grief we are going through. Accepting the truth that we are encountering grief instead of denial brings us nearer to coping with grief.
We should analyze our actions and ideas and arrive to a last conclusion, regardless of whether we contributed to the grieving in one particular type or the other.
Lastly, as soon as we have analyzed all other crucial points, we then must begin the process of overcoming our grief since their isn’t a magical method to treat grief immediately. Like something in existence, issues want time.
With grief comes sadness; and sadness leads to discomfort, mentally and physically. These are some of the issues that accompany grief which sadly can’t be prevented for some, the best we can do is discover a way to soothe the process and move on with our lives. Usually keep in mind you are not by yourself, and whether you believe it or not time is the greatest healing that you could manage your self. Start with the crucial process and create down points on a daily foundation that lead you to the feeling of grief, sadness, regret and so forth, then perform on creating small adjustments to reverse these emotions one particular stage at a time.
Being happy and achieving true happiness does not rely upon how much wealth you have, how successful you are and how famous you might be. It can’t even be acquired through money and getting all of the things we want. Perhaps at first, we could get in our mind that we can be happy if we get almost everything that we wanted. But then later on, we realize that these can’t make us happy. We just wanted them, and happiness is not a want but rather it is a need. We don’t want happiness, we simply need it.
For you to be happy, being the real you is all it takes. No one gets true happiness by putting the mask on and getting to play the clown. Instead, just by smiling through the crowd and revealing the real you is how it is being made possible. In order for us to be happy, we must be focused in our goals in life. We must know ourselves. Know the things which makes us happy and then set them up to your ideals. The next thing to do would be to organize your plans in life. Arrange the things you need in the right order so that it would be easy for you to come up with the most important one. The other thing is being a positive thinker. Almost all of us know the power of positive thinking. Make use of it to make yourself happy.
If you are quite discontented with what you are right now, relax, empty your mind and say to yourself, “Am I really happy?” If you think you are not, then start it right away…
I would like to introduce you to Fang Li Yun, a 52-year-old Malaysian pharmacist of 24 years. She is part of what they call the “Funny Action” project, which helps people learn to laugh and to smile even when there is no good news to smile about.
Like so many other people, Fang Li Yun thought happiness would follow her income, and as a pharmacist she was making good money.
But in 2006 she discovered clowning and discovered there was more happiness to be achieved. This lead to a mission or pilgrimage of sorts with Hunter Doherty “Patch Adams” and a group of thirty other people from various countries to Mexico last year. Together they visited patients, the homeless, the elderly, shut-ins and HIV-infected people while dressed in their best clown attire
What made the biggest difference? In 2008, a friend of hers who was president of a breast cancer support group, asked her this question: “The happiness a clown brings to people is only momentary. How are you going to make the happiness last?”
Now she teaches people how to laugh: “Everyone is born with the ability to laugh. Laughter is the best medicine and an effective way of fighting illnesses. Based on statistics, babies can laugh up to 400-500 times a day, while adults laugh an average of only 14 to 15 times a day.”
Fringe benefits of clowning around include increased self-confidence and reduced stress. Fang Li Yun discovered that whenever she focuses on making other people happy, she also experiences a surge of joy and forgets all her worries and cares.
Have you seen this Facebook app to support the positive psychology exercise “Three Good Things”? Participants in this exercise record Three Good Things, and the reasons why they happen, every day. There are some other versions of this exercise out there (including an iPhone app and one on happier.com), but this is a way to make these exercises more effective using social interaction.
This one is for all the parents and soon-to-be parents reading…
Parenting is pure happiness.
Full of mumminess and pappiness
You jump for joy
When you hear “It’s a boy”
And the room is filled with clappiness
Feel free to add your own limericks to complete the story. Let’s see how creative you can be. After all, what follows are sleepless nights, first steps, birthday parties, ballet lessons and hockey games..
As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog post on dying to be happy, I thought I would share with you the lyrics from Tim McGraw’s song, “Live Like You Were Dying”, which just played on Y101 A few minutes ago.
He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how’s it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what’d you do
and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn�t
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn’t such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I’d do if I could do it all again
and then
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
what’d you do with it what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it?
Sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
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• Realize that rain falls. When you accept that life will and does get tough and sometimes for entire season you can smile. Sure ,what you are experiencing may be really painful and even difficult, but those very things can help you grow. Know that this life will be filled with hard things but strive to overcome them and look for the light on the other side. You really can smile even in a thunder storm. Remember that things don’t stay the same and seek to learn all you can about yourself and other people when life hurts and feels unfair.
