Self-Help Happiness Blog

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
- Albert Einstein

Anybody can look out at the world these days and see some that wild times are happening, with more on the way. We could have a very chaotic time in our near future.

And with the gigantic scale of events, many of us seem be crawling back into our turtle shells, trying to be safe from the melee storming outside the window. Others wail and protest, trying to wake up the sheep to our coming peril, like the proverbial Noah whilst building his ark.

The spiritual technique that switches things around.

So what SHOULD we do about it all? What if the wildest part was, just like Dorthy and her ruby slippers, we already have inside of us an inherent spiritual technique that can change the basic situation, but we never realized it before? Not to change the entire world immediately, but to shift perspectives, to let go of the methods and ways that we have been entrenched in, but were so ubiquitous, that it was like fish breathing water.

If we look around, even inside our own lives, haven’t most of been trained to think in ways that don’t serve us? Aren’t our habits rather ineffective? And aren’t most of us rather complacent, and try to make our lives as comfortable as possible? And because of this, if we WERE to try to follow the dictate from old Einstein, wouldn’t our efforts be more like simply flailing ourselves around?

The spiritual technique that inspires us.

Just sit back now, and imagine that you had a calling, a unique purpose that opened you up. Imagine that that was possible for you, and that you had a way to connect to it. That you had a way to KNOW what it was, and then you also had a way to know the best way to make it come alive in the world.

You might find that you have to take a moment now, to imagine this, but if you could, what would that feel like? Do any spiritual techniques or practices from past centuries or current times make us feel this way? Could anything be more motivational?

So now I must ask, for I want to get feedback from you, dear reader. Do you think it would be great to discover that we are all hardwired to connect to a higher source of wisdom and guidance, but that we didn’t know how to do it before? Do you think that it is possible, and then could you see the ways you’d like your life to change?

To help answer these questions, and to read the rest of the story, go to this link:
http://spiritualhealingmethods.com/a-new-spiritual-technique/

This is a guest post by Andrew James Batha of http://www.spiritualhealingmethods.com

To acquire happiness you don’t have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don’t you experience it? Because you’ve got to drop something. You’ve got to drop illusions. You don’t have to add anything in order to be happy; you’ve got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels! ~ Anthony De Mello

Happiness is an incidental happening when we are in harmony with life itself. It is something we become aware of whilst pursuing other things instead of pursuing happiness itself. Happiness will not stand still long enough for you to reach its destination. It will always be an elusive pursuit if you are looking to acquire its presence, it will always be the goal or project you cannot complete, it will always be hidden from you in plain sight, and it will always be lying on the grass on the other side of the fence if you believe the grass you lay on is not as bright, vivid, brilliant or intense.

Happiness is the thing you can never enjoy or appreciate if you think you have found it, because happiness is not anything you can find, it is a thing that finds you whilst you are looking for something else. May your happiness find you living in peace and harmony, dancing in the rain and sailing within the stormy seas of life itself.

“If you think sunshine brings you happiness, then you haven’t danced in the rain”

Being happy is not about whether we are alone or not. Truly happy people find their happiness within themselves, not in others. They may still prefer not to be alone, but do not measure their happiness by whether they are, or are not alone. Take some time out to get to know who you really are, whether that’s done through meditation, contemplation or facing your fears. If we want to BE ourselves we must know who we truly are.

I think life is wonderful because I decided to see it that way. I made the choice to see the world that way. We know life is nothing more, or less, than what we perceive it to be. What if we made a decision to see the good before the bad, the positive before the negative, the good seed in every bad situation, and the chance to grow with every obstacle we face?.. I believe anything can be achieved with enough practice.

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. - Groucho Marx

I write about a lot of things from personal development to natural health remedies. At the moment I’m writing reviews on baby products such as the Razor Rip Rider 360. If you are looking quality reviews, why not pop on over to the Razor Rip Rider website for the perfect gift for your little one.

For many people, the ancient Chinese study of Feng Shui seems shrouded in mystery. From “Chi” to the Ba Gua and its graceful yet impenetrable Chinese characters, many feel they have no hope of understanding how Feng Shui works, and give up on pursuing its many benefits.

But the power of Feng Shui lies not in what FengShui does, but in how the student of Feng Shui perceives his or her surroundings. In that sense, Feng Shui works not because it does something, but because its practitioners perceive aspects of surroundings that many people don’t perceive. Once the practitioner understands the surroundings, he or she consults the established texts and methods to determine how to alter that environment in an auspicious manner.

The practice of Feng Shui was developed in ancient times and has been carefully refined over the millennia. In the most ancient times, Feng Shui practitioners used knowledge of the stars and, later, the compass, to orient homes in propitious manner for the well-being of the occupants.

Often, this orientation took advantage of several benefits that, upon modest reflection, seem obvious: orienting the home to receive the most sunlight in the winter, or the greatest shade in the summer. However, in the modern world, few of us would recognize these benefits without and explicit effort to do so, so even on its simplest and most ancient level, Feng Shui provides what is for us a “new” understanding of our environment.

As ancient practitioners deepened their understanding of their natural surroundings, they developed what is now known as the “five elements theory.” The five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, are connected through and interact with “Chi.”

English translations regularly use the term “life force” as a translation for chi, but there is no term in English that captures the meaning of chi well – this may be one reason Feng Shui seems so mysterious to westerners. Chi is a vital element or an energy field that expresses or captures the relationship between the energy of living things and the energy of the inanimate world.

A last important concept underpinning Feng Shui is the concept of Yin/Yang. This concept is founded in the recognition that almost everything we can experience can have either a positive or a negative effect. Yin yang theory recognizes, in essence, that opposites cannot exist without each other, thus they are inseparable.

Feng Shui, in so far as it is used today, is used for two purposes. Both require analysis of the environment with respect to understanding the interaction of the five elements and chi, and balance with respect to yin and yang. First it is used, as it was in ancient times, to find the most auspicious site, portion of a site, or orientation of a building on a site. Second, and more commonly, it is used to maximize positive flow of energy and the best balance of opposing forces of yin and yang in a room, office, or home.

So, while Feng Shui may seem mysterious, the concepts that underlie it are ancient, tested again and again, and, often, easily understandable.

Michael Schnippering is the founder of Feng Shui at Work. He is committed to the true art and science of Feng Shui. Over the years his Feng Shui practice has taken him to various parts of the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Colombia and Argentina. If you’d like to learn more about Feng Shui, read Michael’ blog and follow him on Twitter @fengshuiatwork

…is a blank screen.  According to a 31-year study of 30,000 people, TV sucks.  My wife won’t want to hear this, because she is tired of hearing me lecture about how I would rather do things than watch others do things.  Of course, my idea of doing things is not always what the study says will bring most happiness, being somewhat of a hermit…

“TV doesn’t really seem to satisfy people over the long haul the way that social involvement or reading a newspaper does,” says University of Maryland sociologist John P. Robinson, the study co-author. “It’s more passive and may provide escape, especially when the news is as depressing as the economy itself. The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise.”

Robinson and his research team compared the activities of people who described themselves as happy with peeople who described themselves as unhappy.  The unhappy people watched 20 percent more television than the happy people.  Those who considered themselves to be happy were more likely to:

• be socially active
• attend more religious services
• vote
• read more.   

Interesting, the three articles I read on the study each quote different stats.  Geesh…sloppy journalism.  Here’s the original source:

http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/sociss/release.cfm?ArticleID=1789

Yes, it appears that God is good for children, too. 

We have known for a long time that faith and spirituality is good for one’s happiness.  But that has always been something tested on adults.  Well, some clever researchers have tried to measure whether spirituality is also good for children.  It turns out that spirituality has three times the effect on children that it does on adults.  You can read more about the child spirituality survey here.

Let me share a little story with you.  I have two daughters.  Little Lady is a little overweight.  Not surprising, as she loves to eat.  As a result, we try to curtail her eating somewhat.  You might describe our message to her as, “Thou shalt measure thyself when eating.”

Little sister was hard to feed as a baby, and although she is no longer underweight, we still put an effort into ensuring she eats enough, especially of fruits and vegetables.  You might describe our message to her as, “Thou shalt eat in abundance.”

These are two different messages directed at two different children for two different reasons.  Often, Little Sister will leave food on her plate, and we try to coax her to eat a little more.  Little Lady, having scraped her own plate clean, wants to eat up what Little Sister leaves behind.  But our message for Little Sister to eat it is not a message for Little Lady to eat it.

Our children receive different messages for a reason, even though neither of them fully understands the reasons or wants to understand the reasons.

This brings me to some feedback I received recently from my Daily Dose of Happiness:

Happy guy  I want to ask you something are you a christian . DO you believe in Jesus. I really like your help but I ‘m learie 

My reply was:

It just so happens that I am a Christian.  Like most people, I was born into my faith, and I am most comfortable with it.  My words, however, are for all God’s children, regardless of how God has chosen to communicate with them.  I hope he is communicating to some of them, however they practice their spirituality, through me.  :-) 

Sometimes people get so wrapped up in their faith, that they become blind to all of God’s other messages.  Sometimes they forget that what their faith is about is God, and God is not confined to any faith system.  Sometimes they forget that people of other faiths might also be brothers and sisters with the same parents, but receiving different messages through other faith systems.

Let us all embrace each other and revel in the miracle of life that we have been given, however we receive God’s message.

Here is a little something from Jagad Guru Chris Butler:

“In his book Small Is Beautiful, noted British economist E. F. Schumacher wrote:

Insights of wisdom … enable us to see the hollowness and fundamental unsatisfactoriness of a life devoted primarily to the pursuit of material ends, to the neglect of the spiritual. Such a life necessarily sets man against man and nation against nation, because man’s needs are infinite and infinitude can be achieved only in the spiritual realm, never in the material.*  

It is a fact that no matter how much sense gratification a person gets, he will never be satisfied. Material food, material things, material sense gratification cannot satisfy the atma (spirit soul). Just as the body needs material food, so the spirit soul needs spiritual food. To try to satisfy one’s spiritual craving with material things leads to endless consumption, greed, envy, violence, and war. Western people have as much sense gratification as one could ever want, yet they are not satisfied. Why? Because they are spiritually empty.”

Jagad Guru Chris Butler – wisdom in daily life 

© 2007 Science of Identity Foundation

* E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 38