Click here for happiness!

[Geoff-Allen]

Greetings everybody.

Hope you are all well!

I found this blog at a psych site recently.

Some good tips and like anything - the more you practice the more "natural" it becomes - like learning to ride a bike or a new language or play the piano etc etc etc ...

Here is a little taste -

People often ask me: "What can I do to boost my happiness?"

I tell them that there are tons of things you can do, but then I can only recall a handful of practices in the moment. So I decided to create this complete guide for how to be happy, according to science. If you use these 23 practices consistently, you are very likely to increase your personal happiness:

1. Find out what to do first.
How are you supposed to build the right happiness skills if you don't know which ones you are struggling with in the first place? This is why it's helpful to take a quiz to explore your happiness strengths and weaknesses. Get a better understanding of what these skills are all about, and learn how to improve upon your weaknesses and build your "happiness strengths."

Most of the links in the text are to the Berkeley Well-Being Institute.

For the other 22 tips click here -

How to Be Happy: 23 Ways to Be Happier

The rest of the blog is worth a look as well - if you have the time & inclination

All the best!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Another article at that site -

Self-awareness involves monitoring our inner worlds, thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. It is important, because it’s a major mechanism influencing personal development. After spending the last year researching and writing my new book, Outsmart Your Smartphone: Conscious Tech Habits for Finding Happiness, Balance, and Connection IRL, I've learned that our lives can get out-of-control pretty fast if we are unaware of how and under what circumstances our emotional nature is triggered (for example, we might not realize how much social media upset us).

Read the rest -

What Is Self-Awareness, and How Do You Get It?

Enjoy!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Continuing the theme - happiness myths?

Nearly all of us buy into what I call the myths of happiness—beliefs that certain adult achievements (marriage, kids, jobs, wealth) will make us forever happy and that certain adult failures or adversities (health problems, divorce, financial struggles) will make us forever unhappy. Overwhelming research, however, reveals that there is no magic formula for happiness and no sure course toward misery. Rather than bringing lasting happiness or misery in themselves, major life moments and crisis points can be opportunities for renewal, growth, or meaningful change. It's how you greet these moments that really matters:

For full article & blog try this link -

7 Myths About Happiness We Need to Stop Believing

All the best!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Here's another list of myths -

“One of the pervasive myths about happiness is that it is linear,” says psychologist Rachel Tomlinson, founder of Toward Wellbeing. This is the idea that if you just continue on the right path, you will become happier and happier over time. But, Tomlinson urges, “This isn’t the case!”

There’s no sure path to finding happiness, and certainly none based on some idea of “doing the ‘right thing,'” she explains.

For the rest of this site -

20 Biggest Myths About Happiness | Best Life

All the best!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Philosophers, researchers, spiritual leaders—they’ve all debated what makes life worth living. Is it a life filled with happiness or a life filled with purpose and meaning? Is there even a difference between the two?

Think of the human rights activist who fights oppression but ends up in prison—is she happy? Or the social animal who spends his nights (and some days) jumping from party to party—is that the good life?

These aren’t just academic questions. They can help us determine where we should invest our energy to lead the life we want.

For more of this article see the Greater Good site -

Is a Happy Life Different from a Meaningful One?

Enjoy your day!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Please feel perfectly free to add your own tips/experiences/thoughts/doubts/ideas etc etc

 

[Geoff-Allen]

The field of Positive Psychology has made it clear that enhancing happiness is not about turning your frown upside down or ignoring life’s disappointments. And it’s not about trying to feel happy when you don’t. Rather, it’s about taking daily actions that shift some of your core behaviors and attitudes over time. Here are three simple places you can start:

Develop Your Strengths: Each of us has a set of core strengths that can serve as a foundation for building happiness in life. By identifying and claiming your strengths (as opposed to just obsessing about your wants and weaknesses), you’ll experience more success and satisfaction in bringing them to bear on your work, activities and relationships. To get started, you can take a free, detailed 20-minute test called the VIA Inventory of Signature Strengths at www.viasurvey.org.

For the full - and I do mean FULL article -

https://experiencelife.com/article/5-ways-to-practice-happiness/

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Happiness looks different for everyone. For you, maybe it’s being at peace with who you are. Or having a secure network of friends who accept you unconditionally. Or the freedom to pursue your deepest dreams.

Regardless of your version of true happiness, living a happier, more satisfied life is within reach. A few tweaks to your regular habits can help you get there.

Habits matter. If you’ve ever tried breaking a bad habit, you know all too well how engrained they are.

Well, good habits are deeply engrained, too. Why not work on making positive habits part of your routine?

For the full article -

How to Be Happy: 25 Habits to Help You Live a Happier Life

Enjoy!

 

[MonkeyFire]

Our own feelings are determined by our own actions. The secret to happiness is omnipresent pacifism, and the seceret of that is self defense by equanimity... without breaking peace.

 

[Thief]

Our own feelings are determined by our own actions.

not buying that

my fellowman is suffering
and misery loves company

and the world is miserable as we kick at each other

end world misery?.....maybe Thanos was right
(Avenger movie)

but yeah
I AM!...….happy

and the world can kiss my butt

 

[Geoff-Allen]

From the happiest man on earth -

Five tips from the 'happiest man'

 

[Geoff-Allen]

I don't know about you but I have not met too many people that are consistently happy. Life is full of ups and downs, times of elation and deep peace and times of loss and difficult challenge. There are so many things we don't want: the pile of bills on the desk, the extra weight, the long commute, the difficult boss, the cold winter, the dishes that always have to be done, etc. The list goes on and extends even to the tendencies in ourselves: the self-judgement, the procrastination, the perfectionism etc.

All these irritations in life are like one of those children's big punching balloons with the weight at the bottom and the perverse smile. The more we push it away and punch it the more it keeps popping back up. We hope that by ignoring or pushing aside all these undesirable conditions that they will go away. In most cases they don't. They keep coming back.

For the full article -

4 Things to Know to Accept the Unacceptable in Yourself and Life | blog

Forgot which google search that came from ... maybe Spiritual awakening can be very confusing ...

Enjoy!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Gratitude is a key to feeling happier -

Here is one article at Tiny Buddha ...

The Secret to Happiness: 5 Tips to Feel More Grateful and Blissful

Also check-out their menus!

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

“Easy does it”

This slogan is beloved by at least millions of people as a reminder that we can be gentle with ourselves as we look to transform challenging circumstances. It applies equally to the adventure of making your own happiness and magnifying it.

Happy all the time might not be the right goal for you. The Dalai Lama frequently instigates laughter-induced happiness and follows up with a call to compassion, a call to action that recognizes the truth of suffering in our shared human existence.

You can create your own happiness, and the full spectrum of your personality, your life’s work/adventures/struggles, and your community can help magnify and multiply authentic joy.

More of this article - here - it is a longer-than-average webpage

How to Make Yourself Happy - UpJourney

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Me again ...

How Highly Sensitive People Can Shield Themselves from Negativity

Feelings can be contagious. The highly sensitive person, also known as an empath, is no stranger to catching the feelings of others. They are very perceptive of the emotions and underlying motivations of others. They have a keen intuition and have probably been referred to as “too sensitive” before.

Because they process so much sensory information in their environment, they tend to become overstimulated and stressed out.* Much like an introvert, they need restorative downtime, time away from the sometimes negative energy of others. But what about stopping this process before it gets you down? What about selecting the emotions we want to process and not contracting the ones we don’t?

Full article at this site -

How Highly Sensitive People Can Shield Themselves from Negativity

Enjoy!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Life can be frustrating. Things don’t always go according to plan.

People let you down, your loved ones seem insufficiently appreciative, the future seems uncertain, demands pile up, and stress invades your life.

You start to beat yourself up over mistakes. You might even start to question if you are worthy of love. Life loses its shine.

You’re not alone. Hundreds of millions of people feel this way. But pause for a little while to consider this story.

Full article at Tiny Buddha -

28 Ways We Sabotage Our Happiness (And How to Stop)

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Some more tips for accentuating the positive:

Don’t judge yourself. Everyone has lots of unhappy and negative thoughts throughout the day. As you become more aware of them you might feel embarrassed or ashamed about how many you have. Don’t worry: it is perfectly normal to have all sorts of strange thoughts. We usually don’t pay so much attention to them.

Combine this task with smiling. Force a smile on your face as you bring your happy thought to your mind. This will help erase the effects of the negative thoughts.

Be sure to remind yourself to do this task throughout the day. Don’t let a day go by without engaging with your negative thoughts and substituting positive ones.

This will give you even more practice at being positive and happy.

For more tips -

How to Accentuate Positive Aspects and Minimize the Negative

Enjoy your day!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

This article is from Tiny Buddha ...

The problem with happiness is that no one really knows exactly what it is. It’s intangible, even a little mysterious, yet still we all want to be happy. But trying to be happy is like trying to get to sleep; the harder you try, the less likely it is to happen.

So four years ago, on New Years Eve, I made the pledge to myself to stop trying to be happy.

Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t miserable. I was just spending too much time thinking about whether or not I was happy—even though neither I, nor anyone I knew really, could give a clear answer about what this meant.

So instead of saying to myself, This year I’m going to be happy, I said, This year I’m going to try new things. I’m going to meet new people. I’m going to go to new places. I’m going to push myself out of my comfort zone.

And if I’m not happy, well, I’m not happy, but at least I’ve had some interesting experiences.

To read more -

Stop Chasing Happiness: 17 Alternative Ways to Live a Great Life

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Iris Mauss, now at the University of California, Berkeley, was one of the first psychologists to explore the idea scientifically.

She says she was inspired by the sheer volume of self-help books that have been published in the US in last couple of decades, many of which presented happiness as the sine qua non of existence. “Wherever you look, you see books about how happiness is good for you, and how you basically should make yourself happier, almost as a duty,” she says. But are those volumes only setting people up for disappointment?

“People might set very high standards for their own happiness as a function of this – they may think they should be happy all the time, or extremely happy, and that can set people up to feel disappointed with themselves, that they fall short – and that could have these self-defeating effects.”

More details here -

Why the quickest route to happiness may be to do nothing

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Stop comparing yourself with others -

You know it already.

You know you shouldn’t compare yourself to others. Yet, that’s often easier said than done.

Job title, income, grades, house, and Facebook likes—the number of categories in which we can compare ourselves to others are infinite. So is the number of people we can compare ourselves to.

Comparison is generally the fast track to unhappiness. It’s a recipe for misery. All it does is keeping you focused on what you don’t like about yourself and your life.

Full list here -

13 Things to Do Instead of Comparing Yourself to Others