Archive for the ‘Holiday’ Category

Happy Holidays In Hard Times

HolidayHappiness_1224210-01Holidays can be happy even when you are experiencing personal losses and difficult times!

Here are ways to make your holidays joyous during difficult times.

(For more ideas see Holiday Happiness In Hard Times and Happiness Hints for the Holidays 2 and Happiness Hints for the Holidays 1 )

Love Expansively – Love propels happiness in all circumstances, it is especially important during difficult times.

In hard times we may forget to Love because we are so concerned about other things.  This is the time when we need Love the most – both to give Love and receive it!

The happiest people are always the most loving people: they love the people around them, they love what they do, they love their work and they love themselves.

If you have ever been to a third world country where people have little materially but great joy you know the truth of this statement.  Learn from them and do what they do.

Love is something we can grow, loving is something we can decide to do.  Wherever love is limited or lacking there is no happiness.

One of the greatest holiday gifts we can give good times or bad is simply setting a loving, positive, joyous tone that embraces all the good things and the people around us.

To be happy in good times or bad, love expansively and extensively.

Resolve to have a fun and festive Happiness Habit Holiday despite what may be happening.

Here are more Happiness Habits that can brighten your holiday:

Be Guided By Goodness –  Doing Good Helps You To Feel Good

Savor, Enjoy and Appreciate all the good things that do come into your life.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up!

Avoid the Fault Finding Feel Goods and Eliminate All UnNecessary Negativity.

Rebel Against Bad Feelings – Refuse to let bad events drag you down or interfere with your holiday joy.

Expect To Enjoy Everything You Do and then Find Ways To Make What You Do Meaningful and Enjoyable.

Want even more ideas for a happy holiday? See Creating-Happiness.com

Wishing you very happy holidays,

Michele Moore and the
Happiness Habit Team

Holiday Happiness In Hard Times

Holidays can be extraordinarily happy even when you are experiencing hard times.  Here’s how to enjoy the holidays when you are hurting.

Be Honest About Where You Are, Decide To Be Deliberately Different – Consciously deciding to change and do things differently helps cut painful connections with the past.  Different can be very delightful, deliberately deciding to do things differently can be very liberating.HoldiayHapiness-dreamstimef

Joy Has NO Price Tag – Our greatest joys don’t come from gifts of material things.  The people, memories, experiences and magic moments that bring us the most joy are not tangible items. Recall sources of joy in the past and recreate them in new and different ways.

Create a Colonial Christmas – imagine what Christmas was like 250 years ago for the first settlers of our country. Create a 1760’s Christmas – simple, joyous, special.  Decorate using free, natural items:  pine cones, evergreen limbs, pop corn strings.

Cut simple decorative shapes from colored paper or old magazines.  Enjoy candles with mirrors.  Look for bonfires if you don’t have a fireplace.

Consider Exchanging Care Coupons – Create and decorate coupons for the intangible gifts your loved ones will value the most:

  • This coupon is good for one hour of help with anything you ask – I promise to work hard happily, enthusiastically and energetically.
  • This coupon is good for one hour of undivided, uninterrupted time together doing exactly what you want to do.  I promise to give my full, undivided, sincere, enthusiastic attention and appreciation to you and whatever you decide to do.

Create a Another Country’s Non Commercial,  Cultural Christmas – What Christmas would be like if you were living in a Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist country?  Or in a simple village in Latin America?  Mongolia?  Ethiopia?  Learn about other cultures, recreate one for a memorable, enjoyable holiday.

Emphasize Enjoyable Experiences – Look for experiences that bring happiness and joy in the holiday season.

End Extravagant Expectations – Money does not buy a joyful holiday.

See Stabs Of Self Pity As An SOS – Immediately redirect your time, energy and attention toward thoughts, actions, objectives and activities that will help you to build happiness and spiritual success.

Enjoy Natural Beauty – Take walks.  Savor, enjoy and appreciate the beauty around you:  the special smells, the fresh air on your face, the spectacular sunsets you were always too busy to watch.

Assess Reality Accurately, Don’t Get Carried Away – Don’t diminish holiday joy by over spending, over eating or over compensating for any difficulties, it’s not necessary.

Strangers Can Offer Security And Safety – Family relationships and even long standing friendships can suddenly turn toxic over the holidays.  New or different people change holiday dynamics and interactions.  Changing the place, time and theme of holiday celebrations can help break bad ruts.

Begin Your New Year’s Resolutions Early –  Whatever they are, begin now.  Eat and drink healthily.  Avoid excesses, too much rich food, alcohol.  Too many sweets and starches can drive you nuts.   Jump start your diet, exercise or personal development programs.  Exercise aggressively. Eat wisely.

Continually Sparkle, Radiate and Set A Positive, Enthusiastic  Holiday Tone – Consciously deciding to continually sparkle and radiate joy raises your spirits and the spirits of the people around you.  Use holidays as an excuse to smile, speak and greet strangers warmly. Extend a genuine holiday welcome to everyone you meet.

Be Adventuresome And Creative – Decide to do things you haven’t done before, or decide to do them in very different ways.

There are lots of wonderful new ways to enjoy the holidays, find them, explore  and enjoy them.

Look For Free Festive Activities With New People In New Places – Volunteering to help others often comes with free food and fun holiday festivities. Find free concerts, free special holiday events and religious activities. Learn about different cultures or religious groups. Visit a friend, relative or shut in who will relish your company.

Spend time really exploring, enjoying and savoring the holiday season and holiday decorations.  Do things you were always too busy to do in the past.  Make this holiday wonderfully different and it won’t be deficient.

Creativity Is A Key To Happiness In Ordinary Times, It Is Especially Important In Hard Times.  Find Creative New Ways To Enjoy Your Holiday And Bring Joy To Others!

Copyright 1999-     , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors. Photograph from Dreamstime.com

Be Cool Like Barack Obama

Do You Want To Be Cool Like Barack Obama?

A Key Happiness Habit is:

Don’t hand control of your thoughts, actions or feelings over to outside forces or people who try to hurt or harass you.

Don’t Give Them Emotional Control Over You.

Decide How You Are Going To Think, Act and Feel.

Choose Your Mood and Your Attitude.

Emotional Independence, Freedom and Balance are key Happiness Habits.

This does NOT mean that you don’t get angry or that you don’t decide to take decisive corrective action when necessary.

It does mean you weigh options carefully, decide when and how you will act and that you don’t just automatically react in anger.

Choose the timing, the place and substance of your response carefully.

We all have an Optimal Best Self – a sweet spot or optimal zone where we feel our best, do our best and perform our best. Habitually Happy people try to maintain their optimal Best Self State all of the time.  Getting angry and irrational is not part of their process.

Much has been written about Barack Obama’s Cool calm demeanor.  His actions and reactions epitomize  Emotional Independence. He decides how he will act, react and project himself.  He doesn’t let outside forces control his emotions easily.

If you let another person make you angry, you’re giving them control of your thoughts, actions, feelings and your well-being.  Don’t do it!

Don’t Help Them Hurt You.

The next time someone tries to hook you into an angry response, simply think, “I’m not giving you control.”  It’s that easy.

This does not mean stuffing your feelings or suppressing your emotions.  It means not giving them control over you, your attention or your emotions.

Channel Anger Into Activism And Actions That Achieve Positive Goals.

Choose Emotional Independence and Spiritual Freedom.  It’s that easy.  Decide  how you’re going to act, don’t simply react to them. Take command and lead interactions in the direction you want to go. Make this a Happiness Habit.

It’s a great way to stay cool and happy!

Copyright 1999-     , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Links to our website and pages are welcomed!  Please note our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors.

Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com for more happiness insights!

Happy New Year 2009!

Exciting New Changes Are Coming With The New Year…

Happiness·Hope·ChangeHappinessHopeChange.com – Celebrating our January 20th Inauguration and the messages and lessons it carries

–  and  –  Resolve To Be HappyResolveToBeHappy.com – sharing specific steps to turn Happiness Resolutions into powerfully effective Happiness Solutions

have been added to the HappinessHabit.com website.

During 2009 we’ll continue to develop specific Happiness subject web sites targeted to address specific needs, uses and desires.

As you know, HappinessBlog.com has evolved and changed significantly through the years.

Our first postings in 2005 described basic Happiness Habits and the important tenets for living a happy, spiritually successful life.

Having covered Happiness Habits both here and in other postings through the years, HappinessBlog.com  began to emphasize current Happiness news, research and events.

New readers may not want to dig back several years to read our initial happiness postings. We’ll leave them in place in their original form to preserve the links.

We will also rewrite and refocus many of our materials in new and exciting ways during 2009 to focus on specific needs and uses.

Our more contentious commentary regarding current Happiness research and coverage will be migrated to a separate site with a new name.

HappinessBlog.com will return to it’s powerfully positive theme and tone.  We’ll try to keep abreast of news items supported by permanent links to happiness materials that could be of interest and help to large groups of people.

We hope you will enjoy the new look, tone and approach for HappinessBlog.com during the coming year!

Very best New Year’s wishes,

Michele Moore and the
Happiness Habit Team

Happiness Hints For The Holidays

holidaysparkle.jpgDefeating The Dismal Drearies During The Holidays – Holiday Happiness Habits from HappinessHabit.com

Reject Self Pity – Feeling sorry for yourself is a sure route to sadness. If you catch yourself in self pity, STOP! Redirect your attention to positive, rewarding thoughts and activities.

Negative Judgments Cause Pain – To enjoy happy holidays, stop judging. Measuring life by other people’s should’s and ought’s is always discouraging and self defeating.

Design and Create a Fun, Rewarding Holiday that fits your circumstances. Decide to have a great holiday and then make it happen.

Doing Good Helps Us To Feel Good! Spend time helping people who genuinely need and appreciate your assistance.

Avoid Rich Foods and Excess Alcohol – That lift your spirits for a few moments and then leave you feeling bloated, guilty and unhappy for hours.

Exercise Aggressively – It’s a great way to work off stress, stay in shape, feel great and see other people.

Share The Holiday Spirit – Smile, speak and greet strangers warmly. Extend a genuinely warm, holiday welcome to everyone you meet.

When we summon up a sense of joy and honestly project it, we can’t help but raise our own spirits as well. Remember the people who need our warmth the most are often those who are least able to return it.

Full Happiness Habits for the Holidays article on American Chronicle
Other Happiness Articles on American Chronicle. The Happiness Habits pages at HappinessHabit.com share more insights about how to live a happy life all year round. Make Happiness Your Holiday Habit!

Copyright 1999-     , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Reprints.

Happiness Habit Hints For The Holidays

Happiness Habit Hints For The Holidays

Do Habitually Happy People ever get lonesome, frustrated, disappointed or down like the rest of us over the holidays? The answer is yes, absolutely! But they bounce back quickly. Here are some of their Happiness Habit hints for the holidays:

Be Adventuresome And Creative – Habitually Happy People know there are usually lots of great ways to do anything, including the holidays, well. Different is often very delightful. Holding on to rigid expectations and thinking there is just one right way to do things is a major source of holiday pain. Instead, resolve to be creative and invite others along on an exciting new holiday adventure.

Flexibility Is An Important Key To Happiness – Be willing to reposition your perspectives, change your plans and even your preferences to cast off difficulties so you can honestly embrace good will. Resolve that no matter what happens, you are going to have a great time and help others do so too.

Self Pity Is A Sure Route To Sadness – Feeling sorry for yourself is always self defeating. Don’t do it! The Poor Me’s manufacture self made misery. Focus on anything and everything else but yourself. Spend time helping someone who genuinely needs your assistance. Take care of yourself and remember that excessive self concern is a major source of unhappiness.

Sometimes Strangers Offer Safety – Families and even fond friendships can turn toxic over the holidays. Involving new people changes group dynamics. So does changing the place, the time, the theme, the menu. Altering anything can help break bad ruts. Misery means we’re meant to change.

Drive Your Holidays With Delight – Resolve to have a good time all the time. Don’t let any one or any thing shake you your determination to savor and enjoy each moment as much as you can. Don’t hand control of your holiday happiness over to anything that threatens to drag down your spirits.

Negative Judgments Cause Pain – In fact, most of our emotional pain is caused by our negative judgments. To enjoy happy holidays, stop judging. Measuring life by should’s and ought’s brings sadness. Envision the holiday you want to create and let judgment keep you on track to achieve that goal.

Give Without Strings Attached – Decide what you want to do because YOU want to do it out of genuine goodness. Let goodness be your guiding goal and your sole reward. Don’t give with strings attached in order to get. If the returns don’t come back, you will be disappointed.

Assess Reality Accurately And Don’t Get Carried Away – It’s easy to swept up with exuberant holiday joy. Over extending yourself, incurring big bills, losing sleep, forgoing wise diet and drink choices is not the path to peace or happiness. Excess in anything invariably brings pain, not joy.

Guard Your Personal Time Carefully – Holidays are times of giving, but preserve some precious personal time for yourself. Normal schedules are often discarded, it’s easy to be on the run all the time. Stop to enjoy time with yourself. Habitually Happy People seem gregarious, but they often say they need plenty of time for themselves. Preserving personal time is often the best investment you can make for holiday happiness.

Share The Spirit – Smile, greet and speak to strangers. Extend a warm, holiday welcome to everyone you meet. When we summon up a sense of joy and honestly project it, we can’t help but raise our own spirits, and we might just brighten someone else’s holiday as well.

Share your favorite holiday Happiness Hints – Post them in a comment below.

Happy Holidays To You All!

Michele Moore & The Happiness Habit Team

Happiness Habit: Skills & Strategies of Habitually Happy People
Copyright 1999 –     , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Reprints.