Posts Tagged ‘create happiness’

Happy Happiness Blog!

We’ve been HACKED and we’re bouncing back, hopefully soon! Many of our images and some of our content were deleted. We’re reviving and restructuring the entire site.

Explore our happiness quotes explaining how to create happiness and a happy life. Use the Search Box on the right to look for happy quotes and topics in this blog that are important to you.  Enjoy HappinessHabit.com and  Creating-Happiness.com!

Links to some of our most popular quotes for creating a happy life:

Dealing Distress & Despair:  Don’t Beat Yourself Up! · Bouncing Back Quickly, Powerfully ·  Feeling Overwhelmed? ·  Dealing With Dangerous, Deranged Thoughts  ·   Detach From Distress and Despair ·  Avoid The Fault Finding Feel Goods · Defeating the Dismal Downers  ·   NEW – Happiness Habits For Veterans

Creating Happiness: Have A Good Time All The Time ·  YOUR Best ·   Savor, Enjoy, Appreciate ·  Forgiveness And Happiness ·  Fight With Finesse · What Are Habitually Happy People? ·  Can You Really Be Happy All of the Time? ·  Happiness Lessons From The Godfather · Love Powers Happiness ·  Happiness And Greatness ·  Happiness Without Hardness ·  Happiness And Pride ·  Happiness & Mastering The Art Of Living · Happiness And “Work”

Sadly, the Happiness Blog is being hacked – it’s been seeded with typos, links are being broken, sentences rearranged or garbled so they don’t make sense.  We’re fixing these problems as fast as we find them. If you come across anything weird, please Tweet us or Comment to alert us so we can fix it. MANY THANKS!

Defeating the Dismal Downers

Mayo Clinic PET scan of normal and depressed brainsWe all get them from time to time, those dreadful, dismal, dragging, despondent feelings.

What causes the Dismal Downers and what can we do to defeat or deter them?

Photographs showing differences in brain activity when people are depressed – like this from  the Mayo Clinic – may be familiar.

Reduced Brian Activity Is Associated With Depression. One of the keys to raising our spirits and defeating depression is to find ways to stimulate our brain activity.

Exercise –  Many research studies show that regular rigorous exercise improves brain function and brightens people’s moods. This may be tied to improvements in the supply of blood flow to the brain.

Our brains represent about 2% of our body mass, but they consume about 25% of our body’s supply of oxygen. Brain function declines when brain blood flow declines.  (Source: Massachusetts General Hospital “Mind, Mood & Memory” August, 2011)

Neural activity also stimulates blood flow to specific parts of the brain, but one’s heart and circulatory system must be strong enough to support the necessary increased flows.

Music – Many people also find music helps brighten their moods – the music stimulates their brains and their bodies into greater activity.

Stimulants – Other types of stimulants like alcohol, drugs or caffeine may produce the same effects but with negative consequences. They briefly raise blood pressure, alertness and mental activity but they also set us up for a reactive downer when the effects of the stimulants pass.

We can achieve many of the same things naturally without these negative consequences. This is why a brisk walk can do so much to brighten our mood and increase our mental  alertness.

We can avoid overeating and dairy products and starches that make many people sleepy and slow.

We can choose to stimulate our own minds with lots of challenging, interesting thoughts. People who continually love to learn or acquire new skills or languages are found to retain their mental acuity into old age.

Habitually Happy people continually stimulate their minds with a constant stream of interesting, exciting, creative thoughts and mental activity. They think boredom is an inability to entertain ourselves when our environmental stimulation is low.

The Best Stimulation of All Is Happiness, Fun and a Good Time. Habitually Happy People Try To Have A Good Time All of The Time. 

Why Not Try It, It’s A Great, Fun Way To Brighten Your Mood, Defeat The Dismal Downers and Sharpen Your Mind!

Copyright 1999- , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and Creating-Happiness.com for more happiness quotes. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors.

 

 

Happiness Habits for Veterans

American Soldier in the Sunset“Can you help me?” is a frequent response from veterans when I mention Happiness Habit skills. Here are highlights of what I say…

Wrap the Pain In Love – Remember what a big, warm, loving hug feels like?  Whenever you need it, give yourself a big hug and wrap your pain, fear and bad memories in love.

When bad thoughts or feelings come to mind, picture yourself getting a great big warm hug and remember how great it makes you feel.  Mentally give yourself that big, wonderful hug. Wrap the pain, the fear and the bad memories in love.

Enjoy that warm, loving hug for a few moments, and then immediately shift your attention to positive, constructive objectives. You don’t have to physically hug yourself to have this work well and nobody needs to know what you’re thinking or doing.

Our Happiness Habit research shows the happiest people are the most loving people – they love what they do, they love the people around them, they love their work and they love themselves.  Wherever love is limited or lacking, there is no happiness. To be happy, try to love expansively and extensively.

Our Focus Determines Our Feelings – Thinking about bad things makes feel sad, angry or anxious. Shifting our attention to good things makes us feel happy, energized and enthusiastic.

That’s why it’s so important to move from problems to possible positive solutions quickly.  Focusing on what’s wrong keeps us stuck in misery.

Painful visions and memories give us powerful jolts of Negative Energy, they are our own personal horror shows.  Defuse those bad thoughts by wrapping them in love and then shifting attention to pleasant objectives. They are painful distraction from the happy life you want to enjoy.

Revolt & Rebel against letting painful past memories take control of your thoughts and feelings.  Fight back and refuse to give them control.  Wrap them in love and refocus your attention on being happy and whatever you are trying to achieve.

Happiness Is Healing – Happiness is the best way to put painful experiences behind us.  Expect everything you do to be enjoyable and then try to make everything you do fun, interesting and rewarding.

Try To Have A Good Time All Of The Time.  Fuel Your Life And Your Work With Love And Fun.  

This posting will be expanded soon.  Hope it helps!

Copyright 1999- , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and Creating-Happiness.com for more happiness quotes and insights. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors.

Affirmations – Dangerous Delusions?

affirmations are dangerous delusions - stuart smalley - Saturday Night Live

Stuart Smalley - Saturday Night Live (Al Franken)

Saturday Night Live’s Stuart Smalley comes to mind whenever I hear the word Affirmations.  Silly, nonsensical, comic.

Focus On What You Want To Achieve And The Steps You Must Take To Attain It is a key Happiness Habit.

We think it is critical to focus on your goals AND what you need to do to achieve them.

Repeating Positive affirmations over and over again, saying and pretending that you have already achieved your goals is delusional and counterproductive. This does not emphasize what you actually need to do to attain your goals.

Positive affirmations are very much part of our “The Secret” driven culture. They do everyone a serious disservice.

If you wander around pretending you already have achieved something you have not worked for, it’s easy to get lost in lies.

Here’s a paraphrased example of affirmations from a self help book I recently saw:

  • There are two things you must know to reach a goal. First it must be clearly identified and quantified.  Second, goals should be written and affirmed as if they already existed.
  • To affirm something, you write and / or state it repeatedly, sincerely believing it has already been accomplished.
  • Your affirmation might sound something like this:  “I have sold five units as of January 30, 2011. Gross income from these sales is $500,000 and net profit is $80,000. I am respected and lead my field in sales production.”
  • By expressing your desired outcome in the present tense, you condition your subconscious mind to accept it as fact. This method is taught by most success motivators.
  • Write your affirmations several times each morning and evening. Post them on your bathroom mirror, refrigerator, your computer or car dashboard. Refer to them often and repeat them out loud. Believe them!
  • By planting this seed of positive expectancy you condition yourself to move toward your goal swiftly and unswervingly.

Does this sound familiar? No where does it describe what you actually must do, or do differently to achieve these goals!

Wishing doesn’t make things real. Repeating affirmations over and over again detaches you from reality. If you truly believe it when you have not achieved it, it is delusional.

So focus on what you what to achieve and the steps you must take to attain it.

Positive affirmations do help you to step into the right mind set to perform and present yourself at your best. A successful salesman I know always says: “Cool, confident, successful and savvy” to himself before he walks into any room to remind himself of how he wants to think of himself and what we wants to project.

This helps him connect with a clear image of the person he wants to be – but it is very different from pretending and telling himself he has already done something he hasn’t worked to attain.

Use affirmations to help you to connect with your best self and then:

Focus On What You Want To Achieve And The Steps You Must Take To Attain It to achieve your dreams.

Copyright 1999- , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and Creating-Happiness.com for more happiness quotes. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors.

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

Creating Happiness Blog

See the Creating Happiness – http://Creating-Happiness.com for recent postings!