What Does Happiness Actually Mean?

Intuitively, happiness is a feeling we get that we associate with having joy, abundance and peace.

It's the opposite of feeling depressed, gloomy or sad. Being happy is something that people will generally consider good while being sad is not so great.

But there are degrees of happiness and different people feel it in different ways.

A perfect example of this comes from the TV drama show called Everybody Loves Raymond.

The parents of Raymond were constantly fighting. Everyone believed they hated each other.

But in one particular episode, it was revealed that their behavior towards each other is how they are happy. The back and forth digs that they give each other is actually affection in their eyes.

While I personally believe that fights are just a low-consciousness way of shaking the boring, monotonous, dull routine up and spike some emotions in a relationship, there may be some truth about the fact that happiness is driven from within instead of without.

There are those who are not very good at showing emotion or those who are excellent at hiding their true feelings. They could be super excited and yet give no expression to show for it.

It's hard to read these people.

It's hard to predict their contradictory behaviors.

It's hard to know when it is the best time to bring up certain topics of conversation to them.

Then, there are people who go overboard and show excessive happy emotions. They become too cheerful and positive to a point that is kind of annoying.

To many, these people seem almost unreal as no one can be that happy all the time. They are so perky that it is hard to take them seriously. Sometimes, you may even think they are faking happiness.

Wikipedia defines happiness as "a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy."

Even this definition allows for varying degrees of happiness.

The point is, there is no right answer as to what happiness means to any person just as there is no one definition on how it should be expressed. It is as personal as any other emotion.

Most people will agree that when it does occur, happiness makes you feel good. It is something that people try to continue for as long as possible, even though it is not possible for it to go on indefinitely.

The fact of life is that you will reach a certain point or event that changes your emotions and you will lose the great feeling of happiness.

Anyhow, generally you do want to maximize the good feelings of happiness whenever it is possible, for as long as you ca because happiness has been shown to be better for your overall health.

Doctors have long believed that patients that maintain a positive, upbeat and happy outlook during serious medical conditions have a much better chance of recovery than people who are gloomy about their prospects.

Whatever your personal definition of happiness is, go live it, experience it and thrive with it today!

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Does-Happiness-Actually-Mean?&id=9531526

Message From the Universe: Be Happy With What You Already Have!

"Often, the sooner you can be happy without "it," the sooner you will be happy with "it."

Boom, 

The Universe"

Do the best with what you have already. Never wait for something to happen so you can take action. Learn to be happy regardless of what you possess. We all want to be able to afford beachfront property, or exotic cars, or whatever else. We focus too much on the people who created themselves a fortune from scratch and admire them for what they've accomplished. However, we also tend to compare our weaknesses with their strengths, which is a battle you will lose all the time. You will put yourself down, feeling depressed and creating a sense of desperation to wanting to achieve the level of success they did. Stop it right there! Just STOP!. You want to start looking at yourself and focus on what you are good at, I am sure you can find something, somewhere. See how you can create yourself a success when you focus on these strengths. There is no reason why you should compare yourself to anyone, unless if they have a skill you want to learn and are passionate about. We were all dealt cards in life and we have to take advantage of what was given to us. We all have talents that hasn't been explored yet, so you need to figure out what they are. Be willing to think outside the box and do the things you wouldn't normally do. Take actions from the thoughts you created and never fear anything. Many fear their own shadow in life and always hesitant to take charge. This is your life, and no one else. You need to work on yourself and find the things you can excel at to create your own future.

Happiness starts from within, and no matter how much money you have or DON'T have, it doesn't really matter. Material assets can allow you to do more, obviously, but shouldn't be the primary reason why you should feel happy or stay happy. Yes, money does help alleviate some stresses in life, I totally agree. But no matter how much you make, if you are unhappy deep down in the core of your soul, no amount in your bank account will ever change how you really feel. Changing the way you think is a good start and will enable you to look and perceive things differently. Do not worry about how much others are making, just focus on what you can do better to make yourself happier. Your pursuit to happiness should be based on other important things than what money can buy, so as long as you don't know what makes you happy, you will never correct the original problem that resides within your soul. Open up your subconscious mind and allow only the positive nature of your life to take over and eliminate the negative thinking. Take action when thinking about creating a better life for yourself, because you are the ONLY one who can make that happen. No one else really cares as they are all dealing with their own challenges.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Message-From-the-Universe:-Be-Happy-With-What-You-Already-Have!&id=9457978

Get Yourself Out of Emotional Detention

There may be a few among us who never ever had to go to detention throughout our school years, but most of us experienced what my high school euphemistically - optimistically? - called "study hall," at least once, if not more often. Some kids actually seemed to spend more time in detention than they did in class, but whether you were relegated to those dismal couple of hours after school once or frequently, the experience is the same - prison.

OK, so no bars, no guards, no orange jump suits, but the idea is all too similar. Your precious freedom is cut off, there's a teacher or some other official "watcher" making sure you sit there doing homework (yeah, right), and you aren't allowed to talk, text, eat, or do any of the other things normal kids like to do. Detention is about as effective as prison, in that the recidivism rates are high: some kids are scared straight, others populate "study hall" so often they practically have chairs with their names on them.

How is this relevant to you? Too often, when we've done or said something our better self knows wasn't that swift, we put ourselves in "detention" of a mental or emotional sort. Oh, we don't slump off to a dedicated detention room, true, but we do slump off... into a mental and emotional berating.

A beat-ourselves-up pity party along the lines of, "How could I have been so stupid!" "Why did I say/do that?" "Now I really messed up, he/she will never forgive me," "I can't believe I said/did that, he/she will never want to see me again," "I'll can't get this right, what's the use in trying?" And on and on it goes.

Which does about as much good as detention did in school. Sometimes we scare ourselves into better behavior, but for the most part, all we accomplish is feeling depressed, unhappy, and even more of a jerk or failure.

A school in Baltimore, Robert W. Coleman Elementary, has adopted a novel approach to detention. They don't do it. Instead there's a "Mindful Moment Room," which isn't just a renaming of detention, like my school's "study hall," it's literally an entirely different concept. Misbehaving kids are taught mindfulness, meditation and breathing exercises, along with the opportunity (and encouragement!) to work with counselors.

What's remarkable about the program, is that it works. Since the school started participating in the non-detention after-school program called "Holistic Me" two years ago, they haven't had to issue a single suspension. Things are really going well at Baltimore Elementary.

What if you treated yourself to a "Mindful Moment" approach, rather than your typical "beat-myself-up-bad-person-poor-me" episode? What if you took some deep breaths, allowed your mind to quiet for a few moments. Then, as neutrally as possible, took a look at the bigger picture.

What were you trying to accomplish? As a kid, you generally landed in detention because you were bored or frustrated. What you were trying to accomplish was an end to boredom or frustration, you just went about it in a disruptive way. As an adult, you most definitely were trying to accomplish something positive, trying to turn a situation around. It's rare that any one of us is going about trying to be destructive or disruptive for no reason.

Once you've got a sense of the bigger picture, focus on what you might do going forward that would be more effective. Keep breathing. Meditation can help keep you calm. Meditation can also help you zero in on possible new ways of doing whatever it was you were trying to accomplish.

"Mindful Moments" work, whether you're six, sixteen, thirty-six or older. And they are far better for your overall health and well-being than the "let me see how hard I can beat myself up" approach.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Get-Yourself-Out-of-Emotional-Detention&id=9726300

Finding Meaning in Everyday Life

Clients come to my office for a number of reasons. For example, when they're feeling depressed, when they're feeling anxious, and when they are experiencing conflict in their relationships, but also when they've become bored with their lives.

For these people, meaning and engagement in life seemed to have disappeared without conscious awareness, and not all of a sudden. Instead, it seemed to filter out slowly and they just woke up one day and experienced an emptiness that wasn't previously there.

The sort of passion, energy, and curiosity they once had about life had slipped away, and in the absence of it, they felt lost, unmotivated, and not at all certain about how to get it back.

Sound like you?

So when I'm faced with clients who live a 'ho hum' existence that offers them little opportunity to stretch their wings so they can discover who they are, and what they're capable of, some of the questions I usually ask is what, in years gone by, were they curious about?

What made them laugh?

What caused them to experience excitement and challenge in their life?

Was there a time when they couldn't wait to get out of bed so they could engage in whatever made them feel truly alive?

And if so, what were they doing at the time that caused them to feel that way?

In other words, what elements existed then that no longer do? What made their view of life change, such that they no longer experience it in the same way?

Part of the problem, I've come to believe, is that people who search for meaning in their lives often bypass the simpler, and more every day, experiences that usually make up the larger meaning of one's life.

In other words, rather than searching for the one and only thing that will help them understand why they were put on this earth, or a hunt down a singular way to make an everlasting and profound difference to the larger society, we sometimes forget to seek out answers to life's meaning that might be discovered down several different avenues closer to home.

For example, learning a new language, or taking up one that had been started at one time and later dropped; becoming a volunteer in an organization that holds personal meaning for whatever reason; adopting a new kitten or puppy; taking a university or college course; beginning a new fitness program that involves others with similar interests; consider changing jobs, or even professions; or reacquainting oneself with friendships that perhaps had slipped away over time.

These are only a few ideas, but it's important to remember that we can find multiple meanings in our lives. I previously mentioned, there isn't just one justification for our existence; there are an unlimited number of ways to experience engagement in one's life, and ways that might not stay the same over time.

In fact, what was meaningful to us at one point in life, may no longer seem as compelling now.

I believe that as we change, and even as we age, our definition of what's meaningful changes with us. So if we lose the 'thread' of what it used to be, we need to rediscover how we might define it today.

And if you're bored to death with your life, don't fret. Know that the boredom you're experiencing is a vital tool for pushing you out of the places where life has become routine and stale, and toward a direction of internal and external revitalization.

On my fridge, I have a reminder of one of the necessary ingredients of my emotional and mental well-being, and it's played a huge part in my life for well over three decades.

The quote simply states that: "[t]he greatest happiness is curiosity", and I know it to be true; the lack of curiosity often leads to a dull, unchallenging, and boring life for many of us, and if it's not addressed, depression can often follow closely behind.

And when we get to that point, it becomes tremendously difficult to break out of the inertness that has slowly swallowed us, but break out of it we must or life will seem increasingly meaningless.

So take some time to discover what you may find curious now - listening to a TED Talk once a day might help - and you gain a curiosity about things you may never have considered interesting before.

The idea is to stretch yourself to look at life from different perspectives - especially if you've lost your own - and in the end, you'll likely trigger a spark of curiosity and interest that results in fostering far greater meaning for your life on a daily basis.

What can you start doing today to get out of your feeling of boredom?

http://ezinearticles.com/?Finding-Meaning-in-Everyday-Life&id=9431590