10 Little Steps to Happiness

What is happiness? Happiness doesn't mean being joyful or laughing all day long. Although happiness should be defined by each of us for ourselves, a general understanding of it could be having more good moments and memories than bad ones and having an overall feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. So, how can we have more happy moments?

1. Give yourself permission. Give yourself permission to be happy. Many of us have the impression that we're not allowed to be happy, that we don't deserve it. Well, we're all WRONG! We ALL deserve to be happy, no matter what others say or even what we believe. And if you look deep inside you, you'll feel it in your gut. I am right. You DO deserve to be happy. So give yourself permission to be. Start enjoying that freedom. YOU CAN BE HAPPY.
2. Smile... even if you don't feel like it. Yes, smile as often as you can. If you are with people, they'll feel warmer and respond likewise. If you're alone, smile for at least 3 minutes and your brain will take it as a real smile and will start producing feel-good hormones and other chemicals.
3. Enjoy the now. Feeling bad about the past will not change it a bit and worrying about the future will not make you any more ready for whatever it is that finally happens. Hopelessness lives in the past, fear in the future. Choose the now and make an effort to live it. Only in the now can you truly be free.
4. Like yourself. Make a list of everything you like in yourself, no matter how small or big and remind yourself of all those traits a few times each day.
5. Love yourself. Every night, when you go to bed, devote a few minutes to just feel love for yourself. Thank yourself for anything good you did during the day and let the warmth of love fill you up. If that's too hard, close your eyes and look for the little child you once were and who still lives inside you and shower that kid with your love.
6. Flip it around. Somebody tells you something or does something you don't like? You might get angry, upset or feel ill-treated. Or you might turn it around by being original and choosing to interpret it as a wakeup call or as a funny situation. They called you something... choose to find it funny instead of offensive. They push you, ignore you or even talk about you... choose to consider it just a reminder that we are all humans and, as such, make mistakes. Love the humanity in those who upset you.
7. Dare yourself. Early in the morning dare yourself to do something unexpected or different throughout the day. Choose the action in the morning so you have the whole day to find the right moment to do it. You don't need to think of very difficult or adventurous plans but just something you wouldn't usually do, like going to a certain store or eating a new type of food.
8. Share love. Say something loving to one person (or more) today. You can say it out loud or in writing. You can even draw it or sing it.
9. Try new words. Are you one of those who often uses words such us... 'can't', 'don't know', 'never'... ? Why don't you try to use some easier ones like: 'don't feel like', 'would like to learn' or 'not in the habit of'... ? Or choose a positive or happy word you want to use today and try and apply it as often as you can. Be brave and imaginative with your words.
10. Count your blessings. Take a piece of paper and something you like to drink and sit comfortably maybe with some nice music in the background. Then write. Write a list of all and every blessing in your life. Start with the smallest ones: I'm alive... to the biggest ones you can feel. Don't leave anything out. Once you're done, leave the list on the table. Read it every morning during breakfast for a week.

Enjoy life... ALL of it,

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Joy - What Brings It to Our Lives?

No one expects to be happy through suffering hardship and troubles. But of themselves, an easy life, good health and fitness, do not mean we are necessarily joyful. Joy is surely more than just being born with a sunny disposition. More than just experiencing the joy of one's sports team scoring a goal, or feeling a sense of joy and pride in one's home. What then does bring joy to our lives?

Joy from worldly pleasure?

You might place a bet on the lottery hoping for great wealth. However, study after study by psychologists show no correlation between wealth and happiness. This is so except in cases of poverty when extra income does relieve suffering and bring security.

If you have all the possessions you ever dreamed of, yet another gizmo, smart car, foreign holiday or more nice clothes are not going to make you full of joy.

Or perhaps your aspirations are modest. But of themselves, food, drink, rest, comfort, and sexual pleasure can only provide temporary happiness. We soon get satiated. The thought of that extra cream bun is enough to make you feel sick.

Does fame make us happy? I'm not famous so I don't know. But some celebrities seem to end up either shunning the limelight or just discontentedly craving more and more attention.

Some people want to get their own way. But does this bring happiness? Tyrants for example are always watching their backs for those who oppose them and never seem content.

Psychologist Oliver James has pointed out in his book Affluenza that it's a mistake to attach one's sense of worth and well-being to something transient, like one's looks, one's job, money or fame, because these things may not last for ever. In other words happiness is not something one can attain for oneself but arises as a consequence of how one spends one's time and one's outlook on life.

"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product." (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Self esteem and confidence

Happiness in life may depend on having a sense of personal autonomy so we act in accordance with inner standards and preferences, pursuing goals, and resisting social pressures. Alongside this is having the self-acceptance needed to understand and appreciate one's strengths as well as one's weaknesses.

Psychological studies also show fewer symptoms of depression and higher self-esteem come from having the knowledge and skills necessary for managing the demands and responsibilities of daily life. And having the social skills necessary for developing warm, trusting, satisfying relationships, that involve empathy and concern for others.

Also well-being seems to be associated with being open to new experiences, and having a willing attitude towards learning and self-improvement, as well as seeking challenges that broaden one's horizons.

But does all this sense of well-being amount to inner joyfulness?

A sense of self-transcendence

Something beyond yourself is perceived if you have a mystical experience; one that just cannot be put into words. Perhaps involving awe and wonder at the oneness and beauty of the universe. This might involve feeling apart from time and space. A state of inner illumination, and feeling in touch with an unfathomable ultimate reality. But the happy sense of connection with transcendence eventually passes. Consequently, we can ask whether this inner awakening amounts to joy?

Some people have ecstatic experiences as part of emotionally charged atmosphere of a shared religious culture tradition. The excitement is generated by increasing stimulation of dance and music and by appealing to common fears, hopes, or desires. The whirling dervishes intone the divine name and there is circular dancing, whirling and leaping. The hubbub has an air of savagery and animality about it. But is ecstatic social experience really the same as a having private lasting joy?

Generosity of spirit

The book City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre is an amazing true story about the Anand Nagar slum in Calcutta in the 1970's. Based on thorough research, including two hundred interviews in various languages, it has a fascinating authentic ring.

The reader discovers the plight of peasants who came from famine-struck rural areas in India. Death from malnutrition was a very real possibility. They slept on the city streets and, if they were lucky, worked very long hours in appalling conditions to scrape together survival rations. It is a tough book to read but it demands the reader's attention. Its power comes from the vivid detailed non-stop descriptions of the terrible hardship yet compassion of the inhabitants. Despite their suffering they had a lack of self-orientation in their attitude. There are amazing accounts of a generosity of spirit of those, themselves, in dire need.

"No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it." (Helen Keller)

Service

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." (Rabindranath Tagore)

Mother Teresa's nuns offer dramatic examples of royal giving and the joy it produces. Their lifestyle is austere. They leave the comforts of home and live like the poorest of the poor people they serve. At their central house in Culcutta they live three or four to a room. They only personally possess two dresses and a bucket for washing. They eat the same food as the poor and despite the suffocating Indian heat they have no air conditioning. They rise before dawn and spend their days working in the slums.

"Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls." (Mother Teresa)

A TV interviewer said "The thing I notice about you and the hundred's of sisters who now form your team is that you look so happy. Is it a put-on?

'Oh no,' she replied, 'not at all. Nothing makes you happier than when you really reach out in mercy to someone who is badly hurt'.

'I swear,' wrote the interviewer afterwards, 'that I have never experienced so sharp a sense of joy.'

The deepest joy apparently comes from selfless concern for others.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Joy---What-Brings-It-to-Our-Lives?&id=9914108

WATCH THIS EVERY DAY! Try Something New! March 2021 - Dr Joe Dispenza

Best explanation of Life -Don't miss it-Sadhguru

Happiness Quotations: Be of Solemn Joy

It's so easy to look for happiness without. The self-talk goes like this "I'll be happy when I'm driving a new truck," or "I'll be happy when I'm in love with a new man," or "I'll be happy when I get back to the body I had when I was a teen."

The looking without doesn't get happiness and then it's easy to get down in the dumps.Watch the self-talk for most people loop negative self-talk that they learned from parents. The funny thing is that parents learned from their parents. So your negative self-talk might stem from six generations ago. Now if six generations ago your family was well-off and joyful, that would indeed be magic. But if you are like many, six generations ago your family was in poverty and ached to escape to a new land. So to break-free of unhappiness, take some time to replace negative self-talk with joyful happy quotes.

Here is your happiness quotation for today, an original happy quote

Be of Solemn Joy. You are Loved.

You can trust the happiness that is deep inside of you. You can trust it because it is the very essence of you. It doesn't belong to anyone else.

You might express happiness by giving your dog a warm bath. You might express your happiness planting a garden for spring flowers to bloom. You might need to ride a bicycle fast downhill, or go to the gym and go for a swim.

You are not made of the same cloth as any other being on the planet.

If you can reach up, touch the sun with your heart. Reach up and allow the sun to warm you, even on a cloudy day when the rainbows are hiding. The sun has powerful and potent energy to heal and nourish.

How you are one-of-a-kind

It is surprising to discover that siblings have different genetic make-ups. Same parents, different mixes of genetics to comprise that one-of-a-kind expression of humanity.

It is not a surprise then that every creation of yours is yours alone. Be of joy today for you are here to express your own individual chi.

Happiness does not have to be elusive. Be of solemn joy today, and know that you are loved. In all your imperfections and perfections, in your own height and weight and problems and successes. All of this magic of you is why you are here.

Be of solemn joy. You are loved!

https://ezinearticles.com/?Happiness-Quotations:-Be-of-Solemn-Joy&id=10105398

Through a Simple Twist of Faith, Part Two (By Randi G Fine)

Part two of a three-part article written by Randi G. Fine

Some who suffer adversity have had their lives negatively altered by an identifiable, pivotal event. Others gradually lose their foothold over a period of years. Though unaware that it was happening while it was happening, I experienced the latter.

My first eighteen years were tumultuous. An insecure childhood worsened by a series of unfortunate life altering events whittled away at my self-esteem. By the time my nineteenth year rolled around and I began living on my own I was functionally depressed yet emotionally numb, hardened to life yet highly vulnerable to its assaults. Though I was in a downward spiral I saw nothing unusual about the way I felt inside, how I was functioning, or the choices I was making. I knew no other way to feel or act.

I am not implying that I experienced no happiness during those years. There were many good, joyful things that happened in my life, but the exuberance was short lived. From my vantage point life was a place of suffering and hardship. That's just how it was. And since I was naturally drawn to people with problems even worse than mine who had similar perspectives, it is no wonder I thought everyone saw things as I did.

At age nineteen I moved out of my parents' house to leave behind the chaos there that I could no longer tolerate. Believing I was ready to take on life as an adult, I dropped out of college, found a job, and moved in with a roommate.

Living on my own and supporting myself provided a joyful freedom I had never before experienced. Unfortunately it did not stop the problems. Things only got worse for me and the problems became much more serious.

Many of the problems were the result of unwise decisions I had made, but one was not-the home invasion rape that nearly cost me my life. That was beyond my control. And then, as if I wasn't far enough down, my "boyfriend" preyed on my vulnerability and swindled me out of all my money. I never saw him again. I do not claim to be a victim-I take full responsibility for allowing that to happen.

Still, after twenty-two years of living under an emotional "battering ram" it seemed as if adversity had won the fight. My spirit was weary and broken. All I had left was a glimmer of hope that a miracle would somehow save me. I envisioned a knight in shining armor coming, sweeping me off my feet, and taking me away from my life as I knew it.

Surprisingly that actually happened. A man miraculously came into my life, seemingly out of nowhere, and we fell deeply in love. My knight had everything I could have ever wanted; a great personality, stability, his own home, and a good job with a very promising future. Together we began the fairy tale romance I had dreamed of but never thought was possible. Sure that everything would be wonderful from that point on, I breathed a huge sigh of relief-the fight was finally over.

But the euphoria was short lived. It wasn't long before the mask and armor came off and my true knight was revealed. It was not a pretty picture. The perfect love of my life had relapsed into a ravaging intravenous drug addiction.

For a long time I did not want to look at what was being shown to me. I was afraid to jeopardize the relationship that I had invested everything into; the relationship that I believed had saved my life. I could not survive without him; he was my love, my life, and my savior. Severely co-dependent that I was I truly believed I could fix him. I was determined to do whatever it took to create a happy ending-even if it took my last breath.

I stuck it out with him through a few ups and a lot of downs, through a heart wrenching maze of sobriety and relapses. During one extended period of sobriety we got married. Believing (probably fantasizing) that he had remained sober a planned pregnancy followed a year later.

The first trimester of my pregnancy was horrendous. I was incapacitated and too sick to worry about his comings and goings. Free from the close monitoring and the tight leash I kept him on, he relapsed into his worst addiction ever. That still did not deter me. I was even more determined to save my marriage and preserve the ideal family unit for my unborn child.

Seven months into my pregnancy I began attending Nar-Anon meetings. It was there that I first heard about turning my problems over to a "higher power." I could not grasp that concept. I was the fixer and doer in my life. If I couldn't do it than no one else could either-certainly not some unseen "higher power." That is how someone with a co-dependency disorder thinks. I struggled for months to connect with an intangible source of strength outside of myself to hand my problems over to.

After the baby was born things got even more desperate. Staying with my husband meant risking life and limb, though in my state of mind I probably would have stuck it out if I only had me to worry about. But that was not the case. My six week old daughter was in imminent danger.

I could no longer fool myself. The dream of happily ever after had completely disintegrated. After he left for work one morning, I took my newborn baby and left with whatever belongings I could fit in my car. I did not have a nickel to my name or any way to make a living.

That was truly my emotional bottom, but like it or not staying there was not an option. More than anything I wanted my daughter's life to be better than mine. That meant one thing-I had to somehow fix my life. I had to change.

ezinearticles.com/?Through-a-Simple-Twist-of-Faith,-Part-Two&id=9992238

The Habit of a Journalist

Out of all the activities, journaling according to me is the healthiest activity. You feel relieved after spilling out every single thought going through your head. It is a fun activity as well because you play with your own words and ways of expression. Everyone should make journaling a habit.

Most of us feel like giving up writing after a week or two. Have you ever wondered why does this happen? This is because we don't make it a routine habit. We actually think of it as a hectic task but not as a pleasurable and joyful activity.

At the very beginning we get stuck at finding the right topic to write on. One easiest way of getting rid of this problem is to right about what you've done for the whole day. Write down about your daily routine, your work, your love life, things you like and things you dislike. Writing about your own self is one of the simplest topic you can ever find.

Secondly, reading can also help. Searching for random stuff on internet including journals written by different people can give you various ideas about what to write and how to write it. Reading helps you learn better ways to express your thoughts and ideas. This is how you learn how to express your inner thoughts and feelings through relevant and affective words.

Try to find out inspirations. Your inspirations and aspirations are basically the sources of motivation. Bookmark the journals, articles, quotes or texts you like. Keep a record for present and future reference.

Environment and your state of mind are also quite important. The time when you wake up in the morning is considered as the period when you can effectively utilize all your senses to produce excellent work. Moreover, it is important to be in a relaxing environment where you feel good. It affects your mind more than you can imagine and it enhances the productivity rate as well. For instance, while sitting under a huge tree with a cup of tea, you can think about so many things and can transform all those thoughts and ideas into some amazing words. All you need is a good diary with a fine pen like that of Parker or Pelikan.

In the end, all I want to say is if you want to write, just start doing it. You will feel a lot better and productive. Mark my words.

https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Habit-of-a-Journalist&id=9855232

Get Lost: The Secret To Thinking Outside The Box

The essence of being happily human is to be creative. Few things in life are more fulfilling than transforming something old or non-existent into something new, better, faster, less expensive, more lucrative, joyful, efficient, effective, etc. And the secret to creative power is to get lost in what you're "creating." Getting lost is necessary to finding what's new.

Why? Because you can't come up with something new, different or original using your same old thinking mind. The metaphor and cliché for this concept is "thinking outside the box." But that's a misnomer because creativity is only partially about thinking. The purpose of thinking and feeling is just to get things started, get the creative process stimulated -- not to get the answer directly. This is where you may be going astray. The answer cannot be completely thought out no matter how smart you think you are.

Outside-the-box means outside the conscious, personal, thinking mind and into the subconscious, knowing mind. That's where all the creative power and action is. That's the faculty the answers come from. That's the higher level of consciousness you want to operate on all the time to be creative all the time. This is a form of meditation, perhaps the highest form.

All your thinking mind has to do is just get out the of way and let the creative process unfold. It unfolds from the subconscious by itself to the degree your personal, thinking/feeling mind is out of the way -- your ego is out of the way! Don't try, push or stress. That's the catch: Your effort needs to be effortless for it to work.

First, think or brainstorm about the new thing you strongly desire to create. Once it's clearly in mind and you're satisfied it is, then let it go. Drop it. Detach from it. Let it incubate. Let it sink into the subconscious for advanced processing.

Finally, just be calmly and patiently receptive to the answer -- which is guaranteed to come to the degree you are persistent and convinced that it will come.

You become a creator, inventor, explorer of that which is new and different -- that which has never been produced or expressed exactly this way before. Your getting lost in uncharted, unknown territory is the great joy, thrill and adventure of creation. You were created to be a creator, and fulfilling that purpose is what the good life is all about.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Get-Lost:-The-Secret-To-Thinking-Outside-The-Box&id=9518678

5 Habits to Develop NOW to Be Wildly Successful In Life (By Stephanie O'Brien)

Andrea wrote me a question about my daily routines, disciplines and habits that I have in place that has led me to the successful life I have today. I LOVED the question. And today, I want to share with you my top 5 Habits to Develop Right NOW to experience a wildly successful life.

Habit 1: Value the Health of Your Soul: Make Spiritual Development your highest priority. All 7 areas of life (personal development, health, family, career, financial, social, and spiritual) are important. But, I strongly believe that the health of your soul (mind, will, and emotions) dictate the decisions you make and the person you show up to the world as.

Here what I told Andrea about my specific daily routines:

I am a person of faith that values spiritual disciplines so I would say my number ONE daily practice is to spend time in life giving content and time tested wisdom. For me, one of those sources is the Bible- specifically the book of Proverbs (a chapter a day). I also pray daily. So my spiritual health is my number one priority.

Habit 2: Become a DAILY, Life Long Learner: Entrepreneurs tend to have an insatiable appetite for learning. You don't have to be an entrepreneur to love learning, but you find it consistently among successful business leaders, ministers, and entrepreneurs.

I suggest a MINIMUM of an hour a day in learning. This falls under the personal development category in the wheel of life (in the show notes).

To expound on my personal daily learning routine, I told Andrea, I learn 2-3 hours a day. I know that sounds like a ton but its totally possible. I absorb myself in podcasts and audio books which allows me to learn while I cook, fold the laundry, work out, get ready in the morning, and drive or any other mindless task that we find ourselves doing.

Habit 3: Show Up To Serve: You've heard it before, "it's' more blessed to give than to get." Now, you need to be careful that your motive for giving is pure. You should never give out of obligation, with the intent to manipulate and hold it over someone's head, or even to make people like you. You should give out of a joyful and cheerful state of heart- just because you want to. I'm not speaking only on financial giving. I'm speaking on all forms of generosity- a favor, gift, referral, writing a testimonial, giving an encouraging word, etc are all forms of giving and serving.

Here's what I wrote to Andrea: Show up to serve. It was a total game changer for me when I first sought to serve others rather than to have others serve me. When you show up to help others get what they want, you get your socks blessed off. Helping someone succeed when you want the same thing helps you more than it helps them.

Habit 4: Watch the Company You Keep: Be careful with who you allow to be in your circle of influence. Jim Rohn has said "we become the average of the 5 people we hang around most." I have found that to be very true.

Now, this is not to say that you need to cut everyone out of your life who is not supportive and encouraging of you. If you focus on your goals and are faithful in actively and diligently pursuing your dream, you will gain more friends and the other people who don't want to come along with you will stay behind. It happens organically.

Habit 5: Get Accountability: Your strongest circle of influence should love you enough to call you out when you need it. To encourage means "to call out courage" as well as "to put courage in you". We all have blind spots. And I'm so grateful for the people in my life that can see things that hurt or hinder my success that I would not know about, if they never called it out. Find people who are safe, and kind- yet, bold and honest with you.

Those are my top 5 life habits I strongly suggest you develop today, to be wildly successful.

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Letting Go of the Fear of the Future

In the future, there is a true hope. In the future, there is a reflection of the abundance and gratitude of today.

Letting go of the fear of the future means, in general, letting go of most of your fears.

Just think about it: 99% of all of our worries and fears are connected only and exclusively with thoughts about the future:

• What will tomorrow bring us?
• What if it were something highly unpredictable, or even painful?
• Will I be able to handle it?
• Am I ready for that?
• How will I protect my family?
• How will I deal with that?

But, what happens when we let go of all these fears?

What happens when we surrender ourselves to the uncertainty of the future, letting ourselves experience all the feelings that lie behind, and letting them simply go, once and forever?

Can we even do that?

Can Letting Go take us so far?

After several Letting Go meditations related to the uncertainty of the future, some interesting revelations came to me when all the negative emotions behind these fears were surrendered, released, and let go.

The most surprising one was the realization that there is not such a thing as a future.

Any moment of our life we live at is defined by being in a state of a clear presence. We simply can't live in the past or future; we can only live in the present.

So, all we can really be fearful of, is just our presence, as this is the only state that we are actually experiencing. Yes, we can also think of extensions, multiplication or variations of the presence, which are often falsely altered with the word "future", but it is still just another form of the presence.

Now, this is great news.

Why?

Because the good thing about the presence is, that we can shape it and define it exactly as we want to - in any given moment. We can instantly decide if we want to be joyful or fearful right now, if we want to be exuberant or impoverished. We have the power of the full choice about the presence, about the actual, instant moment.

But, because the future is, in fact, just an extension or multiplication (or variation) of the presence, by shaping our presence, we can then immediately shape our future as well:

If we feel true hope today, we already create it for our future too.

If we feel abundance and gratitude today, we already create it for our future as well.

I admit that this concept can be a bit difficult to understand for most of you right now. However, after several letting go of these future related issues, you will start seeing it clearer.. This concept needs to be fully experienced (by letting go of the barriers for this experience) first, in order to be able to absolutely understand it, accept it and take great advantages of it.

So here is letting go process of the fear of the future:

1. In a quiet place, close your eyes and think of any of your recent fears about the future.

2. Start noticing the feelings (as they will start coming up) behind your thoughts.

3. Don't try to label these feelings in any way, rationalize or analyze them. Just let them come out and express themselves.

4. Start surrendering yourself to these feelings slowly, let them express themselves fully all over your body (or any other part where you feel them most intensively). Don't push them back, don't block them or act on them either. Just let them be in their natural way and instead, be an independent observer of them, as if they weren't even yours.

5. After a while, make a decision about letting them go once and forever, and then let them actually go and disappear.

The process above will probably need to be, in the case of many people, repeated during the following days, or even weeks, to start experiencing the new, clear perception of the concept of the future (anxiety about the future is in general quite a strong issue) and to start experiencing how worries about the future begin to vanish.

Remember that, with Letting Go, we can't control the moment of the revelation. All we can do is to let go and then let the revelation come to us in the moment it is ready to come. I can guarantee you, that sooner or later it will come, if we let go and surrender ourselves properly. There is no other way.By letting go and surrendering ourselves, we clear the path ahead of us; we clear the vision, and we only need to wait for our own conscious and unconscious mind to adjust to this new reality. Paradoxically, our own brain is quite often the weakest link in our growth!

http://ezinearticles.com/?Letting-Go-of-the-Fear-of-the-Future&id=9472432

65 Plus: 7 Tips To Live A Joyful Life (By Hifzur Rehman)

If you are 65 plus then you are entering a new phase of your life which can either be more enjoyable or more miserable. Most people after reaching at this age group feel themselves miserable and worthless. They start losing interest in life and thus become victim of their own negative thoughts. Life is a beautiful gift of God and must be enjoyed gratefully and gracefully.

I am 65+ and, therefore, can give you advice out of my own experience. I have no regrets and I personally feel good about my age, health, social and other activities. You too can enjoy life at this age if you follow the following tips:

1. Smile

Start your day with a big, big smile. An innocent lively smile, coming deep from your heart, not only makes you feel happy about yourself but also keeps your face wrinkle free. Smile in the beginning of the day, keeps your worries away. Smile is, in fact, the most powerful human emotion that also makes other people smile. Greet everyone with a lively smile and make them feel good about you.

2. Eat Less, Walk More

Walk as much as you can. Walking is an activity that you must include in your daily routine life. At this age, it is more important to keep yourself physically fit and in shape. Avoid junk or deep fried foods. Eat only healthy foods and don't go after taste. Eat a lot of fresh fruit, nuts and vegetables. Avoid red meat and alcoholic drinks. If you are a smoker, then quit smoking.

3. Keep on Working

If your health permits then keep on working. However, keeping your age in view, do some light work and for shorter hours. You can also volunteer yourself for religious, social or cultural activities. Any type of activity that gives you the message that you are not a useless person, is good for you.

4. Share the Knowledge

Share what you have with the people who don't have. Share the knowledge that you have gained throughout your life. Give lectures or volunteer yourself to teach kids and youngsters the moral and ethical values so that they become good citizens. Besides sharing the knowledge, keep on reading books and improving your knowledge.

5. Don't Talk Health Problems

Don't talk about your ailments with everyone as this is never helpful rather embarrassing for some people. If you have some health problem then talk to your doctor who is in the best position to give you good medical advice. In order to live a disease free life, get regular medical checkups. Apart from taking medicines take preventive measures also.

6. Share the Money

You cannot take your money to the grave so think of sharing it with others. If you have money then use it for feeding the hungry and helping the poor people or give some money to the organizations that you think are doing good humanitarian work.

7. Live for Some Noble Cause

It is my personal experience that those people who live for some noble cause, live a long, joyful and disease-free life because God loves them. These are the people who not only live longer but also live forever in the hearts and minds of other people. You too can become a hero of some people.

http://ezinearticles.com/?65-Plus:-7-Tips-To-Live-A-Joyful-Life&id=9737637

Know Your Role on the Global Scale - Promote Peace, Unity and Leave a Legacy for Your Posterity!

Promote what brings you feelings of peace by simple, spontaneous and/or more joyful events. Share what you know others would appreciate receiving from you. Know that everybody wins if you share more of your positive feeling's with them. Oftentimes, too often if you were to ask me, we forget that what we do today affects the children and relatives that we leave behind. With so much happening in today's modern, global, always plugged-into technology, society, we tend to forget to model good character traits to our children. No, this is not going to be one of those types of articles; so please, keep reading...

It requires a lot less commute time, resources or energy, these days, affording the simple pleasure of easily connecting to familiar people and places. In the ease of being social and interactive with friends and family, we get lost somewhere in how we delegate time to spend in their company, really engaging them. Since it is so easy to connect, we should connect with the sole purpose to be present and approachable when in the company of others. Don't let this elude you, schedule available time to devote to the customs and habits that we bring to our ways for socialization. The time that we spend with others, should be uninterrupted, memorable and special. Time scheduled to spend with loved ones and friends is too often overlooked, or we take their availability for granted. Time is fleeting and NO, you do not get that time back, no matter how much you tell yourself differently. Spending enough time with others-- in-person, making direct eye-contact, engaging events or participating in conversations is significant. Actually talking and exchanging glances, laughs, jokes-told in-person, followed by unprompted smiles, with others, is overlooked, unappreciated or underrated. Our role on the global scale is simple. Make MORE time to engage family and friends. Use any and every opportunity to visit or congregate with others experiencing great conversations or sharing meals, done in unity. Leave a legacy for friends and family to know that you contributed to global joy, peace, love and unity- at every opportunity. Know your life was spent sharing with those you chose to pursue or keep connected to you. You honored other people and openly shared love and space with them! Life has the same amount of time or daily hours, the length of a day is the same for everyone. It's up to us to use each day for sharing more loving acts of kindness, quality time and acting more cohesively as a society. Our young people need to talk to us and to get to know us better more now than ever before in history. Know that we all play a role regarding the Universal truths of PEACE, LOVE, JOY with respect for everybody. Leave a legacy of kindness and respect for your children to emulate. Learn to set the example of how to live by living your life in honesty. Our posterity is watching us, let's hope they learn good habits. And also to learn how to show love and respect for one another, especially when we are no longer around to coach them.

If you were to ask anyone, reaching the end of life, what they regret the most, I'll bet you'd get a broad range of many different answers. They may more stem from an emotive response or even from a spiritual place. These regrets do not stem from career dissatisfaction or unattained monetary accomplishments, NO! People's regrets are from unrequited love, loss of family through death or separation, or from any number of personal accounts. Their regrets are not loving and engaging people often enough. I wish you a happy, healthy, socially gratifying home/family life and an abundance of joy. Enjoy more quality time by engaging people, do it more than you ever have before! You and me should leave our kids, relatives and the rest of posterity a good view of how we conducted ourselves during the time they knew us-- before our demise. Time is so precious be wise with your social time and make the time to enjoy people. places and events while you are healthy and able to influence them in positive ways. Even long after we are gone, no longer interacting with others, on the planet, we want our heart-loving expressive energy to outlive us. Let your loving acts or heartfelt words of kindness continue to uplift another or to comfort others by words of wisdom, encouragement or empathy. Let others make the connection for what you contributed to make their lives more informed, and be able to recall long after you're gone and resting somewhere. (Heaven, right?)

***I enjoy learning from you and from others offering me knowledge continuously!~

*Writing daily especially for you, inspiring heartfelt, empowering passages!~

http://ezinearticles.com/?Know-Your-Role-on-the-Global-Scale---Promote-Peace,-Unity-and-Leave-a-Legacy-for-Your-Posterity!&id=9631596

Why Time Is More Important Than Money

After grocery shopping today, I drove an additional five minutes to a different store. It had a few items that were cheaper than the first. I am a person who likes a great deal, and I didn’t mind the extra time it took to get it.

I wouldn’t say that is always the case. Over the summer, I turned down a big project in order to be able to spend the week lounging at the beach. I rarely turn down a work project—especially a lucrative one. It was an especially gorgeous week at the Jersey Shore, though, and they don’t come that often.

My bank account may have been lower than I wanted after skipping the project, but the memories of that sunny week last me all cold winter long. I adore time spent doing something that renders me utterly blissful such as ocean swimming. My life isn’t a fairytale, though. I did return to work and have been busting my butt ever since.

A recent study in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that people who value their time more than pursuing money were happier. In a series of six studies, the researchers asked more than 4,600 participants questions such as whether they would prefer pay more rent for an apartment with a short commute or a pay less rent for an apartment with a long commute. Just more than half of respondents said they valued their time over money, and overall they were happier than those who said making money was more important than their time.

“It appears that people have a stable preference for valuing their time over making more money, and prioritizing time is associated with greater happiness,” says lead researcher Ashley Whillans, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia.

Whillans says that gender and income did not affect whether people valued one aspect over the other.

What’s It All Worth?

When I heard about this study, I knew it demanded more exploration. Are we more likely to appreciate time more than money when we are (likely) older and more financially stable? Do some people value their time more because they know money doesn’t buy happiness? Or are we a generation that cares more about pleasant experiences instead of padded bank accounts? Can we value our time and make big bucks, or do we have to choose one over the other?

Clearly, I can’t take every other week off to work on my tan. Making the effort to take time off for things I enjoy and cannot always do is more important than raking in big bucks, so long as it’s in moderation and I can pay that darn mortgage each month.

Certainly, if you have a lot of discretionary income, you may be able to use it to free up your time. I have a wealthy friend who decided to hire a landscaper so he could devote time to his children instead of ignoring them while mowing the lawn. Another person may prioritize the peacefulness of gardening over spending time doing something else.

What if you do not have all that extra income to hire house cleaners, grocery shoppers and whatnot? You may trade off in other ways: You may not mind spending an extra hour venturing to two grocery stores instead of one to nab the best deals. You may, however, take the money saved and put it toward that landscaper in order to allocate more time for whatever makes you joyful. 

In short, there are no easy answers. We generally prioritize one thing over the other depending on our core values, but that can change at different times during our lives. If we know we can be happier putting more emphasis on our time than making money, though, maybe we should try it.

Love Your Time

Want to start valuing your time a little more because you believe it will make you happier? Whillans suggests changing the way you spend your money. Work fewer overtime hours, spring the extra $20 for a cab home if the bus is going to take longer, or go to the pricier grocery store that’s closer to your home so you have more time for things you enjoy.

“The key is making sure that in addition to using money to have more time, people also spend their free time in better ways,” Whillans says, adding that “better ways” would include devoting time to things that make you happy. For some of us that means lounging on a beach, while others want to spend time with family and friends. My guess is that you can make extra time but if the thing you do with it does not make you content, you probably won’t be happier in general. Being aware of what makes us genuinely happy is also a must so you can put that time to good use.

Another way to value your time is to let others know it. Let your clients know you clock off at 5 p.m. on Fridays to take the weekend off—then don’t respond to emails until Monday to prove your point. Be upfront about your time constrictions.

You may have a job at a company that wants to prove they value you by showing that they value your time.  Whillans is working with a few organizations to develop ways they can show they respect their employees’ time, and help them get more out of it. For example, one company assigns “do not disturb” time periods when internal instant messages cannot be sent.

“Providing employees with the ability not to check emails after 5 p.m., or rewarding employees for their hard work with extra vacation days, can send the signal to employees that their company cares about their personal time, thus enabling employees to empower themselves to prioritize their time versus having more money,” Whillans says.

http://www.success.com/blog/why-time-is-more-important-than-money

4 Lessons From TED Talks on How to Find Inner Calm and Happiness

Want a happier life? Stop rushing through it.


    

How much time do you intend to spend reading this post? A couple of minutes? A few seconds? The problem with our modern lives is that we're always pushing so hard to get our work done, visit that exciting new place, and connect with our many friends in social media and real life that we're in too much of a hurry to enjoy our own lives. Research shows that we actually work fewer hours on average than people did 50 years ago. And yet, we've never felt so rushed.

Something's wrong with this picture. To be effective at our jobs, with our friends, and in our families, we need to slow down and take the time to appreciate the world around us and our own lives. That's the life-saving message in a playlist of TED Talks about how to slow down by artists, monks, and journalists, including the incomparable Pico Iyer.

Take a little time yourself to slow down and watch a few of these thought-provoking talks. If you spend your life in a constant state of hurrying from one thing to another, you'll be really glad you did. Here's what some of these speakers have to say.

1. To enjoy a fast-moving life, you also have to sit still.

No one knows more about zooming from place to place than travel writer Pico Iyer. Yet in his talk, "The Art of Stillness," Iyer delves into one of his favorite topics-the importance of taking some time off-a few minutes a day, or a few days a year, or a few years in a lifetime-to sit still and stay quiet if only so that you can properly absorb, process, and appreciate all the sights and sounds and lessons of your hectic life.

"One of the first things you learn when you travel is that nowhere is magical unless you can bring the right eyes to it," Iyer says. "You take an angry man to the Himalayas, he just starts complaining about the food." Sitting still, he says, is the best way he's found to give himself the right eyes.

And so now, Iyer tries to take three days off several times a year to go on retreat. "A part of me still feels guilty to be leaving my poor wife behind and to be ignoring all those seemingly urgent emails from my bosses and maybe missing a friend's birthday party," he says. "But as soon as I get to a place of real quiet, I realize it's only by going there that I'll have anything fresh or creative or joyful to share with my wife or bosses or friends."

2. Sometimes you have to slow down.

"We used to dial; now we speed dial," slowness author Carl Honore says in this thoughtful talk. "We used to read; now we speed read. We used to walk; now we speed walk. And of course, we used to date and now we speed date." One magazine cover even promised to teach how to bring your partner to orgasm within 30 seconds.

All this unrelenting speed is good neither for our health, nor our society, nor our families, Honore explains. He realized this for himself when he found himself speed reading through a bedtime story to his small son. Since then, he's gotten in touch with his "inner tortoise," and become a slowness evangelist. The result, he says, is that he's happier, healthier and-perhaps surprisingly-more productive than ever.

Not only that, both father and son are enjoying bedtime stories much more now.

3. Spend 10 minutes in the present moment.

It's tough to do, and most of us have to think back a long ways to remember a time when we did absolutely nothing for ten whole minutes. That's too bad, says mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe in his talk. He spent years as a monk in the Himalayas. He learned "a greater appreciation and understanding for the present moment," he says. "By that I mean not being lost in thought, not being distracted, not being overwhelmed by difficult emotions, but instead learning how to be in the here and now, how to be mindful, how to be present."

You don't have to be a monk or sit in uncomfortable positions to start learning this for yourself, he adds. Begin with just 10 minutes a day.

4. Take a few minutes to watch an amazing performance.

In the spirit of slowing down, take a few minutes out of your overloaded day to watch artist Miwa Metreyek create a combination shadow and video performance to tell a meditative story about life, creation, and growth. And if you figure out how she created some of those layered effects, can you tell me?

http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/4-lessons-from-ted-talks-on-how-to-find-inner-calm-and-happiness.html

How to Think More Positively…..and Flourish

If you are like most people, you are constantly looking for happiness outside of yourself – and coming up short. The good news is, whatever your current circumstances, you possess inside you what it takes to reshape your life and the world around you for the better.

Positivity reigns whenever positive emotions are triggered – like love, joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, and  inspiration –  all can open your heart. But good feelings come and go; negative thoughts and emotions will undoubtedly creep into your life. To flourish, Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D. in her book, Positivity, says what matters most is to increase your quantity of positivity to increase your positivity ratio. Barbara suggests aiming for a positivity ratio of at least 3 to 1. This means that for every heart wrenching negative emotional experience you endure, you must aim to experience at least three heartfelt positive emotional experiences that uplift you. This is the ratio that Barbara finds to be the tipping point, predicting whether people languish or flourish.

Humans are not static; we are either on a positive trajectory or a negative one. Either we are growing in goodness, becoming more creative and resilient, or we’re solidifying our bad habits, becoming more stagnant and rigid. People who flourish function at extraordinary high levels – both psychologically and socially; they are more creative, joyful, and playful; they are eager to explore, learn, and savor; they are more able to open their hearts and minds to the world around them. But flourishing is not just about making yourself happy; it’s about doing something valuable with your day and with your life. Learning how to flourish will give you your best possible life. Positivity will help you get there.

Barbara writes about ten forms of positivity that have been proven through research to color people’s day to day lives the most. Whether you experience positivity or not depends vitally on how you think. Positive emotions – like all emotions – arise from how you interpret events and ideas as they unfold; this dependence on thinking is what makes positivity so fragile; our minds can be overloaded with worries, doubts, and demands. People who enjoy the sweet fruits of positive thinking understand this simple truth – we all have the power to turn positivity on and off for ourselves; we all have the power to flourish. Experiment with turning on the following ten forms of positivity in your life right now:

1)     Joy. Visualize your surroundings are safe and familiar; things are going your way – even better than you expected. At the moment the situation requires little effort on your part; these are the circumstances that spark joy. Imagine you are out to dinner with good friends and delighted in their good company. Joy feels bright and light; colors are more vivid; there is a spring in your step; your face lights up with a smile and inner glow. What brings you joy?

2)     Gratitude. We can feel grateful for the clean air we breathe, the food available to us, our health and able bodies, our families and friends, or having a safe and comfortable place to live. In any case, gratitude comes when we appreciate something that has come our way as a gift to be treasured. Gratitude opens our heart and the urge to give back. When was the last time you expressed gratitude for all of the beautiful things in your life?

3)     Serenity. Like joy, serenity enters when your surroundings are safe and familiar and require little effort on your part. It’s when you lay back on a shaded hammock, stroll on a sandy beach, work in your garden, take a relaxing boat ride, or curl up next to a warm fire. Serenity makes you want to sit back and soak it in. How often do you treat yourself to serenity?

4)     Interest. When you are interested you feel open and alive. Something new or different draws your attention, filling you with a sense of possibility or mystery; you are utterly fascinated; it’s when you uncover a new set of challenges that allow you to build new skills. The intense pull of interest beckons you to explore, to take in new ideas, and to learn more; it’s invigorating and exciting. Are you placing yourself in situations to spark your interest?

5)     Hope. Deep within the core of hope is the belief that things can change. No matter how awful your situation is at the moment, things can become better; possibilities exist. Hope sustains you; it keeps you from collapsing into despair; it inspires you to plan for a better future. What hopes do you have for your future?

6)     Pride. Pride blossoms in the wake of an achievement for which you can take credit; you invested your skills and effort and succeeded. It’s that good feeling you get when your hard work on a project or toward a goal which has paid off. Pride carries with it the urge to share the news of your achievements with others. The mindscape of pride is expansive as well; it kindles dreams of further and larger achievements in similar domains. In this way pride fuels the motivation to achieve. What make you proud? What can pride inspire you to do?

7)     Amusement. Sometimes something unexpected happens that simply makes you laugh. What brings amusement? First, amusement is social; laughter is generally something we share with another. Second, surprises are only amusing if they are embedded within safe contexts. So heartfelt amusement brings the irrepressible urge to laugh and share joviality with others; shared laughter signals that you find your situation to be safe and lighthearted and you would like to use this time to build connections with others. How often do you enjoy amusing social time with friends?

8)     Inspiration. Inspiration is a response you feel to seeing someone else do something extraordinarily well. Feeling inspired rivets your attention, warms your heart, and draws you in. Inspiration doesn’t simply feel good, it makes you want to express what is good and do good yourself. It creates the urge to do your best so that you can lift yourself to higher ground. Inspiration is a form of positivity that pulls us out of our shell of self-absorption. Who has inspired you lately? How often do you make a choice to be inspired?

9)     Awe. Awe is closely related to inspiration. Awe happens when you come across goodness on a grand scale; you literally feel overwhelmed by greatness. Awe makes boundaries melt away and you feel part of something larger than yourself. Mentally you are challenged to absorb the sheer scale of what you have encountered; by comparison, you feel small and humble. Sometimes we’re awed by nature, sometimes by humanity. What has transfixed you with awe?

10)Love. Often in close relationships, good feelings of love can stir our heart when we feel safe. Love can be felt when we share amusement and laughter together, when we share our hopes and dreams for the future with someone, when another person brings us great joy. The feelings of love are present when we sink back into serenity with another person, when we are grateful for having a certain person in our life, when we are as proud of their achievements as your own, and when we are inspired by their good qualities. Each of these moments could be described as a moment of love. Viewing love in this way can sharpen your ability to see love as a momentary state – as a surge – and not simply a description of a relationship. You may have several intimate relationships where they are each viewed as producing recurrent surges of love. Think of times when you have felt love surge within you; become more aware of love surges in the future to build feelings of positivity and flourish.

We all have a surprising amount of control over the emotions we feel. To feel positive emotions, you simply cannot “will it.” You must instead locate one of several quite specific levers to turn on positivity. This means you can “think something” as well as “do something” to rouse positivity. Each of these ten forms of positivity holds the ability to broaden and build your life. Each lays a pathway toward your higher ground. And as your positivity ratio reaches its tipping point, each helps you to flourish.

http://www.personalgrowthapproach.com/happiness/how-to-think-more-positively-and-flourish/

Grateful Living Practice

          The naturalness and simplicity of this practice 
                           are great advantages.

    

Gratefulness is a practice.  It is so simple and so common – so universal, really – to be grateful that we think, “That can’t be a practice like Zen or Yoga.”  But when you look carefully and when you make it your practice, it can be really on the same level as these great traditional practices.  And in a sense, it is a traditional practice.  If you just think of your mother, of your grandmother – maybe you even knew your great-grandmother, as I was lucky to know two of them – they were grateful people, and they taught you gratefulness.  So it comes to you in a less formal setting, but it really is a traditional practice that comes to you. 

The naturalness and simplicity of this practice are great advantages.  If you think of all the pain that you have to go through when you pretzel yourself in hatha yoga, being grateful is a lot easier!   Every other practice takes so long, and gratefulness doesn’t take very long at all.  If you make up your mind – “Okay, from now on it will be my practice” – and you start right now, this very moment,you will be a lot more joyful.  You can check it and find that it does something for you quite immediately.

You will find that what is essential for gratefulness remains the same in Zen, Yoga, any Christian practice, or any other practice.  The essence of being grateful is accepting what is.  Obviously we are not just talking about saying “Thank you” – we are talking about that inner gesture, that inner attitude from which saying “thank you” springs when it is genuine. 

That, of course, implies being in the now.   “What is, is always now,” as T.S. Eliot says so beautifully in The Four Quartets.  “The all is always now.”  That seems obvious, but it is very important to remind ourselves that All Is Always Now.  If it isn’t now, it isnot.  It was or will be, but it is not.  Whatever is, is now.  So accepting what is means being in the now, and being in the now means dissolving the illusion of our little ego.  And that’s the goal of all practices!  When you’re in the now, this little “me” dissolves, because it feeds on past and future. 

The little “me”, if you look at it, is made up of your past:  of all the things that you have done or that you pride yourself in, or all these groups that you belong to.  If somebody asks “Who are you?”  you will describe yourself as being Austrian or American or Hungarian:   That’s something in the past, where you come from.  Or that you will say that you have such-and-such a name and that means you belong to such-and-such a family.  Or you will mention all the things that you have suffered!  That little “me” has suffered so much and prides itself on always having suffered more than anybody else.  If you can’t be better than anybody else, you can at least be much worse than everybody else!  That’s also something of the past.

Sometimes it is difficult to track this little “me” down.  It’s quite evasive, because we identify with it.  One way of tracking it down is catching it when it complains.  It has a habit of complaining.

So that is how the ego shows itself in reference to the past.  And then there is the future:  the things that you expect and pin your hopes on, things that you will still accomplish.  “I will still accomplish enlightenment!”  That’s something for the future.  Well, that’s not the way it works.  If it isn’t now, don’t expect it coming later.  But this now is just what this little self is so afraid of, because if you are in the now, it vanishes.  The ego has no foothold in the now. 

So those are the three essential aspects of being grateful.  The first one is obvious:  accepting what is now.  Accepting what is.  The second:  Any given thing must be in the now, because if it is, it is in the now.   The third:  If you are grateful in the now – and where else can you be grateful? – your little self dissolves.  And that’s the goal of all practices.  So if you start being grateful, that’s what you’re in for. 

http://www.gratefulness.org/readings/dsr_grateful_practice.htm