Happiness is a Way of Life

Are you happy? What makes you happy? During this time of war and social conflict it is easy to see that many around us are paranoid and suffer from anxiety and depression. If you are one of these people, there are things you can do to tame your fears and get a new outlook on life in a world filled with strife.

The first thing you need to do is turn off your television, especially if you are addicted to the world news channels. Day or night, turning on the news is enough to depress anyone. Limit your world news viewing to once a week. This way you can keep up with current events without draining your spirit daily with sadness. If you pay attention, many shows you may be watching are filled with violence and intense drama that will affect your emotions negatively. Limit your exposure to these shows and take time to rent some funny flicks instead to make you laugh. Laughter is great medicine when you feel down.

The money-hungry world around us leads us to believe that money will buy you happiness. Certainly having enough money to pay our bills on time and put food on our tables is important. However, most people never feel satisfied with what they have. They always feel like they can never get enough. There will always be those who have more than you. Truly happy people don't follow their money. They follow their passions. Happy people don't sacrifice family time, friends, or leisure time for the mighty dollar. Happy people are happy with what they have, even if they are relatively poor.

Realize that you can not change the past. Memories will stay with you forever, good or bad. Don't let bad memories make you a victim. Bad things that have happened to you can help you build inner wisdom and motivate you to do better things. When bad memories get in your way, don't let them remain roadblocks in your life. Get out there a live your life to its fullest. Your spirit will thank you.

Sometimes you can not overcome your weaknesses. Instead, focus on building your strengths. If you maintain focus on your weaknesses you will only be feeding your fears. Realize that some weaknesses are disguised as strengths. Perfectionism, materialistic ambition, desire for domination, and status seeking are all weaknesses. Don't let yourself be fooled by these things. Become strong in the important things in life like good parenting, family, and enjoying healthy activities such as exercise and sports. Taking care of you and those around you will diminish your weaknesses.

Don't try to force happiness. You can't just decide to be happy. Happiness does not come easily. The 12 most important qualities of happiness are: love, optimism, courage, a sense of freedom, security, health, spirituality, altruism, perspective, humor, purpose, and pro-activity (work toward your happiness, don't wait for it to happen to you). Keep a nice expression on your face. If you look ornery you are likely to feel that way. Put a smile on your face to give yourself an instantly happier stature.

Appreciation will lift your spirits. This is the art of having a love that asks for nothing and gives everything. Maintain your freedom. You can do this by choosing the appropriate path for you and not allowing others to do it for you. Choice is your voice from your heart and without it you can not be happy. Along with choice is having personal power. This is taking responsibility for yourself and taking action because your life belongs to you. Do something about it. Lead with your strengths, not your weaknesses. There is great power in our language and stories. If we choose to make a horror story out of our lives then that is what it will be. Using positive thinking and language will give us a happily-ever-after effect in our lives. Make your story a brilliant one.