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Posts Tagged ‘happiness’

What Makes Me Happy

Posted in mental health, tagged on May 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I’ve decided to write a quick list of what makes me happy. Here goes:

What makes me happy?

Clean cotton underwear

Clean sheets

A freshly cleaned house

The smell of coffee in the morning

The smell of lilacs in May

The smell of apple crisp baking

The wind calling the waves onto the shore  

Trees gently dancing in the breeze

That same breeze caressing my face on a hot day

The astounding colors of Autumn

A bright and brilliant starry night

A field of wildflowers

Grapenut hot fudge Sundays with extra nuts

The cry of a loon on Pocasset lake

Floating in Mill pond

A stroll through Detweiller’s or Trader Joes

A meditative walk at Thorncraig

Perched on the rocks at Reid

A good book

A delicious meal

An uplifting lecture   

My daughter’s face

My grandchildren’s delight

My son-in-law’s laughter

My husband’s embrace

A heart to heart talk

A visit with a dear friend

A snuggle with a happy dog

Communing with a butterfly, a bird, a tree

A full refrigerator

A full bookcase

A full moon

A full heart

What makes you happy?

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Nine Choices Extremely Happy People Make

Posted in good life, happiness, Inspiration, Journaling, mental health, positive psychology, writing, tagged , , , , on April 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

four women standing on mountain
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

In “How We Choose to be Happy,” authors Rick Foster and Greg Hicks identify Nine choices that extremely happy people make. What are those choices? According to Foster and Hicks the happiest people:

1. Consciously choose happiness over unhappiness
2. Choose to accept full responsibility for their thoughts, actions, and feelings
3. Choose to look deeply inside of themselves to determine what makes them uniquely happy vs. looking to others to learn what should make them happy
4. Choose to keep what makes them happy central in their lives
5. Choose to convert problems into opportunities and find meaning in even the most painful times
6. Choose to be open to new opportunities and remain flexible and ready to adapt when the unexpected occurs
7. Choose to possess a deep and ongoing appreciation for all that is good in their lives and to stay present focussed
8. Choose to give of themselves generously and without expectation of being rewarded
9. Choose to be honest with themselves and others

How many of these choices do you regularly make?  If you were to commit to making these nine choices every day, how might your life be different?  What might you be doing differently?  How might you be thinking and feeling differently?  I think I’ll make this my journal assignment for tonight.  Join me?

 

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Posted in mental health, tagged , , , , on May 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

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Becoming Holy: Three Questions to Ask Each Day

Posted in awe and wonder, good life, happiness, healing, hope, Inspiration, meaning, positive psychology, resiliance, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I listened to a talk by Jean Houston on Gaiam TV today and was moved tremendously by one observation she made in particular. She noted that each of us gets wounded during our life times, and that if we live long enough, we become so full of holes that we ultimately become holy.

My own life has taught me that my wounds will ultimately diminish or enrich me, depending largely upon whether I meet them with a closed fist or an open heart. I’ve also come to understand to my amazement that an ordinary day can be transformed from the mundane to the holy not so much by what happens during the course of it, but by what questions I choose to ask of myself when I first encounter it.

Michael Beckwith urges us to ask the following three questions each and every day.

How can I grow?

How can I give?

What can I celebrate?

I’ve found that every morning that I ask myself these three questions and then commit to living the answers by the end of the day, my life is so much more likely to be experienced as the profound gift that it is.

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The Surprising Science Behind Happiness

Posted in good life, happiness, mental health, positive psychology, tagged , , on May 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

In a short TED talk, Nancy Etcoff, evolutionary psychologist and faculty member at Harvard Medical school, discusses (among other things) what cognitive science can tell us about the ways in which we attempt to achieve and increase our happiness, how surprisingly little it has to do with our circumstances, and its effects on our bodies. Some of what she shares may very well surprise you.

Here’s one brief quote from her talk, “…people are happiest when in flow, when they’re absorbed in something out in the world, when they’re with other people, when they’re active, engaged in sports, focusing on a loved one, learning, having sex, whatever. They’re not sitting in front of the mirror trying to figure themselves out, or thinking about themselves. These are not the periods when you feel happiest…”

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One of the Greatest Discoveries of Our Era

Posted in good life, happiness, healing, hope, mental health, positive psychology, resiliance, transformation, tagged , , , on March 26, 2012| 1 Comment »

Diane Ackerman wrote in the New York Times, “A relatively new field, called interpersonal neurobiology, draws its vigor from one of the great discoveries of our era: that the brain is constantly rewiring itself based on daily life. In the end, what we pay the most attention to defines us. How you choose to spend the irreplaceable hours of your life literally transforms you.” A message well worth reminding ourselves of daily.

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What Can Offer You More Money, Power, Freedom, Greater Health and Can Help Save the World? Ask Roger Doiron.

Posted in collective action, community, consumerism, happiness, health, hope, shared abundance, simple living, sustainability, tagged , , , , on December 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In a funny, thought provoking, (sometimes scary) and inspiring TED talk of less than 20 minutes, Roger Doiron (one of Maine’s own) shares how growing our own gardens can improve our health and well-being, increase our wealth, power and freedom, and help save the world. Here are just three of the many facts that Doiron shares during his talk:

Around the world both Hunger AND obesity is on the rise

To keep up with our expanding population, more food will need to be grown over the next fifty years than has been produced thus far during the past 10,000 years COMBINED and we will need to produce this food with LESS – less oil, water, soil, climate stability and time.

Our yards need not simply be yards, they can truly be full service green grocers!

You might want to visit Doiron’s wonderful site, Kitchen Gardners International: A Global Community Cultivating Change where you’ll find information, community, recipes, resources and more.

Here’s just a very small taste of what this website can offer you:

How to plant a garden in the snow
How to give Eco-friendly and budget-friendly gifts
How to connect with and learn from other gardners in your community and around the world
How new low tech technology can assist in growing food in arid environments

Disclaimer: I do not personally know or have ever had contact with Roger Doiron. I simply believe in his work and want to promote it. I firmly believe in the healing power of both nature and community, healthy eating, and living sustainably, consciously, and responsibly.

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Money, Generosity and Happiness

Posted in good life, happiness, health, money, tagged , , , on December 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Economist and professor, John Jelliwell, presented an excellent talk at the Dali Lama Center entitled, “Money, Generosity, and Happiness.” The talk is only 20 minutes long and I believe it’s well worth the time it takes to watch.

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Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy

Posted in american pathology, consumerism, happiness, tagged , , , , on December 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I found this cartoon at theragblog.blogspot.com

In Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy James A. Roberts explores the hidden motivations and false assumptions that fuel our over spending and explains how we can free ourselves from the devastating consequences of materialism.

In the first chapter of his book, Dr. Roberts writes, “It is my hope that reading this book will give you the time, space and motivation to examine your day-to-day behaviour in a way that our hectic lives rarely allow. Some of the studies and statistics I’ll share may surprise you. Some may sound like they’re describing someone else. But they all speak to one undeniable truth: as consumers, we’re not who we think we are. It’s time to bridge the gap between what we say and what we do. It’s time to recommit ourselves to the kind of pursuits that are the true source of our well-being: spending time with loved ones, reaching our full potential as human beings, and participating actively in our world. No small task, but one well worth the effort: our happiness lies in the balance.”

During this season of high stress and high consumption, I highly recommend this book.

You can Listen to him speaking about his book at Consumerism Commentary

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On Letting Go of the Past and Being Happy Today

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I sat with a young woman recenlty who continues to suffer from events that occurred long ago. She shared with me that she longs to be happy, but doesn’t know how. Of course, there is no simple answer that I can offer her. There is a quote by Robert Holden that I shared with her on that achingly beautiful late summer morning, one in which there was no place that she needed to go, and nothing on the afternoon’s agenda that she needed to do. The rest of the day was hers to shape as she chose. The quote was, ““Suffering is a decision not to let go of the past yet. Happiness is a decision to step into the present now.”

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