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,

Humanology

http://www.jessicajlockhart.com/en More information on my YouTube channel as well: http://youtube.com/jessicajlockhart

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jessica_J_Lockhart/2431530

By Jessica J Lockhart
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How to Be Happy - Secrets to Happiness

Path to Happiness (Be Yourself)

Before I begin to share my knowledge and experience in this, I want to make it clear that I am not a highly learned individual, nor am I a reincarnation of such beings who has limitless wisdom throughout many lifetimes. This disclaimer is important, because the article is about the real you, and not someone who you'd want to be. In modern society, the scholars and pundits preach that, you should NEVER show your weakness or admit that you don't know. They consider it as a weakness and that you are setting yourself up for a failure from the beginning. But that's different in the philosophy that I practice. In my case, we were always taught to present yourself as inferior to the next person (perception is not reality), to show respect to all beings, to learn as much as you can to be better, so you can help limitless sentient beings. The danger of acting like you know everything, is that some in today's world will take it too far and stop learning. That's when it could become a tragedy. When reality sink in, and they realize that they are no better than the next person, or that they aren't well liked by others, then they resort to unimaginable things, which is a discussion for another topic. So we need to be honest with ourselves and be who we are, in order to find happiness.

So who am I and what is it that I'd like to share with you? I am a simple person just like your friends, who just happened to practice love, compassion, tolerance, un-attachment and contentment in my everyday life, to live a simple, happy, and a contented life. Over the past 40 years, I have learned to follow and practice those principles; while making mistakes, and correcting them. The goal is to become just a little smarter, happier, and more compassionate in my everyday life. I still make "unintentional" mistakes here and there, but doing my best to correct them, with remorse, and try not to repeat them again. It's like climbing a ladder of truth, without supervision. This is the foundation of seeking happiness. You need to be you, and you need to be honest with yourself. If you can't do that, then you need to be a good actor to deceive yourself, and people around you; and constantly be the person that you really aren't. That's an extremely difficult job. It's just a matter of time. Either you'll fail at it someday or someone will expose the real you and the real truth. Then instead of finding happiness, you create your own sorrow.

So what do you do, when pain and suffering strikes? How can you be you, and still tackle suffering and find happiness? How can you find happiness without pretending to be someone else? We know the easiest thing to do in such situation is to resolve to external things, beauty, and pleasure. But those are all temporary fixes to a non-temporary situation. Some advice others to renounce themselves, and take on another life, another name, and be someone else to find happiness. Some do it voluntarily to leave the self behind and become a completely different identity, with the hope that they'll leave the sorrow and pain behind as well. This is extremely dangerous. If my brother was having a difficult time in life, I wouldn't suggest him to change his name to Bill Gates, and act like Bill Gates, try to follow some religion or faith, and act like that is the savior. It's a very dangerous path that you lead someone into. Out of 1 million people who follow such advice, only 10 individuals may come out on the other side a little happier and more knowledgeable in dealing with suffering. Rest of the 999,990 will fail in such conversion and acting. This will lead to many devastating results. You may lose your family, friends, career and your precious time of your life pretending to be someone else. Worst case scenario, when you come back to the reality, would you be able to handle the reality of life again? Reality of life is Joy, Suffering, Happiness, and Pain. It's part of life. There's no escaping from that. All that glitters is not gold. You may see and envy people in power or people with money living an extravagant life. All you see is what's on the outside. You do not see their mental stress and problems. They go through the exact same joy, happiness, pain, and suffering in their life and their family's lives as we do. You need to understand that. So you can't be envious of other's glamour on Instagram or on TV. In most cases, this is exactly what they wanted you to see. Who in the world will showcase their family, business, and career problems on Instagram and TV? No one will do that. But everyone has these own issues in one form or the other. So there's no point in envying them, renouncing your life for someone else's. It won't bring you the eternal happiness.

So then how can you find the true happiness by being who you are? To practice this, you first need to come to terms with the reality of life. Reality of life is not all happiness and all fun, as mentioned before. It also has the negative side to it, which is pain and sorrow. After we accept the reality of life, then we need to find out how to avoid them, followed by how to deal with them as they come or arise. A lot of our problems are self-made. Of course those who cannot accept such statement will always find others to blame for the problems they "unintentionally" created in the first place. Let's take a simple example of stress in a business world. For a sales guy, stress in business is usually a result of not achieving the sales goals. Now the goals are set by us, humans. So you see where it's going? This is closely tied with our inability as a society to understand and practice contentment. In most cases, if you have made a decent profit in business, you shall celebrate. Now, due to our greed, we set high sales goals, and every day of our life, when we don't make that goal, we become sad and stressed. In all these days, the business is making profit, and can still function. But the only reason we are not satisfied is because of the high bar we created for ourselves. So such is a simple example of how our stress and problems are created. This is why I say that most of our stresses and issues are man-made or self-made. Now when such stress continue on a daily basis, the sales person will go home and show this unhappy attitude at home to wife and children as well. In process, he's making them all miserable. And is all caused by the human greed and not practicing contentment. There is a legitimate reason for us to feel sad, and that is when we don't succeed in business. This means, when the business is not making profit, then it's a legitimate cause for concern. In such problem, there are other solutions, which we can talk about another time. But in this example, the cause of our self-made stress is greed and our inability to practice contentment.

There are many more example of these problems that we create for ourselves in our daily lives, in many different professions. But today I just wanted to focus on finding happiness by being true to yourself and accepting the realities of life first. Always remember that the key to happiness is not located anywhere else in the world, but in your own heart. Sometimes we think money solves problems. No, trust me. Money brings temporary relief in some practical cases, but the problems of life will still be with us. So we need to be true to ourselves, in our abilities, and most importantly, we need to always find ways to better ourselves, so we can understand the true causes of our problems, and we strive to find solutions to each one of them.

May my observations and experiences help you in finding and identifying the causes of your various stresses and dealing with them in the most appropriate manner. Everything takes time. So learn by your mistake, and try not to make the same mistake again, which will eliminate one problem and stress at a time.

By Tashi Vajra

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tashi_Vajra/2539555

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How to Be Happy - Secrets to Happiness

15 Habits of Extremely Happy People

Happiness is every person's goal in life. Even though most people have no idea of what to do to be happy and what happiness really adds up to. We all strive to stay relevant to our goal.

1. They are not self-absorbed

This is a person that generally does not make everything about themselves. They are open-minded and allow their thinking to go beyond their heads. They welcome other people's suggestions and criticism. They don't take other people's opinions about them personally. They build their character based on well-thought out choices and opinions. They positively accept correction from people and also appreciate other people's way of life.

2. They are appreciative and contented

Being contented and showing appreciation is a character trait that most people don't have. They take a lot of things for granted not knowing they deprive themselves of the small joys of the world. Being able to appreciate someone else for how they have dressed, made their hair, their new pair of shoes, being able to see the other person laugh and smile and having contributed to them having a nice day is even a greater way of being happy.

3. Making alone time and meditating

This is a vital part of being happy and knowing yourself better. Having alone time helps one check on their character, know what makes them happy, sad, set life goals, etc. When meditating, one learns what to focus on with life, what makes their life better and how to better themselves. Making sure to have some alone time also keeps someone in a peaceful mood and helps them to face their fears.

4. Doing things that make them genuinely happy

Being happy is a full-time job, so each of us needs to find what genuinely makes them happy and avoid hypocrisy. Doing what genuinely makes you happy will help someone from harboring hate and toxic feelings caused by forced happiness and pretending to be happy for everyone else's sake. Most people have an illusion of happiness and they don't try and find genuine happiness or what activities genuinely make them happy. So they end up feeling unfulfilled and sad. So, finding genuine activities that make you happy is a great step to being extremely happy.

5. Having a positive attitude towards life

Life brings a lot of challenges with it and the sad part is life challenges are inevitable. People have to find better ways to cope with that. People with positive mindsets have it easier when difficulties come to their path. They see problems as challenges that they have to face to pass a given stage and enable them to relate to things in a better way. Those who are afraid of challenges will always feel condemned and sad because they never know their way through.

6. Being at peace with yourself, friends, associates, and family

You should try, as much as possible, to be at peace with those close to you. These include friends, family, work associates and, even your partner. These people play a major role, what they do can directly affect.

7. Enjoying every moment

Most people take for granted moments spent with other people; either playing, out for coffee or chilling in the house and even time spent with their family. They fail to maximize the fun they would have had during these times. This is also a way of harboring regrets and unfulfilled moments that people have. Hence having bad days and tough times.

8. Respecting yourself and not settling for mediocre

People who know what they want in life don't settle. They know their purpose, set goals and work towards them. Despite the challenges they might face on their way to success, such people don't give up. They are grounded and they don't settle for mediocre results that are unfulfilling to them. They know their self-worth and they work at achieving what they set their minds to.

9. Staying healthy

Health is a major contributor to happiness. This entails having good eating habits. Make sure you have a balanced diet, take lots of water and make sure your meals are hygienically prepared. This will help you avoid sicknesses and stay healthy. Exercises also helps people stay in shape and avoid diseases caused by unhealthy eating, it also helps someone unwind and feel relaxed. Ensuring one is clean by bathing, putting on makeup, perfume. This helps boost someone's confidence and makes them feel good about themselves.

10. Rewarding and feeling good about yourself

Everyone loves gifts and being appreciated. Most people forget that you can buy yourself gifts, appreciate yourself and feel good about it. We all have our shameful struggles or our bad habits that we aren't proud of. When you stop a bad habit and no one notices, treat yourself out, buy yourself some new belt. People might not know how big a deal the situation was or how much you struggled with it. Awarding, and giving yourself credit for it, is not a bad thing. This will help you see yourself as an achiever and will also boost your self-confidence.

11. Surrounding yourself with people and things that bring positivity in your life

The people and things someone surrounds themselves with say a lot about them. They highly contribute to someone's character and thinking. If you surround yourself with people who are always about the positive side of life and encouraging one another to be better versions of themselves, then there are high chances that that is the kind of person you will be. This character building technique is important in our lives. You should be careful who you relate with because they influence you in a wonderful way.

12. Treating people with kindness, respect and being happy for them

One can create happiness by seeing other people happy. This is also a way of trying to live a fulfilling life. Help people out when you can, reach out to them when they need your help. Visit the patients in hospitals, help out in orphanages, give food to the homeless. You feel fulfilled when you are able to make someone smile and be happy. Treat your friend who delivered a presentation. These are some of the ways in which being kind and helpful to others can bring to you happiness through these simple gestures.

13. Not comparing yourself with other people

Comparing yourself, your personal achievements and successes with those of other people is not a healthy way of being happy. Most people forget that everyone is totally different from others and we all have different struggles in life. Comparing yourself to other people is an injustice to yourself and you end up degrading yourself and end up leading some sad, unmeaningful life. You should try and better yourself from what you have. You should not consider another person's success makes them better than you for any reason. Focus on bettering yourself on what makes you happy and fulfilled. Make your own path to achieving your goals and dreams.

14. Have life-improving goals

Most people settle for what they are offered even when deep down they know it is not what they want or deserve. This ends up making them feel less of a person or not fully recognized by people. Make sure you set goals that help you become a better person. Either mentally, financially or physically. Strive to make the best out of yourself and when faced with challenges don't despair. Make the best out of your worst experiences.

15. Allowing yourself to be human

We focus so much on other people and make considerations for them rather than for ourselves. We forget that we also hurt, feel, cry and make mistakes. A lot of people are so focused on their mistakes and setbacks, they forget that they also fall, fail and make mistakes, which is okay. They should accept that mistakes are inevitable, and you can always make the best out of them and learn something. Forgive yourself as often as possible, accept your faults and apologize when needed, or when you know you are at fault. Don't forget, you are just as human as everyone else and, just like them, you also can make mistakes and be at fault.

Conclusion

We are all entitled to being happy and finding fulfillment in whatever we decide to do with our lives. People should realize their happiness solely depends on their choices and perception about life and what it brings with it.

BiggieTips - Tips and Tricks for your daily life ( http://www.biggietips.com )

We are dedicated to BIG TIPS to help you get things done more efficiently. You will master how to do everything in a bigger way and live smarter. Topics include Home, Health, Lifestyle, Travel, Technology, Entertainment, Business and Video.

* Facebook @BiggieTips

* Twitter @BiggieTips

* Pinterest @BiggieTips

* eBook http://www.biggietips.com/ebook/

Our eBook series will be a collection of Tips and Tricks from our website. If you are an Amazon KU (Kindle Unlimited) subscriber or Prime member, you are eligible to enjoy our eBook for free.

By Bob Tom

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bob_Tom/2362899

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9975274
http://ezinearticles.com/?15-Habits-of-Extremely-Happy-People&id=9975274

15 Habits of Extremely Happy People

Happiness is every person's goal in life. Even though most people have no idea of what to do to be happy and what happiness really adds up to. We all strive to stay relevant to our goal.

1. They are not self-absorbed

This is a person that generally does not make everything about themselves. They are open-minded and allow their thinking to go beyond their heads. They welcome other people's suggestions and criticism. They don't take other people's opinions about them personally. They build their character based on well-thought out choices and opinions. They positively accept correction from people and also appreciate other people's way of life.

2. They are appreciative and contented

Being contented and showing appreciation is a character trait that most people don't have. They take a lot of things for granted not knowing they deprive themselves of the small joys of the world. Being able to appreciate someone else for how they have dressed, made their hair, their new pair of shoes, being able to see the other person laugh and smile and having contributed to them having a nice day is even a greater way of being happy.

3. Making alone time and meditating

This is a vital part of being happy and knowing yourself better. Having alone time helps one check on their character, know what makes them happy, sad, set life goals, etc. When meditating, one learns what to focus on with life, what makes their life better and how to better themselves. Making sure to have some alone time also keeps someone in a peaceful mood and helps them to face their fears.

4. Doing things that make them genuinely happy

Being happy is a full-time job, so each of us needs to find what genuinely makes them happy and avoid hypocrisy. Doing what genuinely makes you happy will help someone from harboring hate and toxic feelings caused by forced happiness and pretending to be happy for everyone else's sake. Most people have an illusion of happiness and they don't try and find genuine happiness or what activities genuinely make them happy. So they end up feeling unfulfilled and sad. So, finding genuine activities that make you happy is a great step to being extremely happy.

5. Having a positive attitude towards life

Life brings a lot of challenges with it and the sad part is life challenges are inevitable. People have to find better ways to cope with that. People with positive mindsets have it easier when difficulties come to their path. They see problems as challenges that they have to face to pass a given stage and enable them to relate to things in a better way. Those who are afraid of challenges will always feel condemned and sad because they never know their way through.

6. Being at peace with yourself, friends, associates, and family

You should try, as much as possible, to be at peace with those close to you. These include friends, family, work associates and, even your partner. These people play a major role, what they do can directly affect.

7. Enjoying every moment

Most people take for granted moments spent with other people; either playing, out for coffee or chilling in the house and even time spent with their family. They fail to maximize the fun they would have had during these times. This is also a way of harboring regrets and unfulfilled moments that people have. Hence having bad days and tough times.

8. Respecting yourself and not settling for mediocre

People who know what they want in life don't settle. They know their purpose, set goals and work towards them. Despite the challenges they might face on their way to success, such people don't give up. They are grounded and they don't settle for mediocre results that are unfulfilling to them. They know their self-worth and they work at achieving what they set their minds to.

9. Staying healthy

Health is a major contributor to happiness. This entails having good eating habits. Make sure you have a balanced diet, take lots of water and make sure your meals are hygienically prepared. This will help you avoid sicknesses and stay healthy. Exercises also helps people stay in shape and avoid diseases caused by unhealthy eating, it also helps someone unwind and feel relaxed. Ensuring one is clean by bathing, putting on makeup, perfume. This helps boost someone's confidence and makes them feel good about themselves.

10. Rewarding and feeling good about yourself

Everyone loves gifts and being appreciated. Most people forget that you can buy yourself gifts, appreciate yourself and feel good about it. We all have our shameful struggles or our bad habits that we aren't proud of. When you stop a bad habit and no one notices, treat yourself out, buy yourself some new belt. People might not know how big a deal the situation was or how much you struggled with it. Awarding, and giving yourself credit for it, is not a bad thing. This will help you see yourself as an achiever and will also boost your self-confidence.

11. Surrounding yourself with people and things that bring positivity in your life

The people and things someone surrounds themselves with say a lot about them. They highly contribute to someone's character and thinking. If you surround yourself with people who are always about the positive side of life and encouraging one another to be better versions of themselves, then there are high chances that that is the kind of person you will be. This character building technique is important in our lives. You should be careful who you relate with because they influence you in a wonderful way.

12. Treating people with kindness, respect and being happy for them

One can create happiness by seeing other people happy. This is also a way of trying to live a fulfilling life. Help people out when you can, reach out to them when they need your help. Visit the patients in hospitals, help out in orphanages, give food to the homeless. You feel fulfilled when you are able to make someone smile and be happy. Treat your friend who delivered a presentation. These are some of the ways in which being kind and helpful to others can bring to you happiness through these simple gestures.

13. Not comparing yourself with other people

Comparing yourself, your personal achievements and successes with those of other people is not a healthy way of being happy. Most people forget that everyone is totally different from others and we all have different struggles in life. Comparing yourself to other people is an injustice to yourself and you end up degrading yourself and end up leading some sad, unmeaningful life. You should try and better yourself from what you have. You should not consider another person's success makes them better than you for any reason. Focus on bettering yourself on what makes you happy and fulfilled. Make your own path to achieving your goals and dreams.

14. Have life-improving goals

Most people settle for what they are offered even when deep down they know it is not what they want or deserve. This ends up making them feel less of a person or not fully recognized by people. Make sure you set goals that help you become a better person. Either mentally, financially or physically. Strive to make the best out of yourself and when faced with challenges don't despair. Make the best out of your worst experiences.

15. Allowing yourself to be human

We focus so much on other people and make considerations for them rather than for ourselves. We forget that we also hurt, feel, cry and make mistakes. A lot of people are so focused on their mistakes and setbacks, they forget that they also fall, fail and make mistakes, which is okay. They should accept that mistakes are inevitable, and you can always make the best out of them and learn something. Forgive yourself as often as possible, accept your faults and apologize when needed, or when you know you are at fault. Don't forget, you are just as human as everyone else and, just like them, you also can make mistakes and be at fault.

Conclusion

We are all entitled to being happy and finding fulfillment in whatever we decide to do with our lives. People should realize their happiness solely depends on their choices and perception about life and what it brings with it.

BiggieTips - Tips and Tricks for your daily life ( http://www.biggietips.com )

We are dedicated to BIG TIPS to help you get things done more efficiently. You will master how to do everything in a bigger way and live smarter. Topics include Home, Health, Lifestyle, Travel, Technology, Entertainment, Business and Video.

* Facebook @BiggieTips

* Twitter @BiggieTips

* Pinterest @BiggieTips

* eBook http://www.biggietips.com/ebook/

Our eBook series will be a collection of Tips and Tricks from our website. If you are an Amazon KU (Kindle Unlimited) subscriber or Prime member, you are eligible to enjoy our eBook for free.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bob_Tom/2362899

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9975274
http://ezinearticles.com/?15-Habits-of-Extremely-Happy-People&id=9975274