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Click here for happiness!

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
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Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
A better word than happiness?

Eudaimonia
is an Ancient Greek word, particularly emphasised by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, that deserves wider currency because it corrects the shortfalls in one of the most central, governing but insufficient terms in our contemporary idiom: happiness.

When we nowadays try to articulate the purpose of our lives, it is to the word happiness we commonly have recourse. We tell ourselves and others that the ultimate rationale for our jobs, our relationships and the conduct of our day to day lives is the pursuit of happiness. It sounds like an innocent enough idea, but excessive reliance on the term means that we are frequently unfairly tempted to exit or at least heavily question a great many testing but worthwhile situations.

Comes from this site -

A Better Word than Happiness: Eudaimonia -

:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Questioning the thoughts that cause pain -

In this article, I want to share a practice so powerful that I devote an entire chapter to it in my book, How to Be Sick. It’s a technique developed by a teacher (who’s not Buddhist) named Byron Katie. She calls it “inquiry” or “four questions and a turnaround.”

At the outset, it helps to recognize that the mind is going to think what it’s going to think. Trying to control the thoughts that arise in your mind is a losing battle. What matters to your well-being is not which thoughts arise but how you respond to them. If you can learn to respond skillfully, you’re much more likely to keep a stressful thought from turning into a full-blown stressful story.

Here are Byron Katie’s four questions—questions to ask yourself when you recognize that you’re caught in the net of a stressful thought:

For the resto of his article -

You Don’t Have to Believe Your Thoughts

:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
You don't have to believe your thoughts -

We all have a picture of ourselves in our minds. A picture of what we believe we are like. A picture we choose to believe no matter what.

We can cling to this idea about ourselves all we want, but that will not make it true. This is not as easy to realize and even harder to accept, but it’s an important step toward a conscious life.

I believe we all go through dark phases when our image of ourselves breaks and we start thinking less of ourselves. This phase can pass after some time if we let it, but if we insist on clinging to the picture of ourselves in our minds, it will be harder to get through it.

How Distorted Thinking Increases Stress and Anxiety

Enjoy!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Challenge distorted thinking -

I learned about cognitive distortions in the 1990s from a book by David Burns called Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. I’d just moved from the faculty wing at U.C. Davis’ law school to serve as the dean of students. I knew how to teach law…but I didn’t feel competent to help students who were struggling emotionally.

When I shared my concerns with a therapist friend, she recommended Feeling Good. She said it would help me recognize when students were engaged in distorted thinking patterns that were increasing their stress and anxiety. I don’t know who benefitted more from the book: the students or me personally!

How Distorted Thinking Increases Stress and Anxiety

Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Why do we believe that we must feel confident and inspired, have all the answers, and be buoyant in order to be our best, or at least to “be okay”?

We are only human after all, and nothing in our instruction manuals or in our description before we were born promises that we will always be perfect and shiny. Yet, we carry this unrealistic pressure on ourselves to be so and often berate ourselves for falling short any time a bad mood strikes.

It’s tempting to only put our best foot forward. For example, on Facebook, we can often share our sunshine-y moments proudly but may be less apt to proclaim as boldly when we are feeling negative.

If not for wanting to hide our own seemingly fruitless negativity from others and even ourselves, we might also fear spreading the bad mood to others.

We often forget that it actually gives others joy to be able to help, and it is often necessary to reach out, since “joy shared is doubled and grief shared is halved.”

Read more -

Embracing Our Darkness: We Don’t Always Have to Be Happy

:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
I cannot change you. I cannot change other people. So I have decided to put all of my energy where I have the most leverage , where I know I can make a difference. Instead of being upset that this world is not populated the way I want it to be populated, I have decided to become the citizen that I want the world to be populated with. That's how I create the vision.

From this site -

Gary Zukav Quote

Enjoy your day!

:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Happiness change world -

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman

When I was eight years old I saw a news report on a war. A wounded woman was crying on a stretcher, and soldiers were carrying guns running around her. Up until that point I had thought war was like dragons or knights in armor. It was fictional or happened a long, long time ago. I couldn’t believe it was real.

At that realization, my experience of life changed. It felt like it was no longer okay to just be; I had to do something. There was something wrong with the world, and I had to do something to fix it.

Read the full-article -

Your Happiness Can Make a Difference in the World

Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Happiness don't hold grudges -

To begin with, grudges come with an identity. With our grudge intact, we know who we are—a person who was “wronged.” As much as we don’t like it, there also exists a kind of rightness and strength in this identity. We have something that defines us—our anger and victimhood—which gives us a sense of solidness and purpose. We have definition and a grievance that carries weight. To let go of our grudge, we have to be willing to let go of our identity as the “wronged” one, and whatever strength, solidity, or possible sympathy and understanding we receive through that “wronged” identity. We have to be willing to drop the “I” who was mistreated and step into a new version of ourselves, one we don’t know yet, that allows the present moment to determine who we are, not past injustice.

Why We Hold Grudges, and How to Let Them Go

Looks an interesting blog?

Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Being happy and optimistic doesn't mean you don't experience fear. Happy people fear failure just as much as anybody. The difference is they do it afraid anyway, and as a result, build their self-esteem and confidence. They have an indifferent, almost detached approach to failure - as though if it happens, it's not due to their limited ability or incompetence. They have the ability to attribute failure to factors other than themselves, for example it may not have been the right time, or someone else had more experience.

Comes from here -

Don't hold a grudge and 14 other secrets to happiness.

:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Happiness is not just about how you think about life overall, but your experiences during it. Much of what we know about how to be happy comes from studies that use big questions about how satisfied we are with life in general. In fact, we should be paying more attention to our experiences, moment to moment. These experiences can capture the richness of our daily lives, which includes the purpose and futility we feel as well as more “emotional” states of pleasure and pain.

Comes from this list -

How to be happy: expert advice

:)
 
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