Click here for happiness!

[Geoff-Allen]

How to Write Your Life Manifesto, and Why It Will Change Your Life

As we walk through life, it is easy to drift off towards everything and anything that calls for our attention. It can be challenging to keep our energy where it is most needed. We can easily get distracted and side-tracked in life. That’s why writing a personal life manifesto is so important. It’s like anchoring your visions and values. You are forced to take inventory, to open your heart, to dream big and to evaluate what your goals are.

For me, this opened the door to my healing on all levels. The day I realized I was in charge of my future, though my intentions and values, my whole perception of life changed.

How do you see your life? What do you believe in, and what will you spend this lifetime accomplishing or being?

Full article -

How to Write Your Life Manifesto, and Why It Will Change Your Life

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

A few quotes about wonder -

The job of a teacher is to excite in the young a boundless sense
of curiosity about life, so that the growing child shall come to
apprehend it with an excitement tempered by awe and wonder.

John Garrett

Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder; as if creation rose,
bathed in the light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and
astonishing. The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.

Eugene Ionesco

Many more quotes etc at this site -

quotes, quotations and nice thoughts on wonder

Enjoy!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Beginning the life-long adventure of knowing ourselves on a deep and honest level can feel daunting, but it can be the most important step we’ll ever take – and the most rewarding path we can continue down.

We are likely to find that our level of contentment is more closely connected with our responses to situations, than to the situations themselves. As such, knowing how we view ourselves, other people, and the world will pay greater dividends than a resolute quest to obtain a certain external prize.

The better we know our true selves, the better our relationships will be. Also, we’ll make better use of our time, energy, and resources, because we’ll have a clearer sense on where to focus our time and energy, and to what we can say “no, thank you”.

It can be helpful to put aside an hour or two on a regular basis, perhaps weekly, to get alone with your thoughts and ponder some of the following questions.

Read them here -

31 Soul-Searching Questions To Ask Yourself

 

[Geoff-Allen]

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

~ Charles R. Swindoll

Are you sensitive, prone to feeling resentment, rejection, disapproval, or disappointment? Then you’re taking things personally, and you know how much it hurts.

It’s one of the human experiences that cuts deep, and we often have trouble finding our way out.

I used to feel personally offended if someone was late or he didn’t call or the feedback I got was less than stellar. At times, it seemed like everywhere I turned, someone was trying hurt my feelings. And, although I didn’t know it, I was a willing participant.

Comes from this site -

It's Not Personal

Check-out her archives -

Archive | Dr. Gail Brenner

Enjoy!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Many more here -

Confession - Leunig

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

High existence happiness - plus their menus? -

I spent my entire life searching for the secret to happiness.

I was fascinated by the topic, as I had been a self-described “victim” of depression for my entire adult life, and happiness always seemed beyond my grasp. I’m also a stubborn son of a *****, and I truly believed I could find a cure to my problem without using chemicals to manipulate my brain.

I’d almost given up hope until I stumbled across a secret to happiness that was so simple, it actually made me angry that it wasn’t common knowledge.

I’ve since read about this magical “cure all” in several books and science articles, but it always seems relegated to the back pages, never really reaching the forefront of our collective consciousness. Probably because it’s a solution that no one wants to admit — especially people suffering depression.

The full article is here -

The Secret to Happiness That No One Wants to Admit

Enjoy your evening!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

 

[Geoff-Allen]

The art of non conformity? - from a recent email ...

Mainly a book? ...

Happiness conformity

In order to understand how conformity works—from fairly banal examples such as public smoking bans all the way up to atrocities committed during World War II—Sunstein breaks it down into its component parts:

Informational signals: Sunstein suggests that participants in Milgram’s experiment were willing to follow orders because they believed the experimenter to be a trusted expert who was assuring them that the shocks were causing no lasting harm. This represents an “informational signal”—a batch of information sent out by a trusted expert or a crowd that can help you decide how you feel or act. Signals from in-groups—people you like, trust, or admire—are far more valuable than information signals from out-groups.

Read more here -

How Conformity Can Be Good and Bad for Society

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Turn negative emotions into your greatest advantage -

Negative emotions sometimes stifle creativity, but science suggests that they can also be used to spark it. Recently, Ghent University researchers studied the habits of 100 creative professionals, having them rate their emotions at the beginning and end of each day. They found that those who stared the day with negative emotions but ended it with positive ones had the greatest creative output -- uniformly, the most productive days were those that began with some sort of negativity, meaning that they channeled their anger into their work 99U reported. In a separate experiment, the researchers found that negative emotions could help subjects focus longer while brainstorming.

"When you’re in a bad mood, it may be best to return to a particularly difficult problem or a project that has stalled out," Myths Of Creativity author David Burkus wrote on 99U. "Think of the negative emotion as fuel that you can burn on the path to creation. The negative emotions might just help you dig deeper into the problem and find a solution your happier self would never have uncovered."

Why You Should Embrace Negative Emotions

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

The pursuit of happiness is inescapable. Search for happiness in online bookstores and you will find any number of tomes which claim, to a greater or lesser extent, to enable you to achieve sustained happiness. Newspapers and magazines churn out article after article on the latest happiness trends. The latest article I read this week was about a Danish secret to happiness called ‘hygge’, which seems to involve enjoying the simple things in life and making your house cosy. Click-bait stories invite you to learn about simple tricks you have been missing all your life which could have made you happy had you only known about them.And every time I look at my social media feeds I am often met with a stream of ‘inspirational’ quotes, which are largely focussed on the pursuit of happiness.

Coming back to life? Abandoning the relentless pursuit of happiness

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Happiness love letter to yourself - several?? -

I seldom tell you how much I love you. How much I admire you. How beautiful and caring and intelligent and strong you are. That you are my hero.

I should have told you to ignore the jeers and snickers. To not care what others think. To not be afraid to be different. To not be ashamed of who you are. Worst of all, I should have ignored the jeers and snickers. I shouldn’t have cared what people thought. Because in doing so, I said horrible things to shame you. I took you for granted and dishonored you. I said you’re not enough. That if you’d only be a better teacher, a better wife, a better friend, a better writer, a better lover…then I’d love you. If you were more confident, more social, more assertive, then I’d respect you. If you had less sun spots, if you ate less carbs, if you were more adventurous and thick-skinned, if you were a mother, if you achieved your goals, then I’d want you. I’ve said things to you I wouldn’t say to my worst enemy and you’ve taken it, and internalized every calloused word.

A Love Letter To Myself

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Happiness | Thought Catalog

The ability to be okay with not always being okay. Happy people aren’t the ones who are happy all the time, they’re the ones who can process through all of their emotions and experiences gracefully, with the knowing that everything is impermanent, everything turns out okay in the end, and feeling negative serves as a signal to you that’s just as important — maybe even more so — than feeling positive about something does.

17 Essential Ingredients For Being A Happy Person

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Here is a site from a recent email -

We all want to be happy. Our search leads us to seek advice from mental health professionals, clergy, best-selling authors, and Buddhist monks.

But despite the wealth of available information, two constants remain: One, there is no recipe for happiness. We’re all unique with different biology, childhoods, life experiences, and support systems. Two, happiness is a habit—and that’s good news, because you can choose to be happier.

10 Surprisingly Simple Happiness Tips

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Happiness stop focusing on other people's faults -

How often do you engage in criticism, judgment, and opinions about others? Fess up!

I bet it’s often because that’s what we learned when we grew up, at least most of us. And because we live in a competitive culture, it may seem the norm to find fault with others, discuss their shortcomings behind their backs or even to their face, and believe with complete conviction they should change.

Even if you consider yourself a good person, even if you are a good person, unless you train your mind to do otherwise, it probably goes into judgmental mode many times throughout the day.

How to Calm Your Critical Mind (And Why You Should) — Always Well Within

 

[Geoff-Allen]

How do we cultivate this unshakable happiness? Pema says we need to train in opening fully to everything. “What fuels misery is we never touch pain or pleasure directly, with curiosity.” But when we do touch them directly, Pema notes, both pain and pleasure will be sharper. “The real question is how to deal with this sharpness. We often can’t. We often respond habitually. Can we be okay, compassionate with this? We need humor, kindness, support in practicing being open.”

From this review -

True Happiness, by Pema Chödrön - Inquiring Mind

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Happiness apply Buddhist teachings your life

When I was a young monk, I wondered why the Buddha kept practising mindfulness and meditation even after he had already become a Buddha. Now I find the answer is plain enough to see. Happiness is impermanent, like everything else. In order for happiness to be extended and renewed, you have to learn how to feed your happiness. Nothing can survive without food, including happiness; your happiness can die if you don’t know how to nourish it. If you cut a flower but you don’t put it in some water, the flower will wilt in a few hours.

Even if happiness is already manifesting, we have to continue to nourish it. This is sometimes called conditioning, and it’s very important. We can condition our bodies and minds to happiness with the five practices of letting go, inviting positive seeds, mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

https://www.thewayofmeditation.com.au/5-ways-buddha-taught-maintain-happy-life

Enjoy your day!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

A quote over at the Tiny Buddha site -

Happiness is found when you stop comparing yourself to other people. - Tiny Buddha

Check-out their menus too ...

All the best!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

If you’re anything like me today, you probably could use some words of encouragement. Even if things are going wonderfully for you right now, encouragement never hurts. So, keep going. You will find your way through whatever struggles you’re facing, because you are amazing. You may get discouraged and that’s ok. Just don’t stay there, because things will turn around. You’re not perfect, no. But, you are pretty freaking amazing. You march to your own drum, and even though you weren’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing at first, you decided this “marching-to-your-own-drum” is a strength. I know life is hard, but you’re are tough. You will survive and you will keep learning as you go.

Comes from this site -

Self-Love Prompts: Write A Letter To Your Future Self | Uncustomary

 

[Geoff-Allen]

2knowmyself happiness - a few -

So you have read so many tips about finding happiness, tried most self development schools, gave yoga a chance and even tested medications but nothing worked for you.

Have you ever tried to rescue someone who's drowning by giving him an interesting book to read under water?

The only thing such a solution could lead to is making his death more interesting. In other words, most of the solutions you have been trying are coping strategies and not permanent solutions.

Positive thinking, spirituality, yoga, medications and everything else you tried are amazing coping tools that can help you ease the pain but can any of them rend your sadness for good?

This can never happen and that's why you are still sad. Its not about your approach but its all about using the wrong method to bring happiness.

Why happiness advice don't work for you | 2KnowMySelf

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Happiness ingredient {friendship} -

Gratitude is a wonderful virtue because it ends up leading to huge benefits for anyone who feels it. Only someone who values the good things in their life can be grateful. And anyone who knows how to value that will be happy. When you feel grateful for it, your happiness just grows more.

7 Ingredients of Happiness — Exploring your mind

Enjoy!