Happy Happiness Day!

Today’s your chance to learn a bit more about what it is to be happy and how to go about it. If you browse through my website you will see plenty of articles and tips that you can use in your everyday life to make small changes towards a happier, more fulfilled life.

Whilst you are here, take the opportunity to download the free ebook: 50 Ways to Increase Your Happiness.

Choose a tip that interests and see how you get on. Even better, share your happiness learnings with others. Talking happiness with others makes a change from the typical discussion of the awful happenings in the world, or the lives of the people you know. It will help give a new perspective.

If you want more, then you may like to read Promoting Happiness, where you will go on your own happiness journey, starting with your past, then moving into the present, hopefully giving you the tools for a greater future.

Have a happy day.

Best wishes

Julia

If you have read Dan Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness, you will know that people are not good at predicting their future happiness, nor remembering how happy (or not) they were in the past. They also struggle to believe that they will feel better about an event – unable to see beyond the bad feelings they are experiencing right now.

Last week I wrote an article on ways to save time that would also give your happiness a boost. Now I would like to add another suggestion: give up smoking.

I don’t smoke, so I don’t know for sure, but I do wonder how much time is wasted due to smoking. There’s the time spent actually smoking of course. Usually outside and alone, away from friends and family enjoying themselves. Then there’s the time spent thinking about smoking and wondering when you’ll get the chance to nip outside to have a quick drag. If there’s a delay to when you normally get a fix, then presumably your attention will be focused on your craving, rather than what you are currently doing.

If you want a life of health and happiness, take care in who you choose as your role model. Celebrities and their lives are constantly in the media and it is easy to latch on to a particular celebrity’s lifestyle choice. Fad dieting and extreme regimes are not the way to good health and wellbeing however. I have yet to see research that says thin people are happiest. As such, seek out people who live healthy, balanced lifestyles. Of course, you may have to look further afield than Hollywood to …

is a way of thinking about the world. It is a great way of coping with life’s difficulties and challenges. Fortunately it is something we can all learn at any stage of life. However teaching it to your children now means they will see immediate benefits and it is something they can take into the future.
An optimist expects to get the best out of life. As such they believe they will succeed. They are able to recognise their abilities and that they are capable of making things happen. So …

What is positive psychology?
The positive psychology movement was pioneered by Martin Seligman and is about improving the quality of life for all. It is concerned with happiness, sensual pleasure, wellbeing and . The vision is to enhance and nurture individual traits such as love, courage, forgiveness and perseverance. It is through this focus that it is hoped many mental health problems will be prevented.This idea is in sharp contrast to traditional psychology with its overriding concern with pathology and focus on what is wrong, rather than what is right with …

This week, take the time to ask yourself, ‘what does happiness mean to me?’. You could begin by defining your own version of happiness. Then, using your definition, reflect on the things you do in your life that bring you closer to happiness. Perhaps also think about the things you would like to do more of, to increase your chances of reaching your definition of happiness. Having reflected, get on and do them!

This week ask yourself, ‘am I happy?’. Write down all the things you are happy about and all the things you are unhappy about. Look at your unhappy list. What can you change? What steps can you take to reduce your unhappy list? It may be there are some things that you cannot change as they are out of your . If so, what steps can you take to accept these things so you can feel more positive about them?

Having a positive outlook can serve you well at any stage in your life. It seems as an older person, if you stay positive about your developing frailty, the onset of that frailty is reduced. So keep positive, blitz the negative and go out and enjoy life.

Get yourself a diary or notebook. In here you can only put good things that you have experienced, or happy thoughts and feelings. Do it each day, adding things from your past, your present and things you are looking forward to. It can contain anything you want so long as it is the good stuff. Give it a name and be as arrogant as you like, for example, “John’s Ego Book”, “Full of Myself”, “Me Me Me”!