HAPPINESS IS A STATE OF MIND

Happiness is not some potion or spell. It is a belief system that we all have in us. Some people are just more aware that it is there.

As I walk down the street, I notice a woman walking by me, with a frown on her face. Her face looks aged to me. The frown makes her face look wrinkly and old.
I make it to my destination, the coffee shop. The owner is a happy guy that always greets me with a "Hi girl, How have you been". He always has a big smile on his face and people love talking to him because he’s always cheery.

What type of person are you? Are you a happy soul or a miserable one? If you were to show up at a gathering of friends, would they all welcome you with a big smile and be happy to see you. Or would they be like "oh great so and so is here". How you carry yourself shows in people around you. Your attitude can directly affect those closest to you.

How is happiness attained? First and foremost, you have to love yourself for who you are. Not everyone can have movie star good looks and abs of steel. That really, isn’t important. What is important is who you are on the inside. It is important for you to be positive about yourself, in order to feel happy.

It is a proven fact that people that are happy and use have a positive outlook on a daily basis are healthier than those with a negative attitude. A positive attitude can also help you heal faster. A negative outlook on life will cause you to be unhappy. Your unhappiness will cause stress and stress can wreak havoc on your health.

Another important factor to being happy is having friendships. Friends to spend time with and confide in will help relieve stress and make you feel needed. By playing sports, learning new hobbies or joining clubs, you will be able to make friendships. Friends are like having a support system set in place.

Having hobbies and interests are very important to being happy. Like the saying goes " all work and no play makes jack a dull boy". It’s important to have interests in life. They keep us motivated and happy. Just sitting in front of the tv all day will have the opposite effect. People need to have a hobbies to feel busy and motivated.
Relationships with family and loved ones is also a factor of happiness. If you are fighting with your spouse on a daily basis, that will create a lot of stress. If you truly want to be a happy person inside and out, you will need to nurture these relationships.

By simply reciting positive sayings and affirmations to yourself on a daily basis, you will start to feel better and have a brighter outlook on life. It works on you subliminally, slowly altering how you view yourself and life around you. In time you will build a positive outlook on life and achieve happiness.

THE FIRE IN YOUR SOUL

Many people try to hold a raging fire within themselves, but it restlessly and relentlessly gnaws at their core. Some have tried to cover it up with alcohol, numb it with drugs, hide it with shopping, kids, work, or religion, or fuel it with sex. The Baby Boomers looked for eternal youth and to change the world. They thought they would never grow up, but they did. They thought they would change the world and they did.

The previous generation looked for the Ultimate Dream. Some found it. Many did not. The present generation seems to be seeking success. Yet, the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" widens. Each generation and each individual, in turn, searches for something, but it often slips from their grasp.

The fire carries both energy and discomfort. The key is to use the discomfort as a motivator and the energy as fuel.

Now we seek something and we don't seem to know what it is.

When we are connected to our roots and our souls, passion rises quickly and pushes us the next level of life or learning or love. It does not have to be love for a mate. It could be creative passion, fueling what we do for ourselves, work, community, or family. Anything where the totality of who you are is absorbed in the doing. This requires passion. To loose it, is soul death, or at least deep sleep. It will cry to be heard when it sleeps.

I've sometimes been afraid of my passion. It seems so fierce at times. I guess I fear it will consume me and nothing else will matter. I know that can happen. I've had a small taste of it when I work for hours into the night, so absorbed by my work that I forget time, sleeping, and eating. But, I also know that I must have time in my life to live the every day life of doing the mundane things that must be done. Balance is probably still the key, but you must not loose your passion all together. Your life will be too dry and dull without it.

Remember your first love? Nothing else mattered. You felt as if you would walk to the ends of the earth for that love. Remember that? While that first passionate, all consuming love does not last, it gives us a taste of a force within ourselves that carries tremendous energy. Look for your passion and it will find you.