Happiness | SuccessConsciousness.com Blog on Self Improvement and Spiritual Growth

Learning Happiness: Everyday Activities to Increase Your Happiness

By Sara B. Healy

Happy Cloud While cleaning my bookshelf the other day, I found a book, 14,000 things to be happy about. It looked brand new, but the date inside was from years ago. This book sat beside my collection of self-help books, which in contrast were dog-eared, highlighted and clearly used. Holding the happiness book, I wondered why I hadn’t used it. Then I realized I always thought happiness was something fleeting and incapable of improving my life.

Recently, my beliefs have changed as a result of what I’ve learned. I’ve discovered that being happy, contented, and positive are skills, which can be learned with practice and determination. Therefore, I made the decision to start my own journey to learn happiness and have been happily rewarded. Here are a couple of things that I’ve learned on my journey as well activities that have helped teach me more about happiness:

Recognize the hidden happy moments in a day.

When something wonderful happens to us, we usually know we’re happy. It’s the common, everyday moments of happiness that often elude us. One way to change this is by becoming deliberately aware of when we’re feeling happy during the day. I found an activity that helped me, and it might also help you. It’s very simple: Get a notebook or a tape recorder and keep track of any happy moments you notice during your day. By writing them down or recording them, you become aware of these moments that might otherwise have passed by unnoticed.

One such moment occurred for me when I was very late for an appointment and frustrated at getting every red light. As I sat fuming at the latest stop, I noticed a little boy in the school bus next me making silly faces at people. Watching him made me feel happy. I wrote this moment down in my notebook. It became one of many. Now, I look forward to finding happy moments in my day. I even challenge myself to see how many I can find. How many happy moments are you missing in your day? Try noticing them and see if you find your day is better for it.

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Finding ‘Me Time’

By Andrew Leigh

Seagull Why a little selfishness is good for you – and for everyone else!

Have you invested any time on your own wellbeing lately?

Well, while I guess some will be able to say yes to that question, many others will be shaking their heads in disbelief. There always seems so much to do: work, partners, family and friends, and jobs around the home – all clamour for your attention, time and energy. And when it comes to deciding between yourself and others it’s no contest.

Negative generosity
Negative generosity? Can there really be such a thing? Well, while it’s brilliant to have a generous nature, only being able to say yes to requests for help, time or work is anything but. One consequence of only being able to say yes is a feeling of not being in control. Another is that we find it almost impossible to engineer time out for ourselves – and when we do something inevitably crops up that seems ‘more important’. If we continue this way, then over time we become stressed, anxious, worn out and eventually resentful to those around us.

Yes, strange as it may seem, generosity of this kind can actually damage relationships! And as the receivers seem to just take it all for granted the over-generous giver becomes more and more tetchy in their giving.

Saying No
When people in this frame of mind do finally say no, it’s usually done in a temper, and often blurted out at the ones who least deserve it.
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Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: me time, saying no, time, wellbeing

Take Time To Do Things You Enjoy Doing

By Remez Sasson

Make a list of things you enjoy doing. This can be any simple activity, which you love doing, and that can be done in your daily life. Put in the list at least ten items, and then do something from this list every day. From time to time, as you discover more things that you like doing, add them to this list.

Some examples could be:

Taking a walk
Conversing with a friend that you like
Preparing a special dish
Eating a special meal
Reading a book
Taking a short nap at noon
Going to the movies
Meditation
Going to a lecture about a subject that you like
Eating out
Shopping
Painting
Playing with your kids
Walking on the beach
Swimming

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Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: things you enjoy doing, time

Pleasure and Happiness

By Remez Sasson

Pleasure is a state, in which you feel good and enjoy what you are doing. Usually, it does not last long, as the attention moves to other subjects, and because life is such that you have always other things to do, like work, cleaning the house, driving somewhere, interacting with other people, etc.

When you eat some delicious food you derive pleasure from it, but the pleasure doesn’t last for long, since you cannot go on eating indefinitely, you finish eating the food on your plate and the sensation of pleasure wears off after a while. You may enjoy watching a movie, but the movie lasts for a certain amount of minutes. When you read a book that you enjoy reading, ultimately, you reach the last page.

As you see, all pleasure is time limited.

Pleasure is usually awakened by external stimuli, and is largely physical, involving the five senses, like the smell of good food or its taste, a pleasant breeze, or of the sight and physical contact of a certain person. You can also derive pleasure from reading a book or daydreaming.

Pleasure is emotional in nature, while happiness is a state beyond the emotions and even beyond the mind. In pleasure the emotions and feelings are active. While in a state of happiness there is calmness and peace.

Though happiness is similar to pleasure in some respects, yet it is different.

Happiness does not depend on external stimuli, since it comes from within, though quite often, it seems as if the source is external.

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Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: Happiness, Inner Peace, pleasure

How to Create Positive Feelings

By Remez Sasson

What are positive feelings?
These are pleasant feelings of happiness, satisfaction, confidence and the expectation of success. These are feelings of compassion, love, tolerance and understanding.

Why do you need positive feelings?
They make you feel good, energetic, happy and able and willing to take action to pursue what you want to attain and achieve. They also make your life happier and easier, make you more likeable and improve your relationships.

How can you create positive feelings?

Below you will find a few tips and suggestions to help you create positive feelings.

1) Become aware of the importance of positive feelings and how they can improve your life.

2) Refuse to be involved with negative thoughts and feelings.

3) Upon waking up in the morning, smile and say to yourself silently or audibly: “I am going to have a wonderful day today. It is going to be a happy and successful day. I am going to stay patient and positive in every situation.”

4) Often, during the day, visualize for a few moments some happy moments and situations from your life, a place you enjoyed visiting, or being with people you love.

5) When things make you angry, wait a few seconds before reacting.

6) When you feel some despair, anger, unhappiness or frustration, don’t succumb to these feelings and let them grow. Visualize something happy, read something that makes you happy, repeat a positive affirmation or just try to create some happy feeling inside you. This might not be easy, as the negative feeling might be too strong, yet, do your best, and no matter how many times you might fail evoking a positive feeling, if you persist you will be able to change your attitude and feelings.

Read the complete article on how to create positive feelings.

“Happiness is an attitude of mind, born of the simple determination to be happy under all outward circumstances.”
- J. Donald Walters

“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”
- Cicero

Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: positive feelings