If you take only one thought from this newsletter, please let it be a belief in the fact that anyone can be happy no matter what's going on in their life right now.  Happy people have a full range of emotions: they can get angry or upset, they can have fun at a party, and they can be sorry for a loss.  Happiness is not an emotion, it is a state of being.  Emotions are short lived.  Happiness is sustaining, it sticks around as long as we remove the unhappy feelings that block it out of our lives.  What feelings are those?  Well, let's just name a few: Anger, worry, guilt, anxiety, and self pity. These, plus a long list of other unhappy feelings, are totally useless.  Actually, they are worse than useless because they bring suffering to the bearer.

Quick story here!  A reporter once asked the Dalai Lama of Tibet how it could be that the Chinese had taken his land and his people, had killed so many Tibetans, and yet he was not angry at them.  The Dalai Lama acknowledged that the Chinese had indeed taken his country's freedom and possessions and had taken the lives of many Tibetans.  But he answered the question with his own question "What would you have me do, give them my mind as well?"  He knew the anger would hurt him and only him.

Our conscious mind is limited - it can hold onto only a few thoughts at one time.  When we fill it with unhappy feelings, all the space is used up, leaving no room for happy thoughts.  Much like the familiar theatrical masks, you can only wear one at a time - no way to wear both at the same time.

It helps to picture the conscious mind as a five gallon jug.  When you have five gallons in there, you can not get in another drop.  So keep the mind full of happy thoughts and unhappy feelings have no room - it's like putting up a sign that says --NOT WANTED HERE --go someplace else and annoy people.

I do not mean to over simplify this. It can take some hard re-programming of our own minds to get to the point where we can stop unhappy feelings at will.  No question, the results are worth the effort.  It becomes easier when we help each other, i.e.: Let others know how we made it happen for ourselves.  happyplace.net members are delighted to help each other and the tools to do that will grow as the site grows.

I saw this hokey whozits some years ago and decided to use it in this spot.  The point of this bit of stuff is to get people to "start" working on their own happiness (if they are not already doing so) -- How many times have we said to ourselves that we are going to do something as soon as we get "around to it."

Here's a "round tuit" - print it, then cut it out and tack it up on the refrigerator door - every time you notice it, ask yourself - do I have an unhappy feeling I want to put out of my mind right now?

HEALTH AND HAPPINESS

After a while, we will have a special page for health and it's relationship to happiness.  For now, I would just like to introduce the subject with a few comments.

Here's a conundrum... do you have to be happy to be healthy; or do you have to be healthy to be happy?

Regardless of the correct answer, if in fact there is one, suffice to know health and happiness are like bacon and eggs - peanut butter and jelly - they just plain go together.

The two most powerful painkillers in the happyplace book of medicine are:

1. A good laugh.
2. A warm hug. 

Here is a little piece I saw recently about hugging:

It is great medicine, it has no unpleasant side effects, it's all natural, no pesticides, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients - there are no movable parts, no batteries to wear out, no periodic check-ups - low energy consumption, high yield of feel good energy.  It is non-fattening, non-taxable and non-polluting and the very best part is that it is fully returnable.

If I were running a school of love, class would begin every day with hugging practice.

If you are home right this minute - get up from the computer and give a loved one a hug.  Tell'em it's on happyplace.

If you would like to support the work of Happyplace.net, you can make a donation through PayPal. Click Here

Join Us Now - Subscribe to our Newsletter Service! Name: Email address: Comments: