June: A Whole Month of Happiness and Wellbeing

Published on: 8:06 PM

June Caught at Play (Photo credit: Miss Shari)

Welcome to June! June is the sixth month of the year and is most likely named after the goddess Juno. As the goddess of marriage, it became popular to marry in June, a trend that continues today, particularly in the northern hemisphere. Relationships and relationship satisfaction therefore will be our first theme this month. What can you do to ensure a happy ongoing relationship with your partner? On the 21st of this month summer solstice takes place in the northern hemisphere. It is the day with the longest daylight and so perhaps is a good time to celebrate International Picnic Day, which is officially on the 18th. I will discuss reasons why planning a picnic can be good for you. Also celebrated this month is World Juggling Day, which you may or may not have heard of. I think this gives us a great opportunity to try new things and I will talk about this further.

Have a happy relationship
If you are married, recall the time spent preparing for your wedding. The effort you went to so that everything went right on the day. Even the simplest of weddings involves planning and an investment of time and energy. Think back and remind yourself of this effort. So if this was the work you put in before you were married, how about the effort you put in now you are married? It's easy to assume that marriages either work (the couple got lucky), or they don't. What follows are some simple ideas to keep you in a happy relationship, whether you are married or not.

Make up quickly. Arguments are inevitable. In fact keeping quiet about an issue will make you more miserable in the long run and could even harm your health. Research conducted in Maryland in the US shows women who kept quiet during an argument were at greater risk of depression, irritable bowel syndrome and even death. It is okay to speak up, but it is also important to listen. Understand where your partner is coming from than work on a solution that is agreeable to the both of you. Make the effort to do it sooner rather than later, so things do not get out of hand.

Related to resolving conflict is forgiveness. Try to forgive transgressions -- you will feel better for it. If something serious has happened in your relationship that you are struggling to forgive, don't shy away from speaking to a counsellor. They can help put things into perspective.
Practise gratitude on a daily basis. Remind yourself of all the good things your partner does. Why are you glad they are in your life? It's easy to focus on what they don't do. This is an opportunity to alter your perception and focus on the great things they bring to your relationship.
Make time for each other. Life can often get in the way of taking time out as a couple. However if you can put the effort in to do things for just the two of you, it will help maintain feelings of love and affection. You may have to schedule it in like an appointment; just make sure you don't cancel on them.
Don't be afraid to hold hands, hug and kiss. This is easily implemented and there's no rule that says only teenagers can do it.

Eat outdoors
There's something lovely about a picnic. Being outdoors, with a selection of foods to munch over. It's probably the most relaxed way of eating. Whether you picnic alone, with your partner, friends or family, it is a great chance to unwind and forget your worries. Not only that but it gives you something to plan and look forward to. Where will you go, what will you cook, who will you invite? Will you play games or just chat or read books? Since it's your picnic, you get to decide the details. If you want a leisurely day, pick up some cheese, grapes and a baguette on the way to your chosen destination. No preparation required. Don't forget the knife though. And since we're not too worried about rules, don't be concerned if it rains. You can always have your picnic indoors or sat in the car.

Learn how to juggle
Is learning how to juggle really the way to happiness and greater wellbeing? It could be. It's a chance to learn a skill and if you wish, take it to greater and greater levels. One day you're throwing a couple of balls in the air, the next you're juggling swords. Except it doesn't work like that. Learning any skill requires dedication and persistence and probably a good dose of optimism to help you keep going. As you embark on your juggling journey you will get great satisfaction from your accomplishments, especially when you successfully overcome obstacles.
So this month, take the opportunity to learn a new skill -- it doesn't have to be juggling, just whatever appeals to you. You can learn a great deal about yourself and discover a level of determination you didn't realise you had.

Remember
Every month there is a reason to be happy.
Copyright Julia Barnard
Julia Barnard is a counsellor and author living in Adelaide, Australia. You can discover more ways to be happy through her book: Promoting Happiness: a workbook to help you appreciate and get the most out of your life.

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Thoughts About Happiness

Published on: 8:00 PM

Happy kid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Life coaching... hm, what a strange concept. Or is it?
After all, life is so precious, perhaps it should come with a guide that instructs you how to use your precious time, and how not to waste it by making irreversible mistakes.
I can't decide whether life coaching is a good idea, or a sad, ridiculous one. Perhaps I need a coach to help me decide on this one..
What's ridiculous about it is that some of the life coaches are so young that you can't imagine how can they possibly give any advice when they didn't experience life yet??
Now, seriously, I think that we made life so complicated that many of us are confused and need some guidance. There are so many choices you can make in life, so many options out there, and who knows if you chose the right one?

The answer is: you have to choose what's RIGHT FOR YOU.
You are the only one that can decide that for yourself. No one else can coach you or decide for you the best path to take.
These are the words of a psychologist I once talked to. She amazed me when she admitted that in fact, the people that go to see psychologists are usually not capable of taking responsibility for their own life. They are unhappy and they are not sure why... They can't think for themselves. They want someone else to think for them and give them the answers, to make decisions for them.
That was a shocking admission coming from a professional, nevertheless so true!

You are the only person that knows what makes you happy and no one else can decide for you what choice you should make...
That's why it is so hard to define happiness. It is due to the fact that happiness is very individual and what makes you happy may not bring joy to someone else.
The state of happiness usually comes from the relation between one's level of expectations from life versus the realization of these expectations.
So, if you wish to attain this state of well being you will need to think what things bring you joy or satisfaction, and pursue them.

Having said that, sometimes we are not sure what would make us happy, or worse, we think we know what we want but when we achieve it we realize that it didn't make us happier... in other words, we don't always know what's good for us. Sometimes we think that if we could only lose 5 kilo or if we had more money we would be happier...

Amazingly, many of the things we enjoy and make most of us happy don't cost anything: being surrounded by family or friends, creating things, discovering, learning new things (yes, learning), helping other people or animals in need, all these can bring huge satisfaction and feelings of achievement. These will give meaning to your life and enrich you with a spectrum of experiences, and will also make you feel more important. Feeling insignificant or powerless is one of our biggest enemies, and can lead to unhappiness.

Money has an interesting role in attaining happiness: whilst having money does not necessarily make you happy, the lack of it cam make you very unhappy. However some lottery winners have confessed in the past that winning the big jackpot did not make them happier, on the contrary...
Some other deeply unhappy people (some even born with the silver spoon) occasionally turn to drugs because they don't have a focus in their life such as an occupation, and so they lack the sense of achievement that comes from doing things, creating. Some just have too much time on their hands as they have never developed any serious interests, since they never had to work... So finding a focus, a project, an activity that you enjoy or even just bringing joy to others, yes, to others, is in fact paramount to your own well being and happiness.

Julia Sadeh is a contemporary British artist best known as creator of the style mosaic and collage on canvas. After studying Visual Art and Art History, Sadeh launched her artistic career in 1989 by publishing children books with her own illustrations, followed by numerous art exhibitions. In 1993 she started developing her unique style of mosaics on canvas using 'papier glasse' an exclusive technique which makes paper more resistant. Her canvases are now found in art collections around the world and her art is innovative and unique. Julia Sadeh can be contacted at: mathias.toni@yahoo.co.uk

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Generating New Experiences With Meditation to Create Happiness

Published on: 3:11 AM

Meditation (Photo credit: Moyan_Brenn)

Do you know how you can recreate what you accept as true when the experiences you have had have influenced you otherwise? The easy answer to that question is to generate new experiences. The best way for you to get new experiences is to meditate about how you can change the way you react to what happens in your life. The new reaction will generate a new outcome, which you will then experience as a new truth.

If you want to attain happiness, you have to act out as if the following sentence is true: There have been no mistakes in my life only learning. Meditating to turn a bad experience into something positive can be as straightforward as: 1+ 1 = 2. If you can change your mind-set to think this way you will find that it will equal more happiness in your life.

The thing is, when you are confident of the truth that everything that you experience in life is just a learning experience your life will then start to be a lot more enjoyable. It is just like opening a door to happiness. Remember when meditating think to yourself that happiness is out there waiting for you to find it, but you must remember as well that unhappiness is also out there in the world, waiting for you to find it.

The thing is it is the way you react through your meditation that will establish which one you will be experiencing in your life. With the energy you generate through meditation, by taking on the idea that everything that you experience in life is just a learning process, you essentially put into action a start of events that will direct you to your happiness.

Like I said before, all that you require for your happiness is already out there in the making. Your only requirement is to pull in what is needed. There is really nothing more to all of this other than just you remembering to keep an open and positive mind-set. Find that peace and quiet that is hidden deep inside of you.

The outcomes that come with meditation that produces you to experience happiness will prove to you that meditation really does work to create happiness; this then will lead you to soon believe that everything does indeed happen for your advantage. When you understand that is true, that is when the deep sighs of relief will come and that meditation can undoubtedly aid you to see the positive side of life.

The internet is a fantastic place to find out about meditation for use for your own benefits. Remember meditation will also release you from so much everyday stress. So practice meditation as frequently as you can because it will truly help you. Good Luck!

About the Author:
Dion Daly is a certified trainer in hypnosis, a master practitioner in NLP and TLT. He also has a degree in metaphysics.
To receive free e-courses e-books, audios and videos on self improvement and spiritual development visit our free membership site.
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Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness?

Published on: 9:51 PM

Thanks to my friend (Neslihan) here to be my model... (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's interesting that the Founding Fathers didn't describe our inalienable rights as life, liberty and happiness, but the pursuit of
happiness. They were onto something.
It's while you're in the process
of getting what you want that you have the most profound experience of life flowing through you. Of course, you'll find pleasure in the outcomes-richer relationships, health, inner peace, confidence, wealth, etc.

But the greatest joy in life is found in the hotfooted pursuit of happiness-reaching, stretching, creating, learning-and delighting yourself with what you can achieve and how smart you're becoming.
As you're getting the hang of how the process of finding fulfillment works, there are 4 questions you can use to get the most leverage out of each desire.

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Creating Happiness - How to Find Happiness in Your Life

Published on: 5:59 PM

Peace (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It seems that everyone wants

to be happier, but very few are. Even with the explosion of books about happiness in the past few years, most people remain unhappy. There seems to be many 'outer' reasons for an unhappy life:Financial failure of many kindsUnworkable intimate relationshipsPoor healthFailure to creatively express oneselfNot enough of _________Too much of __________
The above list could go on to fill a book. But the 'outer' reasons are only symptoms of a much deeper need. If you are not happy, it has everything to do with you, and nothing to do with anything or anyone else. I hear you saying, "oh yeah, what about _________?" You could fill in the blank with many excuses, I am sure. But that is really all they are - excuses.
The real reason
you are not happy has only to do with what you think of yourself and how you treat yourself. Happiness, like most 'emotions' or states-of-mind comes from within. To end your unhappy state, you must start exploring why you feel unhappy. Below are three aspects I believe, if practiced daily, will set you on the road to happiness

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