Tag: Happiness

Do You Deserve to Be Happy?

I often ask my patients struggling with a life issue, "Do you deserve to be happy?" More often than not, I receive a tenuous answer. "I'd like to say I do, but I'm not so sure" is a fairly typical response. Or I may hear, "I can't remember anyone in my life ever telling me it's my right to be happy." Well, if you haven't heard it before, hear it now: YOU DESERVE TO BE HAPPY! Although relatively few of us were told during our upbringing that the expansion of happiness is the purpose of life, most people sense somewhere…

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Change Your Perception to Find Happiness

If there’s anything I’ve learned about happiness, it’s that is has much less to do with your possessions and achievements, but rather your perception of what you have and the world and people around you. Reframe Your Perception: Each of us has dreams that for one reason or another we do not achieve. And we all make choices that perhaps were not the best we could have made. Yet, rather than allowing regret to overtake us, we must see and celebrate all the other goals we’ve accomplished and positive choices we’ve made? Human nature so often leads us to perceive…

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- True, sustained happiness has much less to do with your possessions and achievements, but rather your perception of what you have and the world and people around you.
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Finding Meaning In Life

I remember when I was 8 years old, I used to sit on a bus bench or in a park just to watch people behave. This was fascinating to me and was my favorite moment in life, as it still is one of them today. Somehow, at this early age, I was already searching to understand symbolic language; to make the correlation between the inner and outer world and to search for the answer to this existential question that I truly believe should be our number one priority to know: What is the reason for living, walking, working, existing...? It…

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It’s Your Choice

"You'll keep getting what you're getting as long as you keep doing what you're doing!" "The insanity principle is doing the same thing but expecting different results!" "If nothing changes, nothing changes!" These statements all pertain to personal power reinventing oneself and change. More importantly, they all pertain to choice. You have to choose to change YOU. Throughout my life, from childhood through college, corporate career to business owner, wedding day to divorce court, I've encountered people who were in situations they loathed but, for whatever reason, chose not to change how they responded to or viewed the situation. In…

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Cranky Feedback

As a professional writer, counselor, and musician, I’ve received all kinds of feedback about my work. Most of the feedback I get is positive and supportive, and that’s part of the reason I continue to do what I do. But some of the feedback is, let’s just say, “cranky.” Cranky feedback is especially interesting to me, because I usually know where it’s coming from, and can see myself in it. I’ll explain. There was a time when I was quite unhappy, generally angry with life. During that period I felt it was my job to enlighten people about what I…

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- Value yourself enough to take charge of your happiness. Reclaim the authorship of your life, from where you’ve given it away.
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anita neilson

Get high on inner happiness!

"So many silly wasted years trying to find happiness in all the wrong places".  That's what I tell myself these days.  Advice to the young woman I once was (if I were to listen!) would be: "Stop trying to find happiness in sensory pleasures like eating out, smoking, drinking, loud music, fine clothes and jewellery, the newest car, expensive holidays and thinking only of yourself all the time, because I know now that none of these things bring you lasting happiness."   Phew! All that pressure to conform and trying to make other people like me!  It was so exhausting! What a…

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Why Your Inner Voice Matters Most

Long ago I was given the privilege of access to my inner voice through painting. I managed to survive high school and college by practicing this precious gift. Yet, when real life hit, I became afraid of losing myself in my dream world and let it go. I took a more practical route. I needed to make money and start a family, and be an overall reasonable person. However, it hit me with time that a huge part of me was dying little by little. It felt like I was blindfolded while walking through the dilemmas of this world, and…

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You Have a Choice

At all times, you have a choice. Life is not happening to you. It's happening for you, and mostly because of you. But no matter what is occurring outside of you, you always have a choice. Your choice is how you respond to the world around you, and how you navigate the world inside you. It's how you choose to translate what happens and what everything means. As simple as it may sound, or perhaps as difficult as this may be to hear, you and you alone have full control over the quality of your experience here in the physical…

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5 Principles For A Successful Life

There is no one all-encompassing secret that will magically transform a person into a raging success. However, there are a number of basic principles that, when followed and applied consistently, will indeed create the environment for a person to live an abundant, successful life - however one personally defines that term. Here are just a few of what I feel are the most powerful: Acknowledge things as they are, not as you wish they were. Please don’t confuse that with a lack of vision or being satisfied with the status quo, two things I strongly advise against. Just understand that…

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5 Daily Habits for a Bountiful Life

Here are five things to believe in for a bountiful life in the human community; five life habits that if considered daily, you can’t help enrich your existence. One: Truly listen. Look in the eyes of others and be in the moment. Wait to speak. Take in the words they offer and savor them before reacting. You might call this “the patience of thought.” You cannot honestly connect with another living thing if you are only considering your own response. Understand your fellow human and you will understand yourself. Two: Be kind. Consider your fellow human being’s experience, background, personal,…

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Your Greatest Responsibility

Perhaps the most important thing I have learned in this extraordinary life is that we are responsible for our own happiness. It is not determined by anything outside of ourselves even though it often appears to be. The rich can be miserable ("Oh, I'm so unhappy. I wanted Johnson to drive me to Tiffany's in the Lamborghini but now I have to go in the stupid Rolls. How awful.") And the poor can be joyful ("Ah, there is enough food for the whole family this year. We are so blessed.") With that reality we have tremendous power; we can stop…

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Start Living Your Best Life Today

Life is a wonderful journey to be embraced. Each day has the potential to uncover a new adventure if we condition our minds to look for the positives. My last words to humanity would be to love more, do more, be more, risk more…do all those positive things people said you wouldn’t be successful doing. Life is a one-way ticket. It is by experiencing every single opportunity that we find our destiny and live our best lives. There are dreams unrealized. Goals left unchecked. Visions that have all but dissipated. However, if we still hold a kindle of fire in our hearts…

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- Have faith in yourself, and you will be a happier person.
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5 Lessons for Happiness

Here are a few of the best lessons I can happily share: 1. Life is tough Agreed, life is filled with trials and tribulations. To say one is happy all the time is a lie. To know happiness is available at any time is a truth. Happiness will not wait for us. Happiness will not invite us to the party. We must invite ourselves to say, "yes", diving deeply and happily into life... all of it... the ups, downs, twists and turns of our miraculous journey. Happiness exists in tandem with adversity. Happiness waits in all the nooks and crannies…

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Principles for Achieving Quantum Bliss

Wake up, be yourself, follow your dreams, and be alive. Boldness is pure energy. Seize the moment and engage life. Being contemplative-in-action is the secret key to success. Having a focused and harmonious connection to the “Spirit of the Universe” while working effectively toward your highest ideals will continually reveal results. Remember, you are connected with all possibility. Take hold of your divine rights to health, supply and success. Allow yourself to be great and to do great things. WE MUST CREATE. Build new ways of doing things, providing service, devising solutions, supply opportunity and help teach others. Follow your…

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Letting Your Inner Sun Out

We’ve all felt it, walking out of yoga class, looking at the mountains, strolling by the ocean. With our attention mobilized, another dimension opens for us, just as we are, right where we are. Suddenly, we are living in intense present-moment awareness. Life can be difficult, but the light of consciousness can be in us! Everything we need is here inside. With a receptive attention, we can perceive the subtle energy animating us. A sacred energy is coming into us at every instant, just hidden from our usual mind. Recognizing its touch takes us from self-awareness across the threshold into…

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From Survive to Thrive

What matters is living life fearlessly from your authentic self by embracing happiness and love. You have an option in every moment. You can suffer—from worries, stress and anxieties that are woven into the fabric of everyday life—or choose empowerment. Breathe deeply, dance wildly, sing to the sparrows or indulge in hilarious laughter. Take brief respites from your endless list of tasks and drop into stillness. The spacious silence is a profound place to reawaken your intuition, creativity and life force. Instead of reacting from a jumble of emotions, develop inner calmness and shift from survive to thrive! Even in the…

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Where To Find Happiness

I was 41 years old, stretched out on a lounge chair by my pool and reflecting on my life. I had achieved all that I thought I needed to be happy. I had a successful career that helped people, a loving husband, a comfortable home, a great body, and a wonderful circle of friends. But surprisingly I wasn't on top of the world. I felt an emptiness inside that the outer successes of life couldn't fill. I was also afraid that if I lost any of those things, I might be miserable. Sadly, I knew I wasn't alone in feeling…

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- The key to happiness isn’t material wealth, health, or even fulfilling relationships. The key to happiness is wisdom.
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