Tag: Happiness

Your Triumph Over Discontentment

Discontentment is a kind of psychic echo. In fact, whatever the unhappiness may be, it is only an inner echo that is "sounding" within us. As difficult as it may be to understand this at the present time, suffering only seems real. It has no real life. How is this possible? Our inner stress, strain, and pain feel real to us, for sure; but then, so do all of the fears we feel in the middle of a nightmare. But where is the terror once we wake up? It doesn't exist anymore because it was only real as long as…

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Blue Butterfly

Your Past Doesn’t Have to Determine Your Present

In today's world, where technology has eclipsed our humanity, many of us are looking for a way to operate in our lives with a day-to-day sense of excellence and wellbeing, a way that fulfills our spiritual nature. People have tried different religions or disciplines with varying degrees of success or failure. They have taken motivational workshops to try to discover some meaning to apply to their lives and many have come away wondering, "Is this all there is?" This vague sense of emptiness or dissatisfaction can permeate our lives, even when we accomplish the goals we set for ourselves. People…

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Footprints on a beach

To Have More Happiness, Eat Peas and Grapes!

I’m sure this sounds like bizarre advice, and you’re itching to know what happiness has to do with peas and grapes. It came from one of my favorite mantras… A friend overheard me quietly saying it one day, and she thought I said “Eat peas and grapes.” It never occurred to me that what I was saying might sound like that. I laughed as I thought it about it for a moment. I do love eating that’s for sure. In fact, it’s probably one of my all-time favorite things to do. It’s not the chewing and swallowing part of eating,…

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3 Road Blocks to Living the Life of Your Dreams

Most people think that where they are right now “isn’t it” and that something in the future will produce satisfaction. But in reality, this moment is all we have - the past is over and the future hasn't yet arrived. Once we saw a goat who was put out to graze in a lush field. The grass was high and feeding was plentiful. But he wasn't satisfied. He made a funny picture as he strained toward the field next door. His front legs were suspended mid-air, dangling over the fence as he vainly reached for a tempting bit of green,…

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The Secret for Effortless Living

Everyone wonders whether or not there is one Great Secret for truly successful living. There is. And it is not a secret. It has been quietly, steadily telling itself right in front of us all along. We just couldn't hear it over the clatter and chatter of our own secret demands. Listen quietly for a moment. Everything can change right now. Learning to hear this Supreme Secret is no more difficult than choosing whether to swim against a current or to let it carry you safely to the shore. Let it speak its wisdom to that secret part of you…

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Ask a Luminary

Can I Choose How to Feel?

"Sometimes I feel as if I'm being torn with all of my responsibilities. Between my job and family responsibilities, I have no time for "fun". Some days I'm so overwhelmed I feel completely depressed and don't know where to turn." From an early age, we as human beings experience upsets wherein we make things up about ourselves, others and the world in general. These interpretations cause us to react emotionally to these upsetting challenges. Generally speaking, most people respond to such challenges with one of three predominant emotional reactions: anger, sadness, or fear. As life goes on, we become accustomed to…

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New Year’s Eve, Drop All That No Longer Serves Behind You

Before midnight on New Year's Eve, take some time to reflect upon on your past. This past year and as far as you can remember. Refrain from going into story about the past or reliving old memories,  just reflect. And everything that you don’t want to drag into 2014 with you, drop it. Drop it like the ball that falls in Times Square each year. Drop it like a hot potato and let it go once and for all. Leave the past in the past so that you can move into 2014 with clear unencumbered focus. Between Christmas and New Year's Eve…

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Ask a Luminary

How Do I Handle the Cruelty of Other People?

"Sometimes I feel like I'm carrying the pain of the world in my heart. How can people be so mean to one another and what can I do to lighten my load?" ~ Courtney Dear Courtney, For those gifted with high empathy levels, the world can seem like a barrage of emotions, constantly crashing down like meteors onto the moon. But unlike the moon, we have a way of coping with the emotional-energy missiles we encounter. In our default state, humans are essentially emotional mirrors; we take on, and reflect back, whatever is sent our way. But we are not inanimate…

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How Do You Let Go of the Past?

I watched with great interest the various shows commemorating of the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Having only been 2 years old at the time, I'm a little fascinated that it feels like it means so much to me. I'm sure it has to do with the impact on everyone around me at that time, that as an energetic being, I absorbed, without even knowing what it was I was feeling. I know my family was devastated. My brother and I stayed with my Grandmother while my parents made the pilgrimage to see Kennedy lying in state, which Mom later captured…

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Ask a Luminary

How Do I Find My Purpose – Not My Job?

"My life has been quite the journey. Oh, if one could only see what lies behind that statement! I have learned that my life is my choice and I choose to live in today. I practice gratitude daily. I choose my thoughts, taking captive those that are not healthy and promptly discarding them. I choose to envision my relationships as healthy, happy, and secure. I choose to envision my life as fulfilled, complete, successful and prosperous. With all that said, I find myself in a job - that's right, a JOB - NOT my life's purpose! My heart yearns to…

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In The Underbelly Of Pain, Lick Your Wounds and Thrive

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. I was living the dream. I was floating through my days, moving between the multiple houses and the multiple cars without a care in the world. My husband loved me, my kids thought I was an awesome mom and loved that I could shower them with everything they needed. I had a rockin' wardrobe and one hell of a travel schedule.  My body was perfect, my lifestyle was perfect, my family was perfect. My everything was perfect. Until it wasn’t. The marriage dissolved. The cars, houses and flashy clothes were history. I couldn’t provide for my…

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3.74 Degrees of Separation – Social Media and the Algorithm of the Human Heart

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. I'm no Kevin Bacon, but I just found a batch of research that says the degrees of separation between me and the rest of the world are decreasing. And it's no surprise that social media has a lot to do with it. Take Facebook, for instance: Mark Zuckerberg and co. say that I’m only 3.74 degrees away from any other user on the social network. That’s less than 4 connections separating me from President Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, or even you. Small world, huh? And the numbers get even more mind-blowing the more you think about…

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Confessions of a Reformed Trophy Wife + 10 Lessons for Moving Forward

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Once upon a time, in a not so far away land, there lived a wife. A trophy wife to be exact. She was living the "dream," with every single one of her "wants" more than fulfilled. Loving, affluent husband? Check. Two beautiful children? Check. Vacation homes? Double check. Travel, jewelry, fashion sprees? Check, check, check. Busy social calendar? Check to the nth degree. How do I know all this? Because that trophy wife was me, living my personal Disney fantasy. That is, until the music stopped. The façade fell down. My marriage failed. The economic recession…

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Sponsored: A Passionista’s Approach to Life

We all want to live a life filled with passion, right? What if YOU could live your passion and prosper within it? Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to live? Just for a moment consider approaching life from a Passionista's Perspective.... "Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... it will stir... and open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us...passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments." - Joss Whedon Passionistas CHOOSE to discover life and live it filled with their heartfelt…

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Trying Helps, But Doing is What Matters + 5 Tips to “Do” Happiness

We've all heard it a million times: "Actions speak louder than words." Action is dynamic. It moves and morphs with life. And yet at times we fall back onto "trying" to make something happen as opposed to proactively doing something about the trying. Have you been using a lot of “couldas”,” wouldas”, “shouldas”, maybes, tries and mights lately? It’s time to ditch the conditional-speak. Thinking in this frame of mind puts us in a bind. Why try when you could simply do? Why would when you can? By allowing our lives to be framed in maybes, we’re giving away all…

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Sponsored: Love is a Power Tool + Other Fun Tips for Happier Parenting

Love can single-handedly mend a broken day, establish an exciting new relationship, or reinforce a happy, internal bond with ourselves. Love is an omnipotent tool that has the uncanny ability to improve any sticky situation we find ourselves in. Love is a power tool we should all have in our happiness toolboxes. But just like that power drill or band saw, it also comes with some safety protocol. When you use your love power tool, you take on the responsibility of treating the world with kindness, compassion and respect. Use your love power tool responsibly, forging, fixing and strengthening relationships…

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Sponsored: Strategies for the Very Serious Business of Happiness

Often, we think of our professional lives as defining of our success as a human being. This is apparent at any social gathering where what we do as a career becomes the center of conversation. Indeed, what we "do" as a profession is important to our economic sustainability. However, the real question, the one that speaks to the heart of the matter of our sustainable wellbeing is: how happy are we in what we do regardless of what our “business” might be? In my coaching practice, workshops and on Harvesting Happiness Talk Radio, I emphasize the need to show up for…

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Sponsored: Inhabiting Life + Tips for A Transformational Experience

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about this quote from poet Christian Wilman: "Let us remember... that in the end, we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both." Christian isn’t just talking about poems and prose here. What he’s trying to say is that art, creativity and things that inspire thought help us engage with our lives so that we treat our existence with more care, respect…

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