The Science of Happiness: What happiness is and how you can achieve it

See also:
Pharrell William's "Happy"
Bobby McFerrin's "Dont Worry Be Happy"

Your Mother is Always With You

It's not Mother's Day, nor is it her birthday. 

I just saw this and it moved me...so here you go.

Loving and missing my mom.

by Deborah R Culver

Aka Deborah R Force-Shy-Gerlach-Culver

Change is Good… You Go First Movie

Click here: Change is Good… You Go First Movie:

Great Thoughts and Motivation: Recommended Daily

People always say "Motivation is great but it doesn't last." I just tell them, bathing does not last either, that is why I recommend it daily." - Zig Ziglar

"Happy" by Pharrell Williams

"Happy" was written for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack by Pharrell Williams. Pharrell came up with the idea for the lyrics by asking himself what being in a good mood truly feels like.

It might seem crazy what I'm about to say
Sunshine she's here, you can take away
I'm a hot air balloon, I could go to space
With the air, like I don't care baby by the way

Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do

Here come bad news talking this and that
Yeah, give me all you got, don't hold back
Yeah, well I should probably warn you I'll be just fine
Yeah, no offense to you don't waste your time
Here's why

Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do

Happy, bring me down
Can't nothing, bring me down
Love is too happy to bring me down
Can't nothing, bring me down
I said bring me down
Can't nothing, bring me down
Love is too happy to bring me down
Can't nothing, bring me down
I said

Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do

See also:
Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy"
The Science of Happiness

Honor Your Life's Calling - Excerpt from "I Can See Clearly Now" by Wayne W. Dyer

Look back over your life at the key turning-point moments when you were involved in some kind of a peak experience and being pulled in a new direction. Think about your soul and what it truly means to be motivated by your inner thoughts, rather than using some artificial external barometer as your life’s guide. Promotions are nice; salary increases are of course welcomed; a gold watch is a fine symbol of a long and devoted life; a grade on a transcript, a trophy, and so many more are all external indexes. They do not soothe or satisfy your soul. Your soul is not finite — it has no form — no beginning or end. It needs to expand — to grow, to avoid being labeled or compartmentalized.

Every move I made in my life was in the direction of more freedom that gave me the ability to decide for myself where to be each day, what to wear, how to speak, how my writing would proceed. These were nudges from my soul — the inner invisible part of me that is infinite and therefore always seeking expansion.

Stay in touch with and honor the calling you feel deep within you. Ignoring that will leave you feeling like a prisoner in your own body and in your own private world. Your soul is miserable when it is confined, or labeled, or told what it can or cannot do. Its theme song shouts out, “Don’t fence me in!”

As you begin to see more and more clearly, not only how and why your life took all of its twists and turns but what direction it is going to take from here on in, you will see that your soul will not ever lead you astray. This is because this is truly who you are — not your accomplishments or possessions, but that inner sense of purpose that seeks out immensity and expansion.

Listen when it beckons you in a certain direction, or when it sends you a teacher, or sets up a synchronistic series of events. It all feels so mysteriously exciting when it occurs because your outer world is finally meshing with your soul’s innate need to keep on expanding. It must and always will prod you this way because it is infinite, and therefore it must just keep growing. That which is infinite cannot be labeled or put into any kind of a box for safekeeping. To do so would deny its very nature and turn it into the opposite of infinite, which is finite.

I use the phrase I am as a declaration of fact, regardless of what anyone around me says, or even what my own eyes and ears tell me is true. I am is the name that God used to identify himself to Moses and to all future generations. I encourage you to use these two words to see first in your imagination what it is that you intend to see, manifest into your physical reality. I declare every day, I am well, I am perfect health, I am content, I am love, I am God.

by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

See also:
Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life

What To Do When You're Stressed Out

Stepping up the self-care helps us boost our immunity to stress.  

Stress happens—to everyone. There are many tricks to releasing stress that give us respite from feeling overwhelmed. Merely thinking about doing these things is not enough; in order to take care of our stress, we actually have to take some of these steps. Start small—try one or two of these suggestions. 

10 Simple Things To Do When We're In Over Our Heads:

1. Community. Hanging out with friends helps us feel better. Spending time with actual human beings boosts our mood. It energises us, even if it’s people we don’t really know, at the local café. Sharing smiles with people gives us a lasting warm fuzzy. 

2. Take breaks. No one can thrive when we’re sitting at the computer for hours on end, all day long. Take a five minute break every hour. Walk to the water cooler and rehydrate, do 10 jumping jacks, do a deep forward bend, walk to the break room and refill your coffee cup, have a quick phone chat with a friend or step outside and take a peek at the sky. 

3. Get enough fresh air and sunshine. This is important, especially in the wintertime. Spending time outside breaks up the monotony and reconnects us to nature. An easy way to “cheat” is to walk or bike to work. If we have to bus or car commute, park a few blocks away from the office. If we work at home, a quick walk around the block will suffice. If it’s cold, bundle up. There are really no excuses when it comes to being outside and enjoying the day at least a little bit. 

4. Eat food cooked with love. Make sure to eat enough veggies. Eat real food and avoid processed and packaged food. Have a snack— if you’re experiencing mood-faliure, get your blood sugar up. 

5. Meditate. Practice sitting meditation every day for at least 10 minutes. If you’re too busy, meditate for one hour. Our minds are made for thinking. Consciously taking a break from our thoughts heals stress on many levels. I meditate every day for 10 minutes, first thing in the morning. It makes me feel like I’m cloaked in a protective blanket all day long. 

6. Exercise. Our bodies are made to move. People have a lot of energy and sitting still for too long can drive us stir crazy. Exercise, even a little bit, is important everyday. It releases negativity and makes us feel good. It gets our heart pumping and our lungs breathing. My favorite ways to exercise are walking the dog, biking, hiking, yoga, dancing, skiing, snow shoveling, gardening and sex. 

7. House Plants.It’s nice to be share space with other living things. House plants are natural air filters. They live on water and sunlight. That’s affordable! They bring relaxing and cheerful energy to a room. They are quiet. If you have to vent, houseplants are good listeners. 

8. Stretch. Practicing yoga, even a little bit, breaks up the” fuzz” between our muscles and fascial tissue. A good stretch can give us the “space” we need to buckle down and take care of our responsibilities. 

9. Get enough sleep. Our bodies are rejuvenated with a good nights sleep. Enjoy a relaxing ritual before bed, to ensure a restful night. Have a cup of chamomile tea, meditate take a hot epsom salt bath, or read for 15 minutes. 

10. Laugh. Read something funny. Talk to someone funny. Watch a funny video. Amuse yourself. Laughter really is the best medicine.

In today’s busy world, it’s easy for anyone to feel overwhelmed; using creative solutions to deal with stress can help us prevent burnout.

by Ashleigh Hitchcock

See:
Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy"

How to Clear Your Life of Negative Energy

You know that like attracts like, right? So here’s the deal: Positive people are drawn to positive energy; negative people are drawn to negative energy.

We tend to perceive negative energy as something other people have. Sure, sometimes we feel negative – as in, “go away and leave me alone, world!” but did you know that negativity can be so ingrained in you that it goes unnoticed?

That’s because negativity sometimes wears a disguise called ‘reality’. It’s easy to rationalize that you’re ‘just being realistic’ in not daring to act on a dream – and believe it!

You may assume that positive people are not being realistic – that they’re being naive, that they are in denial with their heads stuck in the sand, that they put on fake smiles in the face of difficulty and so forth. But are they really happy idiots or is there something to their positivity?

Consider this: since when does ‘being realistic’ necessarily mean that things will go wrong and that you have to accept that as the truth?

That doesn’t mean that being realistic is automatically negative. When you view the world from a ‘realistic’ standpoint, you can’t help but be negative IF your version of reality is negative.

If your version of reality is negative, you are conditioned to believe that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong and whatever can go right, will probably go wrong too. Your unconsciously held beliefs make you into a negative person without your being aware of it!

So – if this negativity is so ingrained in you that you don’t notice it, how do you determine whether you’re stuck in a cloud of negative energy that is attracting the wrong people, wrong situations and wrong feelings? And how can you be sure you’re not perpetuating that negativity?

Here’s a quick quiz to gauge the level of negative energy within you:

• Do you complain? All the time or just sometimes?
• Do you often discuss what’s wrong in the world more than what’s right? This includes the ‘terrible’ weather, ‘horrible’ traffic, ‘idiotic’ government, ‘lousy’ economy, ‘stupid’ in-laws, etc.
• Do you criticize? All the time or just certain people?
• Are you attracted to drama and disaster (can you unglue yourself from the TV when there’s a news story of a disaster and can you avoid getting involved in the lives of dysfunctional celebrities?)
• Do you blame? All the time or just certain situations?
• Do you believe that you have no control over most of your results?
• Do you feel like a victim? Do you talk about people doing things to you?
• Are you grateful for what is or will you be grateful when things finally start going right for you?
• Do you feel like things are happening to you? Or do you feel that they are happening through you?

This last two points are important:

If you’re not grateful except when things go right, you are negative. Gratitude is positive. If you are grateful for what is (including the unpleasant school of life lessons, then you can invite more and more positive energy into your life.

Believing that things happen to you puts you in the role of victim; then it’s easy to be negative because it’s convenient to give up that power. So consider this alternative: who or what is to blame when GOOD things happen to you? Do you acknowledge that you are responsible for the good things – as in, you worked hard, you earned it, etc… but blame external events or other people for your failures? So how come, when good things happen, they are a result of what you do, but when bad things happen, they are not your fault?

Nobody likes to hear that. It takes courage to accept that you create your life experience!

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are holding on to negative energy to some degree! To clear your negative energy and raise your vibration, you will need to retrain yourself to choose a positive attitude.

Here’s another interesting idea to consider: have you noticed that positive people seem to get what they want out of life, and even if things don’t go their way, they still enjoy their lives… while negative people whine and moan about their misfortunes and even the good things in their lives?

To clear negative energy, try this 3 -step process:

1. Take ownership: “When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.” – the Dalai Lama

2. Cancel negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. This takes practice, dedication and making a decision to see the world through the eyes of “what can go right” instead of “what can go wrong.” You’ll have to catch yourself anytime you are acting out or speaking out your negativity, and immediately change your tune.

3. Use the Love or Above Spiritual Toolkit to clear your energy and bring more light and love into your life; visualize the positive instead of getting sucked into negativity; overcome past conditioning; think intuitively from the soul instead from ‘reality’; create a new, desired reality in your imagination and manifest it in the outer world. Nobody wants negative energy to permeate their lives, yet many of us allow it. But we allow it unconsciously, based on past conditioning that suggests an inevitable outcome to certain situations. When you overcome that conditioning and realize that the future is NOT cast in stone but that you have more control over your circumstances than you believe – then you can begin to consciously design your life.

What’s going to happen then? Your positive energy will magnetically attract what you consider to be good and right for you: people, situations, things… and you’ll notice a huge, huge increase in your happiness and inner peace.

Why not choose positive energy? Make some changes within, and you’ll quickly see positive changes in your life. Enjoy the good feelings and abundance!

Source: loveorabove