Feeling Of Happiness

Necessities are the wheels which set motion in life; they are intangible, a feeling, and a genuine need. Comforts and luxuries add something more concrete and tangible to the whole experience, but they change with time.
One can live without material, but cannot live without that spark of feeling which motivates a person to move forward and not continue.

Happiness is a sublime feeling. Benjamin Franklin very appropriately summarizes this by saying, “Happiness consists more in small conveniences and pleasures that occur everyday, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life”.

Nicholas Barbon, very accurately states “if strictly Examined, nothing is absolutely necessary to support Life, but Food; for a great part of Mankind go Naked, and lye in Huts and Caves”. David Hume states that middle rank is the best. The rich are mostly immersed in pleasure, and the poor are always struggling for necessities. The middle position provides the best opportunity to acquire virtue, wisdom and happiness.

Honesty and hard work forms the pillar of character which has the power to unfold the future. This equation has changed with time, the middleclass has become very dynamic and powerful, and its reflection is in the youth of today. The passage of time has changed the character of the middle rank; the change is towards the material pursuit of happiness in the form of luxury. The youth of today are materially surrounded with gadgets, technology and science.

Thirty years ago it took a lifetime to procure a decent house for a middle rank family, whereas now they can have it in less than five years of working experience along with luxuries like a TV, refrigerator, car, air-conditioner, music system, spring mattress etc.. There has been no period of time in history when the youth has had so much exposure to easy acquisition of knowledge and the power of technology as today.

Everyday the life of man is secured by a variety of choices and abundant access to technology, which if properly harnessed can lead to emergence of smart, well informed and savvy citizens, who can make sound and knowledgeable decisions. With this power comes the responsibility to understand the subtle thread which connects luxuries, comforts and necessities.

Greater power requires a greater degree of understanding and responsibility; understanding which makes them attuned to their real nature and inner strength, without which all the material pursuit cannot yield happiness.

The article was produced by the writer of masterpapers.com. Sharon White has many years of a vast experience in sample essays and scholarship essays writing consulting. Get free samples of essays, coursework and summary essays tips.
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Tips To Help With Self Esteem

Your self-esteem is how you feel and think about yourself. Self-esteem is mostly developed during our childhood and affected by how we were treated during our successes and failures.

When we suffer from low self-esteem it affects our lives in many ways: we can develop anxiety issues, problems in friendships and relationships, damage our job performance and can lead to serious underachievement because we lack the inner strength to believe in ourselves.

One of the most important ways we can help ourselves to improve our self-esteem is to dispute any and all of our negative thoughts. This can be done either on a per situation basis or, simply when anything negative enters our mind. When you recognize that you're thinking negatively, immediately change the course of the thought to a more positive direction.

For instance, let's say you haven't done as well on some project you've been working on. You find yourself going over it and saying things in the realm of: 'What an idiot, how did I miss that?' or 'Why do I even bother?' or 'Stupid, I must be one of the most stupid people I know for messing that up?" Those are just a few of the thoughts that could be running through your mind at a time like this, but I think you can get a picture.

As soon as you recognize that a thought is self-punishing or negative, stop. Just stop. After you've stopped the thought, now think about the thought itself and what is the opposite of it. Look for the good things that came out of the experience: 'What did I learn?', or 'I'm getting better.' or 'I'm proud of myself for how hard I worked.'

It's okay to analyze how you could have done better on something or in some aspect; however, beating yourself up will only serve to have the same result or no result happen over and over again.

Perhaps the most difficult part is recognizing the negative thought and then reinforcing ourselves with a positive. With time and practice this becomes easier and eventually will become part of our second nature. Just don't give up, keep working at it until it becomes old hat and you'll surely see improvements in your life.

Another way we can go about improving our self-esteem is to ask the help of friends and loved ones. Ask them to tell you how they feel about you or ask them how they think you'll do on a particular project or in a particular subject. In fact, whatever you are feeling negative about, ask them about it.

You'll be surprised how positively people think about you and your abilities.
In addition to that, let your friends and family know how you feel about them as well. Since we're working on building our own self-esteem, we might as well help those we care about too.

And, a final and an extremely important way we can help our self-esteem, ask for and give plenty of hugs. There is something extremely empowering about a good hug.
Now, get out there and get busy creating a better more Happy Self.

About the Author
Matt is the operator of the website: A Happy Self http://www.ahappyself.com/

8 Keys to Discovering happiness In Your Life

Christmas is here and yet another year has almost slipped by.
Has it been a good one for you?

Have you achieved any personal goals?

Did you really stick to those new year resolutions?

Are you content and truly happy about yourself and how your year went?

Did you take action to resolve any problem issues?

Thinking back, could you have avoided any stress related situations?

The list of questions is endless and the answers will vary along with our personal differences. One thing though is certain, happiness is a way of life not just an occasional fleeting moment in time!

Below is an excellent article offering 8 keys to dicovering happiness in your life.





In working with thousands of people over the past twenty years as a psychotherapist and NLP Practitioner, I have noticed that there are certain key qualities that exist in the lives of those who are "happy" and who seem "vibrant" about life. These qualities are;

1. They Refuse to Live Up to the Label of being a Victim

Happy people have experienced being used, hurt, mistreated or abused. However, instead of attending little self help groups with others who have had similar experiences and reviewing the pain of over and over again on a weekly basis, happy people process their emotional and psychological pain and move on. They have learned that "the more you stir it, the more it stinks". Often the constant talking about what we have experienced in our lives reinforces the memories and the pain of the event/events. Sometimes it's best to talk about what happened, feel the pain and then focus on how to move on.

2. They Lower Their Expectations When It Comes to Others

Happy people do not get all upset when others fail to show up on time, forget things or do not follow through with their intentions.They realize that we are all human and if others actually do follow through with their commitments then that is a bonus.They look for the good qualities in others and are quick to realize that everyone is under stress and has their personal challenges they are dealing with which makes keeping promises sometimes difficult for some to do.

3. They Do Not Complain About Their Problems

Whatever we talk about we multiply in our lives. Positive people refuse to go on and on about what medications they are taking, their aches and pains and all the things that have "gone wrong" in their lives. Positive people actually reframe and relabel their challenges and try to look at them in a humorous light. They are quick to compliment others, tell them their strengths and quickly shift the focus of the conversation away from things related to their aches and pains and difficulties.One way to begin doing this is shift the conversation and keep asking others how they are doing instead of focusing on your challenges.

4. Happy People Have A Clear Purpose In Life

I have submitted an article on the net on "How To Discover Your Purpose In Life" if you have not discovered yours yet. Positive people have a sense of identity and are living in harmony with their purpose in life. When we do not know what our purpose in life is we often feel frustrated and angry eventually leading us into depression. We often balme everyone and everything for the way we feel as we drag ourselves through another day like a slow moving car with a driver unable to see in the midst of a snow storm not knowing the direction they are headed. Vibrant people know their purpose in life and take one small step each day to work toward living it out and becoming the person they have set out to be.

5. Happy People Quit Depending On Others "To Make Them Happy"

Once we depend on others to make us happy we place ourselves in the vulnerable position of leaving our emotional state under the control of another. Eventually the one we depend on to "make us happy" will let us down or through the course of time the "law of familiarity" kicks in and we often look for someone else like the bee moving from flower to flower.

6. Happy People Have A Selective Memory

Unhappy people take many personal tours through their personal "Hall of Shame". Positive people often walk through their own personal "Hall of Fame" and review the powerful and positive moments in their lives. I recall being in the home of a multi-millionaire who had a room specifically designed with pictures, large size news articles about him and memorabilia mounted on the wall. He even had the baseball glove when he was a child when he caught the ball leading his team to victory catching a pop fly. It was his special "Hall of Fame" he visited when he felt depressed or unsure of his abilities during tough times. His collection served him as "anchors" that triggered good memories and positive states.

Now, I don't have such a room. However, each morning I am greeted by a plastic cut out of "Tigger" from Winnie The Pooh. When I look at it as I wake up it reminds me to live my life like "Tigger" today, to adopt his philosophy of life to some degree. It serves as an "anchor".

7. Happy People Let Go of the Little Things

Apparently in some cultures they catch monkeys by placing a banana in a cage. the monkey crawls in, grabs the banana and pulls on it to take it. As he pulls on it it forces the door to cage shut trapping him inside.

Freedom awaits the monkey if only he would let go of the banana, since this would release the mechanism closing the door of the cage. Trappers know that no matter how desperate the monkey is wanting to be free, they will not let go of the banana and thus remain trapped inside the cage. Positive people choose to let go of the bananas in their lives. They let go of the petty offenses, critical remarks from others and let go of things from past thus releasing others to their highest good and at the same time setting themselves free.

8. Happy People Know How to Create "Happenings"

Positive people do not wait for happiness to find them, they know what they have to do in order to create moments of happiness in their life. First, they have taken the time to figure what it is that makes them happy. Secondly, the make definite plans to create more of those experiences. Thirdly, they keep a journal and jot down new experiences that make them feel happy so they can work toward replicating them in the future. They have a recipe book of strategies they use to create their own moments of happiness. I have a recipe, a ritual, a set strategy and system I use each time before I speak before a group of people as I anticipte raising the positive energy level in the room. It works despite what is happening inmy life at time or despite how I feel. Happy people know how to set themselves up to win in terms of creating life experiences that will result in happiness in their mind.

Happiness is not something that is "Out There" that we need to search for or wait until it mysteriously arrives.Happiness can be experienced by slowly building these principles into our lives on a daily basis and moving away from our unresourceful beliefs and adopting new one's that empower us.

Norman has over a decade of experience as a professional psychotherapist in the field of psychiatry. He holds a Master's degree and two earned Doctorate degrees in the field of counseling and is a Master NLP Practitioner. He is also a member of The Ontario Association of Consultants, Counselors, Psychometrists and Psychotherapists. He is the author of the audio book "The Success Formula" and his work has been featured in the media and journals. Currently, he is completing a book entitled "Breaking Point" Transforming the Life you Have into the Life You Want that will be published and released in September 2007.

The most frequent comment organizations and meeting planners see on the speaker evaluation forms filled out by members of the audience is "When can we have Norman back to speak to us again?"

http://www.normanbarlow.com

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