Happiness is a Choice?

This thread might not have been commented upon for a little while (BUMP) and I honestly haven't read the majority of it. HOWEVER- I recently came across this site- Happify- and thought this thread was well suited as a place to mention it.

The science behind the site (http://www.happify.com/) is as follows...

1. That the brain we're born with can be changed. Technically speaking, they call that neuroplasticy. (You can teach an old brain new tricks.)

2. We can change it by adopting new thought patterns, by training our brain as if it were a muscle, to overcome negative thoughts.

3. All of us are hard-wired for negativity (blame evolution!) but can profoundly benefit from learning new ways to react and deal with everyday stresses.

4. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make a real difference in your life. A few simple and even entertaining mental diversions will change things.

Now whether it's true or not that you can influence your own happiness, I don't particularly want to argue with anyone. I personally believe that my happiness CAN be INFLUENCED by my decisions (but I don't know by how much it is for me to decide my own happiness).

For those who would like to learn a little about happiness - but there are a bunch of articles on this site that might inform your ideas...

http://happify.com/public/science-of-happiness/

And as for the people behind it, there are several 'experts' (who have written their own books and even one TED talker) so that might lend weight to those ideas- http://my.happify.com/public/experts/

In any case, I hope this thread and all the videos/ideas etc. serve people well if they are interested,

Enjoy!

My thinks on the topic, which I don't remember if I shared in my journal or not.

Lots of good things in this thread. For those who see things like such, so be it. Everyday begins the same, new. I am a believer in "me" power in a sense that it is me who makes me and generates my emotions. Controll can be taken be taken because I am proof. So many times we do things cuz we have never seen em done. Please know it is possible to have a horrid day and thru it all think... and find peace. so many times I have been granted grace by the Force and been reminded of some small joy in life then... it explodes into great joy. our eyes and mind are wonderful, if we only learn to use them properly. My 2 cents, hope it helps

heres a list of things most anyone can do to be happy with their life in general as well as to feel better when theyre depressed, and some advice thats helped and continues to help me

eat healty

intense exercize 30 - 45 minutes

sunlight at least 45 mins

combine these by doing yoga or pilates or a kick boxing workout or whatever in direct (if possible) sunlight to fry two stoners with one bird

find stuff to do that helps other people

this is NOT the same as just doing stuff that people want you to do

sometimes people expect things from us and we feel bad about giving in because we know that theyre not fair in their expectations or we just are tired of feeling like everyone elses go to person for their problems

feeling as if we have been forced into helping others when we really dont want to makes us feel worse about ourselves

im talking about being active in a way that makes us a positive influence in other peoples lives because we want to be a positive influence in someones life

pursue some kind of personal excellence -you dont really even have to be that excellent at it - simply apply yourself to something you enjoy and make genuine effort to get better

make a list of the things youd really like to do with your life -if you had all the money youd ever need and all the free time necessary to cultivate the ability or get things going ect - what would you do?

come up with a plan to do something on that list and make definite steps towards actualizing it

if you add the last few ideas together you likely end up with a picture of both what you really want to do with your life as well as what your gift to the world can be - both of these ideas make a huge difference to your happiness because they give you a place where you belong, and they make you valuable in a healthy and positive way

cultivate the idea that you have the ability to adapt to life and changing circumstance and to become an effective person wherever you may find yourself

acceptence and forgiveness

accept the fact that youre not perfect - accept yourself and love yourself for who you are right now -most likely theres nothing about you that is really WRONG in the fundamental sense
this particular thing or that particular thing might be too much or too little but we all look at ourselves and say "but MY issue is worse than their issue/at least they arent/dont blah blah blah"

B*LLSH*T! the only issues that really really matter are the ones that make us unbearable to other people - if the value that you add to other peoples lives is greater than the burden of carrying you then your issues are resolved!

so accept what youre left with as the challenge of your personal path, and shine

forgive yourself for everything - your failures and shortcomings
all the hurt youve caused and all the mistakes youve made
theres nothing youve done that is more than what others have also done

life is hard and it is tragic we make bad mistakes that cause a lot of pain - let go of the pain

learn from mistakes, grow from them, let them go
the future needs us all to participate with it fully

forgive the ones who have hurt you
life is hard and it is tragic and no one gets out alive much less unscathed

let your scars be proof of your durability; youre tougher than you think

its most difficult to forgive someone who we are still attached to and who will continue to hurt us - the key here imo is not in breaking away from the one who hurts us but rather about making new relationships that are healthy and developing the ones we already have

if you have healthy and mutually invested/mutually nourishing relationships with enough people, no single individual will be able to break you - your friends wont let them!

once you put yourself in a place where the damage stops coming in, you have to let all that pain process - its difficult and it hurts and it takes time, but allow the hurt without clinging to it - stay hopeful about your future and about your gifts to the world
and about your personal excellence
and eventually you will reach that equalibrium place where you will be able to forgive if you choose to

at this point - choose to forgive
the resentment keeps you trapped in a hell that you do not need

understand how lucky youare that the cosmic dice which rolled you into your body in your family in your country were as kind as they were

i dont want to focus on the negatives so lets just say that having a set of problems withing which the ability to turn on a computer and tell people about our problems exists at all, means that the dice could have rolled a lot worse for you

its ok to feel hurt when we hurt - IT IS NOT OK TO INDULGE IN FEELING SORRY FOR OURSELVES

ackowledge the honor youve been given by having the chance to face your particular problems - hand in hand with your problems is the opportunity to overcome them - the solution,most of the time, is much more in how we respond to adversity than that we experience it

the more sh#t you overcome the more you will be a leader and a guide to those who come after

i was diagnosed with chronic manic depression when i was like 10 - i was put in a hospital

my mother THANK GOD refused to drown me in prescriptions
im not saying they arent right for some people
ive wasted a lot of my life on foolishness

now i live by that checklist and i can tell you that i am happy (even when im not all that happy lol)