Help in Achieving Happiness

2009-01-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hiding beneath layers of routine, misconceptions, neglect, and pessimism, achieving happiness may not be so easy anymore. Here are10 suggestions to help you achieve happiness:

1) Bring passion back. Learn something new whether it is an art, cooking, writing, running, salsa dancing, horse back riding, or photography. The important thing is finding something you truly enjoy. Learning activates passion which is one of the strongest forms of energy that we can generate within our body. Passion leads to a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of purpose in life.

2) Live on a day-to-day basis. Learn from the past, live for today, and hope for tomorrow. Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. Living one day at a time will ensure you live every day of your life. Use your resources and past experiences to deal with the challenges of day-to-day living. When faced with a challenge, remind yourself that you have already made it through past challenges and will do so again.

3) You always have choices. Your greatest power is the power to choose. At different times in our lives, we may say to ourselves that we don't have a choice. Yet there are always different avenues that can be explored. If you feel stuck right now, step back, view the situation from a different angle, identify your choices, and select one. By not making choices you are in actuality choosing to stay stuck.

4) Surround yourself with love. Surrounding yourself with people who have your best interest in mind will make you feel loved and want to improve your life. We all have an innate need to belong. Wouldn't you rather belong to a group that supports and encourages you than a group that does not?

5) Teach those around you. We teach people how to treat us, so teach them your worth. By taking care of yourself and your needs, you are modeling to others that you are important. You will also start to feel that your needs are being met, letting go of any resentment you may feel towards others. Remember, in harboring bitterness or resentment, happiness will dock elsewhere.

6) Get what you want. Do you expect your friends or family to be mind readers? Do you expect your partner to know exactly what you need from them? If so, you will never get what you want. You have to take charge of yourself and verbalize your expectations. Help those around you understand what you need. Be explicit rather than implicit.

7) Stop worrying. If you can't change a situation, stop worrying about it. Rumination and regret is a waste of precious energy. Instead, focus on what you can change and then be constructive about it.

8) Stop self-pity. The slippery slope that is self-pity may be an exhilarating ride, but it is also a deteriorating one. By placing blame on everyone and everything around you, you come to believe you’re the victim of daily punishment, which will result in feeling out of control and angry at the world. Instead of finger-pointing, stop, take a deep breath and then do something nice for another person. How can you think about enriching another’s life when you feel the world is impeding yours? The kindness you share will be returned.

9) Cultivate gratitude everyday. Much like fire and water, gratitude and anxiety cannot occupy the same space. By jotting down what you are grateful for, you will not only create more awareness of those gratifying moments, you may even be able to appreciate them before they happen. Gratitude will also soften any challenges you encounter on a day-to day basis.

10) Adopt a virtue. Someone once told me that in order to grow spiritually, we can focus on one virtue at a time and all the rest will come. If I focus my attention on the virtue of "Patience", and truly dedicate my life to becoming that patient person, I will need to practice other virtues as well: kindness, love, justice, forbearance etc. One cannot forget the power of spiritual growth in the search for happiness.

Remember: If you always think the way you have always thought, you will always feel the way you have always felt. If you always feel the way you have always felt, you will always do what you have always done. If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.

As Gandhi would say, become the change you want to see.

Welcome to the Centre for Cognitive and Behavioral Change

2008-09-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Thank you for visiting the new Centre for Cognitive and Behavioural Change website. Feel free to browse through our categories to learn more about our services for clients and professionals.

Should you have any questions, you can fill out the contact form, email us, or post on this blog. We look forward to helping you to the best of our ability.

Thank you,

Cynthia DeWild

The Centre for Cognitive and Behavioural Change Change

Help in Achieving Happiness

Welcome to the Centre for Cognitive and Behavioral Change