How to Cultivate Happiness: Feed Daily

Posing with Uni and Joungmin on my patio

Posing with Uni and Joungmin on my patio

No matter how well you’ve planted the seeds for happiness and removed the weeds, you must feed daily to keep happiness thriving in your life. Here are five ways to do this:

1. Be curious

Stay open to new ideas by reading and listening to inspirational, entertaining and informative material. There is much material available to you online, in your local library and many other places.

One such place to spark new ideas is Springwise This company has 80,000 spotters around the globe looking for inspirational ideas for entrepreneurs. Maybe one of this ideas will spark a new venture in your mind.

2. Be sociable

Get off the Internet for a while and hang out with other people near you who share your interests and are engaged in activities you enjoy. One place to start is Meetup.com, the world’s largest network of local groups. Search for groups in your interest area and locale, or start one if you wish. I belong to several Meetups in my area and assisted my daughter in starting one.

3. Be giving

Donate to charities and agencies in need of aid, but also give of yourself. It feeds your happiness and spreads it to others. One way that some are giving of themselves is through couchsurfing.org, the largest hospitality exchange network in the world. Through CouchSurfing travelers make connections with others in the local communities they visit. You may participate by meeting a visitor for coffee when they are in your town or host them if you wish. The photo above shows a couple who stayed with us for three days on their long road trip from Canada back to their home in South Korea.

4. Be positive.

It is said that we have about 70,000 thoughts per day. If it is true that we attract what we think about, then we must selective about the thoughts that permeate our minds all day.

The thoughts in your mind won’t control circumstances outside of you, they just determine how you react to and are affected by those circumstances.

One way I stay positive is to talk to other positive people, listen to motivational and inspirational audio and live programs, and most of all, begin and end each day with positive affirmations and prayer. For weekly tips that will help you stay focused on positive, be sure to subscribe to the Color Your Life Happy Newsletter.

5. Be proactive.

Insist on doing things you enjoy. Don’t get so caught up in working that you neglect engaging in what you find enjoyable.

Be resourceful and creative about it. If you enjoy gardening, for example, but seem to be short on time once you arrive home, then bring live plants into your office or workplace. An added benefit according to some studies is that live plants help purify the air, create soothing effects and help reduce work stress.

Using these ideas daily will help feed and maintain your happiness.

How to Cultivate Happiness: Get Rid of the Weeds in Your Life

Working dog by meg price on flickr

Working dog by meg price on flickr

Weeds are a type of plant that appear in even the best of gardens. A whole industry of tools, techniques and herbicides has been created to get rid of them. Why are the grass and plants we call weeds so unwelcomed?

Weeds are the dreaded enemy of beautiful gardens because they compete with your garden for water and nutrients. Likewise, the weeds in your life must go because they sap your energy and block the intake of positive thoughts and action toward your goals.

What are some of these weeds?

1. Some weeds were born into your life through no fault of your own. They are better known as family. Some family members are wonderfully nurturing and a joy to have in your life. Others are toxic, negative, choking the life out of your goals and positive action. You know the ones I mean. They are the ones who leave a heavy cloud of doubt, depression and sorrow even after they are no longer physically present.

2. Some weeds you brought into your life. These are better known as friends, spouses and children. While we all would love to be able to share our dreams and goals with these people closest to us, it’s not always the wisest thing to do. Be selective about sharing your dreams with those who don’t have your best interest at heart. Even though they may have good intentions, watching you go after your passion makes them afraid for your safety and ashamed of their own lack of action. If you let them project their fears and insecurities on you, your progress toward the life that makes you happy will be slowed if not stopped.

3. Some weeds come into your life based on circumstances and situations. These are better known as neighbors, coworkers, and members of clubs and associations. When you were hired by your company or when you joined a given church or club, folks were already there. Some of these people will share your interests and become close friends and partners. Others may feel threatened by your positive actions and work to sabotage you.

How do you remove these weeds from your life?

Minimizing contact is the first step to reduce exposure to the life-sapping efforts of people out to diminish your worth and devalue your goals. When on a job, for example, you choose carefully the people with whom you will have lunch or take breaks.

There are some, of course, from whom you must sever ties as soon as you are aware of the damage they are causing. When you are in any relationship where you sustain physical, emotional or psychological violence, your life and well being depend on removing yourself as soon as possible to safety.

Preventing future weeds from entering and taking over your beautiful and thriving life is the next step. Now that you can recognize them, you can act quickly to keep them from getting a foothold in your life.

Finally, be on guard against inviting and entertaining your own internal weeds in the form of negative thinking and self-destructive habits.

As you practice more positive thoughts, follow your passion and pursue your goals be prepared for the efforts of the weeds to return. It’s their nature to go where they can get nourishment. Now that you are set on cultivating happiness, you must absolutely deny their presence in your life.

But don’t worry about them, they are a hardy and determined breed. They will soon find new, unsuspecting hosts nearby.

How to Cultivate Happiness: Plant the Right Seeds

seedlingOnce our recent rain let up, I went to my favorite nursery to get some new flowers and potted palms to bring Spring to my patio. While I was there I took a look at the tomatoes and fruit to decide what else I would plant.

When I plant the tomatoes I fully expect to get tomatoes, not grapes, not peaches, not peppers.

It’s not hard to understand that whatever we plant in the soil is exactly what will bloom. It’s a simple and acceptable idea.

And yet, in the way we live our lives we act as if some other rule applies.

We plant negative talk in our heads, and then wonder why we get negative results.

We hang around people who complain and gossip, and wonder why we experience disappointing results in our lives.

Our minds are even more fertile than the soil. Our subconscious is a powerful thing. It has no choice but to move us toward whatever we put there.

The idea that positive thoughts and positive talk move us toward positive results is not the platitudes of positive thinking gurus. It’s fact.

On my radio show today, my guest Chris Gloss, motivational coach better known as the Possibilitarian, said that our words are the arrows that we send ahead of us. You can probably think of a time when you said of someone you know “He’s a pain in the neck,” and you did indeed experience neck pain.

Or after you experienced a letdown you said, “I knew that would happen.”

Whether we speak the words or think them, we are planting ideas and thoughts in our heads.

Is there any doubt what you need to do next?

Whether you believe me or not doesn’t matter. Just look around what’s going on in your life. If you don’t like what you see, change what you plant.

Plant what you want to grow in your life.

Healthier Equals Happier

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While I’m busy with my happiness projects my kid are busy encouraging me to be healthier. It’s not that I am a total food slob. As a matter of fact, I grew up on very healthy diet since my mom was from the South. I’m discovering, however. .

My food choices and cooking habits from childhood need reworking.
• The vegetables we ate were overcooked thus rendering them less nutritious.
• I don’t ever remember my mom using the word “cholesterol.”
• Eating everything on your plate seemed like good advice at one time.
• You can’t make a sandwich without bread.

As I learn to listen to my body, some food choices are immediately evaluated. I’m discovering, for example, that some sweets are far sweeter than I remember. Every holiday it’s been traditional for my mother and later me to make a chocolate meringue pie and a lemon meringue pie. Last holiday, when I bit into these pies they were so sweet to me that I thought for a moment that I had accidentally doubled the sugar. But to be sure I hadn’t goofed the recipes I tried these recipes again, and they were still too sweet.

Sadly, for tradition, but happily for my health, those pies won’t be part of our holiday celebrations anymore.

If you want to work at improving your food choices and eating habits, here are three things to do:

1. Look for fresh fruit and vegetable choices that seem to be more prevalent with the increase in farmers markets.
2. Watch cooking shows on TV and YouTube to learn how to prepare vegetables and fruits that are new to your family.
3. Check out these sites for tips on food and healthy living==>http://whfoods.org/ and www.sparkpeople.com

There’s no doubt about it : eating right and taking care of your body help promote happiness.

What Lifts Your Mood?

pajamasshanghai fr boingboing.net

pajamasshanghai fr boingboing.net

Let’s face it. We all feel down at times. After all, we’re living a human experience.

A happy person is not one who never feels sad, disappointed and sometimes downright mad. A happy person acknowledges these real feelings when they show up, but doesn’t let them linger long. If you accept that what we dwell on expands, then you want to let go of those negative feelings as soon as you catch them invading your space.

So, when you feel down, what do you do?

Some meditate, do yoga, walk in nature, or whistle a happy tune. Research has shown that watching comedies, laughing and dancing all help not only lighten moods, but also strengthen the immune system’s ability to fight disease.

Me?

I wear happy pajamas to lift my mood. Happy pajamas–that’s what I call my themed pajamas.

No matter what has tried to reach my inner joy, at the end of the day my happy pajamas lift my spirits and return me to peace. (Of course if you watch Law and Order: Criminal Intent after you put on your happy pajamas, your joy is in danger again. But I digress.)

I love message pajamas: High Maintenance, Relax (a very comfortable sleeping cat,) One of a Kind, Use Your Head.

I also enjoy animal print, particularly leopard and giraffe.

There are occasions when I feel like donning my Paris-themed, frogs, or dreamy clouds pjs, and even a few solid colors. I have one no-nonsense pair of gray pjs that I bought in the men’s dept. I feel like Kathryn Hepburn when I wear those.

In case you were thinking this is a crazy idea at all, check this out. Folks in Shanghai have been wearing themed pajamas in public for years because they are just so darn comfortable. But with the World Expo 2010 approaching, officials want to crack down on this practice.

If you can figure out a strategy that successfully lifts your mood, you can get pull yourself out of the doldrums before you get too comfortable there.

What lifts your mood?