Secrets for Happier Life 4-22-2010

 

Secrets For A Happier Life: Ideas, Inspiration & Practices Quick Links   YouTube Visual Musical Secret    Joy Coaching     Boca Smile Center             I would love to hear from you      Share your happiness tips and see them in a future newsletter                                             Email Link                           (561)487-4555      Spread The Word Want to live around happier family and friends?    Smile of the Week        “Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory”    Albert Schweitzer Be Happy Now April 22, 2010 Dear Michael,        Welcome to Secrets For A Happier Life.    Like rain dripping into and filling a bucket, your life can become happier one drop at a time. For over 25 years I have gathered thoughts and experimented with practices related to increasing joy.  I am happy to share them with you.    Yogi Berra is reported to have said, “It’s like deja vu, all over again.”  Was he talking about our lives and how we  seem to be on a merry-go-round bumping into the same problems over and over again?  What does it take to step off into a new direction?   If he were asked how many psychologists it takes to change a light bulb Yogi might have answered, “only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.”  Are you ready?  How is your light? Your happiness?   Right now what can you do to add another drop of happiness to your life?  Remember, happiness is a road you travel along, not a destination.  I invite you to begin with Small Moments of Happiness and Quick Changes below.    Yours truly,     Michael Selzer DDS   Small Moments Of Happiness   Notice that when you laugh you are happy. Notice especially that when you are laughing your whole body is moving. It’s in motion. You have stopped thinking, have let go and relaxed and allowed your body to move and shake. You are happy for at least that moment. And then like the ripples settling down in a pond the waves and motions of laughter settle back to our routine level of being. The trick to being happy is to have more small moments of happiness and then let the natural brain chemistry learn to stimulate this happy response more and more often.   Quick Changes   Right now recall a moment when you were happy. Expand the image of that or the sense of that moment of happiness. Make it big and bigger in your minds eye. Put it on a TV screen, a movie screen, an I-max screen.                                                                        Or, you can also pretend. That’s right, merely make up a good thought. It works just as well. The brain does not differentiate between real and pretend. It just registers a path for each thought. As you have more happy thoughts the path gets deeper and easier to access and reverberate with other thoughts. That’s it. Hold onto the awareness of happiness and let it soak into your body down into your finger tips and toes.    The trick is to continually just let go of unwanted thoughts and replace them with happier ones. Gradually the groove of happy thoughts becomes the routine.   Do this practice 3 to 6 times a day or whenever you realize that you are not as happy as you would chose to be. Allow the groove of happiness in the brain’s chemistry to get deeper and deeper.   Happiness: A Puppy’s Perspective   Or just take a puppy to the beach 1. More drops fill your bucket faster.  Every hour think ten happy thoughts.  They can be real or pretend.  The groove in the brain will get deeper either way.  For those old enough to remember that may be where, “it’s groovy” comes from.   2. When an unhappy thought comes up, immediately think the opposite.  Turn it into an opportunity to experience a happy thought when you most need it.  Again, its okay to pretend.   3. Before you fall asleep at night review happy thoughts.  Form an intention to continue filling your bucket with happy thoughts tomorrow.  As you sleep the brain continues to process the last conscious thoughts you have.   Upcoming topics in future newsletters *More on how to train your brain *How awareness to body sensations deepens happiness *How to enhance the good moments of each day

Forward email

Groovy Happiness in 17 Seconds Secrets For A Happier Life 12-20-2019

SECRETS FOR A HAPPIER LIFE

Groovy Happiness in 17 Seconds   let go and be

ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS MOMENT …RIGHT NOW?

Visit Our Website

Even a broken clock has the correct time twice a day.   For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose.   When I was in woodshop class in junior high school our teacher Mr. Feurestein had a huge clock on the wall. The face of the clock was painted in alternating quarter hours of red and green. In the green 15 minutes you could walk away from your workspace, ask a question or turn on (with permission) a machine. In the red 15 minute quarter hours you were required to remain at your workstation and work or not. No questions were allowed and you could turn off a machine if needed but not turn it back on.   It seemed utterly ridiculous to me at the time but that was about 60 years ago and it still is a vivid memory. It also gave me a discipline which took years for me to appreciate.   And the understanding that everything comes back around in time if you can wait patiently for it to show up. Be prepared and be ready do not miss it when it arrives.   In a writing class the other day one of the other students asked an interesting question. “How do you shift in writing from negative experiences or topics to happiness?”   For me it seems to come naturally. It just feels better so I do it.   However, my mind’s answer was the green and red clock.   Wait for the happiness to come around. Like the broken clock and the seasons everything comes around in time. During each day thoughts and experiences of happiness and sadness come and go. For many of us our attention is drawn to the unhappiness and the happy moments slip by unnoticed. Or perhaps they do not seem important enough to pay attention to. Or that there are more pressing concerns that must be addressed.   Make time for the happy moments to soak in when they occur. By focusing attention for 17 seconds on the happy sensations a groove of happiness is deepened allowing other happy moments to fall in line more easily.  Gradually you get used to the feeling of being happy and catch yourself sooner when you fall out of your happiness groove.   Give it the 17 second try, its groovy. ***************************************************************************** We are all familiar with earth and space gravity.  Everything pulls and attracts everything else towards it.  The earth is so large in size compared to all of the objects we come in contact with that everything seems to fall toward the earth.  Spiritual gravity is similar in that everything is pulled or attracted to the center of the Heart of the Universe.        SPIRITUAL GRAVITY a blog                 CLICK HERE for  8-9-17  Mountains Lakes and Happiness                  CLICK HERW for 9-6-2017  Lemons Goldilocks and Happiness                 CLICK HERE For 10-4-17 Smile Workout for Happiness                Click Here for  11-2-2017  Turning Inside Out For Happiness                   CLICK HERE FOR 2-18-2018   MEDITATION PENICILLIN   Alladin’s Closet House world 3-28-18    Wanting 6-18-2018   Potato Chips and Ice Cream 6-21-2018   Let Go And Be July 20 2018   Your Breath is more than air 8-30-2018   Flowing Zone 9-26-2018 Finding You 11-2018 Air That I Breath 12-27-2018   Habits Karma Meditation & Mindfulness  1-16-2019   There Is No Traffic Running Through Your Bedroom 2-6-2019   Parachuting Your Higher Self 3-15-2019   Karma Yoga Try It On April 2019   Karma Yoga Try It On May 2019   Open Free Dropping Sticky Mind July 2019   Stop Listen Look 8-16-2019 Active Meditation 9-5-2019 Drop Thoughts Into Well of Happiness 9-20-2019 Mirrors of ME October 20 2019     Click Here for archive of newsletters 2010-2017

Announcing SPIRITUAL GRAVITY a blog Spirituality Happiness Joy Wonder Deconstructed VISIT SPIRITUAL GRAVITY CLICK HERE

Mirrors Of Me Secrets For A Happier Life 10-20-2019

SECRETS FOR A HAPPIER LIFE

Mirrors of Me    let go and be

ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS MOMENT …RIGHT NOW?

Visit Our Website

When was the last time you were in the “Hall of Mirrors” at the fun house of the arcade.   One mirror made you appear tall and skinny and another fat and short. And now with morphing computer driven images the distortions are practically infinite. However, the fun part is the knowing that the distorted images are not the real you.    And the only real image is the one you see of yourself in a plain flat clean mirror. But even with that mirror what you “see” is colored by your own self image which changes from day to day depending upon how you are feeling in the moment. A few days ago I discovered another view of the mirror of me.   I had placed my attention on the sounds I was hearing. Just listening without naming each sound but allowing it to join together with the other sounds, each as a separate instrument in an orchestra. I then added the sights in view as other instruments creating a local rock concert in my mind’s eye. Without much thought I added the sensations of sitting and any muscle twitches or skin itches and then the local aromas and tastes within my mouth.    It took some attention, concentration and focus to balance and hold all of the senses in mind at one time. Very similar to balancing while riding a bicycle and then letting go of the handle bar. As one sight, sound, taste, aroma or sensation became prominent I rebalanced it with attention on the others.   Lastly I added any thoughts that appeared in mind creating a cacophony of extraordinary combined sense contacts. When all of the awareness of the sense contacts and thought were in balance the resulting awareness shifted to one with no commentary, no liking or disliking; just a peaceful calm watching, like reflections in a mirror, of whatever was arising in consciousness and then the next and the next.    There was a smoothly flowing stream of awareness, of peaceful noticing. As one sense contact became prominent my sense of flow and calm shut down only to return again when I rebalanced all of the sense contacts.   The only problem that arose was when I did this while walking the dog. A ten minute walk extended into an extraordinary hour. ***************************************************************************** We are all familiar with earth and space gravity.  Everything pulls and attracts everything else towards it.  The earth is so large in size compared to all of the objects we come in contact with that everything seems to fall toward the earth.  Spiritual gravity is similar in that everything is pulled or attracted to the center of the Heart of the Universe.        SPIRITUAL GRAVITY a blog                 CLICK HERE for  8-9-17  Mountains Lakes and Happiness                  CLICK HERW for 9-6-2017  Lemons Goldilocks and Happiness                 CLICK HERE For 10-4-17 Smile Workout for Happiness                Click Here for  11-2-2017  Turning Inside Out For Happiness                   CLICK HERE FOR 2-18-2018   MEDITATION PENICILLIN   Alladin’s Closet House world 3-28-18    Wanting 6-18-2018   Potato Chips and Ice Cream 6-21-2018   Let Go And Be July 20 2018   Your Breath is more than air 8-30-2018   Flowing Zone 9-26-2018 Finding You 11-2018 Air That I Breath 12-27-2018   Habits Karma Meditation & Mindfulness  1-16-2019   There Is No Traffic Running Through Your Bedroom 2-6-2019   Parachuting Your Higher Self 3-15-2019   Karma Yoga Try It On April 2019   Karma Yoga Try It On May 2019   Open Free Dropping Sticky Mind July 2019   Stop Listen Look 8-16-2019 Active Meditation 9-5-2019 Drop Thoughts Into Well of Happiness 9-20-2019     Click Here for archive of newsletters 2010-2017