Secrets of a Happier Life 6-24-2010

Secrets For A Happier Life: Ideas, Inspiration & Practices

Buzz Thought Happiness is an inside job Quick Links Joy Coaching Boca Smile Center Happiness on YouTube I would love to hear from you  (561)487-4555 Share your happiness tips and see them in a future newsletter Email Link Spread The Word Want to live around happier family and friends? Smile of the Week Adriana “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln Archive 4-22-2010 5-13-2010 6-3-2010 A book I enjoyed  I   Asked   For Wonder by    Abraham Joshua Heschel You Can Have Happiness Now June 24, 2010 Dear Michael, Welcome back to Secrets For A Happier Life. What would it be like to be happier more of the time? Creating happiness begins with becoming aware of whether you are happy or not in this moment! Just ask that voice in your head, Am I happy right now?” Happiness will increase by either adding more happiness (as   reviewed in the previous three newsletters) or by reducing the drains or hindrances to being happy. All trips start out from home base.  Shifting to happiness starts out from the home base of mindfulness, right now.  Thinking I will be happy when I have the time or when I am on vacation or any other “whatever” may or may not materialize.  But why wait.  Happiness is an inside job.  Why give away any moments waiting for something that you can have, right now? I invite you to read below and continue with this newsletter which will focus on reducing the blockages of our happiness. Yours truly, Michael Selzer DDS PS Visit a continuation of drops of happiness on a musical video on YouTube.   Happiness on YouTube Small Moments Of Happiness The place to start, building happiness, is becoming mindful of what is happening right now. Mindfulness or awareness of what is happening both within and around me right now has four interconnected overlapping sheaths. 1. Where am I geographically –  Boca Raton, Florida, USA, North America, earth, Milky Way a dot in the universe. 2. What am I feeling in my body – wiggle your toes inside your shoes – what do you feel?  –   pressure on your butt on the chair, the sunlight on your face, a cool breeze, tension, lightness, discomfort etc 3. What is my mood right now – am I connected, bored, happy, sad, restless 4. And how do I feel about my mood –  content, irritated Keeping all four in mind will bring you into the present.  It is like stepping off the continual merry-go-round of life and being able to take a breath of fresh air. Quick Changes Reducing the drains and hindrances to happiness. Happiness is the natural default state that we would be in if we were not pulled out of it by the drains.  There is a natural energy like a battery that you wake up with each day.  On some days it is more than others.  But at least for a moment or so before the thoughts and awareness of the hindrances return to your mind there is a freedom and energy of happiness that we are connected to. Most hindrances fall into five categories: 1. Wanting more of something or less of another 2. Ill will towards anything 3. Being restless or worried about something 4. Boredom 5. Doubting that the whole process is valid If you have a bucket filled with happiness the hindrances are like holes in the bucket that let the happiness drain out.  By reducing the drains the happiness you already have will be more easily maintained. After a short attention to mindfulness check for any of the drains that may be present.  Pick just one to review.  Choose between holding on to that drain or letting it go.  Try letting it go (even if just for this moment); what do you feel? Happiness: A puppy’s perspective for living in the moment Dropping the drains to happiness. These are tricky and take some thought and practice.  Read through the list and begin with whatever one or two resonate with you at this time and then go back to the list and try one or two others. 1. Just do it like Nike 2. Realizing that (like scratching a bug bite) getting more of what you want just increases what you need for the next hit and it only lasts for a little while anyway. 3. The same with its opposite of trying to push away what you do not want.  There is always going to be something else. When bad news strikes just feel it, be sad then let it go.  If you carry it around you just intensify the feeling. 4. What is, is.  Let it be. 5. Visualization and meditation on mindfulness and dropping the hindrances during the meditation. 6. Decide to let thoughts and hindrances drop for a given time, like a 10 minute meditation or 1 minute at a time. 7. Build up a tolerance to let things go. 8. Become aware of the restlessness, surrender to it , let it be , take a breath and relax, reach for a drop of happiness. 9. Be less serious for a moment. 10. Sing a song 11. Smile 12. Find your trigger 13. Choose to be happy rather and insisting on being right. 14. Shift up and back between adding happiness with your   trigger and letting go of the drains. Golf Secrets:  A golfer’s perspective for living in the moment Where is your target? On the practice range tee up a ball and take your stance.  Plan a target. Then without moving your feet close your eyes and raise your arm (with your gloved hand) and point to where you had planned your  target.  See how close you are pointing to where you had originally planned. Upcoming topics in future newsletters *How to expand concentric circles of happiness *Meditation on happiness