Happiness Thoughts

These tools to Help Develop Happiness Thoughts Abolish Anxiety

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You can demonstrate this for yourself. At this very moment, how happy are you on a scale from 1 to 10? Write the number down and turn over the paper you wrote it on so you can’t see it. Now, take a few minutes to think about the happiest time in your life. What were you doing? How did it feel? Who was with you and where were you? Are there lots of happy times to choose from, or does one come to mind more than the rest? Do you remember the feeling, or the sights or sounds or smells more? Can you taste happiness? When you have that sense of happiness firmly in your mind, ask yourself again, how happy am I on a scale of 1to 10 and write the number down again. Is it different than before? If so, you have just seen happiness thoughts in action.

What are happiness thoughts?

He describes happy present oriented feelings as calm, joy, ebullience, pleasure and flow. Flow is a special state of mind where you are fully engaged in what you are doing. Time stands still and everything seems to fall into place. Future oriented feelings include optimism, hope and faith. People who are spend more time thinking about the future than the past tend to be happier overall, research has found. However, happiness always happens in the present and it is in the present where we have the most power to change our memories of the past and our expectations of the future.

Ten Happiness Thoughts

1 Mindfulness

Just noticing that you are happy can amplify the happiness you feel. Once you notice that something is pleasurable, you can increase your happiness by savoring the experience.

2 Appreciation

Whether you are appreciating the pleasure you feel at this moment, or the beauty of a rose, a job well done, or a trait you love in someone else, appreciation makes us happy. In fact one of the ways that we show love is through appreciation, or acknowledging what is good about someone or something.

3 Compassion

Compassion moves us to alleviate the suffering of others. It is the ability to understand the pain and suffering of others and feel mercy. Compassion is the basis for the Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Every major religious tradition considers compassion to be a great virtue.

4 Forgiveness

When someone hurts us, or trespasses against us, our natural reaction is anger. Anger is a fine alerting mechanism, but it is not always a good coping mechanism. Forgiveness does not mean condoning the hurtful behavior, but letting go of the anger. Often forgiveness and compassion go together.

5 Giving

Giving makes us feel good. Whether it is something as simple as a smile or a kind word, or a grand and noble gesture, we feel good when we give and even when we watch someone or hear about someone giving.

6 Trust

As forgiveness is the antidote to anger, trust is the antidote to fear. Marci Shimoff, in her book, Happy for No Reason, lists three principals for a happy life and trust that the universe supports you is one. Trust is the basis of faith and of optimism.

7 Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm means infused by God. It is excitement, energy, and passion for something. Dale Carnegie calls it the little known secret of success and I have certainly found in my own life that revving up my enthusiasm for something has often turned a drudge into a pleasure.

8 Optimism

Optimism is the ability to look on the bright side and find positives in every situation. Dr. Martin Seligman, the author of Learned Optimism, defines it as consistently finding permanent reasons for success and temporary reasons for failure.

9 Fun

In his book called Finding Flow, Mihaly Csikkszentmihalyi found that people are happiest when the amount of challenge closely matches the amount of skill. This is the basis of many games and what many of us think of as fun. Often fun involves an element of risk or uncertainty. Many jokes are based on seeing things in unexpected ways. Finding ways to put these elements into anything will make them more fun and you more happy.

10 Contentment

When I think of contentment I think of liking what I have. In this day of more is better, contentment is often about having enough, about satisfaction.