How To Achieve Happiness?

In order for soul to lift us into awareness and inspiration, it's got to have fuel. Happiness is the fuel. Happiness is like gasoline in an airplane. Take it away and nothing gets off the ground.

Happiness has two frames, the present moment and the future. Life would be bliss if you could live in the present and think about the future.

THE PRESENT MOMENT

Happiness means taking pleasure in what you have.

You're certainly not going to be happy about the things you don't have. Happiness is when you walk outside on a beautiful summer day, look around and suddenly feel a rush of pleasure. Or when you come home from work and your child runs to greet you at the door.

When you sit down to a great meal at a fancy restaurant you definitely feel good. That's because you're happy -- you're enjoying what you have.

Yet people are focusing on what they don't have. If most of their attention is directed toward what they don't have, are they going to be happy? Of course not. It is certainly not saying that they shouldn't strive for all those things. But they also should take pleasure in what's in their own backyard.

You should count your blessings. Think of those wonderful things which you have.

People who were reluctant to acknowledge how many wonderful things they had in their lives were people close to suicide. Being suicidal, by the way, comes from obsessive focus on what is lacking in one's life.

It's wonderful to want new things, but you also have to take pleasure in the present moment. If your formula is "If I only had X, I'll be happy -- you'll never be happy. When you get X, you'll focus on not having Y. There's nothing wrong with wanting X and Y, but how about enjoying what you have in the meantime?

Life is composed of thousands and thousands of small moments. Can you remember a moment of happiness in your life?

Happiness is the natural state of a human being. Watch a baby for a few minutes. They don't seem to have too much trouble being happy. Being happy should be a pleasure felt in the gut, not some abstract concept that stays in the mind. Happiness is an attitude of noticing the good constantly coming our way. There's so much good coming every minute, there's no need to hand onto the past. We don't need to grasp onto a rope to prevent ourselves from drowning when we are standing on dry land.

Spend three days looking for your moments of happiness. Every time you feel a true shot of pleasure, notice it. You'll see that sometimes they are few and far between - not because there aren't many chances to feel them, but because you're worrying or focusing on what isn't going right.

Each moment can be filled with pleasure. If you were suddenly able to see or hear for the first time, you'd be filled with joy for at least a whole day.

Looking at a flower, seeing a friend walking toward you, enjoying something you're eating -- all of these are moments of happiness.

Should we write down our happy moments and look at the list every day. We don't have to hang onto the old ones. Every second is bringing new ones. Why look at a list of what happened yesterday?

Happiness is an attitude of noticing the good constantly coming our way. There's so much good coming every minute, there's no need to hang onto the past. We don't need to grasp onto a rope to prevent ourselves from drowning when we are standing on dry land. Joy gives us a feeling of power and energy.People use a lot of methods to achieve joy. Some of them work great, but others are doomed to failure. Let's take a look at a couple:People truly feel joy when they get married or have a child. Life becomes more meaningful. The joy comes from the anticipation of sharing a lifetime with someone you truly love. The future is bright. There will be strolls in the park, baby carriages, little league games, teenage years, a wedding.

The trick of it is to get into the habit of looking for good things, instead of griping all day about what's going wrong.

FEELING JOY ABOUT THE FUTURE

Human beings live in time. It's not enough for people to just feel good about the present moment; they also need to feel optimistic about the future. This optimism is called "joy."

Joy means being excited about the future.

Joy gives us a feeling of power and energy.

A person who feels that life is wonderful today but will be crummy next week will quickly get a case of the doldrums.

The Real Thing

People truly feel joy when they get married or have a child. Life becomes more meaningful. The joy comes from the anticipation of sharing a lifetime with someone you truly love. The future is bright. There will be strolls in the park, baby carriages, little league games, teenage years, a wedding.

It does contribute to a better life -- the underlying reality is true.

This comes from feeling that you are doing something with your life that will give you meaning forever. It's what we humans are looking for. This kind of joy comes when, for example, you feel that you are growing in wisdom, making a difference in other people's lives or changing the world.

When people think they are just cogs in a machine or that their existence makes no difference to anyone, they cannot feel a sense of joy, therefore, we need to feel that our relationships have permanence, and that our knowledge and good deeds have lasting value.

Many people feel that belief in God and in an afterlife are a helpful part of this feeling of optimism and joy.