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Empower Yourself with Optimism

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Set yourself up for success.

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From CrushPessimism.com

IT’S AN AGE-OLD BATTLE. Pessimists think optimists are foolish, optimists think pessimists make themselves unnecessarily miserable. A lot of research has been done on this issue in the last 30 years. Have we answered the question yet? Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania found that optimistic people are happier than pessimists. When something bad happens, optimists think of it as temporary, limited in its effect, and not entirely their fault.

Pessimists do the opposite. They consider the setback to be permanent, far-reaching and all their fault. There are varying degrees of this, of course; it’s not black or white. Most people fall somewhere between the two extremes.

The main difference between optimists and pessimists is how they explain setbacks to themselves.

Using these definitions, researchers find that optimism contributes to good health and pessimism contributes to illness.  Read more... (495 words, 9 images, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

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4 Reasons to Practice Loving Kindness

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Practicing loving kindness in our daily lives is the easiest gift we can give to one another that always comes back to us.   Here’s a great article I found at the Huffington Post:

by Mindful living advocate Marguerite Manteau-Rao.

I remember the first time I was introduced to loving kindness, during a weeklong retreat with Jack Kornfield at Joshua Tree. That was many years ago. Back then, Jack’s sweet words were met with a categorical refusal on my part, and a string of dismissive thoughts:

Don’t ask me to be kind.
This is not how I feel.
This is stupid.

Fast forward 15 years later. Loving kindness has become an integral part of my daily life — a practice I routinely call upon when the emotions get to be too much, or when my heart aches for another person.

Feeling fear, I relax into the arms of loving kindness. May I be at peace, may I be at ease, may I be well, may I be happy, may I be free from fear …

Feeling anger, I whisper those same words in the privacy of my mind and heart. May I have compassion for myself. May I suffuse that anger inside with love. May I free myself from it.

Feeling worry, I calm myself down, and bring myself back to the present moment, gently. May I be free of worry, may I be at peace.

Feeling grief, I soothe myself. May I be at peace, may I be at ease. May all beings be at peace.

Feeling the anguish of loved ones or people I hardly know, I write them lovingly kind words. A quick email, a tweet, or a private thought. May you be free from suffering, may you be at peace, may you be at ease.

Same with those who are difficult, and cause me to pause. May you be free from suffering, may you find peace, my heart is with you.

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 Read more... (613 words, 9 images, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

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7 Steps to Becoming a Happier Person

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The greatest compliment I ever received was when a person who knew me less than a year remarked that I wouldn’t understand his troubles because I was such a “happy and positive” person. I had to laugh inside thinking, “if he only knew!” I am a person who tends towards depression and spent many years being knee-jerk negative. I was fortunate enough to have a moment of clarity where I realized I actually wanted to be happy and realized that focusing on the negative wasn’t helping that goal one bit. Like a muscle in desperate need of exercise, I begun working on my happiness and just like a physical muscle it got stronger over time. Now, I generally have a better outlook and, in turn, enjoy my life more. That’s the point, isn’t it?

To that end, I am always scouring the Internet for articles and tips on maintaining that higher life condition. Here’s a great article I found on Web MD with some good tips to help improve your general happiness level. Remember, like all tools, nothing gets built unless you actually pick them up and put them to work! These are some good suggestions, though. Give yourself a break and put them into action and see what happens! You may be pleasantly surprised when you suddenly realize you’re in a good mood! Check it out:  Read more... (1603 words, 9 images, estimated 6:25 mins reading time)

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Change Your Mind, Change Your Life

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Like most human beings, I was born to be a positive person.  In the midst of my years of struggle with depression, addiction and negativity, my family often mused about what a happy baby I had been – as if to say, “what happened?”

I had the good fortune to recognize in a moment of clarity that negativity was an acquired point of view that I wore like a shield that kept happiness away.  I had suffered a long time in this destructive mindset until I understood that my negativity was not inherent.  If I could acquire it, I could also lose it.

I thus employed a plan of action to tune out the negativity and turn up the positivity. Nothing in my life actually changed but the way I perceived at it.  Read more... (394 words, 9 images, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

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The Wolf You Feed is the Wolf that Wins: The Power of Choice in Happiness

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The wolf that wins is the wolf you feed image

If you’re one of the 20 million Americans diagnosed with depression, you know how fruitless it is to tell someone one the low end of a downward spiral to just “cheer up.”  Trust me.  I’ve been there.   I suffered for many years with severe depression at times and just your every day blues (otherwise known as Dysthymia) on “good” days. The truth is that I got to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and was blessed with a moment of clarity in which I realized that the missing ingredient of my internal search for happiness was “action.”

I had to take responsibility for my happiness.  One thing I did for a very long time was blame my parents’ lousy parenting techniques for my miserable state of mind.  Even if I had good reason for resentment, it really didn’t matter in the scheme of my happiness.  Blaming my parents for my less-than-wonderful childhood kept me locked in the past and wasn’t contributing anything positive to my quality of life in the present.  In my search free myself from the chains of the past,  I read countless self-help books about “letting go” and “overcoming anger” but nothing worked. You know why?  Because I didn’t put any of the things I learned into action.   Knowledge is only half the battle.  Having a blueprint to build a house is of no use unless a you pick up the hammer and nails and gets to work.  Read more... (853 words, 10 images, estimated 3:25 mins reading time)

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