Life is an extremely complex subject, like a river delta there are many tributaries that feed and lead off into many different directions. Some are calm, some are violent rapids, some pass through beautiful views and others contain dangers lurking beneath. There are also many tools that people use to filter or make sense of the pictures, sounds, images, feelings and experiences they encounter whilst travelling these many paths through life.
I am in no way planning to explore the many facets of these intriguing routes Continue reading
Tag Archives: Happiness
Day 131 (positive project) Give to Receive
I have been reading a book entitled the PassionTest. (Yes, I started this a while ago now, but as many will testify I take my time with books and also very rarely finish them.)
One section really spoke to me and as a previous follower of Abraham-Hicks, it connects even more so.
In the passion test one of the authors, Janet Bray Attwood, speaks of a Saint in India, named Nani Ma. Nani Ma speaks of the law of attraction and I wanted to highlight an important part of what she says and something I feel has the capacity to be adopted by many that consider themselves as ‘suffering’:
“The way to create whatever you want in life is by giving it to other people. Sometimes people think they want money or a husband or children, but nobody really wants anything except happiness. The pursuit of all these other things is only for the sake of happiness.
The way to have happiness is to give what you want to have. On the relative plane, life is just like a mirror. Whatever you do, that is what you receive.
So if you want to receive happiness then you must give happiness. If you want to receive love then you must give love. If you want to receive respect then you must give respect.”
So it all boils down to the simplest of facts and I am sure I have written this before in a blog post:
What you put your attention on
grows stronger in your life.
For more information about the passion test you can check out their site
Day 128 (positive project) Costa Rica Happiness
Here in Costa Rica, they don’t have a military. (I was going to stop writing there, as that’s really all the info you need, however…..) The United States has a military that costs $1.4 trillion a year. Costa Rica is one of the happiest nations on the planet. Speaking to a local, he says he is free, liberated, because of there being no army.
If every country needed no army we would surely be in heaven.
Here is a great Ted talk on the happy planet index by Nic Marks
Some interesting reading
NPR air conditioning spending
The below picture was taken from Wikipedia
Day 99 (positive project) Surprise!!
Who doesn’t love surprises? Im not talking about being startled, or necessarily a physical gift, but more so about a sudden arrival of a friend or loved one, or a sudden change in your daily plan that was unexpected, but planned in secret by someone else.
It is always very nice to be the surprised, but I feel it can be even more exciting to be the surpriser. I have in the past turned up at my parents house completely unannounced after having been traveling for 2 years. Prior to my knock at the door they believed I was in Singapore. The excitement I felt the entire journey home in anticipation of their reaction was close to overwhelming.
So today, I arrive a day early to surprise another, excited for the look on their face, and somewhat satisfied; as it comes as retaliation to a previously received surprise.
Gotcha!
Day 92 (positive project) Morning Tweets
No, I am not talking about the social media giant Twitter, I am however, talking about waking up to the sound of the birds. Whilst being in England these last coup,e of weeks, I have taken great pleasure in hearing the birds in the morning. This morning the sun’s rays were shining through the curtains accompanied by the tuneful sound of a chorus of different birds.
If one could listen to this sound with fresh ears everyday, more joy would be had, instead of taking this amazing experience for granted.
Day 86 (positive project) Grudge
grudge – a persistent feeling of resentment, bear a grudge; harbor ill feelings
Today, I was exposed to first hand effects of holding a grudge. Holding a grudge is very similar to not forgiving someone. All of us have values, or morals of our own and we often feel that others should hold those same values. This is not always the case though. Not everyone is ‘perfect’ and people make mistakes. It can be very hard to forgive people, but as the definition above reaffirms, to hold a grudge is to harbor ill feelings. I don’t think that it is right to hang on to ill feelings, why would we hold on to these?
I think it is great to have values, but we also need to understand that not everyone can have those same values. It doesn’t make them less of a person, we can all fall victim to circumstance.
I have seen today, the importance of letting go of past hurts and allowing in the fresh perspective of new beginnings.
Day 51 (positive project) Relax
I am the sort of person that feels I need to achieve things during my day. I don’t necessarily have a physical list, but there are things I like to do, something to achieve. If I don’t do these things, I tend to be hard on myself. I get frustrated as I look back over the day and then wind myself up, feeling that I have wasted a day.

Relax
Today, I did nothing until at least 1pm. At first I started feeling like I was wasting the day, but in my new positive outlook methodology, I slowly observed and morphed these feelings into positivity, allowing myself to include “Do Nothing” as an achievement!!
The act of doing nothing, allows me to replenish energy to do something with later. It also, created the room for this particular blog post, so from nothing comes something.
Day 32 (positive project) Friends
I have begun to reach out to friends I have not seen in a while. Whilst it is true that these friends may always be in your thoughts and hearts, we may never take the time to reach out personally. If you haven’t heard from me in a while, the chances are you will soon. If you don’t get to me first.
Love to all my friends…..
Habits of Happy People
To re-iterate a point I made in a previous post about the law of attraction, I wanted to share this article.
Happiness breeds happiness and unhappiness breeds more unhappiness. It takes effort either way…my choice-be happy. Here are a habits of happy people and ways they tend to consistently be so happy with everything.
Habits of Happy People and What Makes Them Happy.
Letting Go of Insecurities with Two Realizations | Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In
A great article from Tiny Buddha today…. (click the link to read the whole article)
Editor’s Note: This is a contribution by Emma Brooke
“What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.” ~Carl Rogers
I used to spend an awful lot of time worrying about people liking me. Or what people thought of me. Or what they thought of the clothes I was wearing. Or whatever.
It’s taken me a long time to realize two things:
1. Most people really aren’t even taking notice of us. (They’re too worried about what other people think of them.)
2. Of the few who are noticing us, the people who are judging us harshly are not the people we want around us anyway.
Makes sense, right?…….


