Saturday, April 4, 2009

Staying Up When the World is Down


Ten tips

Here are 10 tips to get you started:

1. Incline Your Mind Toward Joy.
Have you noticed that your mind tends to register the negative events in your life more than the positive? Reverse this by consciously savoring the positive experiences you have as they happen. Let the good feelings sink in!

2. Lighten Your Load.
To make a habit of letting go of worries and negative thoughts, start by letting go on the physical level. Cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien recommends giving or throwing away 27 items a day for nine days. This deceptively simple practice will help you break attachments that no longer serve you.

3. Get Your "Happiness Rest."
One sure-fire way to boost your happiness level is to go to bed by 10 p.m. for three consecutive nights. You'll find that the world is a different place when you're rested and fresh.

4. Become an Inverse Paranoid.
Choose to believe that this is a friendly universe—one that's out to support you, rather than out to get you. When you find yourself facing a challenging situation, ask yourself, "If this were happening for a higher purpose, what would it be?"

5. Hang with the Happy.
Study after study indicates that happiness is contagious! Spend as much time as possible with people who are supportive and upbeat to amplify those qualities in your own life.

6. Don't Believe Everything You Think.
Interrupt the downward spiral of worry and anxiety by questioning your negative thoughts. Just because you think something doesn't make it true.

7. Seek Out Silence.
Prayer, meditation, and being in nature have long been recognized as ways to access a deep place of peace and strength inside.
8. Move Your Body.
All the experts agree that some form of exercise is essential for maintaining optimal well-being. The next time you start to feel glum, get your blood moving faster-even if it's just by standing up and moving around while you talk on the phone, or parking farther away from your destination.

9. Ground Yourself in Gratitude.
Research shows that thinking of the things you're grateful for in life definitely raises your happiness level. Writing them down is even more powerful. So start a gratitude journal today.

10. Wish Others Well.
Try "beaming love" to people—your friends and family, as well as strangers you pass on the street. It fills your own heart in the process.
Marci Shmoff

Can you name all ten tips. If not read again.
Change your thoughts and you change you life.