“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
~ Buddha
7. Give to others
“If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.’
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.”
~ Chinese Proverb
Even when we feel down, we can give to others and it enriches our life. Making others happy, brings happiness to us!
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
~ Aesop
Being of service can mean taking out the garbage, running an errand, cooking a meal for a loved one, or rubbing their tired feet after a long day. It can mean to open the door for someone, to smile at others, to help people and animals in need, to surprise someone with a token of your love, gratitude and appreciation, to share your knowledge, talents, and skills with others, to actively listen to someone, to make a donation to a cause that you believe in, to volunteer, etc.
Try it out and see how rewarding and fulfilling giving to others can be.
“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
8. Let go of resistance
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
~ Epictetus
You may have heard about the saying “What you resist, persists”. So how does this apply to your happiness?
We ordinarily feel discontent, when we are resisting something in our lives. We are not accepting what is (and that may be a situation, thought, or emotion) and want things different from how they are. By judging the experience (e.g. “bad”), we continue to resist it and feel “bad” and unhappy. Therefore we cause more suffering with our resistance than the experience itself would probably ever create.
“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.”
~ Seneca
By continuing to be in denial and resistance, only brings more of the same experiences our way. The law of attraction! So instead of paying more attention to what you don’t want or trying to fix your resistance, just begin opening yourself to what is. By exploring how you feel or think about the situation and accept the thought/emotion/situation, the issue will most likely dissolve. And if they don’t, maybe there is something to learn from the situation. Allow, accept, and embrace what is.
9. Let go of expectations
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller
When we have expectations, we make up a story in our mind of how we want things to turn out. Oftentimes, however, things turn our differently and we end up disappointed. By simply accepting that how we expect things to be may not be the only or right way things can go, allows us to appreciate what we find. It may even lead us to new and amazing experiences that we can only reveal once we let go of our disappointment. Once we practice getting over unfulfilled expectations, we can begin to release our expectation mind set and replace it with making requests, intentions, or by just staying in the flow with what is and open to what we will discover.
10. Forgive!
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Set yourself free by letting go of grudges or anger that you have been holding on to. There is a saying that forgiveness is like taking the poison that you are meant to send to another. We don’t have to approve of what happened, but when we can find forgiveness in our heart, peace will fill the space that you created.
Although forgiveness doesn’t change the past, it gives your the freedom to move on.
As always, I would love to hear from you! Let me know your thoughts. Drop me an email, leave a comment on my blog post webpage or on the Mendocino Healing Facebook page.
Wishing you Happiness, Joy and Fulfillment today and always!
Fondly,
Tanja
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Tanja Alexandra Kern
