Lived Experience Forum

[Anastasia]

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@Clawde wrote:

@Anastasia  I laughed out loud when read your message, bet your funny as in real life 😂

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Haha @Clawde I think I've lost a bit of my sense of humour over the years, I do like a good belly laugh. High five to you for this thread, you're a good egg Clawde 🙏

[TAB]

gotta run @greenpea  thanks

[TAB]

Hi 🙋‍♂️ and bye @Clawde Work

[Emelia8]

I hope you dont mind @Clawde , but I love this new thread of yours and would like to add something more to the discussion.  

Firstly ... What is happiness?

By definition, happiness is a feeling of pleasure and positivity. When someone feels good, proud, excited, relieved or satisfied about something ... that person is said to be "happy". Feeling happy often helps people to relax and smile.

Happiness is generally considered to be the opposite of sadness. However, it is possible to feel both at once, often about different things, or sometimes even about the same thing. 

Many philosophers have said that people in the world go back and forth between times of happiness and sadness, but there is nobody who is always happy or always sad. Happiness is an emotion, and sometimes people cry when they laugh because the emotion takes control of them.

Now that we know what happiness is, how do we go about achieving more of it in our lives?

Scientific studies have determined that most of the happiest people live by the following habits or guidelines:

• In relationships ... express your heart - Express genuine interest in what people say, and respond encouragingly.
• Perform acts of kindness - Cultivate kindness and caring on regular basis, and reach out to others who need it.
• Exercise and physical wellbeing - Keep moving and eat well. The old adage of 'sound mind, sound body' is true.
• Find your flow - Flow is motivation, where you do what you’re doing primarily because you like what you’re doing.
• Spiritual engagement and meaning - Spirituality is closely related to the discovery of greater meaning in our lives, and through a meaningful life we discover a deeper happiness.
• Strengths and virtues - Discover where your strengths lay, and use those strengths to the greater good.
• Positive mindset - Treasure gratitude, mindfulness, optimism and hope.

If you consistently follow the guidelines above, you will likely have a much lower incidence of depression, anxiety and stress.  Besides being of benefit to our mental health, the above points are also good sound life strategies, and will result in greater overall happiness in our lives.

Again, I thank you @Clawde for starting this thread. 

Tagging a few other contributors to this thread who may be interested in reading.  

@TAB @Anastasia @greenpea @HenryX @Shaz51 @Bow @Eve7 @BlueBay @Snowie @MDT @pinklollipop15 @Meowmy @Faith-and-Hope 

Emelia 💕  

[Anastasia]

I love that @Emelia8 thank you 💞

[Appleblossom]

Dear @Clawde 

Thanks for adding me to your new Happiness thread.

I love @Emelia8 discussion too.

Best wishes

@Anastasia @greenpea  and all ...

[Clawde]

Mega love everything every word amazing 🤩 Thankyou @Emelia8  your brilliant and brilliance shines into my Happy life Thankyou hope to keep this feeling because we all know it passes and Thankyou for reminding and telling old @Clawde so, Thankyou again do you know the secret yet,you have the formulas, have the recipes, have the ingredients, have the game plan, Thankyou so much for being Clawdes friend love you @Emelia8

[Smc]

@Emelia8, I find the acts of kindness one curious. Something I think I've seen happening, is when you focus on what you can do for someone else, the "outwardness" of this helps put your own life and circumstances in a different perspective. Which kind of means that "quiet" acts of kindness or generosity might be more effective, because if you slip into doing it for the positive feedback, it can slip into a more "me-focused" thing.
Not that positive feedback's a bad thing, but I think there's something important about keeping the focus on others.

[Emelia8]

Totally agree @Smc 

Its an internal feel-good thing, not for any feedback.  Doing acts of kindness just makes you feel good inside. Whether that is doing voluntary work, helping a stressed mum struggling with children and bags of groceries or holding the door open for an elderly person with a walker.  It does not have to be seen or acknowledged by onlookers or peers. It is enough to know in our own heart that we have done a good deed. And that is uplifting and a reward in itself.

[greenpea]

@Clawde  hoping you had a wonderful Tuesday beautiful Clawdexxx