How to live a Happy and Rewarding Life

Watch Butterflies or Birds. Be grateful for good health. Don't interrupt. Take a nap on Sunday afternoon. Never deprive someone of hope. Be thankful for every meal. Never be afraid to say, "I'm Sorry." Improve your performance by improving your attitude. Wave at children on the school bus. Leave everything a little better than when you found it. Leave the toilet seat in the down position. Take time to smell the roses. Don't tailgate. Keep it simple. Enjoy good company. Keep your promises. Listen to your children. Be kinder than necessary. Wear outrageous underwear on a job interview, or to work! Take good care of those you love. Make it a habit to do nice things for people who never find out. Judge your success by the degree that you enjoy peace and good health. Be a good loser. Be a better winner. Be romantic. Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring and integrity, they think of you. Enjoy real maple syrup. Never refuse homemade brownies. Remember other people's birthdays. Sing in the shower. Resist gossip. Don't nag. Don't expect that money will bring you happiness. Say "THANK YOU" a lot. Take care of your reputation; it is your most valuable asset. Take your dog to obedience school. Slow dance. Don't rain on other people's parade. Don't postpone joy. Whistle. Call your mother. Do more than what is expected of you. Be someone's hero. Count your blessings...daily. Enjoy a sunrise, sunset.

How to Be Happy in Life

Happiness, we say, is a choice. Happy people understand this, while unhappy people struggle with judging themselves for not being able to easily shift to a happy state of mind.

The first step towards moving into a happy state is to understand that happiness is something we need to learn and, for some reason (that we will not discuss here), school teaches everything else but happiness. Use the "school of life" to practice happiness and remember that your "choice muscle" needs to be active all the time. Always notice you have options in everything you do, think or feel, and that you choose the things that are best for you.

Here are some specific tips you can blend into your every day:

1. Step 1

   Smile a lot - If smiling is too hard for you, take a pencil and hold it with your teeth. There are enough smiling muscles involved for your brain to think you are smiling and start producing "happy" chemicals.

2. Step 2
   
   SING

   Sing! - Singing works just like smiling, causing your body to produce "feeling good" chemicals. Sing in the car, sing in the shower, sing when you prepare dinner and sing when you feel frustrated and notice how the negative feelings melt away.

3. Step 3
   
   HAPPY PEOPLE

   Hang around positive people - Having happy people around you will make it easy to learn happiness. Happy people have fun around them and their ability to overcome challenges is higher than that of unhappy people who tend to lay blame and feel victimised. Choose the people you hang out with to suit your needs.

4. Step 4
   
   LAUGH

   Laugh - Much like smiling, laughter is a great way to overcome physical and emotional challenges. If it does not happen naturally, try laughter therapy.

5. Step 5
   
   BE ACTIVE

   Get a move on - Being physically active makes you happy. Find some activity you like to do and notice how it changes your mood: sex (yes, of course!), any kind of sport, dance and yoga. Make a habit of being active in any way you feel like.

6. Step 6
   
   GET CREATIVE

   Get creative - Creativity is a great way to find happiness. Think of creative things people do for a living or as hobby and notice how much happiness it gives them. Paint, draw, dance, sculpt, do some craft, invent a gadget, cook something new, write poetry or tend the garden. Tap into your creative abilities and find your "happy spot".

7. Step 7
   
   HUG

   Hug - Hugging is a way to give and receive happiness. Physical touch is essential to your development and hugging is a great way to get that physical touch in a positive way. Hug a lot!

8. Step 8
   
   BE HAPPY

   When in a conflict situation, remember that being happy and being right do not necessarily go hand in hand. When in doubt, choose happiness over being right.

9. Step 9
   

   When feeling down, recite to yourself "This too shall pass" and imagine a brighter future.

10. Step 10
    
    BE CHILDISH

    Act like a child - Do childish things to feel young and fresh: jump on a trampoline, sit on a swing and skip. Remember, "We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing".

11. Step 11
    
    BE KIND

    Be kind - Do random acts of kindness every day. It can be as simple as saying something nice, offering help, giving up your place in a queue or allowing another driver to enter a busy road.

12. Step 12
    
    BE GRATEFUL

    Be grateful - Practice gratitude: say thank you for everything you have and appreciate in your life. Gratitude is a way to increase happiness and eliminate taking life for granted.

13. Step 13
    
    MEDITATE

    Meditate! - Find a relaxation you feel comfortable with. Meditation relaxes the mind. You can listen to music, use crystals, take a bath, use candles or repeat a mantra. All of these do the same thing to your mind. Take the time off every day to regenerate yourself.

LIFE LEADS TO BEAUTY

Let us continue with Irenaeus for a moment to pick up his
understanding of life leading to beauty. For Irenaeus, the living human
person is the glory of God because he is God’s artwork.7 The artwork of a
master sculptor gives glory not only to the subject of the sculpture but also
to the artist. The living man is the Creator’s central artwork and thereby
man glorifies the Creator as the master artist. Man full of life radiates the
beauty and glory of the Creator. Living man is inherently beautiful,
according to Irenaeus, because he is the created artwork of the Creator and
he glories the Creator by being fully alive.8
Irenaeus makes this connection between the life of man and the glory of
God through his understanding of living man as a beautiful artwork. One
way to see that this is theologically true is to offer the converse: the death of
man means ugliness.

On April 18, 2008, a Yale University art student, Aliza Shvarts,
reported in the Yale Daily News that for her senior art project she had
inseminated herself artificially as many times as possible over a nine-month
period and then “performed self-induced miscarriages” using
abortifacients.9 After taking these abortifacients, she would then
“experience cramps and heavy bleeding.”10 She collected this bleeding and
intended to display it as her senior art project with video recordings of the
forced miscarriages as well as the cups of blood from the miscarriages.
While one would think this is a hoax, a truly terrible morbid prank (which
at first Yale University officials did), Shvarts produced evidence that she
did this project and wanted it accepted as her senior art project. Far from
being a practical joker, or even a deranged lunatic, she turned out to be an
intelligent and articulate young woman. Shvarts explained that this project
is indeed art in all of its intentional ambiguity, claiming that:
In a more enigmatic, and therefore supposedly profound, way she explained
that “it is the intention of this piece to destabilize the locus of that authorial
act, and in doing so, reclaim it from the heteronormative structures that seek
to naturalize it.”12 She said in an interview with the Yale Daily News, “I
believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not
just a commodity. . . . I think I’m creating a project that lives up to the
standard of what art should be.”13 While her project was derided by the
University and many of her fellow students, she had the support of her
senior project advisor. It is not known whether she produced the project
since conclusive evidence was never provided. Her project has not been
displayed and the faculty members involved have not publicly confirmed or
denied the project, although they were disciplined by university officials.
Nevertheless, Shvarts continues to claim she completed this project and that
it was real art.

The point is to show the tragedy and difficulty of the unexpected and, in
many cases, burdensome pregnancy (in a sense, a new human life should be
burdensome), but also showing the heroic act, the above-and-beyond beauty
of making the right choice. We should not only portray the saccharine
images of chubby, happy babies, but we should also present the profoundly
beautiful image of a baby accepted against the backdrop of the tragedy of
an unexpected and irresponsible pregnancy. Life is full of tragedy, pain,
suffering, and unexpected pregnancies. The pro-life movement needs to say
that in the midst of this culture of death, we must still choose what is
beautiful, what is right, and what is true. We must still play hide and seek
even when the SS troop death march approaches.

How to Make Your Life Truly Beautiful!

Your Life is beautiful. You are unique. Our world is wonderful because there is just ONE and only one YOU. You are a co-creator of our world! Therefore, even though they may never in this world meet with you, let your thoughts, words and actions motivate and inspire many to be a maven that lives in haven.

Let your sagacity be seen by all and sundry. Call-into-being, a city that is as peaceful as haven and as impressive as the Sagacity of Sage.

In my head, I clearly see you inscribing your name boldly on that beautiful glass of glory with that shinning golden pen of prestige, distinction and eminence!

My heart is full of Love and my mind is full of Faith -- and all, just for you. I see you manifesting God's purpose through your Life on planet earth -- as you live ultimately in that divine phonesis and epignosis that is sophic and esoteric by all rule of thumb.

Congratulations! I wish you Joy. I wish you Peace. And I wish you well. I wish you the wisdom of knowing the importance of empowering people and impacting lives down pat. I have in mind to pat you on the back, ultimately.

For now, I admonish you to live with strength of character and of mind realization, and be part of the performing generation. Go ahead and write your victory song, and get others singing with joy! We all can sing, but not we all can write a victory song.

Remember that the authority, the audacity, the nobility, the probity and the reputability abaft and aft a name, does not just pin a moniker on it. No, it defines and distinguishes that Name for admiration, adulation, devotion, veneration, recognition and decoration.

Now is your time to pin a moniker to your Name. Now is your time to step-up and leave a lasting legacy. Now is your time to stand up, not just to be counted, but to make yourself count. You cannot afford to be a wasted generation. No, God forbid!

Finally, make your Life simple. Have no fears, whether of tomorrow or of death. But strive to know the truth about Life, and get to appreciate that death is just another phase of Life!

For me, I know my Life (and your Life) is a dream. And I look forward to waking-up one day, on the other side of the great divide, the great beyond, and looking back to say, "Wha-o! What a beautiful dream!"