How to Enhance Your Happiness: Can You Use a Recipe For Happiness to Be Happy?


How do you enhance your happiness? It's going to be very hard to become happier if you don't take the time to understand what you value  —  what truly makes you happy. An important aspect of becoming more emotionally intelligent and becoming more skilled in your pursuit of happiness is becoming more self-aware.

By having a better understanding of yourself and your needs as well as your value system, you can become more skilled in finding what you want or need... and giving that to yourself. Just as important, by being able to identify what you want or need, you can also become better at asking for them.

Even just the feeling of becoming more self-empowered can help you become happier. Don't you just hate having to wait and hope for things that you need or want? It feels better when you're taking action to get them.

The problem is that most people don't really know what they want. And if you don't know what you want, then you can't have it  — it's almost impossible to get it.

I heard this years ago and unfortunately, it applies to so many people: Some people don't do anything to improve their lives. Instead they just keep waiting for their "ship to come in." What makes matters worse is that a lot of them keep waiting at the *airport*. It's really sad, but it happens to a lot of people.

It's important to know what you want or need... you'll have a better chance of getting it. Here's an article (shown below) that can help you do that.

To your success...

Allie


Recipe For Happiness

Over a lifetime we have thousands of different goals—albeit they are in one of four categories. Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory contended that as humans meet 'basic needs', they seek to satisfy successively 'higher needs' that occupy a set hierarchy. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs begins with the most basic of needs: Physiological—food, water, shelter, clothing and sex. Yes, sex—humans need to procreate to ensure the species continues—not only that it is fun and delicious, followed by increasingly more sophisticated needs, Safety, Love/Belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization.

Everything—Everything you do is to enhance the quality of your life in these categories:

• Relationships (love/belonging)
• Interesting and challenging work (to create safety, food, shelter, clothing)
• Financial security/independence (to create safety, food, shelter, clothing)
• Good health—Mind, Body, Spirit (Self-Esteem Self-actualization)

Happiness: Happiness is an inside job. You create your happiness from the inside out. All the things people have—cars, vacations, houses, wealth, and les objets d'art, social status are just things. Happiness is through creating happy relationships. To respect and love and to be respected and loved by others—having a happy, harmonious home life. Get along well with people, having the respect of people who are important to you. Your involvement in social and community affairs results from your desire to have happy harmonious interactions with others and to give back to the community.

Interesting and challenging work: Love what you do and do what you love. Making a good living is only a tip of the happiness iceberg. Being passionate about the work you do is the most important. Many people wish they were someplace other than where they are or doing something different than what they are doing. Achieving a renewed sense of inspiration may require you to move away from those life-long beliefs about what ‘should be’ and teachings that left you stuck in order to walk down uncharted paths of accomplishment. If the notion of becoming unstuck frightens you, remember that bringing about change is often a matter of reaching beyond what you have known in the past to expand the boundaries of your future experience.

Financial Security/Independence: Everyone wants to be free from money worries. Everyone wants to have enough money in the bank to decisions without counting pennies. Everyone wants to achieve a certain financial state so that you can retire in comfort and never have to be concerned about whether or not there is enough money to support a desired lifestyle.

Good health—Mind, Body, Spirit: Everyone desires be pain and illness free and to have a continuous flow of energy and feelings of well-being. Your health is so central to your life that you take it for granted until something happens to disrupt it. And then, people rush to the Traditional Western Medicine doctor demanding a ‘quick fix.’

To create good health you need to have a total focus on healthy mind, body and spirit regime. See my article—Mind, Body, Spirit Health. ezinearticles.com/?Mind,-Body,-Spirit-Health&id=605046

Last, but not least Peace of mind is essential to achieve these aspects of your life. The greater your peace of mind, the more relaxed and positive you are, the less stress you suffer, the better your overall health will be. The more peace of mind you have, your relationships will benefit, the more optimistic, friendly and confident you are with everyone in your life. When you feel good about yourself on the inside, you will perform better at work and take more pride in it. You will be a better boss and co-worker. And the greater your overall peace of mind - the more likely you are to earn a good living, save regularly for the future and ultimately achieve financial independence.

Our comprehension of the world around us is based on perspective. To regain your inspiration as well as the drive that empowers you to pursue an inspired path, you need to alter your outlook by exploring new paths of accomplishment, contemplating many ideas, and opening your mind to a fresh range of possibilities.

By broadening the range of your experiences, you can ensure that your life remains as stimulating and purposeful as you were when you first embarked on your journey of growth and enlightenment. The wish to be somewhere else doing something else will dissipate as you begin to investigate your life and your place in the universe in a wholly new way.

Begin by asking yourself questions:

• Do I like my job? If not, why not?
• Am I willing to find another job to have work fulfillment? If not, why not?
• Are my relationships fulfilling? If not, why not?
• Am I willing to examine the aspects of my relationships, which are not working and work to change them or terminate an unfulfilling relationship?
• Am I willing to look within and make the changes I need to make to fulfill myself? If not, why not?

If you are not ready to make changes then consider accepting what is—Stop complaining. Yes, STOP complaining, when you hear yourself complain say, “STOP! Accept what is.” Out of your acceptance of what is, you will gain a new perspective. Within that new perspective will rise the inspiration to change that which you no longer desire.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, "101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life." Dr. Dorothy has the unique gift of connecting people with a broad range of profound principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one's daily thoughts and feelings. http://www.drdorothy.net







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