★Discussion about Sadness & Happiness

Please share some thoughts about “being” happier. So much of what is going on in the world at the moment seems to be getting me down. Let’s share a little about “authentic happiness”, “altrusim”, “sphere’s of influence”, and other things related to our thinking and our state of happiness. I think a lot of it has to do with focus, perspective and meaning. Catastrophizing and “woulda’ coulda’ shoulda’” thinking all come to mind.

This thread is a quite a few  years old, though thought it had good discussion to add to. (: Not all links work… & some posts have been deleted…so here is 1 video Anthony Robbins.

 

 

 

 

Some videos I like:
[1] Fears are Unintentional Storytellers -video

[2] Positive Psychology video
[3] [video] 9 minutes 28 seconds Attitude of Gratitude Can Make All of the Difference-Zig Ziglar

[4] [video] How to create a new story what creates happiness…what creates unhappiness…[34 minutes 13 seconds]-Anthony Robbins
great topic…will be back due to the valuable nature of the topic….& to hear the views of others.

 

First of all SRWE big hugs coming across the world to you .I just started a long post and lost it so will keep it short this time .

Self care said it so well .

I try to do what I can to help anyone ,donations,making baby clothes/blankets,volunteering ,petitions,buy the homeless a cup of tea.I hardly watch the news and don’t read much of the newspapers .

It can be hard realising we can’t save or help as much as we want ,but if we all do what we can it makes a difference.

Have also learnt in my personal life if I take on too much of families troubles I am not able to help and support them .

I focus on gratitude ,sharing ,giving and recieving and enjoying those little special moments in our day – a cup of tea,candlilight bath ,a smile from a stranger.

I love what Jerry Springer used to safe
“ take care of yourselves and each other”

love flowergirl

Thanks for your responses. Good videos Selfcare. I brought this topic up because someone asked me about my thoughts on the subject recently and when they did it really brought home to me a sense of sadness I have been feeling in my own life recently and the things I could do to counteract these feelings. I am looking forward to reading more responses.

There’s a lot of crap we have to go through in life. Some of it’s really tough. Getting old, dealing with deaths and illnesses of loved ones, watching what we love deteriorate, having to negotiate a living with the world, all the stupidity and lack of awareness (or even evil, if you believe in evil) around us.

Some sadness is unavoidable. We just have to get through it. Or let it get through us, knowing it will pass if we stop fighting it, stop tuning to it, and see past it.

If sadness is a raging river, we just have to wait for a chance to steer closer to shore. Pick our spots to work our way out of it. Just choose something less miserable, when you’re given that choice.

Tune to something that makes you feel good about your place in the world.

Heya guys, I like this thread and the current responses. I’m only a young fella, only 20 years old, so I guess I’ve got a lot more to learn about life and happiness One thing I have tried doing recently is try to remember and find all of the things that made me happy as a child (books, cartoons, places I went to with family,etc) and bring them back into my life as a reminder of how happy I was. When I was a kid, I would draw and color pictures over and over again, whereas nowadays with university coursework it feels like I’m having less time to do it (Ironically I’m studying animation yet our modules are more theory and academic based, a lot of writing). When I do get time to draw I get quite lost as to what to choose to draw and I feel it’s mostly ego or self consciousness inviting itself in i.e. will this look silly or stupid if I draw it? As a kid, I’d draw anything and everything so it feels that if I could bring back that child attitude to my creative process and combine with my understanding and knowledge of things I learnt as a teenager, I might do better. I agree with flower girl, gratitude plays a huge part in happiness. I’m almost finished my second year of uni for the summer and one thing I want to do is wake up say 6 or 7-ish every morning during my time off and watch the sunrise in silence for about an hour or so. I managed it once a few days ago and it really helped slow my mind down and think about what I wanted to achieve during the day. On a uni day, I usually rush in the morning and something usually end ups going wrong :) I’ve also tried recently to feel less guilty about being happy, y’know you’re having that where every things gone great, then you switch the news on and something really bad has happened and you think “It’s wrong to smile when there are victims in the world”. It’s important to feel sympathy if something bad happened to someone innocent but feeling guilty isn’t. There’s no correlation between me having a good day and a bad thing happening on the news. Only doing something to help someone’s day feel better makes more sense than feeling guilty for something I haven’t done. That’s my view, apologies if I went off topic :)

In response to Harley Duck’s post:

I absolutely love your refreshing response and you weren’t off topic at all! Thank you(:
_{Once again…can’t help but comment…wonderful discussion here… wonderful chat on how we all create a more joyful life…}

In response to Smart_Routines_With_Enthusiasm’s post:
SRWE You know I have felt like that a lot too. I remember when Jesus feed the hungry crowd with just a few fish and very little bread. He managed to feed all of them. But He had to seperate himself from all those people. I used to wonder why. But he said there will always be poor people. That is true but it doesn’t mean we have to like it. But in order to stay as sane as possible we have to accept it.

I do my best to look for the good in people and situations. Just the other day I saw a show where a prisoner attacked a guard and do you know what the other prisoners did? They helped the guard and got the prisoner of the guard. I felt so happy because I thought these people although prisoners too had a different thought then that negative prisoner. A lot of people wrote to those prisoners who helped the guard. The good prisoners felt so proud and one said, “the guard used to listen to my problems and gave me good advice. I always liked him.” I lit up like a christmas tree! Then I thought the positive change is already taking place! I was sooo happy! See SRWE there are good things too.

Thanks for that wonderful post. There is so much bad in the news sometimes we forget to see the good. Thanks for the reminder.

I read that there is research that suggests that we can raise our “natural level” of happiness. The info was in How Not to be Afraid of Your Own Life by Susan Piver. (A book about meditation.) I think that contradicts some stuff I have read before, can’t remember for certain. I read Authentic Happiness long ago and I seem to remember that it said that we all have a “natural level” of happiness, more or less a “fixed range”. It probably, in the same book, tells about ways to raise that level, but I can’t remember off the top of my head. Anyway, wanted to mention that.

Awe yes love
Thoughts about love

another great thread created by MCM /SRWE

looking forward to adding rereading and adding to this discussion thread in the present year

love reading posts from everyone here!

love this thread!