Good Reads
10 Forgotten Truths to Help You Get Through Hard Times
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That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
–Friedrich Nietzsche
The wisest, most loving, and well rounded people you have ever met are likely those who have known misery, known defeat, known the heartbreak of losing something or someone they loved, and have found their way out of the depths of their own despair. These people have experienced many ups and downs, and have gained an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, understanding and a deep loving wisdom. People like this aren’t born; they develop slowly over the course of time.
5 Tips To Stay Positive In Negative Situations
Negative situations happen all the time. We can’t avoid them, so how can we counteract their negative effect on our lives and our attitudes? Learning the power of positive thinking helps us stay positive even in the midst of tragedy. Learning how to stay positive in negative situations is invaluable in leading a healthy lifestyle. Here are 5 ways you can achieve this:
1. Have a positive support group.
It’s important to have a positive support group to help each other through difficult times. Notice I said a “positive” support Continue reading
5 Tips to Overcome a Major Setback
“Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.” ~Unknown.
Just when I thought I was ready to get some of my ideas into motion and action, I have a setback.
Previously setbacks involved finances (unexpected bills, for example), time delays, and an unresponsive partner or friend when I wanted to make changes.
My current setback came in the form of a massive health scare.
When I’ve gotten over some fear and self-sabotage, and I feel like I’m finally ready to take action, it always brings up things for me…
At that moment of action, when all my hard work starts to pay off, my little voice creeps in to stop me from moving forward. It creates doubt and makes me question my decisions. Continue reading
Why So Many Smart People Aren’t Happy
It’s a paradox: Shouldn’t the most accomplished be well equipped to make choices that maximize life satisfaction?
There are three things, once one’s basic needs are satisfied, that academic literature points to as the ingredients for happiness: having meaningful social relationships, being good at whatever it is one spends one’s days doing, and having the freedom to make life decisions independently.
Think of Yourself Less
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”
Thoughtful words from C.S. Lewis, but do they equate to real life happiness? Our self-esteem is a bit of a tricky topic, because current research on self-esteem paints a very inconsistent picture: it seems that high self-esteem is certainly related to happiness, but it can produce other problems with the ego.
For instance, a variety of research suggests that self-esteem that is bound to external success can be a fickle beast—certain students who tied their self-esteem to their grades experienced small boosts when they received an acceptance letter (grad school), but harsh drops in self-esteem when they were rejected.
40 Ways to Let Go and Feel Less Pain
“If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.” ~Ajahn Chah
Eckhart Tolle believes we create and maintain problems because they give us a sense of identity. Perhaps this explains why we often hold onto our pain far beyond its ability to serve us.
We replay past mistakes over and over again in our head, allowing feelings of shame and regret to shape our actions in the present. We cling to frustration and worry about the future, as if the act of fixation somehow gives us power. We hold stress in our minds and bodies, potentially creating serious health issues, and accept that state of tension as the norm.
6 Steps Toward Resilience & Greater Happiness
By Therese J. Borchard
Psychcentral
6 Steps Toward Resilience & Greater Happiness The opposite of depression is not happiness, according to Peter Kramer, author of “Against Depression” and “Listening to Prozac,” it is resilience: the ability to cope with life’s frustrations without falling apart.
Proper treatment doesn’t suppress emotions or dull a person’s ability to feel things deeply. It builds a protective layer — an emotional resilience — to safeguard a depressive from becoming overwhelmed and disabled by the difficulties of daily life.
Addicted to Stress? Surrender and Go With the Flow
By Judith Orloff, MD, Special to Everyday Health
There’s a telling detail in the latest “Stress in America” survey from the American Psychological Association. About half of the respondents (48 percent) reported being regularly stressed out because they are “unable to control the important things in their life very or fairly often.”
While many of us believe trying to control outcomes in our life will take away the stress of uncertainty, in fact, the opposite is true. Trying to control the outcome or make things happen the way you want them to is what causes stress, not what relieves it.
Staying off Facebook can make you happier, study claims
You may not like it, but staying away from Facebook will probably make you happier.
Researchers in Denmark asked people to stop using their social media account for a week to see if it made any difference.
And, it did according to the report: ‘The Facebook Experiment: Does social media affect the quality of our lives?’ by the Happiness Research Institute.
Researchers noted that 94 per cent of the participants visited Facebook daily before dividing the 1,095 Danish participants into two groups.
How Vacations Affect Your Happiness
Vacations are a chance to take a break from work, see the world and enjoy time with family. But do they make you happier?
Researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts. They studied happiness levels among 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the 32-week study period.
The study, published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.
