The secret to happiness
My dear anonymous audience,
I think we are all just trying to figure out how to be happy. So I was thinking that i would share some of the best advice I had gotten on the subject so I started this post and then like so many others it was just hanging out in the draft netherworld until I got this article forwarded from joan. http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/17573/
thanks sweetie
So years ago when I was lamenting my miserable state and bemoaning the fact that I didnt' think I would ever be happy and I didn't know how to work on being happy, Lilah told me not to work on being happy but to work on being a good person and the happiness would come. I have to say that this ranks among the best advice I have ever received (another one from my mom is that if you are going to do something, do it graciously- i try to live up to both of these edicts, not always successfully). So I tried to be a good person. I wasn't sure how to do that and that is when I really started getting involved in community work and volunteering. It just felt like a tangible way to be a good person. It seemed less amorphous. My motivation may not have been entirely pure since this conversation had been triggered by my break up with Kermit. At the time I felt like I was too good for Kermit, that he was beneath me in some way(It was this ridiculous epiphany a couple of months ago that it just wasn't true and it was arrogant and misguided to think of him that way- it wasn't good for me and it just wasn't true). However, I felt like the only area he "had me" on was community service. So in true petty fashion, I decided to beat him at his own game or at least make sure that there was no area in which he was superior to me. When all is said and done, trying to be a good person (whatever that means) did make me happier.
I can't claim to have taken the following advice quite as well as I should have but perhaps one day I will. Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson started positive pyschology and the website www.authentichappiness.com. I was instructed by GT2 to go to the site and fill out the questionnaire and then try to use each of the strengths they identified for me. He also told me to think of 3 three things at the end of each day that went well and try to attribute a personal cause to them. Apparently it is the most effective intervention for lasting happiness. I did it for a few days. I should probably try it again.
I recommend these methods/interventions/whatever. Maybe they can help you be a happier you- and it's that really what we all are looking for? The elusive secret to happiness? maybe these are it
I love you guys
-Zoe
I think we are all just trying to figure out how to be happy. So I was thinking that i would share some of the best advice I had gotten on the subject so I started this post and then like so many others it was just hanging out in the draft netherworld until I got this article forwarded from joan. http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/17573/
thanks sweetie
So years ago when I was lamenting my miserable state and bemoaning the fact that I didnt' think I would ever be happy and I didn't know how to work on being happy, Lilah told me not to work on being happy but to work on being a good person and the happiness would come. I have to say that this ranks among the best advice I have ever received (another one from my mom is that if you are going to do something, do it graciously- i try to live up to both of these edicts, not always successfully). So I tried to be a good person. I wasn't sure how to do that and that is when I really started getting involved in community work and volunteering. It just felt like a tangible way to be a good person. It seemed less amorphous. My motivation may not have been entirely pure since this conversation had been triggered by my break up with Kermit. At the time I felt like I was too good for Kermit, that he was beneath me in some way(It was this ridiculous epiphany a couple of months ago that it just wasn't true and it was arrogant and misguided to think of him that way- it wasn't good for me and it just wasn't true). However, I felt like the only area he "had me" on was community service. So in true petty fashion, I decided to beat him at his own game or at least make sure that there was no area in which he was superior to me. When all is said and done, trying to be a good person (whatever that means) did make me happier.
I can't claim to have taken the following advice quite as well as I should have but perhaps one day I will. Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson started positive pyschology and the website www.authentichappiness.com. I was instructed by GT2 to go to the site and fill out the questionnaire and then try to use each of the strengths they identified for me. He also told me to think of 3 three things at the end of each day that went well and try to attribute a personal cause to them. Apparently it is the most effective intervention for lasting happiness. I did it for a few days. I should probably try it again.
I recommend these methods/interventions/whatever. Maybe they can help you be a happier you- and it's that really what we all are looking for? The elusive secret to happiness? maybe these are it
I love you guys
-Zoe
posted by Zoe at 2:47 PM
1 Comments:
Super color scheme, I like it! Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing this wonderful site with us.
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