Recipe for Happiness - Do You Have One?

A Failproof Recipe for Happiness

Important ingredients in my recipe for happiness became clearer to me through a recent bout of inner grumpiness. It was a challenging, mentally uncomfortable state.

Chances are you've felt it yourself at some point... you notice some worries, negativity, fearfulness, or discouraging thoughts raising their tedious voices, and beginning to seriously degrade your mood.

My thoughts were getting stuck in a negative loop and tripping me into a ditch. Fortunately I noticed and called myself on it, "Hey... I'm wallowing in the ditch!"

The good news is that this uncomfortable mental state provided just the right impetus to drive me to further refine my recipe for happiness and cultivate a new, more productive way of thinking. Don't you love it when you get to see that challenges lead to rewards!

How to Be Happy - the Ingredients

Essential ingredients in the recipe for happiness came to light by pressing a few questions:

What is happiness
What is authentic happiness
Is the pursuit of happiness fruitful
Are there basic steps on how to be happy

The answers were forthcoming:

Happiness is a state of being... being in the flow
Authentic happiness rests with me
The pursuit of happiness ends with me
The way to be happy is to nurture yourself and live the version of myself that I love...

And once you see that, you are ready to put your recipe together!

Mixing Your Recipe for Happiness

The main ingredients are the very ingredients that you love in yourself. To identify these and make them work in your mix, think of the positive forces that drive you in life and that make your heart sing.

Start by finding your passions and then making sure you give those expression in your life
Determine your life purpose and honor your unique calling
Identify your personal core values, and sift those thoroughly with your priorities. Your values and priorities are your spices, and you’ll sprinkle them through every day
Whisk in your eager self motivation. This ensures that everything gets mixed together as it needs to and very nicely fuels your personal mission development
Your self empowerment will naturally be strengthening and causing your mix to rise

Mix a master batch that will nourish you for years to come. And... bake small batches that will feed you each and every day!

Use Your Happy Spices Generously

In the personal development articles on how to be happy, it's pointed out that consciously living in line with your personal core values is an important key to happiness. So it's obviously a primary ingredient in your recipe for happiness.

I call your values your happy spices because it's so easy to sprinkle them throughout your days for wonderful results.

For example, if Giving/Contribution is one of your top personal core values, then you definitely want to express it every day to further cultivate your authentic happiness.

Here are some simple ideas on how to easily activate core values every day, and keep your happiness quotient filled to overflowing:

Giving/Contribution
- Talk to a lonely elderly person when you have the opportunity
- Help a child with a task, to play a game, or read a book
- Help a co-worker, or make them a cuppa at tea time
Trust
- Sit quietly in nature and befriend a wild bird or animal. Gaining the trust of a defenseless animal can feel very uplifting if trust is a core value.
- Live up to your word. Your self esteem, confidence, and self satisfaction will also grow when you see yourself doing what you say you will.
Cooperation
- Ask others their opinion, then listen to their answer (!?:), and discuss a way that may enhance the situation.
- When someone asks you to do something, immediately think of 3 reasons it may benefit you and others, before you respond.

What are some other ingredients for wonderful authentic happiness recipes? And how can we add them into the 'how to be happy' mix and grow and spread joy? Please share...

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SBI!

Inspiring jewelry...
Symbolic and Sacred

Around the world in a Jewel ... That's the challenge that artist David Weitzman has successfully taken up when designing his jewels. From the Egyptian Ankh to the Tibetan Aum, each jewel is based on a powerful symbol of life and (inner) peace, spanning different cultures and times.