Why Famous Men Walked & How To Discover Happiness Within.

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Attention and the Focused Life:. One group was told to focus on all the upbeat things they could find— sunshine, flowers, smiling pedestrians. Another was to look for negative stuff— graffiti, litter, frowning faces. The third group was instructed to walk just for the exercise. The negatively focused subjects were less happy, and the just plain exercisers scored in between.

And you can train yourself to attend to the joy out there waiting to be had, instead of passively waiting for it to come to you. Stop checking texts when your friends are right in front of you. Stop watching TV while you eat. Slow down and appreciate it. Just doing that — that alone — caused significant decreases in depression and increases in happiness.

Via The How of Happiness: In one set of studies, depressed participants were invited to take a few minutes once a day to relish something that they usually hurry through e. When it was over, they were instructed to write down in what ways they had experienced the event differently as well as how that felt compared with the times when they rushed through it.

In another study, healthy students and community members were instructed to savor two pleasurable experiences per day, by reflecting on each for two or three minutes and trying to make the pleasure last as long and as intensely as possible. In all these studies those participants prompted to practice savoring regularly showed significant increases in happiness and reductions in depression.

In many ways time is key when it comes to savoring. Knowing something has limited days or hours helps you savor. Seek out those bittersweet moments because research shows they will help you appreciate things more. When we are fully mindful of the transience of things—an impending return home from an overseas adventure, a graduation, our child boarding the school bus for the first day of kindergarten, a close colleague changing jobs, a move to a new city—we are more likely to appreciate and savor the remaining time that we do have. Sharing good news with your partner is a happiness double whammy.

Sharing successes and accomplishments with others has been shown to be associated with elevated pleasant emotions and well-being. And the second group that we've followed was a group of boys from Boston's poorest neighborhoods, boys who were chosen for the study specifically because they were from some of the most troubled and disadvantaged families in the Boston of the s.

Most lived in tenements, many without hot and cold running water. When they entered the study, all of these teenagers were interviewed. They were given medical exams. We went to their homes and we interviewed their parents. And then these teenagers grew up into adults who entered all walks of life. They became factory workers and lawyers and bricklayers and doctors, one President of the United States.

A few developed schizophrenia. Some climbed the social ladder from the bottom all the way to the very top, and some made that journey in the opposite direction. The founders of this study would never in their wildest dreams have imagined that I would be standing here today, 75 years later, telling you that the study still continues. Every two years, our patient and dedicated research staff calls up our men and asks them if we can send them yet one more set of questions about their lives.

Many of the inner city Boston men ask us, "Why do you keep wanting to study me? My life just isn't that interesting.

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To get the clearest picture of these lives, we don't just send them questionnaires. We interview them in their living rooms. We get their medical records from their doctors. We draw their blood, we scan their brains, we talk to their children. We videotape them talking with their wives about their deepest concerns. And when, about a decade ago, we finally asked the wives if they would join us as members of the study, many of the women said, "You know, it's about time. So what have we learned?

350 Happiness Quotes That Will Make You Smile (Instantly)

What are the lessons that come from the tens of thousands of pages of information that we've generated on these lives? Well, the lessons aren't about wealth or fame or working harder and harder. The clearest message that we get from this year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. We've learned three big lessons about relationships.

The first is that social connections are really good for us, and that loneliness kills. It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they're physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected. And the experience of loneliness turns out to be toxic. The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet. The more you feed your mind with positive thoughts, the more you can attract great things into your life.

Happiness depends on your mindset and attitude. Laughter is poison to fear. Martin Click to tweet. Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad. We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all.

Jean de La Bruyere. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory. I contend that not only can you laugh at adversity, but it is essential to do so if you are to deal with setbacks without defeat. Determine to live life with flair and laughter. Benjamin Franklin Click to tweet. Laugh as much as you can.

Laugh until you cry. Cry until you laugh. It shows you are thinking and feeling. Be good to others. Laugh when you feel like crying. Keep an open mind, open eyes and an open spirit. Lauren Oliver Click to tweet. I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy. True happiness occurs only when you find the problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving. Life is too short to be unhappy.

Elizabeth Gilbert from the book Eat, Pray, Love. Perfectionism is the enemy of happiness. Embrace being perfectly imperfect. We make mistakes because we are imperfect. Learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself, and keep moving forward. The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than growing with them. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. You are responsible for your life. Life is really about moving on. Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent. Transformation is a process, and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs. Happiness and sadness run parallel to each other. When one takes a rest, the other one tends to take up the slack. We are seldom happy with what we now have, but would go to pieces if we lost any part of it.

The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable. Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. One should be either sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers.

We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace. There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience. Many things can make you miserable for weeks; few can bring you a whole day of happiness. You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others…By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce. Vivian Komori Click to tweet. A heart full of joy is better than a hand full of coins.

Matshona Dhliwayo Click to tweet. Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect. There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less. Poverty and wealth have both failed. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has. Henry Ward Beecher Click to tweet. Money is the longest route to happiness.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself.

Top 10 Happiness Quotes And Happy Quotes Images

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you. Money is neither my god nor my devil.

Happiness is like the penny candy of our youth: Your creativity and happiness brings money. Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse.

You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. For the first time let just allow ourselves to be whatever it is that we are. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. You dream, you gotta protect it. If you want something, go get it. Chris Gardner, from The Pursuit of Happyness.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. Gandalf, from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: Great men are not born great, they grow great. Mario Puzo, The Godfather Click to tweet. Sean Maguire, Good Will Hunting. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

What do we do? Life moves pretty fast. I know what I have to do now. Who knows what the tide could bring? Tom Hanks, Cast Away. Life is a choice.

20 Inspirational Quotes On Peace Of Mind

Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it. Rafiki, The Lion King. Me, I still believe in paradise. Leonardo di Caprio, The Beach. Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times. If one only remembers to turn on the light. A laugh can be a very powerful thing.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness , goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Dear children , let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

The Best Happiness Quotes Ever

But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Happiness is a direction, not a place. Harris Click to tweet. Happiness is a form of courage. Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. Margaret Lee Runbeck Click to tweet. We can only barely control our own reactions to it. Happiness is largely a choice, not a right or entitlement. Real happiness is not of temporary enjoyment, but is so interwoven with the future that it blesses for ever.

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