"Happiness Lies in the Present. Not in the Future"

Happy Monday to you all.

I was having a bit of an "off" day today, yes life is good but because I am human I am allowed to have "off" days. I looked around the house for a certain book I know talks a lot about creating happiness in your mind etc...

Have you read Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz?

Great book!!

I searched for the chapter I was looking for and came across something I immediately wanted to share with you;

It talks about many people living life on the "deferred payment plan". This meaning that many people are not taking the time or don't enjoy life right now because they are waiting for some future event or occurrence to happen to make them happy.

"They will be happy when they get married, when they get a better job they like, when they get the house paid for, when they get their kids through college etc"

Does this sound like you or someone you know?

These people tend to be always a little disappointed and chasing happiness, I mean real happiness, throughout their life.

You deserve it now, today, right this second to feel happy.

The chapter continues on by explaining that "Happiness is a mental habit, a mental attitude and if it is not learned and practiced in the present it is never experienced."

Read that last line again ....

"If you are to be happy at all, you must be happy -- period! --not happy "because of".

Now I will admit some of this book is deep haha and a little over my head but it does make sense and I have learned a lot from it. I take the basic message and exercises and do them!

Happiness is produced not by objects, food or weather but by your thoughts, ideas and attitudes which you alone can develop through your actions & activities.

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

~ Abraham Lincoln

I think back to that phrase "Money can't buy you happiness" and though it can buy you some cool stuff, pay for a house & bills i believe this to be true... I look back to some of the years I remember being the "happiest of my life" and I had very little money, struggled to pay rent, buy insulin & get my ski pass. But I had goals and dreams that kept my belief & passion alive. I stayed happy each day buy being happy with what I did have. A roof over my head, some food in the fridge and my skis.

So as I sat down to write this blog my grumpiness has gone away, I am not even sure if I made my point here but remembering what is important and knowing the power of the mind I am in control of how I feel and can quickly change my thoughts.

oh and thingking about skiing again helped...

After all if happiness is, ultimately, the product of our habits, thoughts & ideas, then the skill of altering a habit or thought is highly useful & powerful.

I leave you with an exercise that Bruce Lee used to rid himself of negative thoughts;

He used to visualize himself writing them down on paper, crumpling up the paper, lighting it on fire, and burning it to ashes. Since we are talking about cool dudes now Chuck Norris takes it to another level (surprise, surprise) and actually writes them down and actually burns the paper.

May the force of freedom be with you,

Tiffany

Click Here to Get My Emails Because you are happy, want to be happy or just love life!

#happiness #psychocybernetics #brucelee