How to Be More Happy
HAPPINESS HABITS to Learn and give up
Forgiveness How can you to it safely
Forgiveness what are the steps?
Generosity. Why are we never taught how to protect ourselves from those who take too much?
Judgement Why do we do it and how to help ourselves with it
Procrastination How it hurts us
Procrastivity What we do when we don’t want to do the thing we need to do
Compassion and happiness How they are related
I have spent the last 26 years helpintaeg clients in my therapy practice to with a variety of different issues. Regardless of what they show up at my door talking about, they all want the same thing: how to be more happy.
In my quest to learn all the research, tricks, strategies, and methods to help my clients, I stumbled upon the realization that happiness is all anyone wants. I’m no different from my clients, I want to be happy too! I honestly
never thought of things so simply. This section of my website is dedicate to all the things I find that lead to more happiness
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence” Aristotle
Aristotle agrees with me! It doesn’t matter who you are. The purpose of life is to be happy.
When I realized this, I thought about my education, my need to diagnoses the women I see perfectly, define their problem concisely, create treatment plans, and then create goals that I would measure to see if I had helped my client the way I should. I worked so hard to be a good therapist, to understand the research, to apply the theories and to keep up to date on everything I needed to know that was happening in my field. Somehow all the things I thought would make me an excellent therapist and make women happy, just weren’t enough. What I really needed to learn more about was simply how to be happy.
Below are some basic rules about happiness. Hopefully you will chose to explore more in the pages linked below.
Rule 1 How to Be More Happy
False beliefs and assumptions about who you are or who you should be often lead to unhappiness.
These beliefs are learned from society and your parents. For women in particular these beliefs can be stifling and oppressive.
“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.”
Anthony de Mello
Perhaps you believe you should always put others needs first, or that you always must say yes, or you should be skinny, or a perfect provider or a perfect housewife. This is an example of how false beliefs and assumptions can lead to unhappiness. Learn more about that in the pages linked below
For women with adhd this may invovle working on shame, unmasking and other deep work.
Rule 2 How To Be More Happy
False beliefs about what brings happiness can lead to unhappiness.
Stephen Covey often explains the quest for happiness in this way. If you are given a street map of a city where you are trying to find your way to a certain point, it should help you get to your destination. Suppose however, that you are given the wrong map? That will help you make a bigger mess of it than if you didn’t have one at all. How can you learn how to be happy if you have the wrong map?
All the happiness research tells us that many of us do have the wrong map. So many of those things we think we need to do, and to feel, and to have, to be happy are wrong. Oh no!
Rule 3 How To Be More Happy
Change it up when things aren’t working.
We have to be able to observe and change our course when we are unhappy not keep doing more of the same. Often we need an entirely new map. Sometimes therapy is about figuring about what the new map is and ditching the one that our family or society has given us.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein
We keep doing the same thing , though, like a hamster on the wheel. We don’t question the error of our habitual ways, or our map. We stubbornly hang on to that map and blame ourselves when we can’t get to our destination.
Why are we so unhappy?
Why cant we learn how to be more happy?
We don’t even consider the map could be wrong! Often, it is. In fact, sometimes it’s a map to unhappiness.
Rule 4 How to Be More Happy
Know yourself and your values. Live your life with intention, consistently with those values, everyday. Get the Map right.
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
One of the mistakes that we make in our search for happiness is to lose touch with our values. We need to live a life that is consistent with what we believe to be true in the deepest part of ourselves. Sometimes it can take some digging but you can figure this out when you are going astray and make the necessary adjustments. Hopefully, this section of the website will help you to do this.
Rule 5 How to be More Happy
You have to put up with some discomfort to lead a happy and fulfilled life. Avoidance and pleasure seeking wont cut it.
Another mistake we make is seeking immediate gratification, avoiding all discomfort and pain, and forgetting that just because something feels good doesn’t mean its good or right, and just because something feels bad doesn’t mean its bad or wrong. You can learn to recognize these patterns and help yourself to make better choices.
Rule 6 How to Be More Happy
Cultivate Gratitude and present orientated focus
Happiness is here, right now. If you think its somewhere else and chase after it, paradoxically you give it away. Gratitude and presence bring happiness.
Often my clients are working frantically to get something they think will make them happy. The right job, house, husband, or child. In the moment they are sacrificing joy to get what they think will make them happy. Guess what? It rarely does. Unless we are talking about food on the table, a home to live in , or just enough money to get you what you really need, all those things you think will get you happiness won’t. It hasn’t worked before has it?
Being unable to be grateful and content with what we have and thinking that the grass needs to be greener is a huge source of unhappiness. The research bears this out. BUT we can’t use gratitude as a weapon to deny our pain and suffering. If you do this you are invalidate your experience. Gratitude should feel good and fill you up. It shouldn’t be a way to scold yourself. If so, you aren’t doing it right.
Learn some more about specific gratitude practices here:
The Health Benefits of Gratitude
Learn about forgiveness and
some specific steps
Learn about letting go of anger
Learn about other practices that lead to happiness such as assertiveness
Why being assertive is important
Relationship and communication practices
Trust issues and relationships
Tone of voice in relationships
Good friends and their importance
How to be more self compassionate
Everything about self compassion
mindfulness and self compassion
Core values and their importance to happiness
Mindfulness pages
Mindfulness and self compassion
These pages are linked to pages related to habits that will help you to be happier. Please come back frequently because I add and update my website often.
Art: Happy by Roarysea at deviantart
Medical information obtained from this website is not intended as a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you have a problem, you should consult a healthcare provider.
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