Just Being Happy No comments yet

Happiness is something many are after. Everything that most people do is to lead them to happiness. So how to be happy?

First we have to definite what is happiness? By the definition in the dictionary, happiness means showing or feeling pleasure or contentment. Happiness is a feeling, an emotion. From that feeling of happiness, you will show it in your physical form; like a smile or huge laughter.

The most usual way of achieving happiness is to own material possessions. By the way we purchased material possession, it seems that the more material possessions we own, the happier we are. Is that true?

Your answer will probably be “NO”. Most likely, 99% of us will say “NO” too. But ask yourself, really ask yourself, why do you want to chase after newer products, better cars, bigger house?

When I got my first BMW, I felt great! It was an amazing feeling. It was the feeling of pleasure - happiness. One month later, that feeling subsided. No longer I felt excitement, pleasure and contentment when I drove that car.

But I want to have that feeling. I want to feel great! By the 2nd month, I was thinking which will be my next car. Does it mean that the current car is hopeless? No, it’s still functional, fulfilling it duty of moving me around. Why do I want to change it? It got nothing to do with the car or the car advertisements. Something in me changed.

I’m searching for the feeling of pleasure and contentment. Purchasing new things got me those feelings. But once the feeling subside, I have to buy new things have that feeling again. This doesn’t happen to me only, this happen to 99% of the population.

To make matter worse, all the advertisers are making you think that way. Having a Mercedes Benz makes you feel different from the rest, feels pleasure, feels satisfied. So we are brought up thinking by having more, we are happier.

Now, that’s a lie. A big fat lie that we believe. Some of you may say that you don’t buy into this lie. But look at your action. The wardrobe is full yet you are adding new clothes into it. The shoe shelf is packed, yet you continue your conquest of new shoes. We bought into this lie consciously or unconsciously.

This is never going to end unless you have the awareness. The awareness of creating the feeling of pleasure and contentment from within.

I was observing my nephew who is one year old smiling and laughing without any external help. He can be walking unstably, talking to himself and yelling in joy. He can be coming into my room, looking at me and smile.

A baby knows where to find happiness. You were baby once, so you know where to find happiness. It’s inside of you. All the feelings that you are looking for are inside of you. Over the years of education, all those feelings was buried.

Start by saying thank you for being alive. Your life itself is a happiness. There are many at the mortuary who are willing to exchange place with you.

You do not have to wait till you achieve your goals or purchase some dream house to be happy.
What if you can’t achieve it? Does it means you can never be happy? In actual fact, you can be happy, right now!

Look around you, look at all the things that you own. Aren’t they a blessing already? When you start looking at those blessings, you can feel the feeling of pleasure and contentment. Isn’t that happiness?

Happiness is always in you. It’s always inside, deep within. The moment you find happiness in you, that’s the moment you stop becoming a slave to material possessions.

Slowing Down No comments yet

It has been a while since my last post. I had been distracted by many things that’s happening, didn’t find the motivation and inspiration to write anything here. Until recently, a friend told me that I’ve not been adding new post here. I realized there are some followers to this blog.

The intention of having this blog was to inspire humanity, adding values to people’s life. This intention is also the purpose of my life. Though I am not deviant from this purpose, (by conducting Youth Success Boot Camp & promoting Money and You Program) I admit I was not giving justice to this blog. And now I promise to write more frequently here.

Since we are coming to the end of the year. You may want to slow down during this festive season to reflect how have your life been in the year 2009.

Slowing down to reflect can give you a whole new perspective of your life. It give you clarity of who you are, what have you done; it probably humanize you.

Reflecting upon the beginning of the year and now, those mistakes you made, the goals you achieved, who have you become, what have changed. You probably can find glimpses of the 2009 experiences.

We are traveling at high speed in our daily life. Everything is moving so fast since January. Working hard, completing tasks, meeting deadlines, fire-fighting, job hopping.

To make matter worse, the economy crisis at its lowest point filled our life with uncertainties and insecurities. Some are worried about their job, some have no job.

Let’s just slow down to look at our lives for the past one year. You may want to do this before you reflect back. Step out of your body, look at your past as a third party observing all incident, challenges, successes.

Few things is going to happen when you become an observer.

1. Problems become smaller. When you step out to observe instead of being in the problems, they become insignificant compared to your whole life. The problem is just taking up a small part in your life. And I learned a new phase recently, “This too will pass.”

2. Gain insights. Reflecting all the incidents helps you see the bigger picture in life. Your daily life consists of good and bad things, and most of the time you remembered the bad things that happened. But when you look at the bigger picture, you may see those bad things may turn out to be good now. When you see yourself improved, those bad things may be that turning point, that moment to make you stronger.

3. In touch with yourself. Reflecting helps to get in touch with yourself. Feel your feelings. Our daily lives are so busy that we forgot to feel. Slowing down is a great way to feel that peace and love within us. It helps us remember that we are human being.

4. In touch with others. This is a great opportunity to find out whom we had missed in this one year. Who are the great friends that we lost or forgot? Is it time to get connected with them again? The wonderful thing about human is to get connected with people around us.

5. Clarity for the future. This helps us set pace of the next year plan. New resolution to achieve. Anyone without a resolution or goal is blind, like a ship in the ocean without direction, floating aimlessly. Slowing down gets us to think forward. How to go forward?

Take sometime off to do a reflection. It can be 2 hours, 4 hours or a day. The most important thing in this process is it humanize you.