Advantage of Happiness

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 Happy Monday!

I sometimes wince at the name of this page. Why soooo long?

I could not help but put the word "Today" in the name - even at the risk of making the name of the page hard to understand or remember, I proceeded. It's that important.

Finding joy in the now is as important as achieving joy once we've achieved a goal, perfected a habit, reached financial security or have things figured out. To some of us, it is such a long wait to suspend joy for.

Then again, that question: Are successful people happy? Or are happy people successful? I lean towards the latter.

Shawn Anchor, author of "The Happiness Advantage" agrees. He says: " People who put their heads down and wait for work to bring eventual happiness put themselves at a huge disadvantage while those who capitalize on positivity every chance they get come out ahead."

Some mindsets we can practice in finding the joy of today.

1. Manifest it TODAY.
Many other practices in the areas of abundance, mental health, meditations, visioning puts great importance in the power of now, of manifesting what we want to happen where we are, of appreciating what we have now and springboard from there towards the direction we shoot for. If you practice manifesting in your lives, you are sure to notice how feelings attract similar feelings.

2. Identify with the virtue you wish to have.
Do you want to practice abundance? Believe you are a person of abundance and act like one - be a cheerful giver, be lavishly content with what you have and enjoy them.
Do you want to be joyful? Be the kind of person who finds joy in simple acts of kindness done to you or you extend to others. Be appreciative of sunrises and sunsets, of a smile or giggle from a friend, of your clumsy efforts forward. Be the kind of person who laughs at the burnt bread because you were enjoying a talk with a friend a few minutes too long.
Believe it is in your identity to act joyfully.

3. Change your lens.
In the daily grind, the happy person wins because of the lens he has of the world. I refer here not only if you have rose colored lenses that sees the joy in every circumstance. I also refer to the clarity of your lens. How sharp are you at noticing the simple joys around you? That warm coffee mug you have in your hands? That gentle stretch you can make because you can? That soft fragrant fabric on your back because you have them.

Yesterday I shared a quote by Kurt Vannegut that says, " I urge you to notice when you are happy, and exclaim..if this isn't nice, I don't know what is"! It had such an impact on me that I actually tried to consciously apply it to my experiences of the day.

A person thanks me for answering a question, I saw my dad for the first time in weeks, I had a good meal, I was invited to do a project, i saw my cozy bed and slipped in it after a tiring day... "if this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

This utterance plants me in the moment with gratitude and it fosters a sharp sensitivity to future simple joys of everyday... TODAY.

We only get to joy when we travel with joy. We cannot guarantee how tomorrow or even the next moment will be. Appreciate what you have now and you would invite more joy in your life.
Now, isn't this nice?

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