Happiness & Success
Achieving Happiness Through Acceptance of Life
The quest for happiness often leads to frustration, as many fail to realize that the...
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- Written by: Sara Chetkin
Life is intelligent, and it’s powerful, too. Yet, we rarely consider it as anything other than unpredictable and unknowable. What an amazing journey we’d have if we trusted life. Instead, in our fear of the unknown, we have turned life into a series of attempts to make the future as predictable as possible.
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- Written by: Nora Caron
Sometimes in life we come to a point where we want to leave everything behind and run away from society. It feels as though we cannot take one more abusive comment from our boss, another long drive in traffic or another broken night of sleep. We feel as though our cup is so full that the next time...
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- Written by: Clifton B. Parker, Stanford University
"When emotionally aroused, either excited or frustrated, older adults may be more susceptible to being victimized by scammers than are younger individuals," says Ian H. Gotlib. "In the present study, they were more likely to want to pay for an item advertised misleadingly, regardless of how credible they believed the advertisement was."
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- Written by: Peter Bongiorno
This modern world has a general approach to anxiety and fear: ignore it, avoid it, or take a drug to not feel it. These methods actually keep fear, anxiety, and panic going. These methods send ourselves the message that the fear is too great to handle, and avoidance is...
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- Written by: Jude Bijou, M.A., M.F.T.
Whether you're endlessly agonizing over an issue, it's a tough place to hang out. Maybe this, maybe that. You drive yourself nuts, occupying yourself with your dilemma. You feel incapable of making up your mind and feel confused, stuck, indecisive, or ambivalent.
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- Written by: James Devitt-NYU
It’s no secret that people slow down mentally after making a mistake. Monkeys do, too. Neuroscientists call it post-error slowing or PES.
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- Written by: Barbara Berger
We all know when we are following our passion or our heart’s desire because it feels right. Everyone has experienced this feeling of ‘rightness’ at some time in his/her life. It’s called integrity. And it’s easy to recognize. It’s a sense of real comfort. A feeling that life is good and that life is moving freely in and through you.
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- Written by: Janet Lynn Roseman, PhD.
When circumstances in our lives are too overwhelming, chaotic, frightening, or out of our control, the best response, based on courageous wisdom, is to release the circumstances. This is not always easy, but it can be done. This exercise will help you give form to your feelings and provide you tools for surrender.
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- Written by: Hal Mathew
Someone with panic disorder does not know how to turn off the false alarm process once it gets going and must endure a terrifying experience of unknown duration, even if there is nothing apparent to fear. We all take in squintillions of units of information daily. Our brains have to filter data so that we can conduct some what rational lives without being overwhelmed.
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- Written by: Barry Vissell
Trust. Not trust. Trust. Not trust. The human free will tries to insert its dominion. Trust in a higher power is the most difficult thing to sustain, and the most important thing to sustain. I can’t see angels, but I trust they are there helping me every step of my journey.
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- Written by: Nora Caron
My first spiritual teacher told me a phrase that echoed in my head for months; “You don’t know what love is because you’re stuck in your fears. Face your fears and you will begin to know what love feels like.” I sat with these words, realizing how many fears controlled my life and my happiness. I had never realized how afraid I was deep inside...
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- Written by: Susan L. Westbrook, PhD.
The concept of surrender is often confused with submission. No matter how you define it, or under what conditions, surrender is a willful, not a passive act. The element of choice in surrender is an important consideration when we are discussing its expression in our lives.
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- Written by: Adam Heenan, Queens University, Ontario
Anxious people tend to perceive their world in a more threatening way. That is, the more anxious a person is, the more likely they are to notice threatening things around them. This is called the threat bias.
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- Written by: Rashmi Khilnani
All creation either evolves or devolves. You are once again in a cycle of the waking up of consciousness. Therefore it is time to move forward, in love and trust. Come out of your minds and heads into the realm of your heartfelt states of being. In other words...
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- Written by: Sandy C. Newbigging
One person loses their job and experiences stress, fear and anxiety. Another person loses their job and is excited about the new possibilities opening up for them. What’s the difference? The external life circumstance is the same. However the internal response is different.
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- Written by: Jan Frazier
The phenomenon of fear is surely one of the most impressive proofs of the mind’s power to convince us of the reality of its contents. If a person could reduce all possible episodes of fear down to those threats that are imminent, life would be very much less a scary place.
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- Written by: Karen Hering
Some of the most hope-filled people I have known have been those for whom favorable outcomes might be described as a long shot at best. This tendency of hope’s to show up in the bottom of our suffering is said by some to be the meaning of the Greek myth of Pandora’s...
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- Written by: Alan Cohen
We generally think of security as protecting our body and possessions from people who might violate them. Yet when we live in fear or a constant need to protect ourselves, we violate our spirit—a far greater injury than any that might occur to our possessions. Real security operates at a much deeper level than...
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- Written by: Sylvia Browne
Dear God, we ask for guidance, love, and your healing power for all the people who are close to us. We ask for special healing to be sent to all -- to get through the next week with their trials, their tribulations, and their heartaches. We ask this...
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- Written by: M.J. Ryan
Certainly, not everyone is frightened by change. But for those of us who like predictability and routine, times of great change can bring on intense fear. That’s why it’s crucially important to recognize what we’re feeling and have coping strategies in place.
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- Written by: Stan Goldberg, PhD
In the West, we place our cemeteries away from our everyday lives, as if there were an impermeable barrier separating life and death. We pretend that death will go away if we just ignore it. We know that this isn't true, but...
