3 Productive Things To Do When You Could Not Sleep

Midnight is approaching and I still could not sleep. My consciousness is just too strong to submit to the call of slumber. I envy the gentle snoring of the sweet beings beside me. Why could not I have one?

Instead of tossing and turning I look for ways to put to good use this solitary time I have. I think of three ways: meditate, visualize, pray.

Meditation

I try to close my eyes. Recall the happy moments during the day. Take deep breaths, in out, in, out. Relax my muscles, relax my nerves. I am still fully aware. My eyes are too sleepy to open but my mind is too active to rest. I try the second way.

Visualization

I have dreams. Lots of them. I choose the one which is on top of my priority list. I say my affirmations and visualize it happening at the moment. It feels good. But still my mind is not relaxed. I try my last hope.

Prayer

Many times I did this and many times it worked for me. I first talk to God. Then say the rosary. I always have my rosary with me when I sleep because if I don't, negative energies in human form lure me in my dreams. So I always have it with me. I just did not resort to praying the rosary earlier because I already said my prayers in the morning. Then I remember that this is already another day because midnight has just passed. Without any hesitation, I prayed. Right after praying my mind begin to wander then I already forget everything. The next thing I know I am already in my dreams. It worked once again!

Have you meet this dilemma once in a while? You may try my methods. Who knows it will work for you too.

Get happy!

Break And Allow Hope To Spring Forth

There are times when I get pissed with life. I am not complaining, but I am no saint. No matter how I try to become one, am still but human. I am not yet dead though. Saints become one when they are dead. Anyway, becoming irritated is part of being human. It is how we handle this kind of challenge in life that makes all the difference. There are times when I want to break, to give up, to say I quit. But I just could not. What is my business on Earth anyway, but to stay alive. And the good thing with life is, in times of trouble, of darkness, there will come a spark of light that will tell you, hey, it is okay. Break if you must. Just allow new hope to spring forth that your breaking me not be all for nothing.

Sometimes breaking too is done literally. It is when you break a chain that binds you to a place, a person that does not allow you to grow. This kind of breaking requires much courage and much hope that no matter what everything is going to be okey. Am I here already? Soon.

Get happy!

In Pursuit of Happiness

I now strongly believe happiness is a destination and not a journey. It is because I still need to do more in order to be happy. I need to unlearn the things that could hinder me into finding happiness' way. I need to discover the hidden capacities of he human spirit in order to be happy. 

Presently, I am not in the state of happiness because I I am burdened with the desire of discovering myself, of uncovering what is it I could do and to doing the things that could make me feel fulfilled.

I pray someday soon I will stand on top of the happiness mountain and declare to everyone, 'Happiness at last!'

Get happy!

What Is Happiness?

        

  

One morning I just woke up and realized I've been writing about happiness for many a year now, yet what really is happiness? I have not defined it yet. Thesaurus dictionary says it is an adjective which means being delighted; satisfied. Dictionary.com says it is delighted, pleased, glad, over a particular thing.

There is this post in howstuffworks.com describing 'what is happiness.' It says happiness is subjective, meaning it means different things to different people. To behaviorists, happiness is a cocktail of emotions we experience when we do something good or positive. To neurologists, happiness is a myriad of hormones released to the brain as a reward that prolongs survival. To religious orders, happiness is the presence of God.

Philosophers debated that happiness is a battle between two views: hedonia and eudaimonia. Hedonists believed that happiness is the polar opposite of suffering; the presence of happiness indicates the absence of pain. As a result they believed that the purpose of happiness is to maximize pleasure, minimize misery. However, this view lead on to the wrong notion of going after pleasure to its excessiveness, as in indulging too much alcohol or accumulating too much wealth. 

On the other side of the debate, eudaimonia is a combination of two Greek words "good" and "spirit" to describe the ideology. It views happiness as a pursuit to become a better person. 

Eudaimonists challenged themselves intellectually, or engaged in activities that make them spiritually richer people.

The distinction between the two comes down whether happiness is a destination (the hedonic view) or a journey (the eudaimonic view). Put another way, hedonism derives that happiness is expressed externally, while eudaimonism expresses happiness internally.

At a glance, the nobler form of happiness is expressed in the eudaimonic philosophy: which includes kindness and generosity towards others. However, it's in the hedonistic philosophy that one aspires for wealth wherein when one has it, it is much easier to be generous to others.

Whatever ones preference is, happiness depends upon the values one person has and in the ability he put into action those values. Albert Camus says, "But what is happiness except the harmony between a man and the life he leads?"

This all explains why sometimes I view happiness as a journey, and at times I view it as a destination. Whichever which I'll always aspire to be happy one day at a time.

Get happy!

How To Become Happy: Overcoming Challenge One

          

Goal: Happiness. Strategy: Wake up early.

How are the two related? So what if I do not want to wake up early, does this mean I could never be happy? Well, would you be? Are you a night owl, or an early bird? Studies suggest that humans are wired to wake up early because it is what we learned from our ancestors. This knowledge is passed down to us through our genes. And whether we like it or not our bodies respond to it positively.

Have you noticed that when you slept late at night and woke up the next day late, you still feel tired and unenergetic even though you completed eight hours of sleep? People who work at night knows this; myself included because I had experienced working grave shift. The name says it. Unconsciously, this experience if repeated for a longer period of time could result to the decrease of our happiness level. It is because our bodies signal to us that something is not right in its activities thereby resulting to its poor performance. I am not saying this as an expert, I am saying this based on experience. I do not condemn working late at night or working graveyard shifts, but if you want to be happy you've got to make a choice and set plans of actions. We only live once. Do not wait when things get serious before you act.

Naturally, when you sleep early you wake up early. When you wake up early you get to start early. You can do your physical exercises and even eat breakfast on time. Unlike when you slept late and woke up late, you would be in a hurry so as to forget about breakfast. When we take care of our body by doing things that could not harm it our rewards would be great. Not only can it guarantee us longer life but it also can give us the happiness we are wanting to possess. Happiness is being at the top of things. You could never be happy when you know that there is an aspect in your life that needs immediate attention and correction. One challenge to becoming happy is waking up early. Don't be too loose. This takes much discipline.

Get happy!

On Doing What We Love

                                      

  

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

                                                                  - Steve Jobs

And when you are loving what you do, you are happy. Is it not? This is a challenge most of us have to face-to put love in our work. And if we could not love our work, we only have two options: either to work in vain or find a work that we love to do. Most of us love to choose the latter because of our ultimate purpose-that is to do the very thing that could give us the most happiness. This is preferable because when we do what we love there is lesser demons to fight, lesser obstacles to hurdle. When we love what we do, the problems we will be facing is mostly outside of us, for our insides: mind and heart are working towards the same goal; there would be no more struggles deep within.

If you are like me, and I believe most of us are still at this stage, slowly paving and smoothing our way towards working head on, for the time to come that we would at last do the things that could make us happy. I am slowly working on in this, honestly. And I am trying to put love into this struggle. By putting love, it means accepting the situation in the first place then find ways to make it through. One person said, "doing what you love is freedom, loving what you do is happiness." Very well put. Everything depends solely on us. The choice is ours. I do believe no one is being put directly into the perfect place he loves. There must be a kind of struggle to make victory sweeter. 

Being in the middle of the road is being in the meantime. Let us just continue to walk towards the field of our dreams. To those who are already there, they are our inspiration. For all of us going there, let us be strong. Someday soon we will meet in the victory party.

Get Happy!

Conquer Worry With Trust

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“According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don't bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous. (quoted by Carol Lynn Pearson in Consider the Butterfly)” 

Following the path of happiness, am I following or just creating?, anyway whatever it is this is my version of following that urge to journey to the road to happiness. Following that path gives me many lessons. Today I will just tackle one lesson. There are so many if we are to google it, just like I did yesterday. But we could not do all those things with just one snap of our fingers, right? Let us have to be realistic and do things one step at a time.

Conquer worry with trust

We already learned that one way of becoming happy is dropping things that could hinder us to becoming happy. One of these things is worry. Too much worry makes us sick. Worry is carrying the mistakes of the past to the present. Worry is fearing that something bad is going to happen though things do not seem to go that way. Worry is just another name for fear. When we are worried, we could never  be happy, right? How can we focus on the feeling of happiness when another emotion is bothering us. Thus we've got to let go of that worry. One way of dispatching worry is to trust the Higher Power- our God, that He is capable of making things right; that whatever is going to happen is under His care, whether it will happen on our advantage or not. If things happen in our advantage then it is for us; if it does not, then it means it is not for us and something greater is prepared for us. And we just have to wait for that thing to happen in our life in God's perfect time. Just let go and let God, as one aphorism wisely says.

I know this is not easy to do. Things that give so much satisfaction is not given easily. We have to work for it. But if we are able to do that thing the result is so sweet and soul-satisfying and gives us joy and happiness. I have this worry too. But I consider this as a reminder that my trust bucket is almost empty and I have to ask God to fill that bucket once again. And it feels so good when you know God answers prayer. So start now working on conquering worry with trust.

Get happy!