Life Innovation

Reap Your Own Happiness - One of my favorite expressions is that "you reap what you sow". While I often hear it used negatively by someone who expects some "chickens to come home to roost" I prefer to think of it as something positive. How comforting to think that all our hard work and toil will be rewarded with a crop of something good? How wonderful to think that putting love and care into some project or person will indeed be rewarded. Of course, while most Americans give lip service to the notion of our right to pursue happiness, all too many people do not really believe it applies to them. Many people simply believe they don't deserve happiness. And even those few who do believe it seem to accept unhappiness as simple bad luck. Every person does indeed deserve happiness and what is more happiness is contagious. The more happy people there are around then even more people will find happiness. We owe it ourselves to work on our own happiness and we owe it to...

Reframing with NLP For Enhanced Happiness - I used to work for the Independent National Newspaper in Canary Wharf, London. I can remember in the build up to Christmas, my department was having a large and expensive new computer system installed because the newspaper was being relaunched, it was when Andrew Marr and Rosie Boycott were becoming joint editors, I digress….  The system was being put in just before Christmas, but it was a massive task, with numerous issues & overruns.  As Christmas approached, there were still a number of teething problems, which led to stretched relations between the system supplier and the newspaper staff.  At one meeting about the integration of the system, my director had been trying to get more time investment from the installation company, only to be told that their people weren’t going to be available on Christmas day.  My director was frustrated and furious, asking “What are you doing that’s more important than sorting out our ...

Run For Glory TV Series : How To Protect Yourself From Negativity - I am writing this article direct from the filming set of a new BBC1 primetime TV series called "Run For Glory." Run for Glory charts 15 people who have amazingly valiant reasons for wanting to raise money for charity by running the London Marathon.  None of them were runners before this show and they are being trained by UK Olympic gold medallists Steve Cram and Sally Gunnell. I have been filming for one of the Run For Glory shows to help the participants overcome psychological barriers and get in control of their minds with regards to running the marathon and their preparation.  I have found it very interesting to observe the relations between the crew, the producers and the interactions with and in between the participants of the Run for Glory show and how other people really do affect each other and have an impact on each other.  Recently, I wrote about developing rapport without even speaking.  ...

Self Improvement Advice And Free Tips - I am sure that I am not alone in the fact that I have a large army of demons in my head. These demons are always talking to me and trying to advise me about how to react to different situations. For many years I listened and took their advice, these years were not exactly happy ones and I have now come to realise that these demons are not my friends but are actually my enemy. I had many issues in my life that had a negative affect on my levels of self-esteem. The demons used these issues to get to me and to play their mind games. For this article, I am going to describe my stuttering demons and how I eventually destroyed them. The advice can be used for whatever type of demon you may have. At the age of four, I developed a stutter which would continue to affect my speech for the next eighteen years of my life. I was aware of what I could and could not say and was also aware of the social situations in which I was more likely to stutter. If I was...

Self Improvement Ideas : The Search For Inner Peace - I have no doubt that there are many people out there who are searching for ways of improving their overall quality of life. We have no divine right to be happy of course but on the other hand we should not just sit back and accept second best. I am the type of person who basically just wants to be happy, I have no desire to become mega rich, but what I am looking for, and at the moment have achieved, is an inner peace. When looking into ways and ideas of improving my life, I ask myself a series of questions: What areas of my life am I not happy with? What can I do to improve my life? Am I happy with my current role of employment? Am I happy with my current financial situation? Am I happy in the relationship that I have with my girlfriend? How could my life become easier and more stress-free? These are just a few of many questions that I ask myself and I have listed them purely as an example. In the past, I would always become quite ...

Seven Keys To Happiness - This article summarizes much of what I’ve learned thus far on my journey to self-discovery and positive growth. Along the way, through many of life’s ups and downs, with the help of many awesome teachers and mentors, I now most often live in a state of happiness and contentment. I still have lots to learn but I wanted to share with you what I’ve found most helpful thus far. I truly believe that all people have the capacity to choose their mental attitude. Therefore, if happiness is what you desire, then you must choose it. Here are some helpful ideas to help you do just that. 1. Self-Worth Self-worth—without it, happiness will always be just beyond your grasp. Self-worth is, of course, something that can be measured along a continuum. It isn’t like you either have it or you don’t. You can possess varying degrees and those degrees can themselves vary depending on the circumstances of your life. Generally, the person who is happiest has a healthy amount of self...

Simple Happiness - If you aren't happy, why aren't you? Chances are it is because you want something which you do not have, objects or conditions. This is probably not a good enough reason and a review of your situation and perceptions may be in order. You may have seen video of children in very poor countries laughing and playing, unconcerned that they should have more to be happy about. They are happy because they are playing, because they have their friends and family, and some food to eat that day. Everyone has the right to be happy, and if they can be in their situation, shouldn't you? "Happiness consists more in small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life." - Ben Franklin (1706-1790)  Happiness is inside us, in our minds, in our thinking. It is not external material things or experiences, but the enjoyment of our thoughts and feelings. This is good becau...

Simple Ways to Have Happy Experiences - Happiness is a ‘now you feel it, now you don’t’ emotion.  I know this from personal experience and from hearing of the experiences of others.  Sometimes I’m very happy, other times, sad, joyful, contented, frustrated, and sometimes very neutral.  Several years ago I had no reference point for the word happy.  I knew technically the meaning of the word, however the experience eluded me.  Joy I could do, happy for some reason, no. One day during a workshop the word happy was demonstrated to me with much laughter from the audience.  Now I not only get ‘happy’ but remember it also as a fun experience.   There are many small things that can make me happy as well as give me endless joy.  I’ve listed seven simple ways toward experiencing a happy moment, but first check you have a reference point to the word happy.  Find out what happy really means to you?  1. Remember or create a ‘happy’ moment....

Stop Waiting On Your Life - This week I was sitting on the phone with tech support, and over and over again, I thought of things I could have done while I sat there -- waiting -- not living my life.  Are you “on hold” in your life?   Are you waiting for a spouse to come along, or for him/her to act better towards you?  Are you waiting on the motivation to get your home organized?  Are you waiting on a great job to fall into your lap?  Are you waiting on winning the lottery to plan your retirement?  Stop waiting on your life!  The only difference between you and the people who are getting what they want, is that they kept moving and you didn’t.  Here are some ideas to help get you started again.  Focus on the who, not the what. If you find that you’ve been stuck in a goal for a while, try restating it in “who am I” terms instead of “what I want” terms.  For example, instead of saying “I want to lose 30 lbs.”, say “I am someone who t...

Supreme Self-Esteem - Self-esteem is incredibly important. In fact, I think it is so important that I am going to say that again. Self-esteem is incredibly important. Many people have the notion that it is the same as self-confidence; however it is far more than just self-confidence. If we look further into the origins of the word esteem itself, as we look etymologically, it comes from the word aestimate, which literally means ‘to put a value on.’  As you might guess, this word shares the same root as the word ‘estimate.’ Therefore, we can see that self-esteem, really does just mean; the value we put on ourselves.    Now then, what are the key components of self-esteem? When someone has high self-esteem, they have a genuine, deep rooted sense of self; they actually like (and often love) themselves; they can and do recognise and be in control of their internal state; and they have a sound sense of purpose, or rather they act and behave with purpose. These are not magical ...

Tend To Your Own Happiness - Many of us wish for more happiness. We want to lead happier, more fulfilling, lives, but the sad truth is that so many of us that wish for more happiness spend much more time tending the happiness of others than we do tending to our own happiness. Happiness does not simply happen. A person does not suddenly stumble across happiness. Happiness is the result of careful tending and a person who wishes to be happy must tend to their own happiness. Tending to your happiness does not need to be difficult, complex, or time-consuming. It can be as simple as this four-step formula: 1. Trash your unhappy thoughts and trends 2. Envision yourself happy 3. Needs fulfilled 4. Desires fulfilled Making yourself a happier person really can be that simple. Step one is an important one because unhappiness is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many people are unhappy because they don't believe they deserve to be happy and they lock themselves into patterns of behavior that make ...

Test Your Emotions And Outside Stimuli - How much are your emotions affected by outside stimuli? This will be a difficult question to answer for anyone - Are You Happy? If yes, how much? Are you happy under all circumstances? At all the times? Are you happy even if you meet an old enemy? Are you happy when you have no money? Are you happy filing your Tax returns? Are you happy when you find your favorite candidate losing? No. We are happy or unhappy depending on what is happening to us and around us. happiness is only one of the emotional state. all our emotions get affected greatly by what inputs we get from outside. We have no control over our emotions most of the times.  What is happiness? Happiness can be defined as a feeling of satisfaction, feeling good and feeling joy. Why we become happy within event and unhappy at the other? A good news makes us happy and a sad news robs us of our happiness immediately. We fluctuate between the feelings of happiness and unhappiness throug...

The Attitude of Gratitude - Yes, it might feel great to win the lottery. Money, houses, travel - these are wonderful, but not enough by themselves. You need the right frame of mind to fully enjoy life. You need the attitude of gratitude. Be Grateful Life is better when you feel blessed, when you can look around and say "Thank you, God." Religious or not, when you see life as a wonderful gift, your experience is a richer one than any amount of money can provide. Imagine going through life like you're a child, and every morning is Christmas.  It's tempting to think gratitude comes from having what you want. You see yourself giving thanks if you had money, a loving family, and maybe a house on the beach. Still, you know there are ungrateful, unhappy people with these things, and poor people full of gratitude for what little they have. Where does this feeling come from? Creating Gratitude Gratitude arises from how you look at things. It is the natural feeling that comes f...

The Colors Of Flowers - Human beings first used natural colors centuries ago. During those times synthetic colors were not available. Flowers were the main source of color. This article does not intend to go into how the colors were extracted and so on, but how colors of flowers can make our life a better living experience. Let us examine. Look at flowers. You will find a range of colors -from purest white to black. Some flowers are single colored while many have colors so beautifully mixed that no painter can do something similar. The first observation we can make is - all colors look good on flowers. We may hate a color, for example you may dislike yellow. But if you pick up a yellow colored flower, you may not dislike it. Why? Because the color merges so well with the structure and texture of the flower that it does not remain separate but merges totally in the flower. I hope I am making myself clear. What I mean to say that even if you hold a yellow colored flower, you will not be...

The Culture of Excess - We live in a society of gadgets and gizmos, of toys and more toys, of  things that evoke feelings of luxury, style and class. This is available to almost everyone, not just a privileged few. This is the 21st century. No other time of the year is it more prevalent, conspicuous and aggressively promoted than during the Christmas season. Thanks to advances in technology, the airwaves, the print and electronic media are flooded with advertisements that appeal to society in general, to people from all walks of life.  Open any newspaper or magazine and indulge yourself with endless advertisement, appealing, titillating and surely tempting. You can’t miss it, it’s almost in every page and glares you in the face. Turn on the computer and you can access more goods and services at the click of a mouse. Add to this endless ads and banners. The young generation is brought up in this era of consumerism. They are introduced to a high maintenance lifestyle at a very ...

The Dance of Life - Waking up as a little boy the excitement for the day's adventure pumped through my veins and lit up my eyes. I'd look out the window at the bright sunshine, the hay fields, and the expansive blue skies and magical clouds. Once out in the freedom of the day, with no responsibilities, I'd hop, skip, jump, and run with joy, wonder, and excitement. Somewhere along the way, I began to remember and learned about cause and effect. Suddenly some limitations came into existence. Continuing to grow and mature, I learned to reason and apply my own critical thinking to situations that may or may not happen. I was creating a new reality within the context of my mind and my past experiences. The horror! Now, with another level of awareness that has developed, the spiritual awareness, it's like walking the tight rope between this world we live and work in, and the uninhibited freedom of a child at play. There is something more to this experience of life. We are no...

The Easiest Way To Achieve Happiness - People always think that what they want is money, relationship, material possessions, but what they truly want is happiness. Wealth, health and relationship are just the rewards of being happy.  Happiness is a state of vibration that is in harmony with the universe. As you have already known, the same frequency vibrations tend to attract each other, so the vibration of happiness is going to attract more wealth, better relationship and better health, since these things is going to add more happiness to your life, and they are in the same vibration. If you go after money, you may not get it, if you go after happiness, money will flow to you. The same apply to relationship and health.   I believe the ultimate goal in life is to achieve a state of well being, or we can simply say happiness. Is there an easier way to achieve happiness? The answer is Yes! and I am now going to show you how. I had learned one phrase from Dr Wayne Dyer, and...

The Essence of Happiness - I will never forget the dedication in the book of one of the most reputable experts on the subject of motivation, the American Dr. David J. Schwartz, The Magic of Thinking Big.  When his six-year old son completed kindergarten, Dr. Schwartz asked him what he would like to be when he grew up.  Without hesitation, the child replied, “Dad, I want to be a professor.”  “A professor?  A professor of what?”, Dr. Schwartz asked.  “Well, Dad,” his son replied, “I think I want to be a professor of happiness.”  “A professor of happiness!  That’s a pretty wonderful ambition, don’t you think?  To them -  David, a fine boy with a grand goal, and to his mother, this book is dedicated.”           If we were to ask what light is, we would get the most accurate description from a person who had lost the ability to see, and if we were to ask what freedom is, we would certainly get the best explanation from a ...

The Good Life - I was listening to the MSNBC on the radio the other day when a feature came on entitled, ‘The Good Life’.  They proceeded to discuss a $14,000 dessert being offered in Sri Lanka that included, amongst other things, an aquamarine.  No kidding.  This is how MSNBC characterizes the good life.  It struck me how in our culture we define the good life more in terms of the consumption of material goods than in relationship to any other quality. Simply listen to the vast majority of contemporary music on the airwaves these days for confirmation.  I have two teenagers in my house so I know all too well:  Cristal champagne, expensive cars, first class jet airline seats, bling…the list goes on and on.  This is what our kids are being taught:  the good life is about having things, not about who you are as a human being.  Where are these values coming from?  I believe it is a trickle down effect from what they see being honored in ou...