bob’slog: Happiness!!
filed under Life / Discipleship, Marriage on March 06, 2010
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I’ve been doing some reading on Happiness. I’m re-reading an old book by Paul Coleman, Psy.D., entitled 30 Secrets of Happily Married Couples. By his measure, after nearly thirty years of marriage, Linda and I actually stacked up pretty well…, especially if you ignore my contributions to the marriage!
Here recently, I just saw where, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, they reported on a review of 51 studies that tested attempts to increase happiness. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology and guess what they discovered the #1 ingredient for personal happiness was? – GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!! 
I’ve always known I was intuitively gifted when it came to sniffing out happiness!! No, I’m just kidding. They did not identify that Girl Scout cookies were causal for Happiness. But they did surface what research determined to be
The 5 ways to be Happier.
Experts attribute about 50% of a person’s Happiness to genes; and another 10% to circumstances—where we live, how much money we make, how healthy we are. That leaves 40% of our happiness in our control. Fortunately, science has much to say about how we can make the most of that 40%. Even small improvements in mood can have accumulative effects. Here are five things science has recently discovered which can improve happiness:
1. Be grateful 2. Be optimistic 3. Count your blessings 4.Use your strengths 5. Commit acts of kindness
Wow! Let’s see, the finest minds gather to review all of the happiness research which the psychological big dog, brainiacs have accumulated, and this is the list they come up with?! Funny, quite some time ago, some off the street, former Jew turned Christian fanatic said repeatedly, “Rejoice always, and in all things, give thanks!” -1 Thessalonians. The same nut then references, “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord…” Romans 8 – talk about optimism! Then he had the nerve (chutzpah) to make this observation: “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.” Galatians 6. Then the same guy does some more research and reports his findings to the church at Rome where he says: “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.” Romans 12. Finally this dude, without a Ph.D., LPCC, MD, or a research credential of any sort makes the brash assertion: “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4. On this last one I will cut Paul some slack because he at least referenced a guy who has spent more years researching human behavior and the heart and mind of man more so than any other researcher in history. When HE talks about secrets to Happiness, I’m gonna pay close attention…, though I have to confess, I still find it hard to believe HE left out Thin Mints!!
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The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room…just wait.” “That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged… it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it “It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away … just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account … you withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories.
(author unknown)
THINK POSITIVE- “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our Attitudes.” -Charles R. Swindoll
–kudos to Dave Burchett whose own blog article on 5 Ways to be Happier, “Confessions of a Bad Christian” helped with inspiration for this article.
