What Started Me Thinking

  • "The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up." Mark Twain
  • “There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson
  • "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
  • “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil
  • “What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette
  • “It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton
  • “A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.” Joseph Addison
  • “Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
  • “Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope

Happiness Theories I Reject

  • Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
  • Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
  • Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
  • Sartre: "Hell is other people."
  • Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
  • Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
  • John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”

This Wednesday: tips for boosting your energy level.

EnergyEvery Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: Tips for boosting your energy level.

Feeling energetic is a key to feeling happy. Studies show that when you feel energetic, you feel much better about yourself. On the other hand, when you feel exhausted, tasks that would ordinarily make you happy—like putting up holiday decorations—make you feel overwhelmed and blue.

So here are some tips for giving yourself an energy lift.

1. Exercise—even a quick ten-minute walk will increase your energy and boost your mood. This really works! Try it!

2. Listen to lively music.

3. Get enough sleep. If the alarm blasts you out of a sound sleep every morning, you’re not getting enough—and it matters.

4. For some people, taking a 10-30 minute nap is a big help. I can’t nap, myself, but my father has been known to take three naps in one day.

5. Act energetic. Research shows that when people move faster, their metabolism speeds up. Acting energetic will make you feel more energetic.

6. Talk to friends. I’ve noticed that if I’m feeling low, and then run into a friend on the street, I walk away feeling much more energetic. Reach out if you need a boost.

7. Get something done. Crossing a nagging chore off your to-do list provides a big rush of energy. For a huge surge, clean out a closet. You’ll be amazed at how great you feel afterward.

8. Do NOT use food. It’s tempting to reach for a carton of ice cream when you’re feeling listless, but in the end, all those extra calories will just drag you down.

Energy (or lack of energy) is contagious. If you feel energetic, you’ll help the people around you feel energetic, too. And that makes them feel happier, too. In fact, studies show that being an energizer was one of the strongest predictors of a positive performance evaluation at work.


Comments

Great site! Great idea!
I will say that there are times when the existential angst is the predecessor to deeper joy. Sometimes less energy, more introspection, will help one to find that inner direction that blooms out into more energy. I think that one reason we have trouble being very happy is because we have trouble being very sad.
Thanks for the tips.

"Ayurveda or Ayurvedic medicine is a form of alternative medicine in use primarily in the Indian subcontinent. The word 'Ayurveda' is a tatpurusha compound of āyus 'life' and veda 'knowledge', and would roughly translate as the 'Science of Life'. Ayurveda deals with the measures of healthy living, along with therapeutic measures that relate to physical, mental, social and spiritual harmony."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda

I find that vitamins and especially antioxidents keep me awake better throughout the day. It's like coffee, but without the juttery effects.

http://brendan.unfranchise.com

Great tips, although I think it's okay to reach for food if you choose carefully, e.g. a fresh orange or a handful of nuts!

Great tips.

I second that if you choose the right food and drinks(water!), you can positively influence energy that way as well.

kr

Moonlander

There is something special about learning how to work with your own energy levels. Goethe is said to hve formulated The Law of Attraction, which in turn is based on a more fundamental Law of Vibration.

As humans we are both particles and energy - something that almost freaked our early quantum physicists and certainly sent most of them to study aincent Indian texts (Upanishads in particular). We think in frequencies and attract people who are in harmony with us.

So, raising ones energy has much bigger impact than simply making you happier! It gives you an opportunity to get connected and make things happen.

great ideas; here's another one:

make your bed before you leave; one of those 1 minute deals that can energize your morning

One persons path to temporal happiness: touch, caress,taste,enjoy,appreciate, etc. but never get attached and above all never subscribe to a sense of loss

Yes, you're right, when I talk with friend i feel better.

Exercise morning make me more energetic.

--- Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas --- ((( Nxqd )))

I am very appreciative of your comments and thoughts about being happy and ascribing to be. What an interesting initiative! Really, I was very pleasantly surprised by how with just simple tasks such as calling or seeing good friends, being kind to people instead of finding fault and just really enjoying everything that you do really does make a person much more energetic and full of life and thus much happier. What a great article!

My Dear: New to your site but a lifelong researcher in all manner of spiritual and emotional human striving, I am very much looking forward to joining your blog!

Meanwhile, something I did while reviewing one of your articles landed me in a reference net which allowed me to search for more articles on the subject of whichever I happened to be reading... Now I can't find out how to repeat the process! Can you help me?

Hope I will be of some help to you also in terms of the ol' blog,

Love and Light, Analee

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Gretchen RubinGretchen Rubin is the best-selling writer whose book, The Happiness Project, is the account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier. Here, she shares her insights to help you create your own happiness project.

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