Manic Depression

Here is your Friday STORY on: HAPPINESS: Here is your Friday story, How do we find happiness? We don't need to search beyond where we are right now. All we need to do is think of a happy memory. We all know that works. So if we can be sad one moment and just by thinking of a happy memory we can become happy; what are we actually doing? We're allowing a change of view, a change of perspective to take place. It would seem to follow that to change from sad to happy at any moment all we need to practice is changing perspective. Is a cup half empty or half full? A thought I may suggest that I use in my own little world when everything seems to be going against me. How can this help? Well it reminds me that half empty is pessimistic and half full is optimistic. If a car bumps into the rear of my car in a traffic jam, by the time I've go out of the car to investigate the damage I've forgiven the other driver. The hindrance of swapping telephone numbers and contacting the insurance companies could well be a blessing in disguise. I just need to change perspective to find the blessing. Today's story illustrates how we can survive without having to change our address to find happiness. BE HAPPY I watched and listened to an irate customer berate a young fast food restaurant clerk. Young minimum wage workers appear to be fair game. The angry man grew red in the face as he yelled at the young man. What was the young man's sin that deserved this wrath? He gave the man onion rings instead of french fries. I advised the man to calm down, that he was making a scene. He told me to mind my own blankety-blank business. He quieted down only after he saw the looks being given to him by the other customers. I don't understand such behaviour. If you are having a bad day, that's a shame. Get over it. You are not going to make your day better by ruining the day of another. Misery needs to stop loving company. Our days are not going to be perfect. Find a bless in the mess. A neighbour once told me, "You might as well be happy, no one cares if you ain't." He is the same guy who was fond of saying, "If ignorance is bliss, how come there aren't more happy people?" The older I get the more I value time and good folks. The more I want my loved ones to be happy. The more I want to spend my time being happy. We owe it to our loved ones, our friends and our co-workers to be happy. Warren Zevon said it well in one of his songs, "Enjoy every sandwich." My mother was one who enjoyed every sandwich. She found joy in the joy of others. She believed in a principle called "Santosa." I doubt that she'd even heard of Santosa, but she lived it. Santosa means finding contentment regardless of outer circumstances. "It's good enough, " was something often said by my mother. She knew that things turn out best for those who make the best out of the way things turn out. She had a gift for appreciating life's pleasures. She rejoiced in a light breeze on a hot day, the song of the crickets and the full moon that illuminated the night. She felt that there was no reason to be unhappy when you could be happy. She taught by example that one of the best things we could do in life is to find happiness and then share it with others. I don't enjoy watching depressing movies or disturbing TV programs. I don't want to hear about any more conspiracy theories. I don't want to hear negative campaign ads. I don't want to listen to personal attacks on those willing to take leadership roles. I don't want to hear mean-spirited talk show hosts attack all who do not agree with them. What makes us happy? Perhaps it is as the cartoonist Charles Schulz said, "Happiness is a warm puppy." I do know that my dog is happy. It is easy to make my faithful canine companion happy. All I have to do is to say, while leaving the house, "You can go." James Thurber observed that, "Dogs are obsessed with being happy." Dogs need no reason to be happy. That's because they have every reason to be happy. We are told that money cannot buy us happiness. The stories in the supermarket tabloids-if only a few are true--have proven that. This is no reason for pessimism. No one will ever be rich enough to be able to afford to be pessimistic. Good memories make us happy. Memories provide more beginnings than endings. We gather good memories from our experiences. We should spend more on experiences and less on things. Travel produces great experiences and wonderful memories. We need to seek happiness, not pleasure. Pleasure alone does not bring happiness--as anyone who has ever been on a diet because of an appetite for fattening food can attest. We need to choose to be happy. We need to find joy in green lights, the antics of chipmunks, rainbows and the smell of sunshine. Barrow, Alaska is located 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle and is the USA's northernmost city. It is a place where polar bears roam and the minimum temperature is below freezing for 324 days of the year. Barrow is a place that when the sun sets on November 18, it does not rise again until January 23. That is a lot of darkness. 4400 people live there. How can they do that--with all that darkness? Ernie Banks said, "If you aren't happy in one place, chances are you won't be happy any place." The residents of Barrow survive by remembering that the sun does not set at all between May 10 and August 2. The residents are given 82 days of sunshine. They survive by enjoying the northern lights that dance across their darkened sky. The aurora borealis brightens their world. We should all rejoice with the light rather than find sorrow in the darkness. Be happy. (Al Batt, 2004 He is a writer, speaker and storyteller) QUOTE: 'It is neither wealth nor splendour, but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.' (Thomas Jefferson) [[ct]]: Manic Depression

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