Happiness

I would like to put my thoughts down on "Happiness" today. The essence that is going to follow is wisely shared by my yoga master yesterday evening.

Everyone without exception seeks happiness. Each individual has his or her ways to obtain happiness.


Happiness can come in the form for acquiring and possessing material things including cars, branded handbags and watches, jewelries.

Happiness too can appear in the form of gathering of money and having lots of it.

To many, plastic surgery to defy aging and pursuit of beauty is happiness.

Happiness can be a reflection of having a title to one's name.


Happiness to many is how others see, appreciate and admire them.


Most of these gratifications are instant, materialistic, temporary and can be lost in an instant.

If the above are what happiness are to these individuals, it is perfectly fine.

Let's imagine what happens to these individuals, if they lost all their money, jewelries, admiration, conferred salutations, cars and beauty in an instance. These people would lose their individualities and destroy their own self-esteem that so much depended on these things. All the possessions and pursuits are for the satisfaction of their Egos. Once not there, they perceived that there is no longer any self-worth; there is no happiness left. To these individuals, there is no dependable support within themselves that they can fall back on once all those that they once treasured are no longer available to them. FEAR develops and destroys an individual.

Therefore, self-centered-ness is critically important to each one of us. We can build in a structure that centers happiness within ourselves without depending on those earthly possessions and external reference checks. As long as we are able to feel happy and know happiness is us to call upon and is inside us and it can appears each time we call upon it, we are going to be a very happier group of persons. Whenever there is pain, suffering, lost, misunderstanding, guilt, sadness we can immediately go deep within ourselves to seek that reliable happiness that can mitigate those negative feelings and thoughts. Gratification can be instantaneous.

The practice of the yoga processes including asanas, pranayama and meditation equips and lead ourselves to the attainment of happiness in ourselves . By being able to have that state of happiness, bliss and a positive fragrance glowing from within forms the foundation of being able to not FEARING.


Fear is defined as a false emotion appearing real. When we remove fear we get rid of the fear of death. We are then able to separate and detach our mind, body, and all properties we are aligned to externally.

Pursue meditation. It is not a cult practice. It is not only meant for a select group of weird individuals. It is not a unholy or religious concept. Meditation is about strengthening our mind, building balance and a centered-ness within us. Without these strengths, our mind fluctuates wildly and harms our body in the form of stress, diseases and hallucinations. With all the health food, supplements and exercise we do, it would be really of no use if our mind is not stable and strong to provide the clarity and wellness that we seek when we either feel lost or requires inspiration.

Yes...take that first step to at least know what meditation is. That would be a start to bring a little magic into us. It has done wonders for my BEING. Believe me.

Love Heals

This is something good that I wish to share.


Why Love Heals: How Friendships Keep You Healthy

By Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, MD
Getting Connected

There is an actual, physical chunk of brain that runs your emotions called the limbic brain. You can trace its development back a hundred million years. You can see it on an MRI. Every second you spend with other people, your limbic brain is tuning in to them, being changed by their moods, and changing theirs in turn. It's a constant, life-affirming limbic dance.

Experimental psychologists have known for decades that we share moods. If you don't believe me, just think of the people who make you feel better simply by walking into a room. These sorts of interactions feel so good (directly and unconsciously) that we would wither away without them. This is why you should never underrate the emotional side of your life.

Women are better than men at keeping the limbic dance going by working to ensure that families stay connected as the years go by and by building lasting friendships and deep connections from the many different aspects of their lives. High school and college friends, friends from work, friends from raising children together, from neighborhood committees, from shared vacations -- sure, some of these bonds and friendships fall away as part of the natural cycle of growing and changing, but most women find new friendships to replace them. Women who don't find close friendships, who have trouble keeping up connections, need to make an effort to change those patterns.

Hundreds of research studies confirm that isolation hurts us and connection heals us through the same physical mechanisms as exercise and healthy diet. Blood vessels are measurably more elastic, the heart's ability to respond to extraordinary demands is higher, cardiac inflammatory protein levels are lower, and blood pressure response to exercise is better in more connected people. Their stress-hormone blood profiles are also measurably healthier than those of isolated people.

Building a Community

Sadly, I see people in my medical practice who give up on connection, who stop living years before they die. These are women and men who feel so overwhelmed by the prospect of getting out and building new connections that they stop trying. Our society -- with its emphasis on the traditional family structure and the workplace as centers of social togetherness -- doesn't help matters. People who lack either of those have to work doubly hard. But the consequences of not making connections are so devastating that you cannot allow yourself to retreat into isolation. The stakes are too high. A study of more than 4,000 women and men in Alameda County, California, showed a direct link between the size of one's social circle and survival, with larger circles bringing ever-greater longevity. Women with fewer than six regular contacts outside the house had significantly higher rates of blocked coronary arteries, were more likely to be obese and have diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression, and were two and a half times more likely to die over the course of the study than those with an extensive social network.

Having either a good marriage or just one close friend cuts the risk of mortality by a third, and the benefit increases the more your circle broadens. It's reassuring to note that both quality and quantity count. Some people have a few close friends or family members, while others have a broad network of involvement with their community. Either works well, though it's best to have both.

Talk to any nurse about how much it matters for patients to have visitors in the hospital -- about the difference in outcome for those people who have a steady stream of visitors, a wall covered with get-well cards, flowers obscuring the monitors and tubing. But the thing is, you can't wait until trouble strikes to build your community. You have to work at it day after day, make the calls, make the effort, be the hospital visitor years before you need one yourself.

I'm lucky that no one in my own family has ever shied away from making these kinds of efforts. I couldn't imagine any other way until I became a doctor and saw the isolation in so many people's lives, particularly as they age. My mother and father each care deeply about building their passions and connections. They work hard at staying in touch with friends, and they're critically important people in their children's and grandchildren's lives. They have made living, caring, and connecting their jobs.

Optimism is an extraordinary limbic resource and is available to everyone because it's a learned skill. You can decide to be optimistic with remarkable success. Not Pollyanna optimistic, but glass-half-full optimistic, and it's worth the effort. Women who are optimistic about motherhood before pregnancy have a much lower risk of postpartum depression. Optimistic women have lower mortality rates from cancer and heart disease. It seems to help to approach illness with a positive, optimistic attitude, which may lower blood pressure and improve immune function. You recover from bypass surgery faster and better, you get out of bed sooner after back surgery, and you go back to work and regular exercise sooner. Anger doubles your risk of heart disease. But perceiving your work as satisfying cuts your risk of heart disease in half.

Finding Satisfaction in Life

Generations ago, extended families provided rich, lifelong limbic safety nets and connections to the group. In the days before TV, telephones, electric lights, and convenience stores, this wasn't a choice. There was nothing to do but be within a group. The great gift of traditional societies was that you were a necessary part of the community your whole life. Okinawans, a group of people living on an island off the coast of Japan, have the greatest documented longevity of any population on earth, and in their culture older people are integral parts of the community until they draw their last breath. At 90, or 100, they are respected for their life experience and are relevant to the group.

It seems as if that model is vanishing from the planet. But our society still has all those limbic connections -- you just have to find them and put them together for yourself. For those who are frantically busy with work, the office can be an important source of connection and gratification, which helps to explain why increasing numbers of Americans of both sexes are choosing to work past retirement. Sometimes this is for financial reasons, of course, but sometimes it's due to the increasing recognition that work has a value beyond the paycheck. Part of the value is simply in the structure -- in having a reason to get out of the house in the morning. Part of the value is in the social interactions that come automatically with most jobs. And part of it is the importance of still having a role in the tribe: a defined niche in the great social order.

There are other pathways to connectedness, too, such as spirituality. A search for meaning is too profound and personal for facile advice giving, but we do know that for limbic reasons alone you should be on the journey. The growing number of reasonably well-done studies on spirituality point to its importance in our lives for both mental and physical health. Many people who search for meaning in their lives and their experience via religion or spirituality survive loss, cancer, and heart disease better and have healthier immune chemistry and lower risks of stroke and Alzheimer's disease than those who do not.

People who report that faith is an important part of their lives have higher levels of life satisfaction and emotional well-being. You can decide for yourself how much of the positive effect stems from the increased social connections offered by organized religion and how much is from something ineffable, but the simple message is that it is important to look for the meaning in your life's experience.

Every single human being on the planet craves limbic connections. We just need to head out the door to build them. The tide of social atrophy -- of limbic decay -- is not that strong. It's just remorselessly steady. The ultimate message is swim against the tide, every day. If you work at it steadily, it is almost impossible to fail.

Let's give love in abundance and we can be absolutely sure that we will receive love many times over.

Missing And Not For Long

I am back!! Just to post this and will come back soon.

Be like this illuminated Teddy Bear. Cheerful as ever and still smiling much more. Never give up and let's spare a thought and kindness for all living creatures on this Earth especially, those displaced by all sorts of act done onto them by the human kind.


www.postpalace.com

Choices

"Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways".


Stephen Vincent Benét

I wrote about choices on January 29, 2007. This is yet another inspiring story about choices. An extract from the passage is -


Each morning I woke up and say to myself, "Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

The rest of the story begins here...

Positive Thinking

by: Unknown


Read this, and let it really sink in... Then, choose how you start your day tomorrow...


Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant.

The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man.'

I knew I needed to take action." " What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'"

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.


* Positive thinking the the first step towards a happy life.
* Attitude is everything

If everyone applies just these, the whole world will live in happiness.

Time

How time flies. It has been more than 10 days since I wrote. Time to come back.

"Time" is an appropriate subject today. All of us are given time in equal measures. Each of us has our own meaning of "Time". To some of us, "time" is "stress and pressure". When we ran out of time, we begin to tear our hair out. "Time" to some means "money". To others, time is "getting old". There are many who would like to challenge "time" and hope to stay young.

To me, "time" is about "sharing". Time is about not being alone and be selfish. Time is "sharing" mine and when I receiving in return is a smile that said it all.

There are many individuals whom "time" has is so precious. They are just living from moment-to-moment. Nothing to eat. Malnutrition, famine, droughts. Disease infesting condition. Aids, Ebola, Malaria.

There are also many people who live lavishly, eat excessive, spend extravagantly, waste sinfully.

How sad and unfair indeed that such a huge gap exist. The world system is never and can never ever be fair. There are governments and institutions that stock pile, burn and destroy feeds in the name of price control and economy.

When will countries and individuals come together to make this world a better one. I guessed not. Human beings are greedy by nature. Efforts of minority are always overwhelming by the majority. However, that doesn't mean that the few of us can do anything. Just a little goes a long long way. "Time" is one commodity that we can certainly part and share so that we can add to the goodness of the minority and help those in need of that little help that can be offered.