Happiness Is A Choice

I talked last week about happiness being a serious problem. When you start to take a closer look at happiness, you realize that unhappiness is easy and happiness takes work! The notion the happiness must be worked at comes as news to a lot of people. Most people assume that happiness is a feeling and that this feeling comes as a result of good things happening to us.  (We therefore have little control over how happy we are, the thinking goes, because we cannot control how we feel or what happens to us) NOT!!!


That is a false statement. Happiness is largely, not entirely, determined by us through hard work and wisdom. Every worthwhile thing in life is attained through hard work. Happiness is not an exception.  Happiness is a battled to be waged, not a feeling to be awaited.

I have fought this battle.  I've read books, processed pain, dealt with my "issues" and came to a clear understanding that I had GREAT personal responsibility regarding my own happiness. Years ago as I was working on my happiness level, I came across a book, "Happiness is a Choice." The Author  suggested to me all those years ago, that happiness was truly my choice. That if I was unhappy, I was choosing it.
He suggested 7 things to do, to choose happiness. The book went on to say that if I were to do these 7 things consistently for 3 to 6 months, I would surely find that I was experiencing more happiness than I was currently feeling.

It wasn't enough at that time for me to read that book and think a few new thoughts...I was determined to turn my sorrow into joy, my unhappiness into happiness. So here's what I did. I took the 7 steps in that little book, read about them, sought to understand them and then typed them (yes, I said typed) up on a little piece of paper to put on my desk at work. If you've experienced times of unhappiness, you know like me, that you can't old on to good thoughts for long periods of time. Our negative thought life beats us up constantly. Your thought life directly influences your feelings, so it was important to me, to be faced with these 7 steps all day long.

I am going to address 2 of those seven steps today...
This is what I typed:

Happiness Is a Choice!

Choose each day to do these things and look back in 3 to 6 months and see if you just haven't found the road back to happiness.

1. Commit your life to the purpose of glorifying God.
Where ever you are today in your faith journey, I want to encourage you to look at this first step, even if you need to say, "God as I understand Him." To submit to a higher power is a life altering way to live. This was not a difficult step for me. Glorifying God sounds like a pretty overwhelming task but the way I see it, to glorify God, is to surrender to His power over your life and gladly receive it.  I began to see each day as a gift, because if my purpose was to glorify God with my life, then I must have something important to do each day.

2. Get rid of grudges daily.
Unforgiveness, bitterness and grudges, robs you of more joy than anything else in your life. Forgiveness is a MUST to experience happiness. It has been said that that unforgiveness is the # 1 greatest determinant of our mental health. Unforgiveness breeds resentment, bitterness and judgment. Walls go up, not with those that we are angry with, but everyone around us. Unforgiveness gets generalized and spreads throughout all our relationships; it doesn't just affect one or some. Make it a practice to keep short accounts. Verbalize "I am a forgiving person."  Each day go back though your day and let go of what every is necessary.


Those are two of the very important 7 steps that I took to find my way back to happiness. Ponder these two steps this week as we continue to be on the pursuit of happiness. Next week, we will look at two more.

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Happiness is a Serious Problem

"... that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."


"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence and considered by some as part of one of the most well crafted, influential sentences in the history of the English language.

I've studied "happiness" and I too have found it to be a serious matter.
I believe that happiness is a moral obligation.

Ask a child what it is like to grow up with an unhappy parent. Ask a wife how easy it is to be married to an unhappy husband. Interview a co-worker that spends 40 hours a week around an unhappy colleague. Pursuing happiness makes a difference not only in your own life, but in the lives of the people around you. We owe it to our husbands, wives, children, friends, to be as happy as we can be. This does not mean acting fake or refraining from honest and intimate expressions of our feelings to those closest to us. But it does mean that we owe it to others to work on our own happiness.

There is another reason why happiness is a moral obligation. In general, people act more decently when they are happy. Do you feel more positively disposed toward other people and do you want to treat other people better when you are happy or unhappy?

In some cases with some people, happiness just seems to "happen", but I've discovered that happiness truly is a choice.
I've been through seasons in my life that happiness seemed to come easier. I've also had times of laboring to pursue happiness. I see now that those times of labor taught me the most about happiness.

Unhappiness is easy, but happiness takes work! It takes no courage, effort, or greatness to be unhappy. Anyone can be unhappy. Happiness is a battle to be waged and not a feeling to be awaited.

The notion that happiness must be worked at comes as news to many people. They assume that happiness is a feeling and that this feeling comes as a result of good things happening to them. We therefore have little control over how happy we are, the thinking goes, because we can't control what happens to us. I believe that happiness is largely determined by us!

Since happiness is such a serious problem, I'll spend the next few weeks writing about it. For this week ask yourself the question, "Do I have a moral obligation to the people in my life, to pursue happiness?" If your answer is yes...come back next week and we'll pursue it together.


hap·py
adj. hap·pi·er, hap·pi·est
1. Characterized by good luck; fortunate.
2. Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy.
3. Being especially well-adapted; felicitous: a happy turn of phrase.
4. Cheerful; willing: happy to help.

Always encouraging you,
Letha

June 19th...What Do You Want?

This Tuesday we will have our first weigh-in for our ten week "CAMP OUT" Team Challenge! I can't help this morning but to look ahead to June 19th, the finale of this challenge and think about that day! History WILL repeat itself so I know what June will hold for the participants of the Spring Team Challenge 2012. I can hardly keep my feet on the ground thinking about it.

Tuesday, April 17th, over 80 teams will walk into The Healthy Weigh feeling nervous but excited! They will weigh in and record their official weight for the beginning of this 10 week challenge. For some clients that will be difficult as they face the scale. Many will be as heavy as they've ever been. Others have been on the journey with The Healthy Weigh for a while and will be seeing weights they haven't seen in YEARS!

Either way, DECISIONS have to be made. Decisions to participate fully in the program, both physically and emotionally. Those clients who decide to be "all in" will see amazing results in the next ten weeks! I'm sure of it!

When I think about Tuesday, June 19th...Here are the things I am sure of:

MANY clients will reach their goal weight and be ready to move on to stabilization!

We will celebrate 20, 30, 40, 50, 60...and possibly 70 pounds weight losses!

NO one in the room will be thinking the same thoughts that they were thinking 10 weeks ago!

Medications will have been discontinued!

Life spans will have been increased!!

Confidence will be palatable!

Community spirit will be soaring!

Personal healing will have taken place!

And that's a partial list!

It's funny, ten weeks doesn't seem like a very long time, but MAJOR things happen in a ten week period when you make a decision and cut off any other possibility!


I hope that all our "campers" will spend some time this weekend thinking about June 19th. The first step to any change is knowing what you want. So knowing what June 19th looks like for you is going to be very important!

I know what I want on June 19th. I want to be able to stand in front of this group of campers as we celebrate their GREAT accomplishments and say that I did my very best to inspire and motivate them to live their best lives! I want to look back and see that the education I brought forth was beneficial not just to my clients but to their families as well. I want to have given my ALL for this Spring Team Challenge! I want to be living out the very lessons I teach so that I can deliver them with conviction and power! That's what I want!

What do you want?

I will be spending the next 4 days mentally preparing for this "CAMP OUT". I hope you will too. Spend time looking ahead to June 19th. Visualize yourself at that Grand Finale feeling proud of what you've accomplished! It's going to be a life changing camp out for sure!

Always encouraging you,
Letha

It's all about the RE!

Tuesday at The Healthy Weigh, Glenda and I taught a class that made a difference...in our lives as we prepared for it, and in the lives of our clients who attended the class. I was asked to summarize it in my blog this morning. So here goes...

Losing weight can be a difficult journey. At some point along the way I hear comments like this from my clients:

"I've lost my focus and I can't get it back."
"I'm just not motivated...I don't know why."
"I'm sick of being disciplined."
"I'm tired of thinking about food all the time, preparing it, planning it..."
"I'm mad, I don't want to do the diet thing."
"I've been out of control with my eating and I'm scared that I won't be able to get back in control."

Sound familiar? Can you relate to any of these comments?

Maybe it's not your diet, but it's something else in your life that feels out of control. Your job, your home life, your relationships. Things are "OK" but you are just living an average life at best. You're going through the motions some days just trying to keep your head above water. You look back over the last few months and think "Wow, I'm doing what I have to do every day, but I've lost my zeal for life."

There is a way to change all of that... TODAY! It won't be because your circumstances change today, whether they are good or bad, they'll probably be the same tomorrow. It's not because you can reach your goal weight today, there's not enough time for that to happen between today and tomorrow. But there is a way to wake up tomorrow with a new attitude. It's all about the RE!

I was doing some studying some time back and came across this little inspiring thought. RE means...again...a new. I don't know about you, but I need to RE. We all need to RE from time to time!

We start out on a program or a life change and we are motivated, we are inspired, we are challenged. Then we do what we ALL do. We lose hope, we make mistakes, we just lack.

That's where RE comes in to the story. Is it time for a REDO?

We must choose to RETURN to our dreams, REDIRECT our thoughts, REACQUAINT ourselves with our goals. Maybe we need to choose to REDESIGN our lives, REEXAMINE our priorities, REFORMULATE a plan, REPACK our backpacks or RESCHEDULE our activities. Maybe we need to RECEIVE good words from ourselves, we might even need to RECRUIT a group of people to help, or RECOVER from hurts. We might need to RETREAT for a while and RECUPERATE. Might you need to REFLECT? Do you need to RECOMMIT?

Maybe you need to REFRAIN, or REFRESH. You might just have to REGROUP, REPENT, or REPAIR. Its' not January, but it might be time to RESOLVE. Do you need a REVIEW or a REVISE?

RE... again and again and again! We will live average lives at best if we don't RE!

It's all about the RE.
We don't come into this world, into relationships, into challenging programs with everything we need for the entirety of it. We must RE to live out our lives healthy and whole.

You might want to sit with a dictionary and look up RE words. You might want to REVISIT the calendar for the rest of the year and READJUST goals, REDETERMINE priorities, and for sure REDIRECT your thoughts!

If you are not HAPPY with how things are going right now, you've got to REEXAMINE your life. Take the time to RE. This can't be something that you do in your head as you drive down the road...you've got to take the time to sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and RE... again, a new!

It's all about the RE!

Take the time to RE and I promise things will turn around for you.

On a personal note, I am smiling this morning as I write on Good Friday thinking about, and thankful, that I am REDEEMED! Have a blessed Easter.

Always encouraging you,
Letha