Be Happy – To Live Optimally, You Must Meet Your Physical Needs timely.

If we look on our life structure, we find that God has given us a very beautiful structure to live and enjoy our stay on the earth. He has equipped us with brain to conceive our requirements and find out the ways to meet them. Resources are available abundantly. We need to find out and use them aptly. If there is an excess done by us, God has already evolved the system to rectify our wrongs – He warns us from time to time and if we do not improve, He punishes us too. If we follow His system sincerely, He rewards us too.

To live our life, we need to meet our physical and mental requirements timely and appropriately. If we are hungry, we need food. Similarly, we need proper clothing and shelter also. The next need what humans require is their physical need of sex.

Sex is an essential part of life. If you remove sex from life you will find that life becomes a big void. If you take sex in the right way, it could enrich your life the way nothing else can. A lot of people bring their sex life out of the bedroom than one might think. Sex is not as closeted as it is made out to be. Mull over this – a bad sexual episode makes the boss grumpy and he begins biting everyone’s head off at work. Someone doesn’t get laid the previous night despite being extremely horny and they bring their libido to work. On the other hand, someone had a great sexual night and they are in highest spirits today. If that is not bringing sex out of the bedroom, what is it?

All of us, in some or the other measure, bring our sex lives out of our bedrooms. People who know us can easily tell the difference. How many times have our friends asked us, “Hey Joe, you are in high spirits today man! What happened last night?” Even though just casual banter, it means something important. It means that people equate good sex with good living.

If the Almighty hadn’t ordained sex to play such an important part of our life, He would not have made it so important to carry the species forward. But for us, on an individual level, sex is essential because it is one of the primary needs for life. I am not saying that we have to be libidinous all the time, but we do need to feel secure about it. It is important for us to realize that we have access to fulfill our sexual needs. That is why we have institutionalized marriage. Marriage means a lot of other important things – probably much more important too – but it also means sexual security. At the risk of sounding carnal, it can be said that marriage means not having to go hunting for sexual partners anymore. This is essential in keeping life optimal.

However, the first step to really meaningful sex is love. That is a whole different story in itself. But if you can find someone with whom you can build an emotional equation and not just a physical one, then you will find that your life becomes more fulfilling.

Have a Hobby

An idle mind is a devil’s workshop. If you want to make your life more meaningful, one of the ways to do it is to fill the voids. Fill the emptiness that exists in it. When you make your life more productive, automatically your life gains more meaning.

The best way to go about that is to have a hobby. A hobby is something that you like to do. It won’t give you money, but it can give you something more important. It gives you mental peace. It makes you realize that you can get something more out of your life than just what your work can give you. It makes you feel good about yourself because you know you are doing something creative.

So what is it that really drives you? Here are some common hobby ideas that can enrich your life.

Gardening

Gardening is considered a great hobby and it is ecologically beneficial too. But what is most significant about it is that it gives you a feeling that you can “create” life. When you see your saplings grow, the feeling they can create in your mind is nonpareil. Many people who devote themselves to gardening do so because it teaches them to appreciate life in a better way.

Traveling

A lot of people enjoy traveling. Visiting different places, eating different foods, understanding how people in different parts of the world live differently, picking up their languages and dialects, learning about their cultures and customs is something that can really enrich your mind. A person who has traveled a lot has improved the mind with various experiences and will have a lot of stories to tell.

Nature Painting

Got a skill with the paintbrush? Then probably painting will be more in your line. Even here, you could try your hand at nature painting, because this is an art that can really make you appreciate even the smallest things in nature. You realize everything that exists in the world around you and you can become happier about your own life too.

Reading

Reading opens up the mind. It makes you more creative; it makes you imagine better. You learn how to see beyond the trivial things that people usually think about. You begin to see the larger picture. The more well-read a person is, the more enriched in mind he or she will be.

In short, any hobby that has something to teach you or helps you to see things differently can be a great idea for a hobby. These hobbies help you to look beyond your normal survival instinct and make you a much better person, who is living optimally.

It Is Not Just about the Present.

Optimal living is not just for today. Make sure that you live in happiness for as long as you are here. A very lethal mistake that we make in the way of our achieving happiness is that we think only about the present. We think that we have something today that makes us happy and that’s just about it. We don’t consciously strive to build securities for tomorrow. This is where we fail.

If we live in the knowledge that our future is not protected, we will certainly not be able to make the most of today. We will forever be living in the shadow of an uncertain tomorrow and that could hamper our present like nothing else can.

You must have a good insurance plan that will protect your future. You might find various options around you, but you need to take some time out from your busy present life and find a plan that bests suits your purposes. Once you have such a plan, make sure you keep it up. Though you cannot see the fruits of this plan currently, tomorrow it will come in handy. You cannot say when an emergency might strike.

No one can predict what will happen tomorrow. But if we think that we have done our best to secure our future, our lives will be happier today as well.

It is not just about monetary security, though. We also have to invest in relationships. Giving love to everyone around us is actually a way of securing our future. When we spread this love, we are also building their trust and companionship forever. Tomorrow, when we could be lonely, these people could be of great value to us. They could make our lives better than they would normally be.

The same applies for friendships. It is quite unwise to treat everyone around in a surly manner. We must not paint ourselves in a corner while everyone else is outside. The thing we must actually do is to reach out to as many people as we can. Everyone can be a potential friend for life.

What we spoke about financial security applies to relationships as well. When you live in the knowledge that you have done your best for your family and friends, you can sleep better at night because you know they will stand for you too. You may not have helped them out selfishly, but this is an aftereffect that you cannot shake yourself from.

Do You Fully Enjoy Your Life Today?

What about right now? Do you think you are living an optimal life? Is Your Life Optimal Today? Do you go to bed each night scared about waking up tomorrow? Or do you go to bed, completely relaxed and with a smile on your face, eager to wake up in the morning and face the new day?

This is the biggest indicator of how optimal your life is. Those few minutes between hitting the bed and falling asleep are when we assess our lives. These are the times when we think how far we have come and where we are headed. If these few minutes can put us into careless slumber, our lives are quite well-placed. But if they only make you toss and turn and reach out for the jug of water a zillion times, then there’s something you need to take stock of.

An optimal life is not about how much money you have. It is about how content you are. You might have less, but if it is enough to meet your needs, then you are doing well. It is only dissatisfaction that makes you depressed; whether you are earning more or less doesn’t matter.

So ask yourself these questions:-

1. Am I contented with my life today?
2. Am I happy with the way my family treats me?
3. Do I think I have some good friends?
4. Am I insecure about money and the future?
5. Am I happy with my job?
6. Am I satisfied with my sex life?

If your answer to these questions has been affirmative, your life is very close to being optimal. There might be some areas that you still need to work on. If such areas exist, it is a good idea to start working on them right away so that you take your life in a better direction than it is now. Most importantly, remember that it is not your life that should control you; it is you who should control your life. When you do that, you will see that you are happier with the way your life has headed.

Putting Your Self in Your Life

You are most important to you. It is your life that we are speaking about. There will be times in your life when you will begin to give more importance to other people and forget about yourself. This will happen when you first fall in love, have a first child, etc. These people become the center of your attraction. You forget that you are an individual too.

Most problems in life stem from this. Instead, if you place yourself in the equation too, life becomes much better. When doing something for your loved one, do spare a moment and think how happy that makes you. When you get a gift for him or her, wait awhile and think of the smile on your face too. When you get a great school for your child, think about your own pride too. When you think about yourself, you give emphasis upon yourself as well. You are not just thinking about people around you, but you are thinking about yourself as well.

Why is this important? The most important benefit of thinking about yourself is that you would want to repeat that action. When you remember how happy it made you when you give a present to your spouse, you will want to give it again. When you remember how happy it made you to take your child to the amusement park, you will do that again quite soon.

Because you are giving your loved ones the things that they like, your relationships will keep improving. Your inner thought is to make yourself happy, but you are helping everyone around too.

Relationships dwindle over the ages. Your love for people might also diminish. Children outgrow you and the attachment wears down. Most romantic relationships are good for only a few years. When such things begin happening, we do not bother ourselves with the small things we once did to keep the relationships happy.

But one relationship will never dwindle. And that is your relationship with yourself. You will always want to see yourself happy. And because you remember that giving your loved ones things made you happy, you will do that again. This will help you keep the flame of the relationships burning bright.

However, only you know the secret – you are doing things as much for yourself as you are doing for them. In any case, it keeps you happier. It makes your life optimal and worth living. Living an optimal life is entirely in your hands. You have to shape it in such a way that it gives you what you are looking for. You have to take care of it. If you ignored so far, the new year 2011 is opening up before you to correct your process of living.

Wishing You Happy New Year!

Be Happy - You Must Meet Your Physical Needs Timely To Live Optimally.

Be Happy – Make Emotions Work For you.

You can use emotions to change your life. You may reject the bad and propel the good to manifest wish. It is the season of wishes – we exchange our wishes with our well wishers. Well Wishers – we treat them as such as they appear. We do not take in our understanding what they are in actual forms with other people too. We grade them our well wishers because they are doing good for us.

Similarly, if we wish good for others, we can expect that they too would be good. We too want our wishes to be accomplished soon. We attach our emotions with them. And our emotional energy makes the changes in our attitude. Just we need to turn up the volume of our emotional feelings with some one, take charge of it and intensify to get manifested.

Life responds to you. Our emotions fuel life, the worse you feel the more tiresome life will become. Create magic in your life by breathing deeply, spending time outdoors and sharing your laughter and love with your friends and family. Spare a thought for those who are in need or less fortunate than you. Give up your negative emotions and think that your help to someone needy can be a reason of happiness for that person. You will feel the intensity of the emotions within you.

A change in emotional energy can change your destiny. There is an art in preparing for magical changes to enter your life. Every individual has the ability to create miracles, provided they are aware of what exactly they want and of their intentions. We never look around to see what we want is lying before us, only the packaging is different. We need to be more open, surrendering and trusting to enjoy magic, miracles, love and light that the universe wants to show us with.

For those who wish to invoke the change, I may submit the following suggestions

1. We may have to work with strong determination, positive emotions and high energy to remove the clutter from a place we need to carry out space cleaning. If we have negative emotions, we may postpone the work at any moment – before staring, during the process or at any other point.
2. We can pray to God to help ourselves to accomplish our wishes. He will come forward immediately if we ask for clearly and sincerely. We are not clear what we wish for. Our wishes are generally decided by our attachments, our emotions and our temporally reactions. What we want is not exactly known to us as we did not plan for it in advance. It can be spontaneous. We need to define it well in time to draw our strategy. Our emotions will work accordingly.
3. Every individual is swayed by the complexities of life. The essence of good living lies in simplicity of our emotions. If we feel good, we can end up doing a lot of good things. Let us simplify our life. We should not let the details distract us. Look back into the past without holding on to the pain caused by it. Acknowledge, forgive and release all the people or situations you have been holding onto.
4. Often we dwell in thoughts which create doubt. The whole world is an affluence of celebration. It is an overflow of energy, so many flowers, birds singing around, infinity of stars, galaxies upon galaxies, miracles are happening every moment without any notice to us. They were happening before we understood them, they are happening today too. Now they appear miracles, earlier they were being ignored by us. It is just what and how we perceive.
5. If you look around negatively, you may find negative echo in the atmosphere, you are adding more power to it. If you have got positive attitude, you will like to search out what is the positive in all the happenings around you. Your emotions effecting others will also become positive and you may be welcomed if you go forward to them.
6. If you feel positive, you may be able to talk to your sub-conscious mind to heal, get go and forgive for the wrongs done to you. You will relax, so will become your enemy.
7. We must be careful about our moods and feelings. Because there is a strong connection between our feelings and our visible world. Your emotional expression can change your relationships very easily. They can become sweet and they can become strained too. Your emotions can do. Let them work in your favor.
8. You must reject your bad thoughts. You must do your job in the simplest way which can be understood easily by others. Do something out of love only. If someone has harmed you, you must make analysis why that took place and if you had created any reason for that or not.
9. Your emotions are valuable for you. Carry on them to build up good environment for you.
10. You must care for the relationship you nurtured for a long period, even if you may have to sacrifice something.

Sometime ago, when I was on a pleasure trip with my wife to the nearby metro city, we went in a restaurant for lunch. As we got the seat, we ordered for the meals. For about fifteen minutes, we had been sitting idle waiting for the stuff while gazing at the door through which the groups of teenagers coming in. All the boys and girls were putting on the similar dresses as per the fashion. Since it was a place nearby a mall, the people preferred to flock in for the meals instead of having some eatables in the mall. Since the management of the restaurant had just announced happy hours to push up the sales, there was good gathering taking meals and having beers. The numbers of bottles were more than the persons around the tables. The waiter brought the meals to our table and we started to enjoy that while talking and looking around simultaneously.

As we were about to finish, we saw a couple coming in through the main gate. The hubby, a smart young person was pushing in a pram with a well covered child. They took the table just in our front. He adjusted the pram in a manner that it faced him. He ordered for some beer and meals. When the stuff came to their table, they started but keeping a vigil over the child. The wife got up and wrapped the child with blanket more carefully and then again started to have the meals. It was an adorable sight one but due to decency we turned our eyes away from it. It was then that my usually reticent, during-meals-only, wife made a cryptic remark, “Both of them are looking at the pram with such a great love and adoration! After thirty years, the father would be in wheelchairs and the son would be enjoying beer without asking and caring for the parents. Will the son then look at his parents with so much fondness?” Obviously, the answer was to be “NO”. Why so? Because our emotional relationship is loosing the sheen slowly and by the time the child grew up, it may become more adverse. It is therefore necessary that we must continue to have our emotional relationship intact so that in near future, we do not feel any desertion.

Make Emotions Work for You in positive terms – you will be happy again.

Be Happy – Strike A Balance Between Health and Wealth

Health is wealth. But in the material world that we live in, we know and understand another reality. Health is a very important aspect of human life. It is very true to say that if health is lost, something is lost. Hence, when we speak about optimal living, this is the first point that we need to tackle.

But people understand health in different ways. For some, the absence of any disease spells good health. For some, health means being able to be fit and capable of performing all their tasks without getting spent. For yet others, good health means living longer. Though there are different ways that you may look at it, good health essentially boils down to one thing – Being able to make your life more productive and hence live a more enriched and optimal life.

If you give it a thought, wealth is an effect of good health, not otherwise. Only when you are healthy can you perform well and earn a better income. Your riches begin to increase as long as you are healthy. In fact, people build their financial securities for their old age, when they will be no longer able to work on account of ill health, right in their younger days. People salt money away for those days in which their health will begin to dwindle. This clearly shows one thing – we need good health to be able to earn money.

A few people have the wrong idea. They think that riches can buy good health. They think that when they have a large amount of money, they can keep diseases away by going for the best curative options possible. But, even the richest people die, don’t they? Health is a great leveler, we all know that but only few of us accept it.

But, as long as we live in the world we are in, we cannot shun the idea of wealth either. The optimal thing to do, therefore, would be to strike a balance between health and wealth. If you are looking at making your life better than what it is now, you have to learn this secret. Here are some things that you must take care of:-

Work For Money,

Don’t overexert yourself. It is all right to do so occasionally, but people who do it all the time never amount to much. They will be able to earn a good amount of money presently because of their doubled efforts, but they won’t be able to do so for long. Sooner or later, their health will begin to fade and they won’t be able to earn their usual steady amount of money too.

Work can take a toll on health in other ways. Socializing with your office friends, for example, could be disastrous to health in the long run. Make sure you know where to draw the line.

However early in the morning you have to begin work, always make sure that you keep at least a half hour for stretching and doing some meditative exercises. This will not just keep you healthy but will also help you do better at work.

Make research on various health plans and choose one for yourself. This is going to be quite beneficial to you sooner than you think.Living optimally means getting closer to the family, not escaping from it. Your Family and Your Life

For a lot of people, the family is the most important institution in their lives. It is an extended part of their lives. It is where they see themselves mirrored and make an impression of themselves. There’s an old saying that says a man is only as happy as his family is, and it is true even today. Any problem with the family is bound to show immediately on us, and hence if you are thinking about optimal living, you cannot ignore the family aspect.

However, society is changing today. We are breaking ties with our close ones even if we are living in the same house. There are many reasons that are fueling this. People are losing the emotional connect they had earlier. Celebratory family dinners, festival gatherings, occasions, all these things are dwindling away. People are bringing their work home and that’s taking them away from their family too.

This is leading to problems such as loneliness, depression, spats within the family members, periods of non-communication between members of the family, etc… each of which can take a serious toll on the lives of everyone involved. So what is the way to ensure you live more fruitfully with your family?

One of the main things you will need here is communication. Whatever the extent of your work is, however busy you are, do make it a point to speak with every member of your family every day. People from India have a great saying here – A family that eats together stays together. This is a distortion of the English saying – A family that prays together stays together. But if you were to think about it, both these sayings are quite apt. Both of them can be quite instrumental in bringing families closer. Make such a routine in your household. You may not pray together, but you can certainly eat together. Switch the television off during these meals. Schedule a fixed time each day. You will find that you exchange much more in these few minutes than you do in your entire day.

Families usually don’t expect much from you. All they want is that you stay responsive to them. They want to know that you are there for them. They may not expect material benefits from you, but they certainly expect the feeling of closeness and warmth that you can give them.

Make sure you give them this. Don’t drift away from your family. Tomorrow, if you happen to be alone, the biggest sorrow you will have will be of moving away from your family.

People who are closer to their families are happier. They are not alone. They can face the trials and tribulations of life together. Even as you try to discover your own individual freedom, try to keep your ties with your family members alive, and that doesn’t mean just the members of your family staying in the house – it refers to everyone that has any kind of familial connection with you.

3 Practical Essentials for Optimal Living – Food, Fun and Exercise

You need to be happy to have an optimal life. Happiness is brought by material things, however temporal that happiness might be.Different things drive different people. Those little joys and delights of life are not universal. Someone may be very happy when they are cooking, while others may be happy when they are listening to a poem by Keats. But, there are three things that cut across all borders of space, time and distance and make everyone happy. These are good food, great fun and playful exercise.

If you are here to create an optimal level for your life, you would find it very difficult to do it without incorporating these three essential elements in your life.

Food

Everyone likes food, though individual tastes might be different. In fact, people who say they don’t like food are lying. They do like food; it is only that they have not yet found what kind of cuisine drives them. It is because everyone loves food that we treat people with it whenever there is any cause célèbre. And this is true in all societies and countries, all over the world.

However, that does not mean you should hog on food. You should not use it as a means of stress-buster. That could have a very damaging effect. If you use food in a therapeutic manner, it could work for the moment, but soon it will raise its head in the form of obesity and the several other health problems that are related with it.

Have great food – visit those restaurants, whip up great recipes in your own kitchen, make a big deal out of it – but in moderation. You will find that great food becomes an essential part of your optimal life.

Fun

Another thing that really raises the happiness levels in people is fun, or you could say, entertainment. You might find perpetual bliss in popping in a DVD and watching it while lying on your couch. Or maybe you like to travel to unknown places. Or probably you just want to curl up and read a paperback. Whatever it is that defines entertainment and recreation for you, use it. Don’t deprive yourself of it just because you have too much work or because you think you don’t deserve to give yourself your bit of fun.

If you keep focus on what you really want to do, such small spells of fun won’t harm you. In fact, they will rejuvenate you and help you work better. Yes, you will meet those deadlines too, provided you don’t go overboard with your entertainment options.

Exercise

Exercise doesn’t always mean pumping iron. Sport is an exercise too, and for most people, sport is an integral part of life. If your life has become so busy that all those childhood games have become nonexistent in it, bring them out again. Join a club and play your favorite sport. Do this once a week if not more. You will soon find that your life has become much more enriched in quality.

What’s best is that you can meet new people who could become your friends. If your friends currently are just the people from work, it is a very sorry state of affairs. If you have to depend only on someone from the family when you have to catch a great movie, you are in a bad state. You need some friends you could hang out with without reservations – friends like the ones you had when you were in high school. Is it possible? Very much! If you are looking for friends, you must know that they are too. It is just about getting together. Sport can do this for you.

You get your entertainment and you also get great friends. Quite undeniably, this is a wonderful aspect of life – don’t downplay it!

Be Happy – Strike A Balance Between Health and Wealth.

Be Happy – How to live a Good Life.

Living a good life means different things to the different people. What does it mean to you? Living luxuriously, being charitable, having good friends or nurturing your home? You can have your priorities. Good life means that you should not envy anyone, you should be spontaneous and keep your life uncluttered from feelings of being envy. You can fall in love whenever you wish – it can ensure happiness all the time. You may try Yoga – it will never fail you.

Work On Yourself

You are responsible for what you are thinking and the person you ultimately are. Work on yourself everyday. Focus on the large picture even as you fulfill your daily responsibilities. I try to make each day rich for myself, starting with prayer in the morning and ending with prayer in the evening. I fill the day with what I love most, that is my work. In between, I fulfill my duties as father and husband. I truly believe that one has to feed one’s own self along with what we owe to others. This constitutes a balanced way of living.

Don’t Take Tension.

Get a good night’s sleep. This requires some efforts. Ensure that there are no unresolved problems, conflicts or negative situations crowding your mind when you hit the pillow at night. Kindly don’t let anything disturb your sleep. There must be no tension. Walk away from the unpleasant situations and people. It would be good for your health. You must prefer to stick only to those people who like you. If you find yourself on fault, don’t hesitate to apologize and move on.

Learn a Skill.

You may have a goal that fires your imagination and makes you feel alive as you pound away at it. It could be learning a skill, getting a qualification, a promotion or your health related goals. Without goals, life becomes directionless and even with all the money and comforts in the world, quite dissatisfying. When the goal is achieved, set a new one. Don’t kill yourself over it but keep making efforts to reach it.

Dance and Sing Without Inhibition.

Listen to your inner voice and stay true to yourself. Trust your judgment and go with your intuition rather than logic sometimes and never compromise on your values and principles. Dance and sing without inhibition that is the best therapy in the world.

Life is about Compassion, Surprise and Wonderment.

Don’t wonder at the purpose of life. Feel grateful to Him for the fact that you are alive to enjoy the pleasures available on the earth. Allow this awareness to enrich every moment of your life. Say that your existence is a highly unlikely event and you are living – it is a surprise and you must achieve the maximum out of it – it can get lost any moment and then you would not be able to accomplish your dreams. You must love your values, your dears and nears

Don’t Retire From Life.

Don’t rest on past laurels. Don’t retire from your life even when you retire officially from your regular work. You must carry on your routine work – don’t awake up at 8A.M. not knowing what to do during the day. After official retirement, you may get a change in your duties but you can replace them with the new ones, more stringent so as to make yourself more busy.

Nurture Your own Garden.

Be creatively occupied in making your house a home and keeping close ties with nature. Rented places can never give you the comfort or security of a home that is yours. Try to get some garden space in your house. Plant your own trees and flower plants. See them grow and blossom. You may cultivate a sense of kinship with them and feel the enjoyment with their fragrance.

The Gift of Giving.

Make charity as a part of your daily routine by giving leftovers to the needy and deserving persons, animals and birds etc. It is the basic principle of the karma in action. You will get back what you give – He witnesses everything. The act of charity may make you feel good if you are doing it sincerely. It may fill you with a sense of detachment with the material possessions. You can start with some smallest amount or something out of your cupboard.

Accept the Bad with Dignity.

Go slow on expectations from others, from the world around you. You must not seat the small or big stuff and take ups and downs in your stride. You should plan but do not become mad for that’s implementation if you see that is going to be beyond your control. You must not get frustrated with the earlier failures – perhaps they may be a guide to you for betterment in your next efforts. Accept with dignity if something goes wrong unexpectedly.

There are many other steps too which you can take to live a good life. Do them as and when you find it comfortable.

Be Happy – How to live a Good Life.

Be Happy – Live Your Life Optimally.

On August 9, 2009, I had submitted my suggestion through this blog to you to live your life fully. You must make all efforts to lead it in positive terms in spite of the fact that at some point of time, we may face some pains, sorrows, set-backs, shocks or whatever you may call it, to divert us to the negative thinking. Why don’t you try to convert the negative happenings into the positive ones with a simple sentence, “Perhaps God might have wished so!” and carry on to live your life fully always?

You remember! On a day when you are bursting with happiness, you had never liked to remember the sordid moments of your life. It is good. But it would be better if during the hours of your sorrows, you must remind yourself that you would again regain your happiness and this is for the time being only.

I may repeat to say that you need a purpose to life only when being alive is not sufficient. Right now, the biggest thing in your life is that you are alive. The stock market going up or down is not the biggest thing, you being alive right now is. Every thing else is secondary. But most people are not aware of it. Something did not happen or did happen – these are the biggest issues for them. The mind is always looking for a purpose because people have not experienced life in full. If your experience of life becomes deeper, your question will disappear: when the process of life becomes absolutely exuberant, it needs no purpose.

We go to work, our purpose may be to make this much money or to take care of this or that. But if you go to a party, what is the purpose? No purpose – you just like to be there. If life became like one big party you would not wonder what the hell its purpose is. You just like to be there. Life does need a purpose; it is a purpose unto itself. It need not lead you on to something else. Just being exuberantly alive is sufficient unto itself. Life does not need a purpose of reaching somewhere. That is the beauty of Creation.

Right now, you have a keyhole vision of life through you sense organs. The sensory perception of different creatures is working in different ways as it is necessary for survival. After some time you wonder what the purpose of life is because you do not see anything in full; this is the nature of sense perception. If I show you this side of my hand, you cannot see the other side of it. This is so about everything. You always see everything in parts. Even if you look at a grain of sand you will look at only one part of it.

All the information that is in your head right now has entered through the five sense organs in bits and pieces. It cannot perceive even a grain of sand in its totality. It perceives everything in parts. If you add the bits you will not get a whole. You will only have bits. No matter how many bits you gather they will never become a whole.

Though life is made in such a way that it does not need a purpose, to encourage people to explore life a little more, we can say that the purpose of life is to know it in its full depth and dimension; otherwise, you will not understand that life does not need a purpose. Once you grasp that you don’t need a purpose, you may give up your self-interests and just to be alive is great.

Now I add up some more reasons to request you to lead your life to the optimum extent – to use the resources to the maximum extent to your benefits. How many people do you know who will state that their lives are optimal? If you look around, you might think that happiness has ceased to exist.

But, if you want to make your life optimal, you have to take things in your own hands. You have to shape your own life. Here is how you can do that, You may start today.

Ascertain What an Optimal Life Is for You.

Is it a life where you get everything you need and want an optimal life? You say that your optimal life is the life which does not have any kind of sorrow. It can not be so if you do not change your aptitude to a positive form. You will have to search out what is positive in every problem and how to get that out to arrive at some solution before that harms you on other scores. If your friend has grown up rich and you did not do so, what is the problem? It can be possible that he might have got some sources which you could not get. Try them to get. You will also be rich. But don’t hurt him. Otherwise, instead of getting rich, you may create an enemy in place of continuing your friendship with him.

Many people speak about their problems in life. In fact, this is one of the hottest topics of conversations. It does not really matter where you meet someone, all it takes is a friendly smile to start pouring out your life’s woes to them. Everyone does the same. The result is that no one really knows how happy one is. Since everyone is talking about their miseries, it does seem that no one around is leading an optimal life.

This is where the problem lies. We think that the term ‘optimal life’ should have a definition. We think that we should be able to peg down someone’s life entirely and say, “Ah, now his is an optimal life!” But it doesn’t happen that way, does it? You might think that someone with a lot of money or someone with a beautiful wife must have an optimal life. But when you get to know them, you begin to see the great big problems that lie behind this exterior façade of theirs and you realize that their life is not all that hunky-dory as you thought it to be.

If everyone were to throw their problems in a pile, and see everyone else’s, they would grab their own right back. It is true. We think the neighbors are always happier than we are. We think they are leading a more optimal life than we are. But if we were really to sit down and make comparisons, quite likely, we would find our problems to be the least.

So, where are we heading with this? The point I want to make here is that our lives are only as optimal as we want them to be. We have it entirely in our hands how beautiful we want to make our lives. If we want to sit and brood that life is toying with us in every way possible, it is. But if we plan to take things in our hands and not let life jerk us around, it will not.

We have to plan just how much control we want to give our lives. An optimal life is a very individualistic thing. For us, an optimal life would be one in which we are completely contented and satisfied with whatever we have. It does not matter whether we are rich or poor – if we are satisfied with what we have, it is an optimal life that we live.

What Do You Need for an Optimal Life?

We can ascertain the criteria of our own optimal life. All we need is the right knowledge on how to do that. The general notion all across the planet is that you have an optimal life if you have everything. However, it is not what you have that matters; it is how happy you can be with whatever you have. A person earning just $500 a month has an optimal life if he can survive wonderfully within that and can save too. But even a millionaire is not living optimally if his debts far outstrip his earnings.

So, you see, optimal living is not about money.

What is it about then? Is this about living happily within our family? In a great measure, it is. We are only as happy as our family lives are. Since optimal living is all about contentment, having a pleasant family life becomes one of the essential things for it.

But, again, there are people who have what one might think is the ideal family life – great wife, great kids, etc. – but may still not be happy. Hence, there are a few more things you would need for optimal living. Money and family do not even begin to scratch the surface actually.

The most important thing you need is actually the way you are. Your perspective, your way of thinking, is much more important in deciding whether you life is optimal. You have to condition yourself into thinking that you are living a great life. When your mental balance is perfectly set, you will find that your life really starts taking a turn for the best.

However, that does not mean you should live in poverty and be happy with it. We need the peripherals – we need the money and the love. These are important ingredients for optimal life, but the realization that these are not the only things should also be had early on. A perfect balance of money, health, family and right mental spirit will help the most in bringing you toward an optimal life. This is what you need to discover.

Be Happy – Live Your Life Optimally.

Be Happy – Eliminate Your Mental Stress.

Some people think that it’s almost impossible to find an outlet while under stress. Most stressed individuals think that doing fun activities will not reduce the effect of problems that they tackle under career, social or personal pressure – which is a very poor way to get cope or rid them of it.

Therapist around the world agree that certain activities like games, sports and art can great affect a stressed persons physical and behavioral problems. Some of them are even employed in stress management clinics and is part of the routine treatment in helping individuals cope with their stress issue.

Mind Games

Since stress will first affect the mental functions of an individual, it is very important to teach the person focus his mind on positive thoughts rather than dwelling on negative ones. Mind games offer an alternative which will allow a stress person to divert this thought patterns to something more productive. These clinics encourage their patients to tackle crossword puzzles and sudoku to help them cope with stress.

Logical functions are put to the test by introducing the Rubik’s Cube, Scrabble, and Bridge, into their curriculum. If you have no plans of visiting these centers to deal with stress, you can easily incorporate these games into your daily routine to give your mind some diversion from problems.

Sports

Engaging in sports is a great way to relieve stress. The physical exercise that your body needs to balance biological and muscular functions can rejuvenate those muscles that are tight due to the effects of stress. Playing sports can also provide an outlet for emotional problems like anxiety, depression, irritation, anger, and so on.

There are two kinds of sports a person can engage on his or her own free time. They can opt for team sports like basketball, soccer or volleyball which provides socializing functions and exercise. Individual sports like badminton, golf and tennis can also be a great help in focusing your mind to win the game rather than feeling useless under all the extra problems.

Workout

A visit to the gym may prove to be beneficial to your emotional, mental and physical health when under the influence of stress. The routine exercise your gym instructor will give you can help your mind focus on the tasks at hand. The strenuous activities can develop your muscles which improves your body’s coping mechanism to stress, and allows the body to release chemicals and hormones that is beneficial to your physiological well-being.


Cardiovascular workout can improve your heart and strengthen it to avoid stress related problems like strokes, high-blood pressure, chest pains and rapid heart beat. Due to the steady circulation in your system will benefit your muscles because of the fresh oxygen supply provided by these hearty fluids.

Note however that working out at the gym needs proper diet as well since your physical attributes will be worked to the limit to help fight off stress. Fresh fruits and vegetables are necessary improves digestion and supplies the body with the required nutrients it needs. Red meat devoid of fat can give your muscles proteins that will strengthen muscle tissues for added flexibility.

A healthy dose of mental activities, physical exercise coupled with a balance diet can help a person avoid the signs and symptom of stress and will be on the road to recovery to a stress free life.

Body Exercises To Dispel Stress

Have you experience aches and pains while you work, or feel tired all of a sudden even before you start with one? Well, this is practically the effect of stress in your body. Most medicals experts agree that stress can be a profound influence in the decline of your normal body functions – tight muscles, migraine, drowsiness, and so on.

Most medical experts agree that a healthy bout of physical exercise can improve your health despite everyday bout of stress due to career, personal or social problems. It’s advisable that you should take some time off from work, or an early good night sleep and wake up early in the morning to engage in some physical exercise.

Physical exercise for stress management

Physical exercise can improve your body’s adaptability to stress. This involves routine movements that will improve your cardiovascular functions and strengthen your heart. This in turn improves the circulation of your blood and other bio-chemicals which your body needs to maintain a good health.

When your muscles are well supplied with oxygen, this will improve muscle integrity which will improve endurance, stamina and flexibility. Also when engaging in physical exercise, you can find an outlet for your mental stress – release your depression, anxiety, anger, fear, and so on by focusing on your workout and sweat it out.

Exercise tips

You must follow certain physical regime for your exercise to have the desired result, simply jogging around the block or lifting some weight will not provide the overall effect of a complete workout. Here are some tips that will start you of in releasing stress through physical exercise:

1. Time.

Before indulging your body to some serious sweating, you must set some time so that you can have an uninterrupted workout. Early morning is the best time for an exercise since the fresh air will help your body get the clean oxygen that it needs to recover from those accumulated stress.

2. Warm-up exercise.

It is very important to engage in light exercise to warm your body up before engaging in heavy-duty workout. By doing some light maneuvers from your feet to head will avoid cramps that will plague you for days.

Start off with some minor stretching. Start of with your ankles, legs, hips, arms and neck. Make sure you do it slow and with set time intervals so your body won’t react negatively. The purpose of the warm-up is to let your body adapt to the work-out that will follow afterwards.

3. Tools of the trade.

If you plan to forgo going to the gym and do your exercise at home, then it is necessary to be prepared for it. Try to purchase some health books that features exercise routines for different parts of your body. If you want to make a habit out of this then you might need to purchase support equipments that will improve your body’s performance.

4. Proper Diet.

Practically the most important facet of the physical exercise regime is your food intake. Make sure that you eat enough so that you’re body won’t get tired from the physical exercise, but not too much to give you those unwanted cholesterols and calories. Stay away from fast food goodies and junk food and stick with healthy fruits and veggies that start you off.

Aside from improving your muscles, you also need to make sure that your organs are in full working order for a perfect stress management.

Be Happy - Eliminate Your Mental Stress.

Be Happy – Keep Yourself Physically and Mentally Fit (Part 8).

The process of improving your life is one that takes time and dedication. Improving your body, your diet, your mind and your lifestyle is a complex process. And, it will mean stumbling along the way.

The best route for you to take is the one that’s most important to you first. Perhaps you need to concentrate on one aspect first such as your diet and then later incorporate your body fitness, your mind fitness and your lifestyle fitness goals.

Your first goal is to make your own goals. What do you want to improve in your health and well being first? Write down your goals and keep them with you and place it throughout the house. Recruit a family member or friend to work with you, too. Improve your life one step, one healthy change at a time and you’ll reach your goals.

The reward is health, a happy life, one that’s full of fitness of your body and your mind and one that’s rewarding to you and to the rest of your family. It is a process worth working for, and soon you will see that isn’t anything worse than brushing your teeth and putting your clothes on each day!

I wish, Your Christmas may sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill, And may the year ahead be full of contentment and joy.

Merry Christmas!

Be Happy – Keep Yourself Physically and Mentally Fit (Part 7).

It is good that you make all the best efforts to keep yourself physically and mentally fit. But still, giving your body the nutrients that it needs to make it through the day is essential to your well being. If you think that you can do this through the foods that you eat, you are probably still missing out.

Today’s foods often do not contain enough of the nutrients that your body needs to be in your best physical shape. While a diet that’s full of nutrient rich food should not be replaced, it sometimes needs additional supplementation to take it to the best level it can be at. But, what do you take? First off, find a good quality multivitamin and take that as directed. Multivitamins are a good starting point because they provide a decent dose of supplements that just about everyone needs. Multivitamins give you what your food doesn’t and they are affordable solutions to your needs.

In addition to this, find out what type of supplements you can take for your individual needs and problems. For example, if you have a need to lose weight, look for supplements that can offer weight loss benefits.

If you have heart problems, problems with gaining weight or other conditions, you can probably find a supplement or several that can address those problems for you. How do you know how much to take? That’s a trickier question. There are two routes to take. First off, realize that doctors don’t always use supplementation in their practices and they may not be educated in prescribing this type of help to you.

First, start by finding a health food store or a vitamin supplier. Quality is very important if you want to see benefits from supplementation. Therefore, make sure that you have a reliable source. These individuals can also help provide you with the information you need regarding improving your conditions.

Another source for information is the web. Finding a reputable website like http://ilifestyle.co/ that offers help for supplementation will help you to increase your overall well being through tackling individualized problems. Again, quality is essential to success here. If you don’t assume that any information that you find is reliable. Get another opinion!

Supplements can help to improve your body’s function because you are giving your body exactly what it needs to do the work right. It’s like always giving your car premium gas and oil to do its job even better!

Financial Concerns

Getting your finances in order doesn’t seem like it would be a lifestyle change for fitness benefits, but it really can be. Just think of the role that money plays in your everyday life. You worry about money and end up facing financial hardships that move into your work life, your home life, your marriage, and even your physical health. Financial fitness isn’t something that we’ll stress for too long here, but it is something to make part of your overall guide to living a long, healthy lifestyle.

As you know, stress causes a wide range of health concerns for your body.

Money is one of the largest causes of stress in people every single day.

• Therefore, when you want to improve your health you need to take into account the fitness of your overall financial life. In the perfect world you should have plenty of money to do what you want to do. But, that’s not always possible. So, to help you, we’ve put together some things that can offer you success when managing your financial outlook even when you are struggling to make ends meet.

• Live within your means. While it’s nice to have what everyone else has, its not going to make your life better to have them. For example, if your neighbors just purchased a new car, you may feel like you need to have one too. But, will having a new car really improve your life? Then it may not be worth the financial risk and cost to own one.

• Don’t use credit. Credit today is used for everything from buying a house or car to buying lunch at McDonald’s. While you may need to use credit for the larger, more expensive purchases, keep as many of your other purchases credit free. This may be hard, but if you stop using credit today and start using cash, you may find yourself with more cash to spend then credit!

• Make a budget with your entire family. It goes without saying that you can’t spend what you have if you don’t know what you have. Each month make a goal of tackling one extra bill to pay it down as much as possible. Give yourself some money to use as you want for entertainment each month too, so that you don’t feel deprived. You are more likely to stick with your budget this way. Include each family member in the making and keeping of the budget!

• Don’t eat out. This isn’t good for your waistline anyway! You can save thousands of dollars each year by eating at home! You’ll cut the pounds off, eat better quality foods and better recipes!

• Getting your finances in check may mean talking with various people including your lenders and financial planners. But, if you didn’t have to pay all of those credit cards each month, how much money would you have in cash to spend? Get to that point and you’ll have immeasurable success throughout all areas of your life, too.

Meditation And Yoga

Some don’t believe meditation can offer them benefits but there is one thing that meditation and yoga can definitely provide to you: the ability to relax.

Yoga is a great tool for both exercise and relaxation. Both meditation and yoga have been shown to provide improvements for those that are in need of stress relief. And, when you learn how to do them effectively, it takes minutes a day to wash away your stresses.

So, how does this fit into your lifestyle fitness plan? It’s simple. You need to spend ten minutes each day, usually before breakfast, quietly meditating or doing yoga. Ten minutes per day is all that it takes to see significant improvement in your overall well being.

When you take into account all the things that you are doing in the morning you may not think you have time. But, again, invest the time for a couple of weeks and you are sure to see the improvements quickly and they will not be such a demanding time taker.

You can learn how to do either meditation or yoga (or both if you like) easily. Some people are familiar with it enough that they can learn how to do is through at home study. It’s often a better solution, though to learn with others through a professional.

Get together with a friend and take a class at your local recreation center or your community college. You’ll find that once you learn the technique you can do the process on your own, easily.

Rewards

How does reward play a role in the life that you live? How do rewards actually help you to improve your lifestyle fitness? It may seem strange to include them here, but the basis is very simple: rewards help to keep you going and they make life worth living. It’s that simple.

In each of the various things that we’ve talked about in this book, there are countless different sacrifices that you’ll have to make. Some small, some large, but each one needs to be met in order to give you an overall well being and healthy lifestyle.

It’s hard to give all of that up, that’s for sure. But, one thing you need to keep in mind is that the struggle isn’t for nothing. You will find rewards at the end of the struggle when you have improved your life and removed the toxins and troubles from it.

Yet, from point A to point B is a long road. To help you through it, dedicate some time to rewarding yourself along the way. For example, if you are working on your physical fitness, give yourself the reward of a day at the spa, a night out on the town or even buy yourself something when you obtain your goal or one of the goals along the way.

While you are dieting, you can reward yourself too, in the same way. Its important not to overdo it with rewards of food that are unhealthy, though. But, you can definitely give yourself a bit of your favorite dessert if you’ve eaten well all week!

When you obtain your goals or the stepping stones to your goals, give yourself a bit of a reward. It makes life a bit sweeter and makes the hard work that you’ve been doing much more successful and worthwhile. Those that reward themselves stick with the program longer and eventually do better in the long run, too!

Be Happy – Keep Yourself Physically and Mentally Fit.

Be Happy – Keep Yourself Physically and Mentally Fit (Part 6).

How Can You Improve?

The first step in fighting the way that food makes you feel, though, is to recognize that there is a connection between the way that you feel and the way that you eat. Realizing this makes a large difference in improving both your physical fitness and your mind’s fitness.

How can you improve your mind’s fitness? There are many great ways to make this happen. Remember when I said this fitness plan was going to be fun? Here there are many great ways to improve your emotional and mental fitness through fun methods.

Each aspect is unique in itself and in the way that it will help to improve both your physical fitness and your quality of life. Incorporate as many of these things into your life as you can, and you’ll see differences in the way that you feel and the way that you see the world.

Your Self Esteem

We’ll tackle one of the hardest things to improve right from the beginning: your self esteem. A healthy self esteem is one that’s confident but not overly macho. You should be able to feel confident in the decisions that you make and in the way that your life is moving. Confidence is built on many things including the fact that you have to realize that you do have weaknesses and you do have limits to your abilities. Accept those, work on improving them if you can and then do the best job that you can overall.

In addition, learn how to accept compliments and to take criticism. Getting down on yourself because someone doesn’t like the job you did isn’t okay.

Although challenging, you need to be able to say, “Hey, I did a good job!” You also need to recognize when it wasn’t your best work and realize that it’s okay not to be perfect 100 percent of the time. Learn to take criticism positively. If your boss says that the job wasn’t good enough, ask what you could have improved on for next time. Then, you set yourself up for success rather than a pint of ice cream!

One way to improve the way that you look and feel about yourself is to take care of your outward appearance. Those that dress well, take care of the way that they look and those that do things for themselves are the most confident people out there. Just putting on a beautiful outfit can make you feel good about yourself.

Build A Social Network

A social network is a very important to your well being, both physically and mentally. Those that have people around them to support them do well in many more aspects of their lives. Let’s face, its fun to have people around too! But, how can you build a social network of people that you can rely on?

Make time for those that you already have. Don’t assume that they will always be there when you need them, even when you don’t pay attention to them otherwise. You should always strive for a lifestyle that’s positive with those in your family and your friends. That means taking on the challenges that come up between people, working through them and then letting them go.

Relationships take time and work. If you are married, that relationship alone will be one that you have to work on. Realizing that you aren’t always right and making sacrifices for those that need you to can be an important and difficult risk you have to take.

Commit to going out and having fun, whatever way is fun to you, at least one time per week. Getting away or even just finding time to play a board game is essential. This allows your mind to repair damage and it allows you to improve your network of friends.

Don’t take friends for granted because they won’t be there when you need them the most. In part of that comes the fact that if you want to have family and friends you need to be a friend, too. Giving others support helps them to accomplish their life’s needs and it gives you a sense of gratification. You’ll feel good about life and your social network.

Managing Stress

Its not easy job, but you have to do it! Stress is one of the largest problems in health today. Stress affects your ability to function properly. It hinders you throughout your life by causing unhealthy living situations, physical risks and puts your entire well being at risk for emotional breakdown.

To help remedy stress, there are many things that you can do. For starters, find an outlet. You need to find something that you love to do. A hobby, a physical activity, or some other thing that really brings you happiness is necessary to have. By doing that activity even after a long and stressful day it can offer you improvement in your health and well being, by relieving stress.

If the situations that you are in provide you with high levels of stress, it is important for you to find solutions to those problems. You need an effective manor for relieving stress and if you can’t do so by solving the problem or by letting go of the stress you need to remove yourself from such situations. Stress that is ongoing without any real stopping is a large health risk!

Brain Power!

To improve mental fitness, use your brain power! You don’t have to do any type of exercise with your brain physically of course, but mentally you do! For starters, always keep yourself learning. Learning new things keeps the mind active and that means health. Someone that is learning new things that interests them is likely to continue to having a mental state that’s positive and motivated.

You should also use challenges to help power you through your day and your life. Giving yourself the ability to overcome challenges from puzzles to problems in life (yours or others) can help to keep your brain working. Asking questions, getting the answers and working at it helps to improve the brain’s function, allowing you to fend off Alzheimer’s and other conditions like it.

Your Overall Mental Fitness Plan

So, now you have it! You know what to do to make your lifestyle improved through these changes. Here’s a quick look at the changes that you can make today that will increase your mind’s power later and throughout your life.

1. Improve your stress levels and see physical, mental and emotional benefits right away.
2. Improve your social network to reduce stress and to improve your quality of life. It also helps to make it through difficult times when you have someone by your side.
3. Improve your brain’s fitness by challenging it through new adventures, continuous learning and through challenges of all types.
4. Do things that are enjoyable to you. If you can’t think of anything, learn something new. New adventures coupled with doing them with those that you love make life better and help to improve your mental fitness.
5. Keep your self esteem positive. Working on this is hard, but feeling good about yourself is a must for overall health.

By doing these things it will significantly improve the fitness that your mind has physically and emotionally. The good news is that you can change the outcome of your day by just making the right decisions on the way to look at challenges during the day. Make changes like these today and see results today.

Lifestyle Fitness, You Are What You Do, Too

Your lifestyle is the way that you live your life. Although each of these other elements is very important parts of your lifestyle, they are not everything. Each decision you make throughout the course of the day plays a role in your fitness.

Each of these lifestyle considerations is important and each offers a unique spin on the quality of life you will lead. Improve them, and physical fitness increases.

Smoking, Drinking And Drugs

Each of those three things, smoking, drinking and drugs, is a problem for your health and your ability to make it through the life you have. You probably already know the risks of what these things can do to your life, but you may not realize the extent at which it takes to improve them.

For example, smoking will eat away at your lungs and will cause cancer. There are no ifs about it. It will cause cancer eventually in your lungs. But, smoking is something that you can stop, even if it is one of the hardest things you will have to do. To improve your fitness, find a proven method to stop smoking and do it. You will find that your health increases, your energy increases, your stress levels DO go down and you can feel better about the life you are living.

When you quit early enough, your body can repair the damage that you have done to your lungs. This can only happen if you stop soon enough, though. Drinking and drugs are just as bad. Each time that you consume too much alcohol that makes you drunk or you take illegal drugs, you destroy your body slowly and methodically.

You kill brain cells, you put your life at risk and you destroy the organs in your body. Some damage can be fixed through healing over time, others can’t. To improve your lifestyle and to extend your life, you need to remove these problems from it. Smoking and drugs are simply a no no. Drinking alcohol isn’t nearly as bad for you when you drink it in moderation and only when you are drinking low concentrations of alcohol such as in wine rather than in hard liquor or beer.

Sleep

Do you sleep? No, we mean actually lying down and sleeping for 7 to 9 hours per night? Do you wake up rested? If not, then you aren’t getting the right amount of sleep for health. Your lifestyle fitness requires that you get quality sleep each night.

Why is sleep so important? There are actually several reasons. For one, sleep is the body’s time to relax and to recoup what it’s done all day. You need this time for your mind to. It’s the way that your mind works through problems. It’s the time that your body heals from the exertions of the day.

It’s a time to restart, refresh and give yourself the best chance at improving tomorrow. Those that don’t get enough sleep are not capable of performing at their best physical or mental level. They aren’t able to improve the level at which they can function and they make bad mistakes. Stress hurts more, physical ailments hinder you more when you don’t get enough sleep.

If you are having problems with sleeping, there are many ways that you can overcome insomnia.

1. Reducing stress levels during the day is helpful as is working out the stresses that you can’t get rid of.
2. Try to go to sleep at the same time everyday and give yourself as much time as necessary to feel rested.
3. Don’t do stimulating things before bed such as watching television or working on a project.
4. Don’t eat before bed, at least two hours beforehand.

If you are facing problems with insomnia or are struggling to get to sleep, talk to your doctor about it. There may be an underlying medical condition that could be causing it. While it used to be that there were only sleeping medications that were addicting, today there are many that are not like that which can offer you a night’s rest. Don’t use these unless your doctor has prescribed them for you.

Be Happy - Keep Yourself Physically and Mentally Fit.