Be Happy – Change Your Attitude

Sometime, we feel depressed with the happenings around us. It appears that somebody is doing something wrong with us or we are somewhere wrong. We try to find out the reason. But we get confused, perhaps due to our pre-biased thinking. That is why we feel that everything is not happening in our favour. We are doing our best. We are putting in hard work. We are trying to get knowledge about the job from every corner. We love our work – we feel that in the past, in our various jobs, luck had been to our side and this time too, it must be on our side. We have sufficient money invested and further, we can invest without any problem. We don’t lack leadership to handle our staff and our colleagues. But we are not able to get the success. Why so?

We tried our best to find out the cause of our depression but could not be able to ascertain why we did not get the success as we desired. Once I got the same problem, then one of good friends felt it and told that for an effective solution of the problem, we needed to make some changes in our working strategy. She made us convinced that somewhere we were wrong. She gave us a simple solution which I would like to share here.

She asked me to write down alphabet of English from A to Z and under each alphabet, I should allot the placement value like 1 to A, 2 to B, 3 to C and the like. Her advice would figure out as below:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26

Then she asked me to make an equation each for the options we adopted for solution of our problem like Hard work, Knowledge, love, luck, money, leadership etc., by adopting the placement value for each letter of our options. It may come up as below:

H

A

R

D

W

O

R

K

8

+

1

+

18

+

4

+

23

+

15

+

18

+

11

=

98

To achieve any goal, all of us have to put in hard work. We know that to begin a job, put it on line and finish it properly takes a lot of hard work but it scores 98 out of 100.

K

N

O

W

L

E

D

G

E

11

+

14

+

15

+

23

+

12

+

5

+

4

+

7

+

5

=

96

Gaining knowledge of the job to be undertaken plays an important role but it too secures 98 marks out of 100. It means it is not complete in itself to achieve the success.

L		O		V		E
12	+	15	+	22	+	5	=	54

If you undertake any job, you need to love that job. Otherwise you won’t be successful. But alone, it is not helpful to ensure success.

L		U		C		K
12	+	21	+	3	+	11	=	47

Many of us blame our luck for un-successes in our jobs. But it does not play such a major role in getting us the success.

M		O		N		E		Y
13	+	15	+	14	+	5	+	25	=	72

It is true that in every venture, we need to invest some money whether that is initial start towards equity capital, or that is required for back-up expenses for the professionals. Money is something important but not everything for your success. You need a little more to be successful.

L

E

A

D

E

R

S

H

I

P

12

+

5

+

1

+

4

+

5

+

18

+

19

+

8

+

9

+

16

=

97

Leadership plays a vital role in your success. It enables you to use other people’s time, their abilities and money for accomplishing your job. You can inspire them, you can promote them and you can lead them. But sometime, it does not help you fully. In its perfect working, it scores 97 marks out of 100.

A

T

T

I

T

U

D

E

1

+

20

+

20

+

9

+

20

+

21

+

4

+

5

=

100

Yes, it is your attitude. If you get your attitude positive, you are sure to get success in any job you take up. A little change in your attitude can make miracle in your working. Just you make out that you are to win and make your attitude like it, your approach to undertaking hardwork, gaining knowledge, your love, your luck, your financial investment and your leadership would also undergo a drastic change and you would achieve the success.

Change your attitude and be happy.

Be Happy – Get rid of ill-thoughts

Believe me, our emotional attachment to the materialistic things is the cause of our ill-thoughts. The world would be free of trouble if there were no attachment to the materialistic things. Without attachment, you can’t be jealous. Greed comes because you object too much. Anger is because you love perfection and imperfections anger you. You love yourself too much and that’s why many times you become arrogant also in case you feel someone hurting you emotionally.

It is also true that it is not love as such but the distortion of love that causes problems, because life will have no meaning without love. Suppose you are immensely successful and have all the riches at your command but love is missing from your life, you will feel depressed. Life will not really be worthwhile; it would appear dry and barren if there is no love from any corner you are expecting to get. All we really long for in life is love; a non-selfish love. The purpose in life is to blossom in that ideal love.

Here, the question how you get to that point of love where it is free from distortions and you are at ease with yourself is more important. You need love with understanding that it is your ego that’s obstructing you from innocent love. Ego is like a real dream, you can not call it unreal because you experience it very frequently in your life. To be egoistic is to be unnatural. The ego is not a substance; it is a non-substance like darkness. Darkness is only lack of light or absence of light. You could say ego is just absence of maturity or the lack of knowledge. Knowledge is an aid to develop your innermost state, which is love. Love is a state of being rather than an act. We are all made up of love. When the mind is in the present moment, we are in a state of love. So live in the present moment.

If everything is God and all is love, then where is life heading to? Life is heading towards perfection. You look for perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections. There are three kinds of perfection: perfection in action, in speech and in feelings. Suppose someone makes a mistake and when you see that you get angry, you must assume that you are no better than the person who has made the mistake. Your feelings have become imperfect because of someone’s imperfection in action, because you did not go to the root of the wrong and expressed your anger. When the feeling becomes imperfect, it stays for a longer period. You need to rectify your feelings first. You need to get rid of your ill-thoughts; you can achieve true love. You can also commit the same mistake, you might have committed the same mistake or like in the past. Since you had got the experience of the consequences, you are angry. If you see that the history has repeated because that person did not have the past experience, you will definitely console yourself and feel relaxed.

You know, every individual is bestowed with all the virtues. They simply get covered by lack of understanding and stress. Just uncover the virtues that are already there.

Handling the mind directly is difficult. Our mind is like a pot that is turned upside down. When we were born, the pot came first with the neck upright. The whole purpose of life is to stand up, turn the pot upside down and empty it. But the pot is filled with something very sticky; though it is standing upside down, it doesn’t get empty. For this you will have to try yourself and get your mind rid of ill-thoughts and you would be happy. Be happy and get rid of ill-thoughts.

Be Happy – Be playful.

The present day civilization has been learning continuously since its advent. It attempts upon new and newer discoveries and inventions for the increase of its comforts. To know is the first step towards transformation. To know and not act on what we know is equal to not knowing. So action is the next step for improvement and, for survival too. The civilization is taking action for further improvement.

In process of attempting upon new discoveries and inventions, we have to learn to be in harmony, not in conflict. We continue to take action and when we find that our new inventions and discoveries are going to contradict our earlier results, we try to improve ourselves and maintain harmony. Sorrow exists when we expect things, which are momentary in nature, to be permanent. This illusion leads to sorrow. To let go of the sorrow involves letting go of one’s notion of things as being permanent.

We must admit that God made impermanence of the material things as a flow of change. To be with change and letting go of the old ones would be in harmony of the nature and would reduce our sorrow even when someone, very much beloved to us, departs from this world. We will have to change the methods of our measurements. Every material thing has got individual life span and after expiry of that span, that goes away. The essence of life is change but ignorance does not accept this fact. It prefers to remain in illusion. Hence, we experiences sorrow. All that is needed is to raise the level of awareness and see the truth in what is.

Actually, we are not the body but an observer, a witness. The body is constantly changing. We will have to find out the beauty and freshness in change without any resistance. We must learn to be in harmony with it to enjoy the change. We need to drop the myth that things are static. Our mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts and that bundle is also always under change. Thoughts are like clouds. We are just like the sky, to witness. Thoughts come and go but we are just an onlooker. We can not keep a thought for ever in our memory. It will get lost as soon it gets an opportunity for replacement by another valuable thought.

To be happy, we need to enjoy and play by practising being a witness. It is not an easy job because we get identified. Identification becomes a pattern habit. We need to change this habit to not being identified. Identification is the result of the negative energies in us. We call them toxins in our beings due to wrong thinking or living. We need Just to intend thinking or living and drop these toxins, these identifications. The power of genuine intention is great. Intention is the mother of all creativity.

In course of time, our society has sown the myth that it is the prerogative of children to be playful. As we grow up, there exists an accomplishment need in an individual. Society perceives that in the fulfilment of the accomplishment need, playfulness is an obstacle. Hence, one needs to be serious. To fulfil an accomplishment need, all that is required is commitment and not seriousness. Therefore, playfulness is impressed upon us as something bad. The wise approach is in being committed and still being sincere. You will experience lightness in life. Your life will have more spiritual light if you are playful. If you take your sorrows sportingly thinking that they came to you due to some fault on your end and you will improve, you would not feel hurt any longer. There is a deep sense of ‘let go’. Let go is learning to surrender to the flow of life. One has to ultimately let go on one’s ego. When you are serious, you are in tension. Tension is the breath of your ego. When you are playful, you are relaxed. Relaxation is a part of being spiritual. Enlightenment is never in the future, it is always in the present. To be playful, one has to be in the present. Hence being playful is an important door to spirituality.

It is not opposed to being spiritual. If you stop only at physical pleasures, then you are limiting yourself. You have to go beyond to learn to go into the state of being beyond mind. We need to take every thing sportingly and live our life playful. We would be happy again.

Be Happy - Learn to Ignore Bad Things

It is a truth that in response to each of our acts, there are either material rewards or spiritual rewards, if we take the whole scenario in positive terms. Neutrally, we can term that every action has a reaction that can be beneficial or harmful to us, directly or indirectly, immediately or later on. Sometime, we feel emotionally depressed in awaiting of the results of our action – some excitement comes over when we get positive results and we may get depressed more if the results are negative. When we get negative results, we never tend to think that somewhere we did not do appropriately to achieve success.

We may think to try to live by our free-flying emotion that allows us clarity and energy to work without self-interest. Since there are either material rewards or spiritual rewards for each action– you cannot have both. You must do different things and take different paths to acquire each. Sometime we function in the almost robotic way. What’s the reason to continue a relationship or a venture when there is no emotion or heart in it? If there is no emotion, there is no use of following. If you live your emotional life successful, it can add up to your life span considerably. But do not get emotional excessively with any particular issue – maybe that issue is irrelevant for you but for other, that may not have. You must try to keep a balance there too. One has to realise when to move on… when to let go. It’s best to live life as an honest free spirit and challenge those who infringe upon my joy. The conundrum of modern-day life has robbed us of compassion… we’ve been drained of love and humility. It’s good to remember that life is so easily destroyed, if we are not careful. We must learn to ignore bad things as early as possible to restore ourselves for better achievements.

Not Satisfied, sorrow, hate – these are the mind’s creations. You don’t need to sever your connection with the world, if you feel let down. To tackle that, it’s essential that you lead a normal life while trying to find out the root cause of the unsatisfied mind, your sorrows and your hate. This approach is both realistic and practical, and guarantees an answer to most of your deep-seated problems. You must learn to ignore bad things, firstly by going through the reasons of their occurrence and secondly, taking precautions not to let that repeat again.

Be Happy – Destiny Is Your Own Creation

Believe me, your destiny is your own creation. It must not be construed as a curse on humankind. One version of interpreting is directly correlated to your own acts. Your own attitude, your own approach towards life and values decide your destiny. The cumulative factor precedent to actions creates the agony and ecstasy of life.

We must look at the monotonous realities of life as they unfold. The pattern changes, for better or for worse. No circumstance lasts forever. If you do resistance to the change, it will only aggravate misery. Instead, you must try to live through the experience.

I am sure, if you wish to practise virtue, you need not be a saint.. Mere awareness of what is right and wrong would do you good. Kindly perform actions without expectations. Actions performed to achieve good bring joy and happiness.

No one is capable of absolute evil. Good always triumphs over evil. Many a time we come across people doing harm to society but they spend inconspicuously on charitable causes to get over the guilt. Sometime, mind over matter dictates the truth. Generally you accept unconditional thinking and filter the undesirable. You may therefore practise virtue and pursue virtuous deeds. One cannot escape destiny, we need to understand it as it presents itself.

Every moment in life poses its own opportunity to be experienced. What is important is not how you struggled but how you reconciled and won. The ability to continue in the circumstance is divine. In the pursuit of finding you own destiny, you could change its course by exercising control with better judgment. Common sense could help us chart our future course. By perpetually surrendering to the state of purity you can change your destiny. Destiny is amenable to thought and right action. We only need to subtly understand our limitations and practise humility.

The turmoil within is only momentary; as time passes what you have construed earlier will fall off like dry leaves. God created us with a purpose. We need to understand the values and gifts He has showered upon us. However, he does not believe in orchestrating our entire life.

Destiny is what we do to fight against vice and temptation. If the perception of destiny is misunderstood, and we resign ourselves to it, not paying heed to of how we can better our lives, thinking that it is totally a predestined issue – we are wrong. If we condemn ourselves to suffer and feel damned, the existence of whatever good has no meaning. It is not by reprimand alone that one learns the truth. One can overcome the impediments by devotion and prayer. If a conscious mind with clear intentions evaluates right and wrong, it can overcome.

Destiny is your choice. If you do honest application and focused action you can assure tangible achievements. It is the passion and commitment to the purpose that uplifts. We must uphold values of higher planes to overcome deficiencies and inadequacies. We need to constantly upgrade and resurrect thoughts and better ourselves, may be to transcend and live again in a superior world free from the cycle of birth and death, for which we need to be prepared.

Hence, be happy, destiny is your own creation. None else imposes upon you.

Be Happy – Put Off Your Hang-Ups

As you will also observe, you do not feel easy to keep yourself concentrated on the job standing before you to you’re your immediate attention because that particular job is on your priority list but has emerged out due to some unexpected developments. It is a Hang-Up. When you are doing any work or required to attempt upon, do not think of anything beyond. You need to do it. Take that job as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being. For being happy, you need to adopt this approach in every walk of your life.

Whatever our sphere of work or place in the hierarchy, a very few among us would describe our jobs as being easy. Preoccupied with what we have to do from one workday to another, we have little time to reflect on whether we have got to know the justification of our working so haphazardly. When agonising over right and wrong; when choosing the easy compromise over a more complicated but possibly better option, The suggested approach can act as a benchmark. He who is overcautious about himself faces danger at every step; he who is afraid of losing honour and respect gets only disgrace; he who is afraid or loss, always loses. Overcoming the fear of losing, not worrying incessantly about what other may think of you, try to work for work’s sake.

We need to avoid looking wistfully, or with bitterness at what other jobs may seem more relevant and rewarding roles than your own. No man can long occupy a position for which he is not fit. By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger, and improving our strength in this manner, we may reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted duties.Surely, you’ll get what you deserve, no that you desire; so work primarily to change in your approach from what you desire to what you deserve and the rest will follow. You need to be neither submissiveness nor envy.

A calm perspective yields contentment as opposed to the feeling of dissatisfaction that often overwhelms us at work. We find ourselves in the position for which we are fit, and if one has some capacity above another, the world will find that to be placed above us. We are ourselves. We determine what our duties are to a much larger extent than we are willing envy, and kill the kindliness of the heart, kill the right direction..

In the course of moving up the professional ladder, you are tempted to agree more with yourself. Then comes the inclination to bring others into your fold, and convert them to your point of view. For that, we need first to form character, and results will come of themselves. We should not be in hurry to give our thoughts to others. We need first to have something to give! We should try to know Truth for ourselves, and there will be many to whom you can teach it afterwards; they will all come.

We first need to improve on what we have to give, and not hasten to teach or preach, believing we have learnt enough. If we hone our skills and build our character, those who wish to acquire them from us will come at their own accord; we need not rush to act as dispensers of wisdom. Let’s make a beginning by improving ourselves first. Let’s make a beginning by putting off our hang-ups and be happy.

Be Happy – You can also be lucky.

It can be a strange question why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune? I understand that you too have met such people from time to time. Some of them might be utterly disappointed and some of them could be happy. And the rest might be having mixed feelings. Here, we feel concerned with first two types of persons – grossly lucky or unlucky as they may tend to feel about themselves. One segment is fully disappointed and other one is happy with the achievements.

If you try to monitor their working closely, I feel that you will certainly find that some people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. Lucky people consistently encounter good opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.

I believe, opportunities are available to all – their shape and occurrence can be different from person to person. It is the differences in the individual’s ability to spot such opportunities. If you give both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and ask them to look through it and tell you how many photographs are inside. I am sure that the unlucky folk may concentrate on many things at a single time to explore out various opportunities and in result, they may not be able to attend a single one with full devotion. In process, they may miss the most valuable ones, whereas the lucky person may go through the paper more deeply and find out the most valuable opportunity and perhaps, he may not pay much attention to count the photographs as be desired by you. It is his approach to encash the opportunity which is more valuable.

You may also feel that unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. They generate good fortune. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, and create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. If you too wish to become lucky, you may like to

i. Listen to your gut instincts -- they are normally right.

ii. Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine.

iii. Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well.

iv. Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call.

Be happy and have a Lucky day to work for it.

I assure you that the happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect and make them favorable by their strenuous and optimistic working- they work and work without caring what the other people will say – they fix up their targets at the early stage and work for them.

Be Happy – Enjoy zero-calorie diet

We all are aware that we gain extra weight with excess calorie. Sometime, we use some stuff having more calorie but that stuff takes less calorie to get digested and hence leaving behind some calorie in our bodies. To make a balanced diet, we may prefer or zero calorie diet from time to time.

Do you know? water is a Zero calorie nutrient, a full cup of tea is also zero in caloric content. But, since they are beverages, they can’t take the place of solid food. There are foods that call for extra calories when being digested. So, in effect, they become zero-calorie foods. We may keep in mind that they have this negative calorie effect only when they are consumed without extras like fats or sugar.

Further, if we consume a generous wedge of Mocca Gateaux at a five-star buffet, it has around 400 calories. To digest this, our body requires only about 150 calories. So, about 250 calories are added to our body fat! On the other hand, if we munch on a stick of celery it has only five calories. Our body may require 150 calories to digest it, resulting in a net loss of 145 calories. This doesn’t mean that the more you consume such foods, the more weight you lose. Anything in excess is harmful. We need to have balanced diet.

Meat and eggs don’t fall under zero-calorie food. We must select those foods which involve a lot of chewing as your body burns more calories than are consumed while chewing, digesting, metabolising and eliminating. So, we should prefer a celery stick, rather than a celery soup. Similarly, we should opt for whole fruits rather than fruit juices. Fruits and vegetables that are high on moisture and fibre. It’s a well-established fact that the extra bulk from fibre helps us feel fuller longer, staving off hunger pangs and helping us lose weight. Fruits and vegetables taken raw provide essential fibre, moisture, vitamins and minerals to our daily diet. In fact, vitamins stimulate the tissues to produce enzymes that break down the caloric nutrients of the foods.

We must prefer raw food, without any compartmentalization and food measures instead. All of us are products of nature and nurture. Nature remains the same, but nurturing has changed, which includes what we eat. We should take raw fruits and vegetables, after proper washing and dust removing, flavored with herbs and spice, add nuts, dried fruits and sprouts if you like, and you have a potent recipe, whenever hungry. Even those who prefer their meals cooked can make healthy adjustments. In your favorite sandwich, include lettuce leaves and thick tomato fillings. Start with a fruit bowl and salad spread before proceeding onto you main meal. Opt for fruits in your desserts. Before you know it, you may be hovering somewhere close to size zero! This way, you will enjoy not only your meals but can maintain your health too. Be happy – enjoy zero calorie diets.

Be Happy – Enjoy Your Life Fully

It happens almost with every one of us that when we are enjoying it or bursting with happiness, we do not ask ourselves what is the purpose of our life. No. Only when we get a little bit of some trouble, we do it. We need a purpose to life only when being alive is not sufficient. Right now, the biggest thing in our life is that we must keep ourselves alive. The stock market going up or down is not the biggest thing as much is important our own health and/or existence. 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 of doing something. When we go to work, our purpose is to make this much money or to take care of this or that. But if we go to a party, we just like to be there. If life became like one big party we would not wonder what the hell its purpose is. We just like to be there. We would like to enhance our social network by meeting a number of persons whom we could not contact earlier and incidentally they are there. We are again tense. We intend to enjoy the party but we keep some purpose in our sub-consciousness. But exactly life does not need a purpose; it is a purpose unto itself. It need not lead us 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, we have a keyhole vision of life through our sense organs. The sensory perception of different creatures is working in different ways as it is necessary for survival. After some time we wonder what the purpose of life is because we do not see anything in full; this is the nature of sense perception.If you show one side of your hand, I cannot see the other side of it. This is so about everything. We always see everything in parts. Even if we look at a grain of sand we will look at only one part of it.

All the information that is in our 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 we add the bits we will get 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. Keep your activities continued - do them with positive notion for the sake of society, for the sake of self and for the sake of the needy. Once you grasp that you don’t need a purpose, just to be alive fruitfully is great.

Be Happy – Enjoy Your Life Fully

Be Happy – Keep Hope

Once, in a room, there were four candles working together-burning slowly.The ambiance was so soft you could hear them talking.

The first one said: “I am peace. However, nobody can keep me late. I believe I will go out soon”. Its flame rapidly diminishes and goes out completely.

The second one says: “I am faith! Most of all, I am no longer indispensable, so it doesn’t make any sense that I stay lit any longer.” When it finished talking, a breeze softly blew on it putting it out.

Sadly, the third candle spoke in its turn: “I am Love! I have not got the strength to stay lit. People put me aside and don’t understand my importance. They even forget to love those who are nearest to them due to their specific greed.” And waiting no longer it goes out.

Suddenly…..A child enters the room and sees three candles not burning. “Why are you not burning? You are supposed to stay lit till your end.” Then, the fourth candle said: “Don’t be afraid, while I am still burning. We can re-light the other candles, I am hope!” With shining eyes, the child took the candle of hope and lit the other candles. The flame of hope should never go out from our lives and that each of us can maintain Hope, Faith, Peace and Love!!!

Be Happy – restore your hope to bring about faith, peace and love.

Be Happy – Kick the Butt

Do you know? Smokers live an average of 15 years less than non-smokers and agricultural land in poor countries is being used increasingly for tobacco as observed in the third edition of The Tobacco Atlas brought out by the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation. John Seeffrin of the American Cancer Society says, “Tobacco is the only consumer product that harms every person exposed to it and kills half of its regular users. Approximately 650 million smokers are alive today – 10% of the current world population – will eventually succumb to tobacco-related disease.

The risk of dying from lung cancer is more than 23 times higher among men who smoke cigarettes and about 13 times higher among women smokers, when compared with non-smokers. Tobacco causes up to 90% of lung cancer cases and is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke. It is silent killer too. Exposure to second-hand smoke kills 2,00,000 workers every year and at home, it kills thousands of infants, children, foetuses and adults. The passive effects increase their risk of getting heart disease by 25 to 30% and lung cancer by at least 20 to 30%. In spite of these facts, global tobacco production has almost doubled since the 60s increasing 300% in low and middle resource countries while dropping over 50% in developed countries. In 2006, world tobacco production totalled nearly 7 million metric tonnes, with 85% of the toxic leaf grown in underdeveloped countries. Tobacco is grown in more than 120 countries on almost million hectares of agricultural land, as much land as the world’s banana plantations. It is welcoming fact that higher educated men are abandoning tobacco addiction but poorer and less educated men are still pursuing.

The facts cumulatively make us aware how much this addiction costs us. We need to kick the butt. All over the world, we need to propound the concept of creating a smoke-free environment. We need to explore out innovative ways to fight against the rampant problem of nicotine addiction. To lessen the passive affects of smoking, we need to enforce ban over it at public places. Mere issuance of orders for the ban does not do the job unless there are some personnel out for penalizing heavily the offending persons because the addiction to the nicotine is so much that the people do not mind paying a small fine if the offence is noticed ever. A number of Governments have promulgated various laws to combat this social illness but they are not being implemented so stringently perhaps due to counter pressure being created by the tobacco companies. It appears that the people need to be told that the tobacco industry is manipulating and duping them through heavy investment on the advertisements that proclaim glamour, sex appeal and athletic ability, whereas these products do opposite. Once they realize, the tobacco use may decline drastically. Particularly youngsters are required to be made aware that the addiction of nicotine in any shape would show its bad effects when they cross 40^th year of their age when they would be more near to the ill-fated diseases like cancer. They may lead to acne, impotence and other more serious consequences. The pollutants created with the use of tobacco directly enter the lungs to damage our respiratory system and increase heart problem.

It has been emphatically noticed that it is not difficult to kick the butt in case we develop strong determination to do so. We must do it to remain happy. We may give up but slowly and slowly. We should commit to ourselves that their quantity of use will not go up once that is reduced.

Be Happy – Take A Short Break From High Techs

With advancement in civilization, man has been striving his best to get new and newer facilities and means to make his life more comfortable and today, it has reached to that stage where on an average he won’t like to conceive his smooth life without them. But some of the inventions made in this direction have, in course of time, developed a number of side effects too on the life. Water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, soil pollution, global warming and many other occurrences do not make us feel happier. We are using our irredeemable resources irrationally bringing ourselves to the brink of any collapse any day. We are living a life, full of fears too. The happiness we feel with our inventions is actually not a real one. We have gradually lost our attachment with nature, with our relatives, our neighbors; we are getting more concerned with our own materialistic targets and achievements.

Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are urging their followers to go on a high-tech fast switching off modern appliances like cars to iPods until Easter. Some suggested to have no-meat Fridays and five weeks period devoted to prayers. This way, the Church has rightly focused on the bad effects of the high-techniques on the life and if we take a short break, it may help us to reduce the effect to some extent. For a few decades, we are avoiding our personal meetings with our near relatives – we have reduced our social meetings; we are just working with our tele communication systems. The warmth of our relationship is depreciating day by day. Their appeal is expected to help us to restore that warmth to some extent if we visit our relatives with shorter intervals, we apply some breaks to our polluting habits, we come near to nature, we nourish ourselves with vegetables and fruits only for some time in a week, a fortnight or a month whatever initially it suits to us. Once we determine, we can increase the frequency or period. It would be better for us and the public around to a larger extent. Be Happy – take a short break from High Techniques.

Be Happy - Share Your Life

Once the revered founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak Dev Ji went to a village accompanied by his Muslim companion, Mardana. The people of the village were rude and did not offer any food or shelter to them. They spent a night there. The next morning while leaving, Guru Ji blessed them with the words: “May you stay here only and prosper.” They visited another village where people were very kind and hospitable. Guru Nanak blessed them saying “May you disperse and move to different directions.”
Mardana was surprised and asked him to explain. Guru Nanak replied: “this is for the welfare of mankind, O Mardana. The inhabitants of the first village would spread only bad habits and make others do bad deeds. So they should remain in their village only. On the contrary, wherever the people of the other village would go, they would propagate only good deeds. It is, therefore, desirable that they should disperse and make others also adopt the path of goodness.”
In Sikhism, sangat or companionship of good people holds the key to salvation. Sat sangat refers to an assembly of devotees who participate in religious activities, especially in the presence of guru Granth Sahib. Prayer in sangat is spiritually more elevating than isolated religious practice. Guru Arjun explained: “As one lost in a thick jungle rediscovers one’s path, so will one be enlightened in the company of the holy”.
Congregational singing is considered not only essential for an individual’s spiritual progress; it also makes the person a better human being as the seeker learns the act of seva or service, either preparing and serving food in langar, taking care of the sangat’s footwear and cleansing utensils, for instance. Guru Nanak would say that sat sangat is the guru’s own school where one practises godlike qualities. Sangat is where virtues are cultivated.
In sangat the devotees meet without any considerations of birth, caste or worldly position. Sangat along with the notions of seva and pangat or community kitchen became the main pillars of the Sikh faith, where equality was practised in worship, recitation of kirtan and in sharing of food.
Guru Nanak laid down the ideals for a Sikh: Nam Japo – practise Name, Kirat Karo – earn your livelihood through honest labour and Vand Chhako – share your possessions in the spirit of love and service.
Sikh simply means seeker of truth, through the philosophy of Guru Granth Sahib, provides a spiritual path for those who are looking to answer the eternal question, “Who am I and what am I here for?” whoever reads the Sacred Granth attentively or listens to the hymns, or recites them, is enabled to get into direct contact with the guru who is regarded as ‘incarnate’ in these hymns because “The Word (Bani or Shabad) is the Guru, and the Guru is the word.” All the compositions included in the Holy Granth are treated as Gurbani or the Guru’s voice. Spiritual experience can best be had through a combination of Word and music, as Shabad-Kirtan.
In sangat, listening and meditating on the Word in the form of Shabad-Kirtan, the feeling of duality is eliminated because the participants realise the divinity in each member of the sangat. There is no place for sanyasa or renunciation in Sikhism as the path to salvation, according to Guru Nanak, could be pursued while living the normal life of a householder.

Be Happy – Remain Motivated

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. This statement stands true when we are witnessing a global slow-down affecting almost all the economies affecting us to some extent directly or indirectly. We need to motivate ourselves, motivate those people who are working for us and those people we are working for. Don’t let down yourself since this phase of life too is not going for ever. In the past too, we and/or our past generations have faced such recessions – we got over in due course of time. This time too, we will get over but what we require is our determination, our strong determination and up to that time, we need to keep ourselves motivated, we must continue to search out new and newer avenues.

How much does it take to say a few words of appreciation or simply saying “You care? Not much, isn’t it? If you are an employer, arranging motivation letters, personal messages, advisory sessions, learning workshops etc. ignoring small mishaps and suggesting for improving further are not an expensive job but supposed to bring about change in the atmosphere to inspire to do something some valuable from the employees’ end for the organization you head. Good companies are not leaving any stone unturned in motivating the employees to keep their productivity levels and make them aware the depreciating profitability to adjust themselves if there is any cut required in their perks with hope that their employment will continue to await for the revival, instead of getting off in the mid-way. It is absolutely imperative to create an atmosphere of trust, understanding and cooperation amongst various formal and informal groups existing in the Company. It is also essential to provide the employees a platform to discuss the impediments and on that platform, you can invite them and get involved in the discussions in the friendly way. This may help to draw an action plan with their active participation to overcome the obstacles and focus over the business achievements.

As an employee, you should open yourself to the problems of the Company, extend your cooperation, putting your interests aside for the time being and ensure how the Company is able to survive. If the company gets wound-up, it would be very much difficult for you to get an alternative job immediately as wherever you go; you can be branded as an employee of a failed company. You must try to keep up the present company. You must cooperate to your seniors and become a source of solution of the problems for them. Keep watch over the profitability and market-avenues of the products/services of the Company and try to find out the ways of increasing them. If you are in manufacturing section, you can do something to reduce the costs. If you are in R&D Section, you can try to innovate something which may help to reduce the cost of the present manufacturing or launch new products to fight the competition. If you are a white-color employee, you can still work a lot by minimizing the wastage of resources of the Company. If you are in marketing, there too you can try to search out new markets and suggest new proposals to the management in this direction.

As self-employed professional, you need to revisit yourself, your faculties and the status of your services with the class of your clients to find out what improvements can be made to keep your presence felt by your clients who are source of your bread-n-butter. It is possible that some of your clients may not be feeling easy with their other problems. You can take the opportunity to get clues of their problems and help them sort out. It may result into increase of your utility for them in other areas too and you may get a secured association for the time being. It is true that sometime a client may not discuss over the problems he feels that you are not an expert in them. But if you develop a sense of friendship while working with him, apart from being professional of a specific nature, he can open with you, you need to get a clue of his problem – possibly that may be of the personal nature and being a socialite, you may promote him to open himself emotionally. Sometime, emotional relationship plays a vital role in getting you on the board where your professional achievements get added recognition in spite of opposition you may face from other corners/competitors.

If you are an investor, it is possible that everyday you may feel yourself depressed with the results of down-going the value of their stocks. The pinching is terrible but it is beyond your control on the investments you had made. Take it a lesson for future and keep your stocks/investment portfolio diversified and distributed to a number of baskets to minimize your future losses. But don’t get yourself down. It is a temporary phase and one day again; your investments may bear fruits again.

You need to remain happy by keeping yourself motivated, whatever be your capacity otherwise depression may harm you more than other factors. Be happy and remain motivated.

Be Happy – Mend Your Life Yourself

You create your own reality, moment by moment, with the thoughts you choose to think and say. Your thoughts are result of your experience and your outlook how you wish to solve the problem with the experience if you have ever gained in the similar subjects. You won’t like to divert your views unless forcefully you are prevailed upon and ultimately you see comparatively some benefits in such diversion. You mend your life yourself.

Your thoughts produce your emotions, which, in turn, result in how you feel about particular event occurring in your life. It is amazing how people walk around feeling a particular way and do not understand that it is their own thoughts, or more accurately what they are telling themselves that is producing the feeling in the first place. This is why two persons can look at the exact same event and have opposite feelings about it. You are creating your own reality, moment by moment, with the thoughts you choose to think and what you say, both to your-self and others. It may be possible that you might be adopting two different sets of thoughts – one for convincing yourself and another to the outer world. You mend your life yourself.

Let’s explore this little further. Most people will agree, and science can demonstrate, that everything in our world is a field of energy and therefore has a particular frequency. The chair you’re sitting on, your car, your cat, dog, you and everything else including thoughts, have a field of energy or vibration. Recent scientific work has identified particular ranges of frequencies and scientists are able to measure them. Interestingly enough, negative energies, like anger and rage, measure very low on the scale, while positive energies like those given off by prayer and meditation reach the highest measurements.

At this point you may be wondering what this has to do with your thoughts. The second part of this equation is the universal law that states “The like attracts the likes”. This has been referred to as the law of attraction, law of similar and other names. What we choose to call it is not terribly important, what is important to understanding the part this plays in our lives. Suppose for a moment you’re in a bad mood. You’re feeling pretty negative. At that particular moment in time your personal vibration, the energy of your thoughts and words is in the lower frequencies. Let’s call this particular mood, “Frequency X.” Now somewhere off in the distant universe, there is another negative experience. Maybe it’s a flat tire, whose frequency happens to be “X” as well. By virtue the law of attraction, you will begin attracting that or some other undesirable experience to you. There are no accidents. The universe works on a specific set of principles.

The good news is that the opposite is also true. If, for example, you are feeling great, having invested time setting and reading your goals and taking care to monitor your thoughts, intentions, and your internal and external dialog, you are now entering a high energy vibration and are in a place to attract other high vibrations, generally things that you want to have into your life.

I’m not asking you to accept this blindly only that you and see if this holds true for you. I’m sure you’ve noticed situations when, in a room full of people, one person seems to be the centre of attention. Why do you suppose this is? I’ll give you a hint, that’s it’s probably not her perfume; it is her looks or positive waves she is powerfully emitting but unknowingly. Similarly, you probably know people who are always having undesirable experiences in their lives. It is perhaps due to their negative approach.

These are the people who have a lousy time in even the best restaurant. They seem to travel with dark clouds over them and always experience things going wrong in their everyday lives. If you observe and listen to them closely, you will begin to see the connection between what they think and say and what shows up in their lives. It would therefore be advisable to adopt positivism, mend your life accordingly and be happy for ever.

Be happy – Feel Self Awareness.

We are aware that we consciously create our own reality and apply this knowledge to realize all of our wishes. However, while doing so, we also do something subconsciously too; in fact much of the lives that we experience today, whether we like it or not, are a direct result of subconsciously or unknowingly creating our own reality, a reality that is often ascribed to such erroneous notions as "luck", "fortune" or "chance". We might or might not like what we have created for ourself, but the good news is that there is no such thing as "past" or "future", there is only "Now", and our reality is created in the "Now" and can be changed in the "Now only".

So how do people continuously create their own realities without consciousness of the process? The way that people subconsciously or unknowingly create their own realities is principally in three ways; by their thoughts, emotions and actions. By actions I do not mean conscious actions but actions that imply a certain "attitude". Most people are simply not aware of this process and the reason why feeling self awareness is so important.

One of the most powerful creators of our consciousness and reality is what we "say to ourselves, what we intend to do". We all know the very considerable power of affirmations where phrases are repeated many times in the present tense. Well, the same of course applies to statements that are made without thinking about the consequences. For example, a member of the family might be suffering from a cold. It is easy to observe this person, imagine that you feel not quite right yourself, and say to yourself "I am catching a cold". This affirmation coupled with the thought repeated several times will be enough to ensure that the person does in fact catch a cold; he or she has created that reality by their own thoughts and affirmation due to a lack of conscious self awareness. For example, a friend or someone you work with has a cold, you should repeat to yourself, either aloud, in your mind or by writing it down or better still all three, an affirmation that suggests how well you feel such as "I feel so well today" or "I am in the best of health" or "I am feeling great". Do not repeat an affirmation such as "I do not have a cold" because that still places an emphasis on "cold" which acknowledges its existence and gives power to it.

The same principle applies to everything; we must always be mindful of our thoughts by developing self awareness and consciousness so that we are only creating a reality that we wish for. This is particularly true of wealth. During the course of each day we see evidence of wealth and people that are "better off" everywhere. You might for example be sitting at the traffic lights in your "average" car when a luxury sports car pulls up alongside, and you immediately, subconsciously make a comparison, and might start to feel envious. You might also think "I wish I had that car", which, although not having the same negative power as envy", will still ensure that you never receive a similar car, because it will put yourself in a state of "wanting" but never actually receiving. The correct course of action in this case is to look at this luxury sports car and to feel the excitement of actually owning it. Visualize yourself behind the wheel of the car, smell the interior, hear the roar of the big V8 engine and feel the "G force" of the acceleration as you press your foot on the pedal. Continue to focus on "your" car on this way, never for a single moment doubting that it is yours because in reality it already really is yours, and all you have to do now is to take physical delivery of it by harmonizing yourself with the car, i.e. matching your vibration with that of "your" car.

So in terms of self awareness, always be mindful of your thoughts and associated actions, and never, ever allow negative emotions of envy, jealousy, negativity or any other such emotion take a hold in your Mind. If you see something that you like, and really want to experience it, make them feel the excitement and all of the high vibration, positive emotions that will bring it into your life.

This is only one level of self awareness and self consciousness . This means always being mindful of your thoughts and only allowing positive, expansive, high vibration thoughts to enter and remain in your Mind. If you feel any negative, contractive, low vibrational thoughts to enter your mind, immediately dismiss them and replace those thoughts with positive thoughts. We are all open channels of the Universe, The Source, God, and the more of an open channel of The Source you are, the more The Source can express through you and the more abundance will be able to flow into your life.

Throughout the day continually ask yourself "what am I feeling now". If you are feeling a negative emotion immediately dismiss it and replace it with a positive one. Remember; what you think is what you vibrate, and what you vibrate is what you attract, so you will want to ensure that you are vibrating only the things that you wish to experience in your physical reality. It does not matter how dire your current circumstances might seem; those circumstances are only relative and temporal, and can always be changed providing you do not allow your current circumstances to consume you and you maintain the level of consciousness of your thoughts.

"There is a thought in your mind right now. The longer you hold on to it, the more you dwell upon it, the more life you give to that thought. Give it enough life, and it will become real. So make sure the thought is indeed a great one." --- Ralph Marston. It is imperative for you to feel your self-awareness, what you actually think, what you dream for and how you would achieve them. Bring positivism in your mind. Say your glass is full of water. If that is half empty; feel that your glass has some water to quench the thirst to some extent. Therefore, Be Happy and Feel Your self-awareness.

Be Happy – Replace Your Medicines With Nutrients

Believe me, you will be more happy once you replace your medicines with appropriate nutrients. Today, after experiencing and experimenting a number of medical systems (or pathies) prevalent in different parts of the world, I came to a conclusion that the doctors are disease-centric. They are taught about the nature of the disease(es), how they originate and how they are cured. In medical colleges, they are trained in the science of medicines, how the medicines are adopted by our body, to what extent they are accepted, what portion of those medicines are rejected by our body, what kind of side-effects such medicines can make to our body instead of curing our original disease. The doctors are made to know how the medicines create some chemical changes in our body, they study their merits and demerits, make their balancing with particular features of our body and recommend to us to take such and such medicines for curing our disease.

You know, since the doctors are taught medical sciences, they know what medicine should be prescribed for a particular disease. They do not hesitate to prescribe them – after they get some tests if they feel necessary. Some of us who are patients of Low Blood Pressure/High Blood Pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, heart attacks etc. etc. are taking a number of medicines all the day long. Even in this century too, medical science has continued research to attack upon the diseases, getting new medicines, new formulations. Perhaps more than US$ 78.9 billion were spent on medicines in 1997 by the US citizens and this expenditure is going up @ 17% per annum. The pharmacy Companies are happy to know that the medical scientists are helping to enhance their business by concentrating on the medicines only.

We all need good health and feel that we would remain healthy if we take medical consultation from time to time and implement that consultation timely. But the bare truth is that we are not getting healthy but we are being experimented upon how a disease is cured. Research is made and we are prescribed a particular course how and what medicines are to be taken. If we take care that we should not get ill, it would be easier than to become ill. None suggests us how we should remain healthy. I thought and found that in case I undertake some precautions, my financial expenses/wastage of time etc. on the precautions are just not more than 1% of the expenses incurred by an average person on his disease. God has made our body so beautiful that it cures itself if we follow the rules of proper maintaining. But we do not care - we are running and running for one target after another and another – forgetting that our body needs some relax, some supplements and some recreation too. We are taking our meals, some time half cooked or without caring for the quality of the ingredients and some time, without giving proper time to digest or sometime galloping it down without gnawing as we are short of time.

No, it is no way of living our life. God did not prescribe as such. We must follow proper schedule of our working – we should fix up our priorities, we must coordinate our working with those factors which are to play an important role in our system, we must have regular meals with proper nutrients to supplement the requirement according to our work schedule/our activity. We can replace our medicines with them and we would remain happy by doing so. We should not permit any disease to begin – we must take action to prevent that’s occurrence by improving our working system and supplementing our meals with appropriate nutrients from time to time.

Be Happy – Adopt Spirituality with Social Compatibility

Spirituality does not mean that you are thinking about God, liberation and other matters relating thereto. But the thought itself can never be spiritual; it is a psychological process. Similarly, mind, body and emotions are different dimensions of life. There is nothing right or wrong abut them. It all depends on how you use them – but they cannot be spiritual.

Spirituality does not belong to the physical area. It is a dimension beyond the integrated mechanism of body, mind, emotion and physical energy. A human being is just a combination of the five elements: water, earth, air, fire and space. But this combination has so beautifully been constructed that it is complete by itself. Because of its integrity, it looks absolutely individual right now. Sometime, we forget the Creator and still it goes on. The problem is, once we realise the perfection of what this is, we forget God and will lean on something else. If we just want to cross the limitations of our existence, if we just want to enjoy the freedom and bliss of it, all it takes is an intense focus towards any one thing. This is not possible for people who are doing too many jobs but want to get somewhere, we will have to stick to one thing. People who are highly intellectual, are socially incompatible. Those who are absolutely devoted, they are also socially incompatible. People who are totally in service, they are socially incompatible. Those who are too much on energy, they are also socially incompatible.

There are four dimensions of yoga: Enlightenment (gyana), Devotion (bhakti), Action (karma) and Process(kriya). If these four dimensions are handled in even balance, we can attain the height of experience and yet be socially compatible. If we have to go beyond the barriers of what is considered normal and still be socially compatible, it is important that our body, mind, emotion and energy are evenly cultivated. Only then, we can be fully blissful and still be efficient and capable in everything that we do.

Once this is achieved, there is tremendous freedom to create anything that we want around us or within us or anywhere in the world because the very fundamentals of life are in our hands. Suddenly, there is no more limitation of time and space. If this capability has to come, the first thing is to get into ecstatic states, absolutely mindless ecstasy. Those who are not willing to work to achieve ecstasy choose alcohol or drugs. If people create some sense of freedom chemically or by other external means, you will notice when they don’t have that support, they become utterly miserable. If people just escape by chance, if they have not built their own ladder to climb at will, they get psychologically broken.

The essence of the spiritual process needs to be understood as intensity to break the limitations of body and mind so that we are out of our individual nature. Enlightenment is beyond logic. There is nothing, so you cannot ruin it. When there is nothing, then everything flows through you. Whatever has to happen in this existence, it has to flow through you; you become the gateway. If you have the inclination, existence is within your grasp. You can explore almost everything. Be Happy - You can adopt spirituality while remaining socially compatible.

Be Happy - Rejuvenate Your Brain

Generally, it is assumed that urban areas have always been an engine of intellectual life; over the tables of coffeehouses/tea stalls of a city, citizens gather to discuss local, national and international politics, and find out the ways, inspiration and motivation what can be done anew. You can not imagine where an idea, an innovative one can strike but for that you need to get mixed up with people, discuss with them on various subject. It is possible that in the initial talks, you may not get meaningful elements but slowly you will learn how to talk strangers, search out new avenues which may help you to develop the faculty of your brain further.

But it is also true that city life isn't easy. While the modern city might be a haven for playwrights, poets, scientists and physicists, it's also a deeply unnatural and overwhelming place. Recently, how the city affects the brain has been deeply focused upon by some scientists to examine, and the results are not good. They found that just being in an urban environment our basic mental processes get damaged.

After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it's long been recognized that city life is exhausting, over-crowding cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

As we know, the mind is a machine having limited capacity to work, whereas the urban life does not provide enough scope to relax. Every time, you schedule to meet a number of people, one after another. Every time you worry to go through the list of your outstanding jobs and many times, you have to re-fix up your priorities and some time, you have to give up the jobs which are already in process but you do not have time to finish them in time. You know? One of the main forces at work is a stark lack of nature, which is surprisingly beneficial for the brain. Studies have demonstrated, for instance, that hospital patients recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows, and that women living in public housing are better able to focus when their apartment overlooks a grassy courtyard. Even these fleeting glimpses of nature improve brain performance, it seems, because they provide a mental break from the urban roil.

Similarly, you too, even when you are leading a healthy life, need to rejuvenate your brain from time to time by going into the lap of nature, by going out of your urbanized life schedules. A simple look out at nature can restore your mental peace; greenery plays a vital role in this direction. If you undertake some agricultural or horticultural activities from time to time as hobby, you will find a change in your aptitude too besides giving you an opportunity to undertake some physical exercise simultaneously. Be happy and rejuvenate your brain by adopting nature as an important part of your life.