Fellowship Fridays: Finding Happiness

March 20, 2009

This is my favorite picture of the Dalai Lama.  Not because it is a great photo (obviously) but because I took it… which explains why it is not a great photo. 

On September 28, 2004, the fates conspired to place me at this meeting in Costa Rica. I had no awareness this meeting was going to take place, and no plans to attend; it was a last minute invitation to an inter-faith dialog hosted in a primarily Catholic country.

There is no way for me to explain to you the profound impact this loving and compassionate man had on changing my outlook on life. It wasn’t necessarily anything he said, though he shared wonderful teachings on a variety of subjects. It was the calm, peace, and happiness that radiated from him when he walked among the people, greeting each one as if that person was the most important being on the planet. This man is a living example of Love, Compassion and Tolerance, and we can be too.

The reason I mention him today is that what helped me most in my quest for happiness was his book, The Art of Happiness, and his general approach to life.  In his words:

“During the course of my life, I have had to handle enormous responsibilities and difficulties. At sixteen, I lost my freedom when Tibet was occupied. At twenty-four, I lost my country itself when I came into exile. For forty years now I have lived as a refugee in a foreign country, albeit the one that is my spiritual home. Throughout this time, I have been trying to serve my fellow refugees, and, to the extent possible, the Tibetans who remain in Tibet.

Meanwhile, our homeland has known immeasurable destruction and suffering. And, of course, I have lost not only my mother and other close family members but also dear friends. Yet for all this, although I certainly feel sad when I think about these losses, still so far as my basic serenity is concerned, on most days I am calm and contented. Even when difficulties arise, as they must, I am ususally not much bothered by them. I have no hesitation in saying I am happy.

According to my experience, the principal characteristic of genuine happiness is peace: inner peace.”

(His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium)

So today I want to share with you some wonderful posts from fellow bloggers about finding Happiness. I hope they will ignite that spark in you that is willing to believe happiness and inner peace are possible for you… and for others.

1. Tips For Dealing With A Happiness Emergency from The Happiness Project

“What do you do if you’re feeling blue because of the financial crisis? Or if you’re just having an extremely lousy day? Here are nine strategies that can boost your mood right now in a happiness emergency. In the next thirty minutes, check off as many of the following items as possible. Each one will lift your spririts, as will the mere fact that you’ve tackled and achieved some concrete goals; by doing so, you boost your feelings of self-efficacy, which can boost happiness.”

2. Don’t Worry Be Happy from Ivan Campuzano

“It seems that the modern man cannot be happy; they learn to simply make things more comfortable. Happiness is unnatural and unhappiness becomes the norm. Just watch go into your local Star Bucks coffee shop, be happy, laugh, joke, have a big smile on your face. People look at you like your crazy, crazy for being happy?”

3. Life Is Too Short To Be Anything But Happy from The Path Of True Balance

“Do you often engage with people who take pleasure in espousing crazy talk, negativity or languishing in the past? Or do you share your time with people who are mostly positive, supportive and creative? If you are surrounded by the former, I recommend weeding your personal garden of buzz kills, complainers, controllers and drama queens.”

4. Timeless Tips To Find Happiness from The Positivity Blog

“One good way to find a few useful, life-improving and time-tested tips is to look back. To look way back through history. To find ideas that have arisen in minds over and over the last few thousand years. Here are seven such ideas about how you can find happiness. Maybe you´ll find them helpful.”

5. Goals and Happiness from A Content Life

“The best goals are goals that help others. I write this not because I believe that you must be altruistic, but because accomplishing goals that help others will make you happier. It’s in your own self-interest. When your goals help others, you increase your feelings of connection to those you help and decrease your own self-absorption. This combination of a greater connection and shrinking ego helps you become more integrated into the world and, as a result, happier.”

Happy Friday!

Related posts:

1. Fellowship Fridays: How To Find Inner Peace
2. Fellowship Fridays: The Magic of a Smile
3. The Sixth Step to Finding Fulfillment: Be Honest
4. Fellowship Fridays: Stress Management Tips and Techniques
5. Fellowship Fridays: Lance’s Jungle of Life

Posted in Fellowship Fridays, happiness, helping others, inner peace