How To Be Happy All The Time

Is it really possible to be happy all the time?--or,perhaps like Shakespeare, we may feel the heartache and the thousand natural shocks of life make it an impossible and foolish quest.

In Hamlet, Act III, Scene I, Shakespeare wrote:

To be, or not to be,--that is the question:--
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?--To die,--to sleep,--
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,--'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die,--to sleep;--
To sleep! perchance to dream:--ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,--
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns,--puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action

Simply deciding to be happy all the time is not the answer, nor is it about adopting the right attitude. How long can you hold on to being happy all the time when you, like everyone else, lives in a troubled world?

The answer to lasting happiness only appears when you look deeper.

Within you is a consciousness that stimulates breakthrough dreams, serendipity, and intuitive leaps that can transform your life. When you turn to the greater power within you, you are able to access more resources to deal with all the challenges in your life.

Within you is a consciousness that stimulates breakthrough dreams, serendipity, and intuitive leaps that can transform your life. When you turn to the greater power within you, you are an opening for miracles to happen. This receptivity to your own more refined, yet more elusive, consciousness allows for the power to flow.

The way to begin awakening to this subtle consciousness is through practicing self-awareness. You can do this through some simple practices.

These simple exercises will bring you to a place of peace, and you can be happy all the time in a quiet, restful way, rather than in an overstimulated way.

Ten Awareness Boosters
To Make You Happy All The Time

1. Meditate twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, for 5 to 15 minutes.

2. Spend some time each day in nature enjoying its beauty.

3. Trust your emotions. Notice them when they arise and choose to express rather than repress them.

4. Practice staying calm in the midst of chaos by focusing on your breath and focusing on the sensations arising within your body.

5. Bring out the innocence and curiosity of the child you once used to be.

6. Think of yourself as more than your body and participating at some level with the life vibrating in everyone and everything around you. Sense your connection to other people rather than your habitual sense of separation from them.

7. Do something new that makes you look at the world in a new way. It may be as simple as choosing an unfamiliar dish from a menu, taking a different road than usual, or visiting a new city or part of town.

8. Quit identifying with the events in your life and watch them as if you were standing outside yourself.

9. Be available to the moment rather than aware of only your inner dialogue about circumstances in your life.

10. Practice love. The consciousness of the greater part of you is rooted in loving everyone and everything unconditionally.

If you do these things for a day, perhaps a week, or even a month, you’ll notice a subtle shift in your relationship with yourself and with life. As you continue, you’ll enjoy the benefits of expanded awareness.

Yet this is just the tip of possibility open to you when it comes to creating an expanded self. The deeper, wider, and more pervasive agent of transformation is accepting everything rather than resisting everything. An accepting person intuitively knows how to be happy all the time.

Is there a way of living in the world that stimulates a joy that overflows?

Yes, it's not identifying with your thoughts and feelings.

You are not your limited thoughts and feelings. You are not all the troubles you have seen. You are a magnificent being of light. Imagine what your life would be like if you lived from that perspective?

When you look at your life, you may notice that what you and everyone around you does all the time is trade away your happiness. This is a certain recipe for misery. But it's more of a challenge to choose to be happy all the time. In fact, initially, you'll find yourself surrounded by puzzled people. They'll be trying to figure out why you're happy. Yet the secret to self-growth is that happiness on the inside reflects as happy circumstances.

It's Natural To Be Happy All The Time

If your happiness rests on what needs to happen first, then you’ll remain estranged from fulfillment. When you place conditions on what needs to change in your life right now or what needs to happen in the future, you’ve postponed happiness indefinitely.

Happiness does not respond to your arbitrary rules. Life is much broader than your criteria. Reality is not obligated to satisfy all your needs. You simply can’t control how everyone and everything should respond to your desires.

Everything everywhere is always in disequilibrium. Reality is always entangled in a dynamic process of unfolding new events. You can’t hold on to a moment. You can’t hold on to a person, place, or thing. You always stand on shifting sands.

All this leads to an astonishing conclusion: you can’t keep postponing your chance to feel good about being alive.

Happiness is a decision, not an event. It’s an inner response to the momentum of your life.

Happiness is practicing acceptance.

Happiness is cherishing people.

Happiness is making positive intentions.

Happiness is releasing past injuries and forgiving past foes.

Happiness is relishing giving back more than you received.

Happiness should not be tethered to outcomes. That’s a formula for misery. It’s something you’ve been practicing since infancy and it’s a mental habit you have to break if you wish to salvage the rest of your life.

Time and life is fleeting. You simply can’t afford the luxury of waiting for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to quit before deciding to be happy.

A happy person has a much better chance to positively influence an outcome but this is a superficial reason why you should choose to be happy. You should choose to be happy simply because you are alive. When you choose to be happy, you choose to consciously experience more life, you choose to experience life abundantly.

Happiness, then, is about relishing the fullness of life. It’s not a reward for work well done. It’s not a celebration of some lucky accident.

It’s expressing the wonder of being alive. It’s an end in itself.

When you can bring yourself to trust life, you have a shot at learning how to be happy, prosperous, and well.

Happiness is rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, giving thanks in everything, and not quenching your spirit.

It's recognizing that you are never alone but one with all of life. It's recognizing that we're all in this huge adventure together. It's recognizing that your personal mind is linked to an infinite mind.

You can retrain your mind to be happy all the time regardless of your life situation.

Seven Simple Ways
To Be Happy All The Time

It is possible to be happy all the time--but first you have to make that positive decision.

Idea #1 On How To Be Happy All The Time

Choose to have fun.

Be creative, tap into your frivolous side, and find enjoyment despite what is happening out there. As Jorge Luis Borges once said, “There are reasons more terrible than tigers why you should not be happy.” He then went on to say, “It means much to have been happy, even for a day.” When he was dying, he regretted not having had more fun, of having taken everything so seriously, of having been so cautious about everything.

If you stop keeping score of how you and everyone else is doing and if you start being more open to the possibility that everything is unfolding exactly the way it should despite appearances to the contrary, you’ll give yourself enough permission to start having more fun.

Idea #2 On How To Be Happy All The Time

Choose to live with passion.

At this moment, nature is playing itself full out. Everything that is happening is happening fully and completely. The sun, the moon, and the stars, are not half-shining, but fully shining. Similarly, earth, air, water, and fire are fully expressing themselves.

Yet you, who participate in this dance of creation, may not be fully present to whatever is currently happening in your life. Your mind may be flitting from here to there. Your breathing may be hesitant and shallow. Your sense of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste may glaze over things, only half experiencing them.

Allowing yourself to live with passion means connecting with what is happening more fully. When someone is speaking, listen well. When you are speaking, speak from your heart. When you’re eating, taste everything.

When you’re meditating, watching a flower, stroking a cat, act as if this experience is of supreme importance. In other words, be fully present to your immediate experience rather than judge its value in the great scheme of things.

Right now, you’re reading this essay. If you read it as if the ideas in it might make a difference in your life, you'll get more out of it than if you just mentally scan them and then agree or disagree. The best way to get the most out of reading something, advised the late philosopher Bertrand Russell, is to temporarily suspend disbelief.

From my perspective, I’m writing this essay as if I’ll never have this flow of inspiration again. I’m writing as if I’ll never have the opportunity to express these ideas again. I’m writing as if I must fully express myself as best I can and offer my reader as much value as I possibly can. In other words, I’m writing with feelings, intensity, passion. I’m writing with my mind, my heart, my being.

Many years ago, I read an author who advised aspiring writers to “write with their blood.” It’s what I’m trying my best to do.

If you now read these words with as much intensity as I’m writing, you’ll complete the conversation between us. We are minds locked in an exchange. We are life speaking and listening to itself. We are the infinite mind expressing itself in a local way. We are part of an interconnection, a quantum entanglement of ideas.

When you are defensive about engaging fully in your life, you're only getting in your own way. While your life is playing itself out fully, you may be missing the deep joy of the moment.

Your life is less about performing and more about maximizing the moment.

The rewards of your life pale in comparison to your experience of life itself.

Idea #3 On How To Be Happy All The Time

Choose to live with purpose.

There is no better way to express this idea than by quoting Patanjali, who is credited with developing yoga around 150 B.C. in India:

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

If you do what you love to do with a desire to make a dent in the universe, you’ll fully comprehend this idea.

Idea #4 On How To Be Happy All The Time

Choose to appreciate.

Those who appreciate their experiences and the kindness of others, find joy in the action of this blessing. They draw more good to themselves. They attract even more and better things and experiences.

One way to regain a sense of appreciation is to revisit beauty. In our hurried culture, we have almost stopped honoring the cultivation of beauty. When you infuse your life with invoking a sense of the aesthetic, you’ll call forth the power of gratitude.

Another exercise is to list all the people who have helped you, then write a letter of appreciation to one of them. This will lift up your mood and it will bless the other person with your praise. You’ll find something greater has taken over in your renewed interaction. Happiness will land on your shoulder like a butterfly.

Idea #5 On How To Be Happy All The Time

Choose to transcend your own limited views.

You happiness will grow in direct proportion to your acceptance of what is happening in your life right now. It will contract in direct proportion to your resistance to what is happening in your life right now.

When you let go of indulging in your old story of deprivation and insufficiency, you create room for a new possibility to emerge.

Accepting circumstances does not mean bowing to them. It means facing them. It means acknowledging rather than denying.

You’ll find that the specter of your doubts and indecisiveness will leave you. You’ll see rays of sunshine where before you only saw storm clouds. You’ll find new ideas where before you were stuck in the agony of confusion.

When you lean into what is going on, you’ll find a ticket to transcendence.

I repeat, life doesn't have to be picture perfect for you to be happy; and, ironically, when you relieve yourself of the burden of your gloomy picture, it'll shift into something much more to your liking.

When you honestly process what is going on for you, you’ll heal your angst. Peace can be found in all circumstances. Healing can happen when you're honest with yourself. Spiritual openness can free your mind, your heart, your life.

Idea #6 On How To Be Happy All The Time

Choose to come from a spiritual perspective.

You are much more than your name, your ego, your mind, your body. You are much more than the world you've made for yourself here. Declare to yourself that you're much more than you're currently experiencing and let the deep spirit in you rise to change how you experience your life.

Idea #7 On How To Be Happy All The Time

Choose to move in the right direction.

We're teleological beings. We seek purpose, meaning, value. A life that doesn't quicken your spirit is like stagnant water–it' toxic. By contrast, a life that is vibrant with purposeful action is like a fast flowing river–it is refreshing.

While most people unconsciously trade away their happiness for worry and concern, for regret and sorrow, you can choose to be conscious enough to realize that happiness is an intrinsic expression of your being. Consequently, certain events don’t need to happen before you can be happy. You can be happy right now simply by deciding your happiness is more important than your problems. When you choose to be happy, you choose to be more alive, you choose to enjoy the fullness of life.

You can choose to be happy because that is who you really are inside.

Don’t tie up your happiness to circumstances; let your happiness run wild and free like a horse galloping across the prairies.Move away from those obsessed with gloom and doom. Quit joining in on another round of “ain’t it awful” conversations. Break free from the herd. Be yourself. Be happy. Heck,be happy all the time.

Return from Happy All The Time to Self Growth