Foolish, selfish people are always thinking of themselves and the result is always negative. Wise persons think of others, helping them as much as they can, and the result is happiness. Love and compassion are beneficial both for you and others. Through your kindness to others, your mind and heart will open to peace. ~ Dalai Lama
Happiness can only exist in acceptance ~ George Orwell
“Acceptance is a beautiful thing, but it’s also something that I’ve struggled to master. Acceptance, the opposite of resistance, is simply allowing things to be as they are, and acknowledging internally that they are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less.” This is a quote I took from a blog post on happiness.
Acceptance is essential to personal happiness, in order to be happy you have to accept yourself. This for many people is not an easy thing. The very concept of looking into the mirror and saying hey I’m ok, or even better, hey I’m great, is not something that a lot of us can do and believe. But it is imperative that you get to that point in order to be happy. It is why we named the church, The Church of Abnormal Acceptance and the Ministry of Happiness.
Very simply what these means is that you need to accept yourself as you are right at this moment. Yes, you have faults, none of us are perfect and accepting your faults is part of the process. Accepting your faults is not the same as condoning your faults. Acceptance is the first step to improvement and change. We’ve talked before about the importance feeling safe and the safest you will ever feel is when you’ve accepted yourself and realized you’re a good person. One who can get better, but is good none-the-less.
So let’s start this week with a simple exercise, before you go to bed tonight, and when you get up in the morning look at yourself in the mirror and say these words, “I’m ok, and I will get better.” In the beginning you may not even believe it, but do it for 21 days, that’s all it takes to form a new habit, and let’s see how you feel after three weeks. You are ok my friends, and so much more than that, so have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
Remember the Sweet Things – The best story you’ll ever hear!
Happiness, Worry & The Dalai Lama’s Thoughts
Banish uncertainty
Affirm strength
Hold resolve
Expect death
Make your stand today. On this spot. Make your actions count; do not falter in your determination to fulfill your destiny. Don’t follow the destiny outlined in some mystical book: Create your own.
Your resolve to tread the path of life is your best asset. Without it, you die. Death is unavoidable, but let it not be from loss of will but because your time is over. As long as you can keep going, use your imagination to cope with the travails of life. Overcome your obstacles and realize what you envision.
You will know unexpected happiness. You will know the sorrow of seeing what is dearest to you cut down before your eyes. Accept that. That is the nature of human existence, and you have no time to buffer the fact with fairy tales and illogical explanations.
Each day, your life grows shorter by twenty-four hours. The time to make achievements becomes more precious. You must fulfill everything you want in life and then release your will upon the moment of death. Your life is a creation that dies when you die. Release it, give up your individuality, and in so doing, finally merge completely with Tao.
Until the moment, create the poetry of your life with toughness and determination.
~Deng Ming-Dao
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.~ Mother Teresa
First let me say, Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and my sisters who are now all mothers, hope you all have a great day! This extends to my friends who are moms as well.
Here in this blog we typically talk about finding happiness but today a quick post about receiving happiness. The reason we understand what happiness is, is because our mothers taught it to us first. The provided us with our first hug, they satisfied our hunger, eased our entrance into a bright and terrifying world and held us tight and safe so that we could sleep.
As we aged, it was our mother’s who cured our wounds with band-aids and kisses, it was their shoulders we first cried on when we learned how cruel the world could be. They over protectively scared off bullies, told our teachers that “their” kid would never do that, even though we new we were as guilty as they come. In the immortal words of Pink Floyd, “mama never let anyone dirty get in.” They protected us like the momma bears they were and in return for protecting us, making us safe and teaching us what happiness is, they have earned our undying love and affection, on behalf of all the members of the Ministry of Happiness, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers and anyone doing the job of a mother out there and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
Fear is Killing Your Happiness
The Dalai Lama has found himself in a bit of a quandary it both expressing an interest in justice and a reluctance towards killing, an act truly void of compassion. He’s not the only one to find himself in this position and it’s nice to know even the truly wise and holy struggle like the rest of us:
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/05/05/dalai-lama-in-bin-laden-quandary/
Another perspective:
http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-and-pope-john-paul-ii/
Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you ~ Karl Lagerfeld
You are not a bad person, you’re not evil or lazy as long as you have tried and my friends we have all tried. I know there are times when we feel like we are bad parents, bad sons, daughters, and bad siblings. Throughout my life I have seen everyone try, now granted that trying has led to a wide variety of successes and failures. If we are to be truly happy my friends, we need to forgive those whose tried on our behalf, even if they were not as successful as we would like or need them to be. We also hope of course that those who we try for will also forgive us our failures in the future.
Since we have tried my friends, it is time to give ourselves a break, to give ourselves a happiness day. Now this is not just a day off, we have all taken days off, I recently have had time off, we end up all too often spending those precious days doing errands and cleaning the house. This is not a vacation day where we have itineraries and places to be and people to take care of, this is for us. This is a happiness day, a day free of the pressures and responsibilities, a day designed for simply one thing, to make us happy.
So call in to work, warn your family, make arrangements for child care and plan your day. Plan this well in advance and create a day that will make you happy. This could mean a day just sitting in the grass reading a book, it may mean a long hike, or a spa day. Treat yourself to really good food and by all means don’t do anything responsible. The point of it all is to make yourself happy and for one day forget your worries and just enjoy yourself and that means that this day cannot be cancelled. Good luck my friends, I’ll report back on mine soon, have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
Rev Kane in the Antelope Poppy Reserve
At least you have your health the old saying goes and we all know to some degree this is true. Recently, I’ve come to a better understanding of that expression. Over the last two years I’ve been battling with my body, it seems that as I get older I cannot ignore it like I used to. The extra weight I’ve carried for a long time, the Coca-cola and pasta that I love so much are no longer able to be a part of my life. Not a terrible burden, lord knows there are many people who suffer with significant illnesses that make their lives incredibly difficult and at times very short. I’m grateful that my health issues are controllable with only some minor inconveniences to deal with.
I have a cousin who is currently dealing with some foot issues, as have I over the last year and let me tell you how frustrating it is to have your mobility restricted. Even more for her as she is a professional cyclist and has been off her bike for some time. Today’s post was inspired by her, as I’ve noticed something impressive about the way she is dealing with her difficulty. Although she’s miserable at the idea of not cycling significantly or racing she’s kept her spirits high. I’ve also noticed that she’s shifted gears, found new things to focus her energy on, truly inspirational and a model for us all to follow.
Today is a reminder that although we are all on a journey to find happiness, there are other things that take precedence. Our family, our health, a roof over our head and food enough to eat must be a priority, then when we are safe and healthy we can continue on our path to a happier life, have a happy day friends. ~ Rev Kane
Appalachian Trail Happiness: Trail Community
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Quitting the Appalachian Trail
Hello Everyone,
Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Pagan, no matter what your beliefs I wish you a happy Easter Sunday. Here is a little quote from the Happiness Institute that I thought was especially good, enjoy:
Easter happiness
I certainly hope this doesn’t offend anyone with Christian beliefs but rather, I hope you might enjoy this acronym I’ve thought up to ensure we all find happiness within Easter…
- E = Enjoy the weekend and the celebration
- A = Appreciate others and life and the world around you
- S = Search for meaning within the message of Easter
- T = Trust yourself and others
- E = Expect the best as often as possible
- R = Respect happiness and goodness for all their worth
Happy Easter everyone; I hope whatever it means to you that you find it over the next few days and that whatever happiness means to you, you find within yourself and your plans.
It is important to reflect on the kindness of others. Every aspect of our present well-being is due to others’ hard work. The buildings we live and work in, the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat, are all provided by others. None of them would exist but for the kindness of so many people unknown to us. ~ Dalai Lama
Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life ~ Confucius
Today the topic I would like to address is happiness and work. I think I speak for everyone when I say no one wants a job and by a job I mean something you go to day after day because you have to in order to get paid. Now, a lot of you may be shaking your head, wait a minute that is what a job is supposed to be. What I want to talk about today is that none of us should have a job, we should get paid to do something that increases, not detracts from our happiness.
Growing up I watched a lot of people around me go to work day after day at jobs they hated. They did this to support their families and they felt utterly trapped in this existence. I vowed at that point that I would never be in that position. What it took for me to guarantee that was to make sure I’d always have opportunities. That meant getting educated, developing solid work habits and coming to a significant understanding about what I really wanted to do with my life. It wasn’t an easy road; I detoured through failing out of college, struggles with drugs and alcohol, and racking up a significant amount of loan debt. However in the end I work in education at the community college level, exactly where I want to be, and I make a great living, plus 4 weeks vacation and another dozen holidays off doesn’t hurt.
The point of all of this is that you have to find something you love, if you don’t, you will really impact your happiness negatively. To get to this point a lot of courage is involved, it may mean taking the risk of going back to school, or changing career tracks, or even doing something outside the mainstream expectations of society. But at the end of it, we work over 2000 hours a year, we typically work about 40 years, that’s 80,000 hours we spend at work, don’t be unhappy for such a significant part of your life, it’s not worth it. Have a happy day friends.
The Ministry of Happiness 