The Ministry of Happiness

Time for a Happiness Day

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Michael Kane

Time for a Happiness Day

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

Happiness and Grateful for Good Health

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Michael Kane

Happiness and Grateful for Good Health

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

Some Other Adventure Posts You Might Enjoy!

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Trail Community

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Reader’s Favorite Posts

Quitting the Appalachian Trail

My Favorite Appalachian Trail Photos of 2015

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Precious Moments

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged behappy, gratitude, happiness, happy, health, life, philosophy, postivity | Leave a comment

Happiness and Easter

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Michael Kane

Happiness and Easter

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.

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged christian, easter, easter bunny, easter eggs, holiday, jewish, muslim, pagan, pasover | Leave a comment

Dalai Lama on the kindness of others

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Michael Kane

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

Posted in Dalai Lama | Tagged dalai lama, kidness, life, philosophy | Leave a comment

Happiness and Work

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Michael Kane

Happiness and Work

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.

Dalai Lama: Mosquito interrupted Happiness

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Michael Kane

A quick and light moment on film with the Dalai Lama, even the best of us can be interrupted on the path, even if it’s just by a mosquito.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuFZ-DUx71w

Posted in Dalai Lama, personal happiness | Tagged dalai lama, happiness, life, mosquito, philosophy | Leave a comment

Happiness and harsh words

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Michael Kane

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

Sometimes this world is hard and the people around us make it even harder. We often don’t understand how our words impact other people. Particularly when writing online, people use the veil of their relative anonymity to do things they would not do. This can mean a lot of things, people can be bolder and braver, they might be a whole lot naughtier, but often it seems they are less considerate and a lot meaner than they would normally be. Now I’m not advocating that we all become thin-skinned members of the politically correct crowd. We shouldn’t and we should be comfortable enough with ourselves to overlook the stupidity of others.

What instead I’m asking is for all of us to consider today, is the happiness of others. It seems to me both online, on the highway, and in everyday life in many ways people seem to be unaware of the impact of their actions on others. So today in our quest to lead a happier life, let’s take time to consider the happiness of others. And in that vein I have a homework assignment for all of you, today go out and do one thing to make someone happier. Have you been meaning to call an old friend? Have you told your mother you loved her lately, maybe even your dad? When’s the last time you broke down and let the kids order pizza for dinner? Hell, even be cliché and help an old lady cross the street or check in on a neighbor and just say hi, thank a friend for having been there for you, or treat the office to cupcakes.

For my part and to start this happy little ball rolling, mom I love you, have a happy day my friends.

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged happiness, harsh, hurtful, life, online, personal happiness, philosophy, words | 1 Comment

Happiness and writing away the darkness

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Michael Kane

Happiness and writing away the darkness

An update to a piece from a couple of years ago ~ Rev Kane

Art saved me; it got me through my depression and self-loathing, back to a place of innocence. ~ Jeanette Winterson

Something most people who know me don’t know, even some who know me quite well, is that I suffer from bouts of depression. Very rarely have these dips, as I refer to them, ever had a significant impact on my life, they are not debilitating and I’m grateful for that. I have friends who suffer from significant bouts of depression and my heart goes out to them. It is hard to explain to anyone who has never dealt with this to understand the weight the darkness can have on you, how all-encompassing it can be, no matter how bright the light or how wonderful your life or the people in it.

For me, when I was in my early twenties, I discovered a need to write. Now, over twenty plus years later writing has become an integral part of my life. It has been a tool by which I have expressed joy, dealt with sadness and death, and even publicly worked to help people bring more happiness into their life. I am happy to say that writing has also helped me with my dips. Today, and this is often how it happens, for no reason at all my mood turned. There was no specific act, no tragedy, nothing you could put your finger on but it happened. As night fell, I sat down to eat dinner and watch some television and eventually turned to my laptop to write. The words left my body and expressed my mood and happily took much of the negative energy with them. Writing this right now I feel better than I have all day, this is no magic bullet, I’m not joyous and smiling, but I’m much better than I was earlier and I hold out the hope that the morning will bring the sun , a new day and a new attitude.

For those of you who may have similar issues I hope you can find similar mechanisms to drain the negativity. If you’ve never tried writing, either prose , poetry or journaling, give it a try, maybe it will work for you as well, if not find another way. Recently I have changed the way I journal to focus on three questions:

What was the most beautiful thing I saw today?
What did I learn today?
What made me happy today?

The beauty of these questions is that if you answer them each day, at the end of the day they will remind you that there is beauty, learning and happiness each day. And if you start to answer them every day you will begin to focus on the beauty, learning and happiness that occurs during each day, give it a try my friends.

As for resources the links below will guide you to some basic and simple things that can help keep you out of the dips, they have helped me in the past and continue to:

Dealing with Depression

10 Natural Depression Treatments

Eight ways to Actively Fight Depression

Finally I’ll share the piece I wrote tonight, and friends, I’m doing fine, have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Ephemeral Tendrils 3/27/11

And the world turns sad tonight
there is no rhyme or reason to it
the ephemeral tendrils
of what it is to be connected
drift from my grasp

Finding myself adrift
edge to edge and off the ledge
floating into nothing
grasping
for what I do not know

In my mind this night
forsaking all hope of connection
life grows hopeless, inane
there is no point
no direction, no hope

No attachment fits
not love or friendship
no contact here
just me and these keys
total lack of solace in this night

Happiness and Independence

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Michael Kane

Below is a piece from Deng Ming-Dao’s 365 Day Tao and is on Independence. How are happiness and independence related? In our lives, as social creatures, we need other human beings. Being around other people can make us feel safe and loved and provide us with support mechanisms that can make us happy. However, in order to be truly happy we have to be like the crane in the piece below. We have to be content with ourselves and understand that we don’t need wealth, or status or popularity to be happy. All we need is to understand and love ourselves, in the end everything else is a luxury including other people and those relationships. Now this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t engage others, as I’ve said below, we all need other people, but first, you have to engage and love yourself. Have a truly happy day.

A solitary Crane
In winter snow
Needs no jewels

A single crane standing unconcerned in the falling snow is the very image of independence. It needs no one, it is secure in its environment, and it is capable of going through life alone. Its independence stems from self-sufficiency.

It needs no clothing, no building, no wealth, no status. It is content, even glorious in its naked identity. So too with ourselves: There is no need for dazzling clothes, an impressive career, an awesome temple, nor a bejeweled master. What we want is something beyond such externals.

What facets of your personality are encumbrances? What personal aspects prevent you from being independent? These are the areas that will define your self-cultivation, for you must strive to stand alone. This doesn’t mean that you won’t ever join with others, but you will do so as an individual who will cooperate just as much as is necessary. In this way, you will never be lost in a group, and you will never fear being alone.

Posted in Deng Ming-Dao, personal happiness | Tagged blogs, deng ming-dao, happiness, independence, life, personal happiness, philosophy, spirituality | Leave a comment

Happiness and Disappointment

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Michael Kane

Happiness and Disappointment

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. ~ Winston Churchill

Things go wrong, or at least not the way you want them to, this is just a fact of life. For most of us, when something goes wrong we indulge ourselves to try to make ourselves feel better. Some of us drink, some of us shop, a lot of us, including me, turn to comfort food. For me that is a large New York style pizza and a very large Coke. Unfortunately for some us, and even myself in the past, we often turn to even more destructive behaviors. Most of what we do is designed to make us feel good in the moment, to take our mind away from what is making us unhappy.

Today I’m writing to propose a new way, an experiment if you will that I am personally conducting for myself. Let’s all take a longer range vision and stop being so focused on how you feel in this moment, and think about how you’ll feel tomorrow or next week. Instead of trying not to feel unhappy in the moment let’s work on being happier in the long run. Often when we sit down on the couch after bad news or disappointment and plunge our spoons into the half-gallon of NY Super Fudge Chunk ice cream, we find that we feel terrible about it the next day. It is even more evident for those who drink and wake up the next morning to a pounding head and unstable stomach.

So instead of feeling bad the next day, let’s try and feel good next week. So today, instead of heading out after work and buying a large pizza and a very large bottle of Coke, I’m trying something new. So this morning I brought in a present to my office, Girl Scout cookies, thin mints to be exact, for them, not me to enjoy although I’ll have to sneak one or two. At lunch I’m heading out to a salad and soup place and if I weren’t hobbling around on a busted foot at the moment it would absolutely be a gym night. Instead tonight, I’ll see a movie and then focus on my meditation.

Hopefully tomorrow, I’ll wake up feeling better, time away from a disappointment often allows for that, and feel even better, even happier for having done some positive things today. I’ll let you know how it turns out, have a happy day my friends.

The greatest happiness is to transform one’s feelings into action. ~ Madame de Stael

The Ministry of Happiness

Time for a Happiness Day

Time for a Happiness Day

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Happiness and Grateful for Good Health

Happiness and Grateful for Good Health

Some Other Adventure Posts You Might Enjoy!

Happiness and Easter

Happiness and Easter

Dalai Lama on the kindness of others

Happiness and Work

Happiness and Work

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Dalai Lama: Mosquito interrupted Happiness

Happiness and harsh words

Happiness and writing away the darkness

Happiness and writing away the darkness

Ephemeral Tendrils 3/27/11

OTHER LINKS YOU MIGHT ENJOY!

Happiness and Independence

Happiness and Disappointment

Happiness and Disappointment

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

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