10 Keys To Happiness
Gratitude is a thinking process emboldened with love and appreciation for all that life presents to you. Gratitude is intimately associated with abundance in the same way that one cannot have heat without fire.
Having gratitude for positive outcomes is easily understood, although not always practised for the simple reason we become caught up in the good outcome many times. Holding gratitude for the apparently less than positive outcomes is a much harder call and one that really calls into focus our deep life intentions.
These moments when we enter the arena of test and challenge are the very seeds that unlock the door to the positive. Not being able to see these in the light of their true gift often delays, postpones or outright cancels the arrival of the positive. When that positive does arrive, it is a reminder not to be grateful right then, but to be grateful every step of the way.
In this article the author explores gratitude in a manner well worthy of consideration. If you take each and every day, one step at a time in direct accord with these ideas, then gratitude will become an automatic quality that magnetizes the gifts of life to move rapidly towards you. (Nigel)
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By: KEMP REWETI (stuff.co.nz) – Unlike Pharrell, I sometimes don’t feel the need to spontaneously erupt into syncopated rhythmic clapping episodes, while dancing through the streets wearing an exaggerated hat made by the mad hatter himself. I concede that yes, such exhibitions can nonetheless be manifestations of happiness, but they are hardly practical.
As a husband, father, brother, son and friend, all of these aspects of who I am carry levels and opportunities for great moments and feelings of happiness. As an authentic human being, I can truly say I have tasted and experienced great rays of happiness in my life. They seem to be the golden threads that have woven my own life experiences together, all in an effort to motivate, inspire and create a drive of endurance within my own journey.
I’ve learnt in my short 32-year-old life span that happiness is truly a prized possession. There seems to be a relentless drive to attain it, create it, obtain it, bottle it, eat it and in modern times, Instagram it.
It seems more and more, however, for all its desirability within society, to be ever more fleeting, hard to find, and even more difficult to hold on to than ever. For all our modernistic and sometimes over-complicated ways of viewing the world, the true simplicity of what happiness is, seems to be slowly ebbing away.
My perspective on happiness is probably old fashioned (especially coming from a 30-or-so-year-old who still uses lol!) but I sincerely believe that there are patterns in life that can help foster happiness, and certain pathways of being that can lead to happiness – almost as if they were packaged up in golden boxes at the end of the double rainbow. Here are what I call The 10 commandments of happy – ignore them at your peril!
Commandment #1 – Thou shalt do good
A brilliant man once said, “when I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad!” Yes, there’s potential that that is an extremely simplistic example, but for all intents and purposes it definitely resonates a profound truth. I believe that a key component of accessing happiness is operating from a place of intent that desires good in the world. Whether that be in your own small space you abide, or a workplace, or a neighbourhood, or a work tea room. Wherever you are, decide to do good in whatever way you can. Complement someone with real intent, help someone with whatever they are doing, smile unashamedly to create smile contagiousness even. In doing good and persisting in that mindset through action, you open yourself up to goodness. Goodness is happiness’ brother, meet one, and you’re bound to bump into the other one sooner or later.
Commandment #2 – Thou shalt understand that happiness is striving
In a world of number three combos through a five-minute drive through, and instant access to anything and everything at the click of an overused mouse button, there lies something noble, something gallant, about being able to attain something worthy after numerous challenges. Yes, it’s true, our access to things and pleasurable sensations can be quick and delivered instantly. But on the other hand, persistent striving and endurance towards a worthy goal, creates a fulfillment and satisfaction that is extremely difficult to imitate. If we want to be happy, we must become obsessed with the perception that happiness is cumulative. Happiness requires much effort on our own part and if we understand that then we realise that it will eventually add up to a cumulative ball of holistic happiness. Fostering happiness takes time, remember that striving towards, for example, being a better friend, or a more studious university student, or to increase your capacity to play an instrument better will contain within those specific journeys – happiness! Said simply “be happy in the journey, not just the destination”.
Commandment #3 – Change thy attitude to gratitude
The happiest people are all grateful people. They also are usually not passive in their gratitude. Let me explain: grateful people are very adept at finding ways to actively express their gratitude. They write gratitude journals. They find ways to return their gratitude back towards people and God. It’s almost like they are aggressive (in a good way) in the way they express their gratitude. Be vocal and expressive in your demonstrations of gratitude. Be specific. Furthermore, pay attention to…
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