Now we've very simply discussed HE and HQ. But besides just learning about Happiness and even improving our actual HQ through various HQ techniques, paradgym shifts and inproved mind mastery, it's also important to enhance our lives by filling them with positive activities that we enjoy and improve us and others. DON'T JUST SIT AROUND! Get involved. Get out of your chair and do something. Take some dance or music lessons, attend various activities and groups, play some sports, get involved in some services that you enjoy (or at very least, go for a walk or just sing). And IF you're going to do a passive activity like watching TV, be proactive and find some programs you really enjoy (and something that doesn't have negative after effects).
The acid test of beneficial Happiness activities is- Do you enjoy them AND do they make you feel better afterwards? (if not, they are transient at best, and very detrimental at worst). *The very best of happiness activites actually improve you as a person. More on this later.
The acid test of beneficial Happiness activities is- Do you enjoy them AND do they make you feel better afterwards? (if not, they are transient at best, and very detrimental at worst). *The very best of happiness activites actually improve you as a person. More on this later.
So let's begin designing your HL Happy Life.
First it is helpful to write a Happiness List of activities that you now enjoy or enjoyed in the past (you may have forgotten many of these, so take a few minutes and remember all of the fun activities and hobbies you've enjoyed over the years).
When I did this in earnest over 12 years ago before writing my happiness book (and while in Tokyo, Japan), among other things, I remembered how I used to enjoy riding a bicycle and having numerous pets.
So first, I quickly went out and purchased an inexpensive bike. I began riding it a few times a week all around our neighborhood. I was pleasantly surprised by how much ground I could cover and how well I began to know our neighborhood and all of the interesting sites (a side effect was getting in even better shape).
Then I decided to go to the pet shop. We soon ended up purchasing a prairey dog, a cockateil along with a parakeet. This gave me/us a great deal of enjoyment, and I was able to feel many of the fun feelings I had as a child raising all of my many animals. Later, we also purchased a cute, lively rabbit which we've kept for over 10 years and just recently gave to friend of our daughters who can pay more attention than we do and because of our frequent traveling. We now have a fantastic half german shepherd/lab dog. We've had him 5 years now and experience at least a good hour or so of enjoyment with him almost every day. And we have a next door neighbor who also has a lab dog and keeps them together when we're out of town.
There are many happiness inducing activities which my wife and I have added to our list. One of them is dancing and going to occasional concerts. I'm not going to go into that right now, but what I will say is there are many happiness inducing activities (and events) that are probably offered in your community that you could avail yourselves of. I will just mention that the last concert we attended in Feb. 2011 was Styx, and it only cost us $38 (for 2 tickets AND the room!) in Prim, Nevada, less than a 2 hour drive from our home.
The last upper tab is entitled: "FREE/inexpensive Activities in St. George, UT/Mesquite, NV". On this page we will eventually be adding all kinds of fun, free or inexpensive activities that are offered in this area (and also some of the more major events like concerts etc. in Las Vegas which is just 75 minutes from where we live). I welcome others in our area to provide information of happy events they're aware of.
Of course, you can always check your daily paper which usually has a community sections with mostly free events offered around your town.
You will find various groups that either meet weekly or monthly. You will also find free lectures, concerts and other fun events.
In St. George they have an organization called ICL which offers around 40 classes a week (ranging from photography, computers and language classes to American history and World religions). The cost is a remarkably low $40 a year.
There are almost always plenty of happiness inducing activities if you're aware of them. And happiness studies definitely show that we are gregarious by nature and do much better being with people and having friends. Attending these type of activities allows you to meet new friends with common interests and further develop your social skills. High HQ people are very good at communicating and making friends. So this is a skill that is well worth developing. It will provide you with greater happiness and probably greater income (as happiness studies show that happier people make more money too).
In my book (and the happiness classes) I will be going into all of the various types of happiness activities and how they affect our happiness. Two last obvious ones are time spent with family/loved ones (and the all important SERVICE to others). Definitely add these to your Happy Life design. They can increase your happiness level tremendously, especially when you've been increasing your HQ with more positive thinking and thankful attitudes etc. But there is somewhat of an art to incorporating them in a way that is not overly stressful and more enjoyable from the beginning (this may require some more understanding and learning).
When I do personal HQ coaching and HL design, I first go through all of the person's interests, talents and dreams. We then find out all what is available to them both within their comunity and even beyond. We then go through and systematically design and get them involved in truly "getting a life" (one full of happy activities, fullfillment and service). We take this one step at a time, and thoroughly enjoy the ever expanding process.
We also go into each person's financial situation and determine how to best utilize this resource for their maximum happiness AND health. Most people's finances and values are way out of alignment. They know that health, family and happiness activities are really what it's all about, yet their actual life styles are almost completey incongruent. This is probably one of the big reasons that "Most men (and woman) live lives of quiet desperation." and have ever increasing health problems, stress and deteriorating family relations.
I want to just end by giving an example of one wealthy person I did Happiness coaching for. Being a very private person AND Japanese, he hasn't given me permission to use his name, but the general specifics are: His fully personally owned company was making almost $3 million/year in net profits and he was a fairly handsome, in shape guy, yet he always gave his happiness level as a 2 or less on a 0 to 10 scale.
I gave him a copy of my newly published happiness book and I ended up personally advising him for 4 sessions during the next 2 months. We implemented various HQ techniques and concrete actions. His happiness level went up to an average 5 plus (with many 6's and 7's he hadn't experienced for years), and he improved his relationship with his daughter. His posture and overall demeanor dramatically improved and he ended up enjoying the company of a few very attractive woman over the next few years. What is also very interesting, is that his income increased to over $10 million/year within 4 years.
His increased HQ had given him much more energy, better health, more friends, a positive and attractive attitude and much more efficient focus, efforts and creativity in his work. Other than the income, most of this occurred within just 2 months. I had offered the coaching for free, but he gladly gave me over $5,000 in services at our last session. He couldn't believe the huge difference just learning HE and working on his HQ had made. Little did he know at that time that it would go on to make him many millions of more money (I should mention that I also gave him some financial advise that he finally implemented and probably significantly contributed to his financial success too).
Note: Sometimes, others I've personally coached have actually determined that they didn't need/want to work anymore, and that they already had enough money and no longer needed to stress themselves out (and ruin their health) working so hard, like a person I very recently worked with who realized he and his family could live happily on about 60% of their current expenses by cutting out non-happiness related expenses, simplifying and cutting out work related expenses. As with him, this often has a tremendously positive effect on the person's happiness level, family relations AND health.
For sooo many reasons, Decide NOW that you are going to make HAPPINESS YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY! It really IS our number one responsibility! (because of how it betters our lives and those around us). Now, invest the necessary time to make it happen (not the way the world has been telling you but the superior way you are now learning).
Please feel free to email or call with any questions or comments.
I really do want the best for you!
It is always my joy and PRIVILEDGE to work with you in creating your new Happy Life, better health, relations (and even more prosperous finances).
Warm regards,
Edward Southwick Jr. "America's Happiness Coach"
For group lessons or personal coaching information, email Edward at japanus@msn.com or call 435-669-6615
© Copyright 1998−2011 Edward Southwick Jr. & Life Success Institute Ltd. All Rights Reserved
First it is helpful to write a Happiness List of activities that you now enjoy or enjoyed in the past (you may have forgotten many of these, so take a few minutes and remember all of the fun activities and hobbies you've enjoyed over the years).
When I did this in earnest over 12 years ago before writing my happiness book (and while in Tokyo, Japan), among other things, I remembered how I used to enjoy riding a bicycle and having numerous pets.
So first, I quickly went out and purchased an inexpensive bike. I began riding it a few times a week all around our neighborhood. I was pleasantly surprised by how much ground I could cover and how well I began to know our neighborhood and all of the interesting sites (a side effect was getting in even better shape).
Then I decided to go to the pet shop. We soon ended up purchasing a prairey dog, a cockateil along with a parakeet. This gave me/us a great deal of enjoyment, and I was able to feel many of the fun feelings I had as a child raising all of my many animals. Later, we also purchased a cute, lively rabbit which we've kept for over 10 years and just recently gave to friend of our daughters who can pay more attention than we do and because of our frequent traveling. We now have a fantastic half german shepherd/lab dog. We've had him 5 years now and experience at least a good hour or so of enjoyment with him almost every day. And we have a next door neighbor who also has a lab dog and keeps them together when we're out of town.
There are many happiness inducing activities which my wife and I have added to our list. One of them is dancing and going to occasional concerts. I'm not going to go into that right now, but what I will say is there are many happiness inducing activities (and events) that are probably offered in your community that you could avail yourselves of. I will just mention that the last concert we attended in Feb. 2011 was Styx, and it only cost us $38 (for 2 tickets AND the room!) in Prim, Nevada, less than a 2 hour drive from our home.
The last upper tab is entitled: "FREE/inexpensive Activities in St. George, UT/Mesquite, NV". On this page we will eventually be adding all kinds of fun, free or inexpensive activities that are offered in this area (and also some of the more major events like concerts etc. in Las Vegas which is just 75 minutes from where we live). I welcome others in our area to provide information of happy events they're aware of.
Of course, you can always check your daily paper which usually has a community sections with mostly free events offered around your town.
You will find various groups that either meet weekly or monthly. You will also find free lectures, concerts and other fun events.
In St. George they have an organization called ICL which offers around 40 classes a week (ranging from photography, computers and language classes to American history and World religions). The cost is a remarkably low $40 a year.
There are almost always plenty of happiness inducing activities if you're aware of them. And happiness studies definitely show that we are gregarious by nature and do much better being with people and having friends. Attending these type of activities allows you to meet new friends with common interests and further develop your social skills. High HQ people are very good at communicating and making friends. So this is a skill that is well worth developing. It will provide you with greater happiness and probably greater income (as happiness studies show that happier people make more money too).
In my book (and the happiness classes) I will be going into all of the various types of happiness activities and how they affect our happiness. Two last obvious ones are time spent with family/loved ones (and the all important SERVICE to others). Definitely add these to your Happy Life design. They can increase your happiness level tremendously, especially when you've been increasing your HQ with more positive thinking and thankful attitudes etc. But there is somewhat of an art to incorporating them in a way that is not overly stressful and more enjoyable from the beginning (this may require some more understanding and learning).
When I do personal HQ coaching and HL design, I first go through all of the person's interests, talents and dreams. We then find out all what is available to them both within their comunity and even beyond. We then go through and systematically design and get them involved in truly "getting a life" (one full of happy activities, fullfillment and service). We take this one step at a time, and thoroughly enjoy the ever expanding process.
We also go into each person's financial situation and determine how to best utilize this resource for their maximum happiness AND health. Most people's finances and values are way out of alignment. They know that health, family and happiness activities are really what it's all about, yet their actual life styles are almost completey incongruent. This is probably one of the big reasons that "Most men (and woman) live lives of quiet desperation." and have ever increasing health problems, stress and deteriorating family relations.
I want to just end by giving an example of one wealthy person I did Happiness coaching for. Being a very private person AND Japanese, he hasn't given me permission to use his name, but the general specifics are: His fully personally owned company was making almost $3 million/year in net profits and he was a fairly handsome, in shape guy, yet he always gave his happiness level as a 2 or less on a 0 to 10 scale.
I gave him a copy of my newly published happiness book and I ended up personally advising him for 4 sessions during the next 2 months. We implemented various HQ techniques and concrete actions. His happiness level went up to an average 5 plus (with many 6's and 7's he hadn't experienced for years), and he improved his relationship with his daughter. His posture and overall demeanor dramatically improved and he ended up enjoying the company of a few very attractive woman over the next few years. What is also very interesting, is that his income increased to over $10 million/year within 4 years.
His increased HQ had given him much more energy, better health, more friends, a positive and attractive attitude and much more efficient focus, efforts and creativity in his work. Other than the income, most of this occurred within just 2 months. I had offered the coaching for free, but he gladly gave me over $5,000 in services at our last session. He couldn't believe the huge difference just learning HE and working on his HQ had made. Little did he know at that time that it would go on to make him many millions of more money (I should mention that I also gave him some financial advise that he finally implemented and probably significantly contributed to his financial success too).
Note: Sometimes, others I've personally coached have actually determined that they didn't need/want to work anymore, and that they already had enough money and no longer needed to stress themselves out (and ruin their health) working so hard, like a person I very recently worked with who realized he and his family could live happily on about 60% of their current expenses by cutting out non-happiness related expenses, simplifying and cutting out work related expenses. As with him, this often has a tremendously positive effect on the person's happiness level, family relations AND health.
For sooo many reasons, Decide NOW that you are going to make HAPPINESS YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY! It really IS our number one responsibility! (because of how it betters our lives and those around us). Now, invest the necessary time to make it happen (not the way the world has been telling you but the superior way you are now learning).
Please feel free to email or call with any questions or comments.
I really do want the best for you!
It is always my joy and PRIVILEDGE to work with you in creating your new Happy Life, better health, relations (and even more prosperous finances).
Warm regards,
Edward Southwick Jr. "America's Happiness Coach"
For group lessons or personal coaching information, email Edward at japanus@msn.com or call 435-669-6615
© Copyright 1998−2011 Edward Southwick Jr. & Life Success Institute Ltd. All Rights Reserved
