Be Happy! Home is the Happiest Place to Live in

“The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.”—Thomas Jefferson.

The world may be a dreary, dreadful, and dangerous place to venture into. There may be cut-throat competition in which survival of the mean, cunning, and bully only is possible. It may not be a place for gentle, honest, and kind person like you. It is full of murderers, criminals, rapists, and swindlers. They are ready to snatch away the loaf of bread from your hand. You need a sanctuary from them. You need a place where there is love and care, understanding and compassion, give and take. You need somebody who could guide and protect you. You need somebody who could be equal partner in your joys and sorrows. You need somebody upon whom you could shower your love and care. You need a home and a family.

Parents sacrifice a lot and endure great hardships in up-bringing their children. They are selfless in their love and can even lay their lives for the protection of their children. A spouse is a life time partner in your days of sunshine and rain. Brothers and sisters are your friends and supporters. Your children are your life time fans who love you unconditionally. The love, care, and support of family is a great happiness. Blessed is the person who has got a family. And who amongst us has not got one? But we take family for granted. We don’t recognize it as a great source of happiness. The more happiness you give to your family the more you extract out of it.

You are born into a family and grow up within a family. A family not only provides comfort, enjoyment, and security, but it also gives emotional and spiritual bliss. In fact, one may find so much happiness within family that he or she may not need to search it outside it. The love and care of mother and father, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, wife or husband sustain us. Though love is one and the same yet the love of each is so different too. A family may extend beyond these immediate relations and may include grand parents, grand children, in-laws, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, and other relatives.

Can all the money of the world buy the love and affection of one’s parents? Can one be happy without them? How much enjoyment and happiness they add to our life? Similar is the case with brothers and sisters. At a later stage of life husband or wife becomes practically the sole arbiter of our happiness. Man or woman’s happiness nearly entirely depends on his or her spouse. At a still later stage sons and daughters become a great source of happiness. Bertrand Russell said, ‘I have found the happiness of parenthood greater than any other that I have experienced.’ Family relations give happiness, but at the same time to be a relation also gives happiness. It is happiness unlimited to be a son, a brother, a sister, a father, a mother, a husband, and a wife.

When you kiss your child, don’t you get a kiss in return?

When you hug your sister, don’t you get a hug in return?

When you love your spouse, don’t you get love in return?

Be Happy! You have your family which loves you!

BE HAPPY!

Are You Getting in the Way?

Getting out of our busy mode and into our heart occasionally, I'm certain that many of us would find at least one moment during our day where we could pause, reflect on a situation, and see something that we can do to make a difference in someone else's life.

The pace of life and work has increased a lot and I daresay we don't give as much thought as we could to the circumstances of other people's lives. Sometimes, we're so caught up in our own struggle that we don't think we can even afford the time to "give" our time, suggestions, talents, to others. And yet, if we do, we are rewarded.

We are often times, throughout our lives, able to experience richness, synchronicity, and reward through small acts of generosity. This isn't even about money, although sometimes the rewards will impact our financial status as well. And yet, we fail too often when we are so self-absorbed or consumed by our own situation thinking we'd give up too much by helping.

So, this is just a gentle reminder for all of us to pay attention to at least one "little thing" that will make a difference for someone else. Try to make it for someone you don't know well or don't know at all; family and friends are too easy and natural.

Are You Giving Yourself A Hard Time?

Are you constantly criticizing yourself for every little time you do wrong, for example saying things to ourselves like….“I should have said this”… “Look I can’t even do this simple thing”… “Everyone thinks I’m stupid” etc, etc.

I put my hand up too, I know I’m guilty of this as well as everyone, I often say things like “I wonder will anybody read this article” or “maybe they will think it stinks” blah, blah, blah.

But when you think of it if you had a best friend and you talked to them like this how long would they stay with you?.. Or would they even want to be around you? But we do this everyday and, when you really think about you’ll never be able to escape from "you" no matter how far you run, so today give yourself a break!!

We often go through our day to day life being constantly stressed out and on edge but when you think about it how much stress is actually coming from the outside and how much are you actually making yourself through negative thinking and letting your imagination run away with you?? So, today treat yourself and give yourself a pep talk

Try out this exercise on yourself when you have some quiet time to yourself. Put your left hand on your heart chakra (this point is in the middle of your chest) and slowly focus on your breathing as you do this, imagine your breath coming in through your hand and into your chest and with every inhalation feel a wave of relaxation entering with it.

And as you breathe out feel the stress going out of your body back out through your hand. When you find yourself starting to relax, start to say some positive affirmations to yourself out loud. Congratulate yourself for all that you’ve done that day and anything positive else you’d like to say.

If you find it a bit awkward to think of things to say to yourself …. mentally step back and think of you as a small child or a friend you really like and imagine what nice things they’d like to hear you say to them and then say these to yourself.

You’ll definitely start to feel a lot better about yourself and probably in the future you’ll catch yourself before you call yourself something nasty or start to pick on yourself!!

Successful Parenting

Successful parenting cannot be achieved by following human techniques and child psychology. True success in parenting only results from faithful obedience to God’s instructions for the family.

There is no better place, and certainly no more important place, for you to live out your faith than in your home. And if your home is not all it should be, it is undoubtedly because the principles of God’s Word are not being followed there.
The family is the one environment where your devotion, faith¬fulness, and consistency matter most. It’s where the most is at stake. It’s where the greatest blessings can be realized. There is simply no greater earthly blessing than raising your children in a way that honors God, and then seeing them grow up to honor God with their own lives. May God grant that blessing in your family.

Husband and wife, your marriage is the most important place
to live out your Christianity. If your Christianity is something re¬served for Sunday worship only, your family will fail. But if you live your faith in the midst of your family, every day will be fruit¬ful, productive, and blessed by God.
If you turn away from the principles of God’s Word, your fam¬ily life will be fraught with pain, disappointment, unfulfilling, sorrow, anger and every other fruit of disobedience. But if you fol¬low the pattern God has set forth for the family, He promises His blessing

A Place of Sanctuary - Creating Sacred Space

The World Health Organization (WHO) describes health as “the condition of perfect bodily, spiritual, and social well-being and not solely the absence of illness and injury.” As described by the WHO, how many of us feel emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy on a daily basis? We work in structures called ‘sick-buildings;’ we go home to care for families so tired we are almost unable to function; and we increasingly lose our connection with any sense of our place in the universe. How do we reclaim our life and start to think that our life matters and that we are important in the overall scheme of things? One way of doing this is to create our own sanctuary/sacred space.

Creating our own sacred space restores our peace of mind and enables us to stand back from the turmoil in our lives in order to provide a place where we can reconnect with our sense of self and reclaim our power. Exploration of sanctuary is to create a link to the Divine as our soul asks us to love, accept, and provide hospitality to ourselves when we are spiritually hungry. Spirituality is more than a psychological and emotional need: it is an inherent biological need as our energy, our spirit, and our personal power is all one and the same force. We need daily sanctuary as our heart and soul depends on it. When we give ourselves the gift of sacred time in a special place, we are feeding our spirit. Theodore Roszak writes, “We can now recognize that the fate of the soul is the fate of the social order; that if the spirit within us withers, so too will all the world we build about us.”

Creating Sacred Space in your Home, Workplace, and Garden

The first consideration in creating a sacred space in your home, workplace, or garden is defining the purpose in doing so. Some of the questions for consideration include:

1. What is it that you want your sacred space to provide for you?

2. Where will your sanctuary be located?

3. What feelings do you want?

4. What attracts you to your sanctuary?

5. What features do you want?

6. What colours do you want?

7. What sounds do you want?

Ideas and Options for Creating Sacred Space in your Home, Workplace, and Garden

In your place of sanctuary, some of the items you could include are:

· Candles – you can use candles to provide colour and when burning provide a point of focus for meditation. Scented candles can add a touch of fragrance to your environment.

· Plants – your plants will require care, and not only will make the air more healthy, but will encourage you to attend your place of sanctuary. Plants can also be used to enhance particular colours and fragrances you wish to add to your well-being.

· Water – adding desktop water fountains to your place of sacredness will not only provide the soothing sounds of water, but will also block out other noises in your environment.

· Music – music as my Dad used to say, “feeds the soul.” Use music you like, such as, sounds of nature or instrumental music, to provide a place of soothing for your soul.

· Aquariums – live fish and the sounds of water provide healing energy for your sacred space. In the Chinese culture, live fish are thought to be ‘good energy.’

· Rocks and stones – are considered in many cultures to be sacred. Use in your place of sanctuary and, when you are tired or stressed-out, re-arrange your ‘rock garden.’

· Walls – walls can be used to act as, or hang notice boards on, where you can post favorite pictures, quotes, and ideas.

· Spend at least 10 minutes a day (20 is better) in refreshing and renewing your spiritual self.

Finally, in creating your sacred space, remember you are unique. There will never be anyone on the planet like you and you have a right to spend time caring for yourself. As Richard Bolles in his book What Colour Is Your Parachute says, “You are God’s gift to the planet and your uniqueness is the gift to the rest of us.”