15 Ways to be Happy During Trying TImes

Exercise–get your blood moving.

Sunshine–changes your mood and elevates Vitamin D (especially important for depression) 15-20 minutes a day on large skin areas–arms, legs, back, or face (If you’re in cold country take a supplement).

Enjoy one thing–switch tracks, get out of the “aint it awful” groove.

Make good stick–Spend 10-30 seconds on something positive to anchor it in your brain.

Ask a question–Is what I think true? Really? Do I KNOW it? Or am I imagining or being a “mind-reader”?

Put bad in Perspective–in 5 years…in 10 yrs…will this matter?

Change your Thoughts–Your brain can only hold one thought at a time –let go of the negative and find a good one.

Take back your power–Choose –Change your attitude.

Smile–It changes your mood.

Breathe–7 seconds in, 7 seconds out–for 20 minutes. Doing this daily can change your life. It’s the #1 antidote for stress.

Plan time with a Friend/Make a friend.

Try something new–learning is positive and gives new perspective.

Get a Relationship with God–all you have to do is ask.

Spend time alone with God–meet Him in your living room, nature, Holy books.

Pray–talking to God always works if you are willing to learn to live in faith.

 

 

How in the World…?

Have you heard about the studies on memory? There’s a good reason to NOT insist that you know, that you are right: you are most likely wrong. Memory is very subjective. Most of us distort things that happen, or the things we hear, or what we think we remember.

Maybe you noticed that I did it in my last blog. I quoted God’s promise of a new heart as in Ezekiel 33:33 from memory, intending to check it before I hit publish. But I forgot. I knew it was great numbers, but also knew I should check. Well, I checked on it this morning, and it isn’t 33:33; it is 36:26, and I was embarrassed.

Most probably none of you looked, but someone may have just because it is a great reference–like No way! too good to be true. The numbers were too good to be true, the promise isn’t.

I can tell you I have my promised new heart. But I have noticed something very curious. When Spirit first confronted me on my hard heart, and gave me a new one, just for admitting my hard one and my need, it seemed much better. I was so different it was amazing to me. I loved it. But it was more like He had given me His heart as a loaner, until I had sense to ask for myself. Maybe just to show me the difference?

I don’t know. But the one I got on my request is much more like me. It definitely feels like mine. It is still better, easier to be nice, no need to fight, not self-protective, but it has my quirks. My first experience (His loaner) was not even having a feeling of resistance or threat or protecting myself. It felt like complete freedom! I wasn’t watching if “he” was doing things right, I wasn’t worried about anything! God would handle it or it didn’t matter. Even my husband noticed and said I was different!

And with my new heart I’m finding I can worry if I want. I can still squeak when he opens the oven on my popovers! And he can still say, “You haven’t changed,” in response. I think that was disappointing for both of us.

What did we think, that I’d be perfect? Nobody is ever going to be perfect here. The closer you get to God the more you see your faults. But it doesn’t feel as bad as long, because you know that He (They) are so gentle and tender and forgiving.

It’s all about perspective. Where you focus. I say this a lot, you will see what you are looking for--and it’s so true. But then there is the balance. You have to have your eyes open to come out of denial. Parents can often miss things that their kids need real help with because they don’t want to see it.

It’s difficult to live in an evil world! David expressed it with pathos in Psalm 55-59. The only safe place for hope is God. The only real one you can trust is God. The only goodness you can count on is God. And you can choose to praise Him!

When you live with your new heart, when you keep your eyes on Him, you can still be free and happy! But it is a choice. As Martin Doblmeier, an award-winning film maker, says, “If we are constantly moving, why not choose to move toward what is good, following the path toward what you believe to be sacred?” He’s talking about growing, and I would say, Yes! There are Three (Abba, Jesus, Spirit) who long to help us!

Ten Seconds to Changing Your LIfe

So did you take the ten-second challenge? Becoming more joyful is not as easy as it seems, is it? It’s like trying to improve your posture. You have to remember to think about it. And decide again and again if the effort is worth it. But who doesn’t want more joy in your life? Who doesn’t want to be a happier person?

We don’t realize that choice has so much to do with how we feel. We tend to believe that how we feel is out of our control, or controlled by what happens to us.

If that were true we would have no real freedom. Fortunately, it’s not.

Some happenings are bad and do demand a time of grief and thought, but many more times we just get caught up in fear or anxiety that is unnecessary. If you have no control and no responsibility, let it go. Don’t weigh yourself down with pain and problems that don’t belong to you.

As a therapist, I listen to people’s pain and problems all the time; it’s part of the job, but I listen to them for them. I don’t take it in. It isn’t mine. It doesn’t belong to me. If I take on their pain, I’m no good to them. My job is to walk through it with them, and help them experience it, see it clearly, and make choices about it.

Is it the end of the world? No, not even if it feels like it. Face it. Experience it. Get out of it by doing what you can, and go back to focusing on the good in your life.

The hardest things to do this with are death, divorce, and the pain of your children. That last one is maybe the hardest. But we must remember that pity is the nastiest thing we can do to another person. Children are hard-wired for struggle. It’s how they grow and develop character. We don’t want to take it away–just strengthen them to walk through it with the truth about themselves.

And the truth is always that God loves them and wants the very best for them. God is good and can be trusted, but has enemies who are very active here–that is where suffering comes from. And that is precisely why we don’t want to give it a lot of time. Do you want to walk with God or His enemies?

God is never surprised by pain or happenings. He always has a way out, you only have to ask Him to show it to you. Then trust that He will because you are His kid, and go back to making sure the good things in your life get at least ten seconds of notice. God wants you to thrive.

Ten Seconds to Happiness

This isn’t just a hook or a catchy title to get you to read it, it’s the truth about why we live in the lowlands of negativity. I may have written about it before but it bears repeating. Joy is a choice, largely. Fasting for joy has brought this front and center. I call it the 10-second rule. You can use it to change your life.

We have so much good in our lives that mostly we let it go by without notice. A beautiful sunset usually gets a notice but sometimes not even ten seconds. A beautiful flower, a gentle breeze, the sent of orange blossoms or honeysuckle might get two seconds. The way the sun feels on your face or back, or the way it looks coming through leaves or lighting up green hills–all or any gets a nod, maybe two, even three seconds, but not much more. Yet it takes 10-30 seconds to anchor something for keeping in our unconscious mind. (Yes, that’s the same as the subconscious.)

Now think about something bad that happens. A stranger takes out their stress by snapping at you. Your spouse lets his/her irritation show. Does it get ten seconds? Almost always. In fact, it is hard to dismiss any negative thought or experience in under ten seconds. We usually give it much more than that. So we end up with all this stored negativity in our unconscious mind. And when we aren’t focused on something, that’s what floats up.

It is who we become.

It takes thought and awareness and choice to change it. But what a simple, lovely exercise–choosing to enjoy  the good for 10 seconds or more. Holding on to it, savoring it for at least 30 seconds. Go ahead, try it. See if it’s as easy as it sounds.

To be continued…

Who Wouldn’t?

So I’m a week into fasting from negativity. So far it’s been wonderful. A few tough spots, and the set up was a little rough.

Last time I wrote about the choice to do it, my computer crashed and took two days to reboot. A week later the hard drive completely crashed~as in have to buy a new one~crashed. From something my editing teacher said I needed to download. ???

I love writing in my gazebo, so it was a bit tough to give up my lap-top and not hit the slough of negativity. But I thought how grateful I am that my husband has the desk-top working well, so there is no interruption to my “God-in-a-Box” blog at its most powerful time.

And then I got the idea to work in my back garden two hours in the morning instead of my body-ball workout. The weather has been wonderful, and once again I have sore muscles, but the yard is looking good, and I am happy. My mornings have been dazzled in sunlight and symphonic  bird songs. How blessed is that! I love mornings~ always have.

Who doesn’t love good things? Almost everyone wants to be happy. And now I’m very aware of everything that interferes with it. What’s crazy, is that so much of it was beliefs–don’t deserve it, something bad will happen, you jinx yourself–crazy stuff.

We were made to be happy. Of course the design didn’t include anything bad around us influencing us–our own heads programmed with negativity.

But we are still made for it! So we can still choose it.

I know that is a big word with so much outside of us and inside of us working against it, but if you know it is your birthright, your inheritance, and all you have to do is choose it (and get several lies healed) why wouldn’t you?

I know many things are coming to your mind right now–reasons why…  so write them down. And if you really would like to live happier, more joyful, like you were made to, choose it.

Now go to God and ask for help and truth for your lies. HE WANTS YOU HAPPY and JOYFUL! Really.

Who wouldn’t want that?