The Strategies
Enjoy this experpt from the book Strategies for Happiness: How to Achieve Your Happiness Potential. To get the full story, Click here to order a copy today!
Give Yourself Permission
Allow yourself to be happy. It's not a matter of whether you deserve it. It's a matter that you choose it. It's as simple as giving yourself permission to be happy and to pursue the life you want. Just say yes to happiness. Allow yourself the freedom to have it in your life.
So often, we feel guilty for feeling happy, or for even wanting to feel happy. We somehow think that it's not right. It's not a matter of being right or wrong. The simple truth is that happiness is there for the taking if you will allow it to be.
You may feel you don't deserve to be happy because of your actions and thoughts that you make you feel unworthy. However, it has nothing to do with what you have done or not done or whether or not you are worthy. You are worthy, just because. It's as simple as that. You exist. Your own personal, wonderful being is as worthy as anyone else is to be happy, and you have just as much opportunity to achieve it.
On the other hand, your actions may not always be in your best interest or in the best interests of those around you. You may need to take a look at your actions and ensure that they are worthy of you. The fact that you are worthy of happiness is no excuse for behaviour that abuses others or yourself.
If you worry about being worthy of happiness or anything else, or if you are waiting until the magical day arrives that you do something great in order to deserve it, you will wait in vain and waste precious time. We are so conditioned into thinking that we need to be doing something in order to be worthy when, as I have already said, just being is enough.
Selfish! No way! The best way to serve and help others is to ensure that you are the best you can be, and in being the best, you are able to fully serve and help others. The first step is to learn to love yourself and in order to do that, you need to say yes to the concept.
A common trap is waiting for others to say we are OK. We feel that if others see our value or worth, than maybe it's OK to feel good. This is a big mistake. While it's nice to have others pat us on the back and say nice things about us, it can become addictive, and doesn't give us the solid footing we need. If we give ourselves permission to see and claim our value and worth, then we won't be dependent upon others. We don't need others to tell us that it's OK to be happy. We must come to know that within ourselves.
The first step to doing this is to choose to say "It's Okay."
Give Yourself Permission to Feel Bad
While giving yourself permission to be happy is important, there will always be times when you experience negative emotions. Express them, but don't obsess over them. Give yourself permission to feel what you are authentically feeling. If you feel like crap, you are not authentic if you just smile and say "I am happy" because the truth is, you aren't. The truth is that you will not feel happy every moment of every day.
Instead, express that you are going to give yourself permission to do whatever it takes to develop happiness – to choose to overcome it. There is ultimate power in making such a decision. Then move forward by taking the actions that work for you.
Ask yourself questions to help you focus on what you can do to overcome the situation, such as "What is the best way to overcome this situation?" or "What will it take to create happiness in my life?"
Give Yourself Permission to Fail
If we wait until we think we are good enough, we will never get there. Sometimes our attempts fall short. We fall on our face and maybe look a little foolish. Give yourself permission to make these mistakes. Misfires often become wonderful opportunities to learn and grow and are often an opportunity to have a really good laugh. When you accomplish a task, you get there not because you deserve it nor because you are perfect at it but because you conceived the idea, made the plan, and then took action. As a result, you achieved your goal.
Give Yourself Permission to Succeed
We should all take a lesson from my Aunt Lilie who loves to memorize and recite poetry. Even at the age of 92, with most of her sight gone, she still stimulates her brain by learning new poems.
Find a copy of the marvelous poem Oh, The Places You'll Go by the word genius Dr. Seuss and memorize it. It is a marvelous ode about what the future can hold for us, how we have the power to decide what our life is going to be like and a vision for success. It is so positive and down to earth it can really propel you when you are "in a slump." It can help to get you into the mindset of taking control of your life and permitting happiness to happen.
Do not just pin it up so you can look at it now and then, but put your brain to work, and learn the poem by heart. It will exercise your brain, and is a lot of fun, as well as being a fantastic energy builder.
When you recite something that has been memorized, it seeps into your pores and becomes part of you, which makes it more meaningful. It is simply a pleasure. Oh, The Places You'll Go is such a powerful book that you will find it not only in the children section, but also the business section of bookstores.
After you have this poem under your belt, find more that you can also commit to memory. Build a whole repertoire of poems. Trust me, you will enjoy it.
Give Yourself Permission to be Happy
Since happiness is such a good feeling, people think they have to be good in order to be given permission to feel good. They don't allow themselves the joy of happiness because they feel they don't deserve it.
Brainstorm reasons why it's important to give yourself permission to be happy. Write whatever comes to your mind, and don't stop to think. Force yourself to continue for the full 10 minutes.
After you have finished, display in a prominent a poster which states the top 5 reasons as follows:
I am worthy of Happiness and will give myself permission to be happy because. . .
So, from this point onward, allow yourself to do whatever it takes to open your life to the Happiness Potential that is waiting to burst forth. You deserve it.