Overwhelmed? Be Happy

Last year there were 12 extreme weather events*; in 2010, there were 14,748 murders in the U.S. (a 4.2 percent decrease over 2009)*; there were 35.9 thousand motor vehicle deaths; heart disease was the leading cause of death in 2010 with 595,444 in the U.S.*  While some of these numbers are down over previous years, the numbers, titles, and subsequent data can easily become overwhelming, as it dominates the headlines in an attempt to capture out attention.

It is becoming more and more difficult to maintain happiness; perhaps a better way to put it is maintaining happiness is and will likely require a greater effort.  More work, that's what we all need- perhaps not, but let's see if we can navigate through some of this and aid ourselves in the process.

Not too many people would argue that happiness is an important component to our overall well being.  I have made recommendation in the past that everyone who follows my blog make a list of 10 things that make you happy; promise yourself every day to do at least one of them; my belief is that you will spend the rest of your life being happy.  So what does that mean?

Balance is probably the single most important word regarding one's well being.  Eat too much and you risk obesity, drink too much and risk liver failure, work to much and risk over stressing yourself or even your family.  Balance ensures that we are conscious about the effect of various lifestyle activities as they affect our wellbeing.  Personal trainers and public health commissions recommend a balance of a healthy diet and exercise.  Psychology experts recommend a good work life balance to maintain personal well being.  While we can't fully pull the reins on all of the factors that throw our lives into a tailspin at times (perhaps we could but that would be counter intuitive to creating the balance in most cases), we can stop from time to time and look at our lifestyle habits or contributing factors that the imbalance that is more destructive in our lives than productive.

With automobile sales on the rise again, that also means more pollutants in the air.  Take some time to visit a national park and hike or walk.  While the immediate impact and reduction to the intake of air pollution may not have a significant difference on your lungs, the psychological benefit is priceless- especially if you are able to do it with family, friends or a social network group that actually meets personally(meetup.com)  who you can enjoy spending time with.  Increasing your heart rate helps to flush out some of those toxins in your body as you increase the rate of exchange of spent air for fresh air.  Now you've done some good for your heart, lungs, muscles and mind.

Happy stone throwing boy (tap image to enlarge)

Understanding how our personal behaviors impact our bodies is critically important.  It is one of the reasons why individuals should have an annual physical, to monitor our body's activity and any abnormalities that may arise.  Such abnormalities are not likely escape the radar if we effectively monitor such patters over time and are able to capture shifts in our biological system.

Cycling is one of my personal favorites, but it is also important to mix in a variety of activities to break up your routine.  Going to a performing arts event; taking sailing lessons, and reading something enjoyable, all offer benefits including the opportunity to socialize in a world that (ahh-hmm) has us in front of a computer screen or on the cell phone way too often.

A recent article in Scientific America examines how scientist are working to create a drug that eliminates the painful memories such as PTSD.  Imagine if you would, the ability to, through your own psychology, technically change your own biological structure to induce happiness from a chemical standpoint.  In some ways that is possible, but what if you could do it on command.  That is what their research conjures up for me.  Time published an article on the effects of happiness in 2008 as it relates to interaction with others.

There are arguments for and against technology for many reasons; without it, we might not be able to fully take advantage of our human potential, yet with it, we (social creatures that we are) often find more reasons to stay at home.  Amazon means we don't have to go out, smart phones mean we don't have to ask other people, laptops mean we can stay glued to television programming; each of these takes a little bit more out of the very value we see in being human beings.

Being human lends itself to a variety of unique opportunities, one of which is the ability to be cognizant of when imbalances are overtaking our life.  The work is recognizing when that is occurring so we can respond and make adjustments when necessary-- which is often not just when we think we are OK.   Happiness is not the struggle, maintaining happiness or even identifying it can be.  Make your happy list  today and be active in maintaining it.  You may see that you are already doing some or all of the 10 things.  Once you get it, you will see how transformational it can be for you.  It is likely that you will begin building your life around being happy and that everything else will follow.



*Extreme weather events NCDC/ NOAA 
*FBI Uniformed Crime Reports
* Leading causes of death (CDC)