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There is a definite link between happiness and success in this sense. The happier you are, the more successful you are likely to be.

Are you ready to accept the greatest gift I or perhaps anyone else has ever given you?

Today I’m going to offer you some magic words that have the power to change your life. I know that’s an incredible promise, and if you are skeptical I wouldn’t blame you. But I can assure you the magic words I will give you, if used, will bring you a lifetime of happiness and nothing less!

First, a brief background.

As long as I can remember I’ve been intrigued by the mystery of how to achieve happiness. Some would even say I’ve been obsessed by it.

Why? I have always wanted to become a happy, positive person myself.

What intrigued me was this simple observation. Nearly everyone I’ve ever met, including many a friend, is sad and unhappy most all the time. Indeed, the most popular conversation amongst all people I’ve been with consists of complaints and negativity about life, which doesn’t necessarily exclude me.

Think about your own life. I’d bet the truly happy people you could point to are few and far between. If you’ve known more than a handful of such people, I feel you have been truly blessed.

Individuals who are happy, optimistic, positive and self-confident are definitely the rarest of humans.

Does happiness come from achievements? Or special events in life?

Clearly, happiness does not come from business success. Material possessions. A certain amount of money in the bank. A terrific family. Or even a super romantic relationship.

I’ve witnessed millionaires with every blessing imaginable who are depressed and unhappy, and on the other hand a few individuals who have almost nothing resembling the above who are happy, content, and optimistic.

What, then, is the secret to happiness?

I’ve pursued my own happiness with diligence. Below, I’m going to reveal the most important lessons I’ve learned…………

I submit that all happiness is a result of our self-talk. Our internal dialogue is the key. It’s all in the words we use.

It matters not what happens to us in life, but in the words we use silently to “frame” it in our minds.

Our emotional state–happiness, depression, anger, joy, etc.–follows from the words we use with ourselves.

The subconscious mind, which is many times more powerful than our conscious mind, gives off signals which are translated into human emotions.

You may have read the profound poem which illustrates this point so well:

“Two men looked through prison bars. One saw the night, and one saw the stars.”

We humans can be happy even in a prison, or in poverty, if we learn how to talk to our subconscious.

Think for a moment about the incredible implications.

Of course, I’m not alone in discovering the amazing power of the silent words we use in our self-talk.

Numerous studies have been made which link self-talk with not only our emotions, but also with measurable physiological effects in our bodies. Your heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and level of stress are all impacted, or even controlled by, your self-talk. Meditation based upon self-talk and its effects on the body has undergone years of study. So has the effects of self-hypnosis, also based on the impact of words upon us. Neuro-Linguistic Programming has shown us many of the effects of positive self-talk as well as the important role of physiology on our emotional state.

The most important ‘copy’ you will ever write is that which you create and print each day on your own subconscious.

The words you say silently to yourself as well as out loud to others result in all your emotions.

I’m going to present you with new alternatives. New magic words and other tips which I use in my own life.

The most powerful phrase I’ve ever used I just so happen to hear a few months ago on the Larry King T.V. program during his interview with the old skool comedienne Carol Burnett. Carol was talking lovingly about her late daughter Carrie and what an inspiration she was, even while suffering from lung and brain cancer, for she lived each day to the maximum. She was known for using this seven-word phrase herself and teaching it to all her friends and contacts in their self-talk:

“Today I’m going to love my life.”

These words impacted me so much I tried them. Then I added them to my own favorite self-talk phrases.

The impact of this very simple phrase has been astonishing.

Try it yourself right now. Say it silently………..and now say it out loud.

“Today I’m going to love my life.”

You will be delighted with how you feel, especially when you use these words upon rising in the morning. Even if you are experiencing some frustrations, disappointments or even tragedies, as we all do in life, use these words. You don’t even have to believe them when you say them, as your subconscious will integrate and use them anyway.

Even if you are experiencing, e.g., continuous unemployment, bad breath, business or financial setbacks, a family crisis, major relationship issues, an IRS audit, a serious disease, ’stank-azz crotch’, or even crippling injury, use these 7 magic words.

Trust me. You’ll be surprised, even overwhelmed with the power of these 7 words.

Once again:

“Today I’m going to love my life”

Other helpful tips

– Meditate once or twice a day for 20 minutes. This powerful exercise will make a huge difference. A good book on the topic is The Relaxation Response by Dr. Herbert Benson.

– Physiology is also important. The experts say the way you use your body can account for 54% of your emotions. Committing yourself to daily exercise is a great start.

– Breathe deeply through your nose, exhale through your mouth. Do this for at least two minutes.

– Walk, ‘ride’, skate or swim at least 30-60 minutes 4 times a week.

– Smile as often as possible. Practice in front of a mirror, even if it seems silly and pathetic. You’ll be amazed when you begin to feel better about yourself and will be thrilled and delighted with how much better all your surrounding relationships will be.

– Avoid negativity and drama like the plague. Spend as much time as possible with positive, cheerful, enthusiastic people. Happiness is contagious, which can actually help those who have a bitter outlook on life. [*waves hand, reluctantly*]

Common phrases make a big difference to your emotional state. The words you say out loud to others also have as strong an influence on your emotions as your silent self-talk. Your spoken words have a cumulative effect on your subconscious. When you use negative words and phrases they drag you down as well as the person to whom you are speaking.

When people ask you how you are, avoid these common responses:

– I’ve been better
– Not bad
– Do you really want to know?
– How much time do you have?
– Fair to middlin’
– So-so
– I’m O.K.
– Comme ci, comme ca

Often such replies are just bad habits.

So, here is my normal reply and what I recommend to you.

When people ask, “Audiomind, how are you?”, I say:

“It just keeps getting better and B-E-T-T-E-R!”

At first it may feel a bit odd when you say it, but persevere and it will become a habit. You ARE dedicated to the relentless pursuit of excellence, are you not?

Achieving happiness is the best example I know of the one powerful attribute that only humans possess………..our ability to choose.

Happiness is a choice. And so is misery and unhappiness……..so which do you choose?

I’d be pleased to hear from you about your own personal happiness journey and of what value this short writing has been to you………..

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Chances are phenomenal that at least one time in your life, while driving, your car has run out of gasoline. When it happened, you undoubtedly were a little frustrated, since things like that always happen at the “worst possible time.”

Question: Have you ever deliberately run out of gas, or do you keep your eye on the gas gauge?
Chances are good that you take precautions to make certain you don’t run out of gas.

Another question: If you had to drive from coast to coast, would you try to make it non-stop?
Obviously, you would stop and fill up as you go.

I’m leading up to a point:
Motivation is the fuel necessary to keep the human engine running. We must be motivated by need, desire, excitement or something that gets us into action. What many people do not realize is that we need to fuel that motivation with encouragement by reading good books, attending inspirational seminars and listening to inspiring messages while we’re in our cars.

Regularly, someone will tell me that when they get “a little bit down,” they ‘plug in’ a tape or CD and it invariably gives them that lift they need. My question is always, “Why would you wait until you get ‘down’? Why not make it a way of life, so that as you drive, you automatically plug in some words of encouragement?”

It’s easier to stay “up” than it is to get “up.” Additionally, motivation is most beneficial when we are already inspired and “high.” Then, when we fuel the motivational engine, we will come up with more creative ideas. So keep your motivational tank full, and I’ll see you at the top!

DON’T LET PLEASURE KILL YOUR HAPPINESS

It’s my conviction that unless there is a little pleasure in life, one cannot be a happy person. Some people are satisfied with a few limited pleasures, but for most, pleasure is important.

Here’s a yardstick you need to use before you indulge in any pleasure: “Can I repeat this pleasure indefinitely and be happy?” If the answer is no, you want to be wary of indulging in that pleasure.

Greta Palmer wisely observed, “Those only are happy who have their minds on some object other than their own happiness — on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit followed not as a means but as itself an ideal end.”

Take this approach to happiness!

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another case of the feminist camp’s attempt at censorship?

Read on and you decide:
http://www.gabnet.com/lit/deich3e.htm

…more to this story l8r……

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More than two decades after its formal recognition as a mental illness in the official manual of psychiatric disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder continues to have an identity crisis.

As psychiatrists press for greater efforts to identify and treat what they deem a disorder that, undetected and unattended, can cause children unnecessary suffering, the critical minority pushes in the opposite direction, contending it is overzealous attention focused on inattention that is causing youngsters needless pain.

“Instead of a culture where we say we have the wealth and resources to identify people with mental illness and offer them treatment, we say instead mental illness is bad, but treatment is worse, so we’ll stigmatize both treatment and mental illness and incorporate the dysfunction associated with that into our definition of normal,” said Dr. John Walkup, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.

“That’s very sad for a progressive country,” he added. “You live with lots of dysfunctional people and say bad things happen to people, and we can’t do much about it.”

Off the mainstream-beaten path, one of the most dogged of the critics, Dr. Fred Baughman, a California neurologist who retired after 35 years in the field, has been tirelessly crusading against the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD.

“They made a list of the most common symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children; those which bother teachers and parents most, and — in a stroke that could not be more devoid of science or Hippocratic motive — termed them a ‘disease,’” he said.

“Twenty-five years of research … has failed to validate ADD/ADHD as a disease, and yet, the ‘epidemic’ has grown from half-million in 1985 to between 6 million to 7 million today!”

It is a charge he carries through his books, articles, television, radio and newspaper interviews, Internet postings, public lectures and protests and appeals to public health and government officials in the United States and abroad.

Baughman, who often testifies as an expert witness for plaintiffs claiming harm from psychiatric practices, has served as a medical adviser to The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a self-described watchdog group founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology.

Scientology’s anti-psychiatry absolutism and efforts to limit psychotropic drug use through legislation received a worldwide airing when one of its most visible adherents, actor Tom Cruise, railed against the “pseudo-science” in general and ADHD drug treatments Adderall and Ritalin in particular during a movie-promoting interview June 24, 2005, on NBC’s “Today” show.

The ensuing firestorm brought out the top guns of the psychiatric mainstream and its bevy of supporters to denounce the remarks as deceptive and damaging.

Much of the outcry mirrored complaints lodged in a consensus statement issued in 2002 by an international group of scientists attesting to the legitimacy of ADHD as a mental disorder.

Among other displeasures, the statement bristled at “the periodic inaccurate portrayal of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder … in media reports.” It also expressed fear that “inaccurate stories rendering ADHD as myth, fraud or benign condition may cause thousands of sufferers not to seek treatment for their disorder.”

The profession’s blanket censure of Cruise was not unanimous. In a “Today” follow-up, Harvard University psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Glenmullen conceded a few points to the Hollywood heartthrob, namely, that psychiatric drugs can mask the real problem, be overprescribed and aim to fix an unproven chemical imbalance in the brain.

These ideas were soundly rebuffed by fellow guest on the program Dr. Steven Sharfstein, president of the 35,000-member American Psychiatric Association.

In a replay of earlier media criticism, pundits used the television parade of unlike-minded talking heads that followed Cruise’s lambaste as grounds for reprimanding reporters who give equal representation to views out of step with predominant thinking.

“Medical reporting needs to be based, obviously, on solid critical thinking and great reporting,” Dr. Ivan Oransky, deputy editor of The Scientist and a board member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, told Psychiatric Times, which touts itself as “the most widely read publication in the field of psychiatry.”

“You will see the fringes of science and medicine because, for whatever reason, journalists are not able to distinguish between an either mainstream or prevailing opinion and not.”

Cruise’s was but one of a series of dust storms of dissent kicked up over the nature of ADHD, which has been linked to everything from the Digital Revolution to biological evolution.

Author and social theorist Douglass Rushkoff, for one, has portrayed the condition as a defense mechanism of multimedia-steeped children cutting off their attention to avert the onslaught of omnipresent and exploitative advertising.

Writer and radio talk-show host Thom Hartmann, in turn, has described it as an expression of biodiversity emanating from the natural course of human events.

The prevailing view among the medical mainstream shrugs off the naysayers. It maintains cutting-edge tools have pried loose some of the mind’s innermost secrets, leading to a consensus on ADHD as an unquestionably common condition rooted in inherited biological and chemical brain abnormalities.

Definitive answers are at a premium, however, and the complex mechanisms underlying ADHD remain under investigation.

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