Integrity?

“Integrity may be seen as the quality of having a sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one’s actions.”

~ Wikipedia

I can’t say it strongly enough, that one of the foundations of happiness is integrity.

But just what is integrity?

Is it being honest? Yes, sort of.
Is it being good? Yes, most of the time.
Is it being spiritual? Yes, in a way.

In fact, integrity is when your values and your actions are the same.

Almost everyone has at least some integrity, and almost nobody has complete integrity. The closer our beliefs and actions are aligned, the more integrity we have – and the happier we are.

It’s worth taking a look at your life and seeing where your actions might not quite live up to your ideals. Look for ways to change your actions so that they are better aligned.

Happiness (Permission)

Happiness is sometimes what happens when you’re not looking. Sometimes we spend too much time searching for happiness. Sometimes, we should just let it come to us.

But first, you have to give yourself permission. That’s right, you have to allow yourself to feel happy. You can breathe, you can eat, you can smile…there are so many reasons to feel happy, but you have to give yourself permission, or else none of these things will make you any happier than you already are.

In contact with nature...

Our vacation has been over for a little while now, and even this short ½-Term break we had, just came to an end today, but it was wonderful.

Even though I live in the country-side I still find it refreshing and renewing to commune with nature, walking through a forest, biking around the countless bike-paths in our county, pushing my way into the mist of a waterfall, scaling a hill to see the view from the top, breaking through the waves over a submerged sandbar (although I don't do that often enough because this is the Ukay...), watching the seagulls and kestrels flying around me…these are experiences one just cannot do every day. And they bring us so much closer to our real roots.

As convenient as our daily shelters are, there is a little extra happiness every time we can commune with nature, each in our own way.

Happy (2)

There is such a thing as too much money. There is such a thing as too much fun. There is such a thing as too much food and too much to drink.

There is also such a thing as too little money. There is such a thing as too little fun. There is such a thing as too little food and too little to drink.

Somewhere in between happiness can be found...

Your own happiness...

You are in charge. That’s right, nobody controls your happiness but you.

It can be a scary prospect, wielding such influence over one’s own happiness. When we realize that happiness is within our control, there are suddenly no excuses, nobody to blame, no scapegoats. There is no more, “She made me angry” or “if only this would happen”. We each control our own happiness, and we each choose when we will feel happy.

But sometimes it is easier to just let other people decide our happiness. That is why we so easily fall into reacting to others and their actions. But that puts our happiness in their hands. And if there is one thing scarier than placing our happiness in our own hands, it’s placing our happiness in somebody else’s.

Happiness

How much happiness can you handle?

“All of it!” you might be tempted to answer. Sounds good to me.

But wait.

Too much of a good thing, even happiness, is not necessarily the best approach. We actually need downtime. We need time to feel sad occasionally. We need time to feel lazy. We do not need to be filling every moment with thrills.

While we embark on this journey to live happy lives and to spread happiness to others around us, let’s not forget that it’s okay to listen to our spirits and have some down time…

…just don’t get stuck there, because happiness awaits you.