Being Happy - Part 2

When you feel unhappy, which happen to everyone once in a while, sit down and write down what is bugging you. Next, look at the opposite - the positive side of the incident - and list down as many pluses as possible. The benefits usually outweigh the disadvantages. Let's say you just had an argument with your best friend and was upset by it. So if you list down all the good points about this friend and compared them to what he/she had just done, you will usually realise that he/she is not that bad as a friend after all. Then in a matter of hours, if not days, both of you are best of friends again. However, in the rare event that you are still habouring unhappy thoughts about the friend who had been nasty to you, learn to LET GO. Grumbling about it all the time only makes the atmosphere unpleasant among the other friends. It would protray you as a negative person and very soon you will realise that these friends are keeping their distance from you. As the saying goes, "Don't lose the forest because of one decay tree."

When I have unhappy thoughts , I talk to myself mentally. I tell myself not to look at the negatives. I will instead focus on the strengths of the person or the benefits of the situation. Then I smile and I am happy again. In fact, most of the time when we back track to what had happened to cause the unhappiness, we would realise that we had reacted quite sillily to the incident and to have been upset over something so trivial. So it is important to always look at the positive side of things and more importantly to let go and to smile at your own silliness.