Take Yourself Less Seriously

When I found myself getting upset, sad, or depressed, it is because I am taking myself too seriously. I need to remind myself that I always have the choice of being upset or happy. I control my emotions. As Woody Allen, said "You might as well enjoy, as you won't get out of life alive anyway."

This time of year is a challenge for me. As a single parent, when my children were younger it meant having to split time with my ex-husband with spending time with them. And it always brought up guilt for me about them not having a intact family. All my children's cousins had intact families, so they always felt bad about our family. Added to that was the financial challenge of not making enough money to be able to expensive presents for them. Thank goodness for my parents help.

For years I would get sick during the holidays, I am sure because of the stress of it all. About seventeen years ago I learned to laugh whenever I felt a cold or other sickness coming on, and I have avoided severe sickness.

I find that laughter is one of the best ways to remind myself to not take myself too seriously. If I can laugh, I find I can get through many things.

So, you like me, have the choice of how to take ourselves, we can either laugh or cry. We can view life as sad or happy. We can view life as being abundant or scarce. Like everything else the choice is ours. What do you choose?

Jana Ruth

Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Live

www.janaruth.biz

www.laughandlivehappier.com

www.laughingworld.blogstop.com

Making Thanksgiving Last all Year

With Thanksgiving coming later this week, I think we should be thankful all year around. To assign one day to be thankful, and the rest of the year not, seems like, only being spiritual one day a week, when we go to church or temple. One day doesn't make up for what we do for the rest of the year. To me, it is the difference between the mentality of abundance as to the mentality of scarcity.

What we focus on grows. If I am thankful each and every day for those things in my life, I will get more of those things. As Woody Allen said, "You are not going to get out of life alive anyway, so you might as well enjoy." We are so caught up on what we don't have that we forget what we do have. There will always be some people with less and some people with more. Here in the United States we have more than the majority of people on this planet, but so few of us are truly happy.

We are so caught up in the past and the future that we forget to be thankful for the present. And as it turns out the present is all we have. If we could be thankful and mindful of each moment I think we would be happier, and be able to create more happy moments.

We are so focused on things and people outside ourselves that we don't pay enough attention to our inner life and our inner life creates our outer experience. We become too much the victim of our lives instead of realizing that we have more power than we realize.

To being thankful in the moment helps us live happier and healthier. How do we achieve that? Below are some suggestions:

1. Laugh

2. Smile

3. Make a list each day of 5 things that you are thankful for

4. Maintain a positive attitude

I believe that if we do these things we can help make Thanksgiving last all year, instead of just one day.

Jana Ruth

Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life

www.janaruth.biz

www.laughandlivehappier.com

www.onelaughingworld.blogspot.com