How happy are you?

Happiness is a well being associated with postive emotions that reduce stress and cancel out health risks associated with cancer and heart disease. Not only is it good to feel happy, its benefical to our physical health to be happy as well.

Are you happy? If not, how does one get to be happy?

According to an article in the Washington Examiner recently, Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen claim that there are six paths to happiness.

1. Be postive and generous. Helping others reduces mortality rates by 60%. Helping others defines our purpose in life and forces us to slow down long enough to to realize that we, as individuals, have alot of gifts to offer the world. That realization creates happy "feelings".

2. Feel empathy--Based on the premise that if we can put ourselves in the shoes of others and connect with the humans around us, we feel connected (versus feeling lonely) and this connectivity creates happiness.

3. Find Authenticity---What drives us? Hopefully each of us has taken the time to examine what really keeps us in motion. Is it that new ipad, designer handbag or i phone that we are seeking or is it a deeper factor (such as love of our family members, religion and what we do) that keeps us going? Knowing what makes ourselves tick can create an inner peace and calm .

4. Embrace Emotion--As events occur in our lives we need to recognize what emotions are going through our minds. If we lose a loved one, we need to grieve. If we're angry we need to stop, take a deep breath and think out the anger before reacting. If we're happy, we need to show our happiness and celebrate. This is our validation as human beings.

5. Explore Spirituality--Take some quiet time each day to reflect on the bigger picture in life. Taking time to reflect or mediate has been shown to reduce our heart rates and blood pressure.

and lastly,

6. Understand unhappiness---Lets face it, we're not going to be happy all the time. When we become unhappy we need to understand why we're out of sorts. Unhapppiness can be a catalyst for change in a positive direction.

I had the pleasure of "dog sitting" for a friend of mine the other day. This was an example of "true happiness" for me. Check out Percy, he is a character....

It took a while for us to understand each others needs....

There was never a dull moment.

Perhaps thats why pets bring such joy to us..... they are spontaneous creatures.

Hope you have a happy day.

Best,

Carla Brooks

PS Most photos courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

PPS If you or someone you know... would like to buy or sell a home give me a call today. I am here to earn your trust and your business and I treat every transaction as it it were my own!