Are you happy! This is the place to check your happiness
attitude and adjust accordingly. Think of this as your two week or 3,000 smiles attitude change so you can reach for a higher altitude.

Happ-E-Homework:) Just take one line, any one thought that is positive for you from this newsletter, and post it in front of you for the next 2 weeks and see how it works wonders for you.

Happ-E-Thought:) "Happiness is a present attitude -- not a future condition." - Hugh Prather

Happ-E-Purpose:) To remind you to make the "Happiness Decision." You now have the next meeting date, more happiness information, and a copy of the Be Happy Zone Articles which are published twice a month in the Fairfield Citizen-News. Read today's article called: TEENAGERS.

Happ-E-Mails:) I would like to receive the news letter. This is a positive thing. Thank you for being there, Diana

A friend referred me to your site.....thanks.....joanne...........:)

What a wonderful web site you have!!
I would like to receive the newsletter please. Thank You. Darlene

I really enjoyed your site and though I can't come to your club meetings since I live in California, I would like to receive your newsletter. Thank you, Love and best wishes for your continued success and may you have oodles and oodles of HAPPINESS.

Hi, My name is Taahira and I live in upstate New York. I have lots to be thankful for but happiness is so hard to hold on to. Help! Taahira

Lionel, My home address has changed. would appreciate you adding my new e-mail address to the newsletter. Thanks! and smiles! C.Z.

Please send me a newsletter. Thank You. Ali T.

I joined Toastmasters a few weeks ago and asked if I could give a speech every week. Tonight I will be telling them about you and The Happiness Club of Connecticut.

Happiness is like love and ideas ... the more you share the more you have.
Ciao. - David Leonhardt

Hello Lionel, Some of the T.O.P.S ladies do not have a computer, but would like to
receive your newsletter. Could you please send one. Thank you so much. - Mary G.

Happ-E-Thought:) "Your success and happiness lie in you. External conditions are the accidents of life. The great enduring realities are love and service. Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulty." - Helen Keller

Happ-E-Test:) True or False: Forgiveness good for your health?
E-mail me back with a True or False. If your would like to include your comments about forgivness, we will include them in the next newsletter.

Happ-E-Mail:) Terrific list, however, you seem to have missed "Handbook to a Happier Life" by Jim Donovan

Let's make 2002 great, Jim Donovan, Proud to be a native New Yorker

Happ-E-Book:) I just finished reading the (above) book: "Handbook to a Happier Life" by Jim Donovan'. It is a fantastic book. He was right, and now my happiness book list is more complete. I am so glad we have such a positive person living so close to us here in Connecticut. I recommend this book. You can check out Jim's web site: http://www.jimdonovan.com. Learn about his books, and order his free newsletter on line.

Jim Donovan is not only an author, but a speaker and a coach who inspires people to go beyond where they are and reach their potential. "So (as he puts it) they don't die with their music still in them!"

Jim also just published a new book I just read an also recommend called: Reclaiming Your Life, How To Regain Your Happiness Through Challenging Times. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this book will be donated to the New York City Firefighters and Police Officers Widow's fund. Both books are really great, and I urge you to check them out for yourself.

Order his free newsletter on line at: http://www.jimdonovan.com.
Here is a segment I liked from his newsletter:
There are some simple energy techniques that you can use to put yourself in this higher energy, good vibration state. A place where things will happen and you will begin to attract what you desire. You can avoid those lower states that will push business and people away from you.
Pre-pave Your Day
Each day before you begin any work, devote some time to seeing your day as you want it to occur visually, orally or better yet, in writing. You can describe how you want to feel throughout your day. I'm not suggesting you try to visualize every detail of what will happen, but rather how you want to feel.
As an alternative, you can project yourself, in your mind, to the end of your day. Looking back now, see your day as you would have liked it to occur. Bask in the wonderful feelings associated with your perfect day. Talk about what a wonderful day it was and how everything just flowed and how everything was so terrific as you went about doing what you do.
Doing this simple exercise which only takes five or ten minutes, each day, will align your energy and put you in a positive state to begin your day. If you practice this for a brief period of time you'll begin to notice small shifts occurring in your life. You will begin to experience synchronicity's, coincidences, and sparks of inspiration. You will have an idea to call someone, or someone will call you, or you will meet the person who will help you do something that you¹ve been wanting to do. Try this for yourself and watch what happens.

Happ-E-Mail:) Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at the last meeting. It gave me such a charge to share my happiness with everyone in the room! I hope that some of what I said will help someone to live a more happy life. I know that all the hard times in my life have been made easier just by being happy. The stress is a lot less overwhelming and I love getting up everyday! I know that I feel healthier and eat better than I did.

I also feel "lighter" with a smile on my face. It's amazing how heavy a frown is! It's like the weight of the world is off my shoulders! Thank you so much for confirming what my mother had tried all my life to instill in me. Life is a bowl of cherries! Yes, we may get some rotten ones but we need to just pick those out before they spoil the whole bunch!

I look forward to seeing you at next month's meeting! I'll be there with bells on!!!!!!
- Lisa Simms

Happ-E-Mail:) Hi Lionel,
I love, love, love that donkey (in the last newsletter) story. Every time I read it I'm reminded to keep moving onward.

I'm glad the last meeting went well. But I think they all go well :) I enjoy every one I go to. That's great that Lisa Simms made a presentation/contribution. I don't think I know her, though I might by sight, if she's been to other meetings.

They say it might snow on Thursday, finally. But, as for me...I'm as happy as a clam with no snow.

Have a great rest of the week and hope to see you soon. Happiness rules!!
xxooxxoo
Lynette Turner

Happ-E-Mail:) I gave a talk to a group recently and a woman named Mary was at the meeting. She lost her husband 6 months ago after thirty-three years of marriage. I told here she can be happy, and she listened to my talk. I received the following e-mail from her.

Hello Lionel, I got your newsletter, which I will read in its entirety tomorrow. It was a pleasure to meet you this morning....happiness for me after losing my love is
quite a large goal, but I will shoot for the moon.
Thank you for being you. Mary G.

Mary, I just want to say thank you for being who you are. I love your words, "I will shoot for the moon." I know it feels like it may be that hard, but your beautiful attitude, after going through such a recent loss is exactly what the happiness doctor ordered. It is people like you that are showing others that they can be happy; no matter what. I wish you happiness, I wish you healing. I send you love! - Lionel

Happ-E-Book:) Thanks to Chris Zurcher for sending us these words about:

Anna Quindlen's, A Short Guide to a Happy Life:
I think it cost about $10 when it was first out.

Quindlen's book urges people to "think for a moment about
the blessings that most of us have in our lives — even when
things are tough."

She says it is a lesson she learned from a stranger two
decades ago. For a newspaper story, she was interviewing a
homeless man in Coney Island who was struggling to make it
through the winter. She asked the man why he didn't go to
the city's shelters. Pointing out toward the horizon, he
responded "Look at the view, young lady, look at the view."

It was a revelation for her — not as a reporter but as a
human being. "I had this moment of clarity about the majesty
and the grandeur of the world, of life," she says. "He
totally got it. He never has to read this book."

I have Anna Quindlen's, A Short Guide to a Happy Life on my recommended reading list on our web site: Click here: www.happinessclub.com

Happ-E-Thought:) "To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness." - Robert Muller

Happ-E-Mail:) Hello Lionel,
The Happiness Club is making the efforts to 'eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive' as Bing Crosby used to sing. Happy people are friendly people and their friendship should be treasured.

The glow that comes from a person that is always happy is like the light of God that Jesus said we should let shine. Happiness is God's gift to his creation. A gift we are free to accept or reject. Sadly almost every person on the Earth has rejected that gift and believes that happiness can only be found in the things they have or want, the people they know or want to know, the things they do or want to do. But such is not the case.

Happiness is our basic nature. A beautiful gift that we have covered with so much negative garbage that it only occasionally peeks through. You my friend are helping
people to put that garbage into trash bags and dump it. You are to be commended. I know that you have God's blessing, and my prayer is that your club continues to expand until everyone in America is happy, then the world.

Result: No more wars. Elimination of poverty and bad health. If everybody in the whole world would accept the gift of God, Happiness, there would be no need of government because everyone would naturally do the right thing towards others. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Keep those happy thoughts flowing.
Your new/old friend, - John W. Herbert

John W. Herbert is the author of Heaven's Gate a Science Fiction adventure novel especially for our times. See how Love is more powerful than hate. http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/7947

Happ-E-Mail:) Thanks to Marty Evans for this funny joke, with a great moral to it.

Let's be on the safe side, the Chief said to his tribe. The winter was indeed going to be cold, so the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.

A week later he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter."

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later he called the National Weather Service
again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"
"Absolutely," the man replied. "It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever.
"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting wood like crazy."

Happ-E-Mail:) Thanks to each and every one of you for sharing your caring words and thoughts. Please let us hear from you, spread your happiness, that is the surest way of Being Happy!

Happ-E-Meeting:) Join us for our next meeting! The HAPPINESS CLUB will present: "THE HEART OF HAPPINESS." Stephen M. Perle, D.C., Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences at University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic will be speaking about health and happiness. Lionel Ketchian will be talking about the subject as well. Don't miss this valuable meeting, and meet wonderful people using the benefits of happiness in their lives.

Topic:) "THE HEART OF HAPPINESS"
Date:) February 7, 2002
Time:) 7:00 - 8:45 P.M.
Place:) Fairfield Public Library
In the:) Rotary Room
Address:) 1080 Old Post Road, Fairfield, CT 06430

Open to the Public and Admission is Free
Call Lionel Ketchian (203) 258-7777 or E-mail: PrintLRK@aol.com
http://www.happinessclub.com

Directions to the Fairfield Public Library
From New York - I- 95, Exit 21, Mill Plain Road. Right at bottom of ramp. Under railroad overpass make a left at light (Post Rd.), 1/2 mile on right at the corner.
From New Haven - I- 95, Exit 22, North Benson Road. Left at bottom of ramp. Under railroad overpass make a right at light (Post Rd.), 1/2 mile on left at the corner.

BE HAPPY ZONE
Fairfield Citizen-News
January 30, 2002

TEENAGERS
By Lionel Ketchian

You have either been one or soon will soon be one. Some of us have one or two of them or know some of them. We have all interacted with them. I am talking about teens because Lynette Turner and
I just did a radio show called: Teen Talk, for the Happiness Club. We were on the air at WNLK, 1350 in Norwalk, CT. The show is on the air every Sunday night from 7 to 8 PM. It is a live call in show, and the number is 203 845-3044.

The show started of with the teens introducing Lynette and I from the Happiness Club. Soon the questions were fired off and they included this one. What do you think about drugs, and people getting high on them? Now that is a really great question. The answer I gave was that drugs may make you feel high, but they can't keep you there because drugs are an addiction. Like any addiction you need to get higher and higher to feel like you are high in the first place. Try being happy, it is a natural high. Unlike drugs you don't need to get higher to experience it again, all you need to do is choose to be happy again. Happiness is not an addiction; it is state of well being that we all need. Addiction is a brain disease; happiness is a brainy decision.

An another question fired off was; does listening to negative lyrics in music have a bad effect on you? The answer to that is yes, of course it does. Negativity of any kind can contaminate you. At this point Lynette who sang the song "Peace and Harmony," a beautiful song that she wrote that has some very positive words to it. The song was well received and led to more questions about how she wrote such positive thoughts. Lynette just said she wrote what she felt and put music to the words.

One question that the teens asked me was; what is the age of the people that come to Happiness Club meetings? I told them people range from their twenties to their eighties. Then they asked me a question I could not answer. Why don't teenagers come to the meetings? I said I don't know why, maybe they don't think there is a benefit for them, or their parents don't think so. I think I should ask you, the person reading this column that question: why don't you bring your teenager to the next happiness meeting?

What have I learned from all this? It is that being young at heart is a lesson for all of us. I don't care what age you are. You're as young as your attitude, and you're as old as you think you feel. Can you stay young at heart? Yes, at our next Happiness Club meeting, we will be talking about The Heart of Happiness. Being young at heart is an essential part of our health and well being. Stephen M. Perle, D.C., Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences at University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic will be speaking about health and happiness. Come to our next Happiness Club meeting which is February 7, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. The topic is "The Heart of Happiness," and will be held in the Rotary Room, at the Fairfield Public Library, located at 1080 Old Post Road. There is no charge for the happiness you gain, or the meeting!

The radio program continued with Dr. Linda Olson, a psychologist who is on the program each week. She asked me the question; how do you stay happy all the time? That is a question many people ask me. People are really asking me how "they" can stay happy? The answer is it is a decision you must one day make for real, and then spend every moment for the rest of your life choosing over and over again.
When you start living with happiness, you realize that unhappiness has no benefit whatsoever to you. So you find that you would never choose unhappiness as a response to anything in your life. If something can hurt you, or gives you pain, why help it hurt you more by being unhappy?

The evening went along with more great questions and dialog. At the very end of the program, when we were off the air, the seven teens wished us well and thanked us for being on their radio show. One of the teens, asked me if it was OK to give me a hug. I said that's great, and we all started hugging one another. Boy, do teens know about happiness, they are a natural at it.

The Radio show provides Fairfield County teenagers with the opportunity to discuss their experiences, viewpoints and questions on issues that affect them in their daily lives. Nancy London is one of the wonderful people that assist the teens in doing their radio show. She is very consciences, and does a great job with all of them. Being on the air is a great way teens can gain first hand experience in the field of communications. That is why this show exists and it is a great way for them to learn many things, and happiness was one of the subjects for tonight. The really great thing about teenagers is that they are really smart. They ask fantastic questions that others either do not think about or dare not ask at all. Not teens, they are thinkers and doers.

Sharing our insights on happiness, Lynette and I left feeling wonderful. Teenagers are our future gift in running this country. From the way these teens are running the Teen Talk radio show they have the future well in control. They are paving the way for kids their age to learn things that many of us did not have the benefit of learning. If you have a teenager who would like to be a part of this radio program, send your e-mail to Nancy.London@cox.com.

So, we will see you at the next Happiness Club meeting because the only thing you can lose is a little unhappiness. Think of what you can gain! Anyone can afford to gain some happiness and loose some unhappiness, can't you? What does it cost you not too?

Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club. He can be reached at PrintLRK@aol.com. The Web site is www.HappinessClub.com

Put on your happy face and share a smile -- just forward this Newsletter to your friends. They will thank you. It's FREE, and easy to subscribe. Just send your e-mail to subscribe at: Happinessclub@aol.com, or subscribe online at: http://www.HappinessClub.com

Spread some happiness, send some to your friends!
Lionel

© Copyright 2002, Fairfield Citizen-News, All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission by the Fairfield Citizen-News

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