Happ-E-Newsletter for August 1, 2004

Welcome My Dear Friend,
Sunday, August 1st, is International Friendship Day, and I consider you my very dear friend. That is why I wrote the article in this issue called happiness...JUST BE IT! You ask...Why? Life is short and you only have right now to start being happy! The question should be, Why Not? What are you being lately? If you not busy BEING HAPPY than what have you been so busy doing. Start Being Happy, right NOW!

Lance Armstrong said, "If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on."
Happiness Empowerment to You! LIVE RICHLY...PRACTICE HAPPINESS!

Happiness is one of the most important things in your life. Happiness is an inner state of well being. A state of well being that enables you to profit from your highest: thoughts, wisdom, intelligence, common sense, emotions, health, and spiritual values in your life. Happiness does wonders for your soul. I want you to practice "Premeditated Happiness." Happiness is an issue of power. We give our happiness to others for many reasons, and we think that they will make us happy. The truth is that we have given others the power over ourselves. We must take our power back in order to be happy again. Now is the time to learn to use happiness in dealing with challenges and difficult people in your life so you can develop the strength to prevail. Reading this newsletter will not just make your life better; it will make the world a better place...because you have decided to be happy!

Reminding you to make the "Happiness Decision." Letting you know about our meeting dates, giving you happiness information, and your latest copy of the Be Happy Zone Articles that are published every other Wednesday in the Fairfield Citizen-News. At the end of this newsletter you can read the latest article called: JUST BE IT!

"A strange fact is that most of the time getting what we want won't change the essence of our lives very much." - Bob Nozik, M.D.
Think Smart, Look Smart, Be Smart...Be Happy! - Lionel Ketchian

Happ-E-Mail:) Just finished reading your newsletter, loads of fun and packed with good information about happiness. I'll look forward to reading them each month. I am also enjoying your "Be Happy Zone" article on Happiness Club Friends. I'm looking forward to a long and extremely satisfying relationship between the two of us. We'll have to meet in person one day. Happiness rules! All my best and I know you will continue to be happy. Author of Happy 4 Life: Here's How to do it. Bob Nozik, M.D.

Happ-E-Book Recommendation:) I have just finished reading Happy 4 Life: Here's How to do it, by Bob Nozik, M.D. and I recommend it to everybody who wants to be happy and learn how to do it. I have had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Nozik on the phone. He lives in California and he has been studying happiness and living it for 15 years. His experience, attitude and wisdom have produced this important contribution to the rapidly expanding field of human happiness. Read the recently published book, Happy 4 Life: Here's How to do it which is available on Amazon.com.

Happ-E-Quote:) "Living effectively means we need to differentiate between what we can and cannot change. Accepting what we can't change isn't the same as liking or condoning it. But acceptance frees us to put all of our energy and creativity into what we can change and improve in so doing, we become more effective in the world and promote happiness, for ourselves and others." - Bob Nozik, M.D.

Happ-E-Mail:) Thank you for the newsletter. I just printed it out for my mother. Oh, I read it as well. I really like Bill Cosby's quote. My mother will be so blown away that I chatted with you today. Have a great evening…I'm sure you will…you happy guy! O, Judy

Happ-E-Quote:) "The value of compassion cannot be overemphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be born by an individual than to know no one cares or understands." - Arthur H. Stainback

Happ-E-Mail:) When I was growing up in the l930's poverty was widespread in America. I never owned a new pair of shoes. I went to school in hand-me-downs two sizes too big. Try running to first base in shoes you can hardly get off the ground. When World War II ended, my generation was sick and tired of being poor. Millions of us who would never had gone to college without the G.I. Bill, roamed the corridors of the America's great universities with just one thought in mind - success. It is now the dominant theme of our society. It has reached cataclysmic proportions - success at any price fills the minds of our youths.

I was appointed a Vice President of a Fortune 100 company when I was 42. I knew many successful people. Here is my acquired wisdom based on many years of experience. "Every man I ever met had a strong desire for happiness yet I never knew a single person who attained happiness because they achieved success. On the contrary, I had a number of close friends die young. Stress did them in. It is time for a paradigm shift. We must teach our children nature's definition of success. "You are successful when you have made yourself a happy person." Seek fame and fortune only after health and happiness are well in hand. I love you all !!! mike - happyplace.net

Happ-E-Quote:) "The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love." - William Wordsworth

Happ-E-Mail:) Can you please add me to your list to receive the happiness newsletter. Your web site is so inspirational and I hope to attend a meeting in the near future. Thanks, Tracy F.

Happ-E-Quote:) "Because I took a moment to speak And you took a second to smile A tiny part of me will leave with you And a little bit of you will stay." - Jevan

You will also find on page 66 this article...The Simple Secret To Happiness...which I think I seem to live most of the time...please note done on many pages a small colored block that tells you to go to various helpful web sites for more helpful hints to rediscover the joy of living for some folks...I am sooooo happy that I picked up this magazine yesterday at the grocery store...hope you can get a chance to see it at the library, etc. Have a brilliant, beautiful week, and be good to yourself...life is toooooo short not to value every gifted second on Earth! Blessings! Joanie

Happ-E-Quote:) "If a man be gracious to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and his heart is no island, cut off from other islands, but a continent that joins them." - Francis Bacon

Happ-E-Quote:) "People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound." - As A Man Thinketh - James Allen

Happ-E-Mail:) Even though I have had my share of ups and downs I will choose to be up and be happy thanks to your words of inspiration and unconditional love you have for people in your life. Thanks and I hope your summer is going well. You always know how to put a smile on my face.... Thanks! All my love, Barbara

Happ-E-Quote:) "Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances." - Thomas Jefferson

Happ-E-Quote:) "Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." - Winston Churchill

The Happiness Show on TV:) Watch "The Happiness Show," every Monday night, at 9:30 - 10:00 PM. Your CO-hosts are Lionel Ketchian & George Ortega. The TV show is broadcast in six towns on Cablevision of Connecticut channel 77. It airs in Bridgeport, Fairfield, Milford, Orange, Stratford and Woodbridge. It can be seen on Cablevision in White Plains, New York on channel 76 every Thursday night, from 9:00 - 9:30 PM.

Happ-E-Quote:) "When we view life as little more than a series of unending irritants, our capacity for happiness is diminished. Or, more positively: in broadening our awareness so it includes the quite beauty and wonder of life, we allow appreciation and gratitude to raise our happiness." - Bob Nozik, M.D.

HAPPINESS CLUB MEETING:) Our next Happiness Club meeting will have a presentation called, Happiness…JUST BE IT! It will be on Thursday, August 19, from 7:00 - 9:00 P.M. at Sullivan Independence Hall, Fairfield, CT 06824. Come on down to the meeting. What's better than meeting some happy people? Admission is free. I look forward to seeing you at our meeting.

2004 UPCOMING HAPPINESS CLUB MEETINGS DATES:)
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Thursday, December 16, 2004

Directions to Fairfield Sullivan Independence Town Hall
725 Old Post Road (corner of Beach Road)
I 95 Southbound Exit 22: Left onto North Benson Road, then cross Post Road/Route 1 and
continue one block to stop sign. Take a right onto Old Post Road and continue one block to stop sign. Town Hall is across the street on the left and Independence Hall is down the driveway from Town Hall.
I 95 Northbound Exit 22: Right onto Round Hill Road, then cross Post Road/Route 1 and
continue one block to stop sign. Town Hall is across the street on the right and Independence Hall is down the driveway from Town Hall.

Happ-E-Quote:) "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

Happ-E-Quote:) "Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." - Carl Bard

BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian
July 28, 2004

JUST BE IT!
You may not realize it but happiness is the most important thing in your life. Do you ever have the feeling that something is missing? Ever wonder if this is really all there is? That feeling may be letting you know that there is something very important that you are not experiencing in your life right now. That something may very well be happiness.

Do you ever feel that after you got what you thought you wanted you still felt an emptiness? You still did not get what you really wanted. You may not even be sure what it really is that you wanted in the first place. That is because you were missing out on being happy. Up till now, your life has been more about what you are doing rather than about what you are being. I am sure you have been doing a lot of things in your life. Have they made you feel great? Do you feel satisfied with what you have done? Probably not, because doing is never enough to make you happy. You really need to develop the feeling of being happy in order to feel good about yourself and the world around you.

Being happy is a feeling; it is the well being that comes from a balanced mind. When we have more control of our thinking so that our mind is not always telling us what we should be doing, we can start to experience more happiness. As Aristotle said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it." If we cannot stop our thoughts from always telling us what to think about or what to react to than we are not in control of ourselves. This is the reason we feel that doing things will get us where we think we need to be. The truth is we really don't need to go anywhere. If we start right where we are now, we can begin to realize we have everything we need to be happy. The only thing we are actually missing is the realization that we have everything we need to start being happy right now.

Start realizing you can be happy with what you have, no matter how much or how little it is. After all, it is only a comparison to what other people have. You can become happy simply by being more content with what is in your life right now. You can be happy with all of it by accepting what is happening in your life right now. What most people call doing, is actually running away from what is in your life right this moment.
Accepting your circumstances and embracing them, may be the very best way to overcome any obstacles you believe you have. If you can't overcome them, then accepting them may help you change your life. If this decision does not change your life, than at the very least you do not make that circumstance into a problem. It just is and that's the way it is, no problem.

The biggest benefit to being happy is not twisting everything that life brings your way into problems. It is your interpretation that is the problem, not the problem itself. Where is the problem? Most of the time something has already happened, and there is nothing you can do about it, but accept it. We seem to put our power where it does us very little good, instead of using it where it will benefit us the most. There are some things that happen and there is nothing we can do about them. They happened already, so forget about them! Put your power and energy where it counts; put your power into the present moment.

If you focus on now, you are facing life and meeting it head on. When you are being happy and become sensitive to being in this moment, you are present and have power to handle everything that comes along. Being happy allows you to accept whatever happens. You can tell yourself that it all happens for a good reason. It may not be a reason that you can understand from your viewpoint, but it is a good reason nevertheless. By accepting things that happen, you have more control over changing things, than you do by trying to resist them.

Our next Happiness Club meeting will be on Thursday, August 19, from 7:00 - 9:00 P.M. at the Fairfield Sullivan Independence Hall in Fairfield. The topic for the evening will be "Happiness…Just Be It!" Come on down, meet some great people, get connected, and be happy. Admission is free; everyone is welcome.

I leave you with the brilliant words of William George Jordan, who said, "Happiness can grow in any soil, live in any condition. It defies environment. It comes from within; it's the revelation of the depths of the inner life as light and heat proclaim the sun from which they radiate. Happiness consists not of having, but of being; not of possessing, but of enjoying. It is the warm glow of a heart at peace with it's self…Happiness is the soul's joy in the possession of the intangible…Happiness is paradoxical because it may coexist with trial, sorrow and poverty. It is the gladness of the heart, rising superior to all conditions…" HAPPINESS…JUST BE IT!

Do you want to see Dr. Bernie Siegel?
The DVD Video: Conversations with Bernie, Health & Happiness, is ready for those who would like to see us. Dr. Bernie Siegel and I share in a delightful conversation together for over one hour. The interview took place in Dr. Siegel home, and it was aired on Public TV. Three cameras were used to beautifully capture the mood and the moment professionally done by Van Gorder Studios. You will feel like you are there with us, as we journey together. So join us and share the moment now!

This DVD Video aired on Public TV. It is presented in two parts.
Part One: To Learn and To Live
1. Introduction, 2. Kids as Teachers, 3. No False Hope, 4. Fifteen Minutes, 5. Love as a Weapon, 6. A Bitter Potion, 7. Worse Than Nothing, 8. A Past Life, 9. Credits.
Part Two: In the Journey Together
Introduction, 2. Wings, 3. Beyond Surgery, 4. The Journey, 5. Heal Your Life, 6. A Subway Doctor, 7. Wounded Healers, 8. A Modern Parable, 9. Credits.

You can order a copy by sending a check (payable in US funds) for $19.95 plus $2.00 shipping in the US, for as many DVD's as you want. Send check to LRK Communications, Inc. 63 Unquowa Road, Fairfield, CT 06824.

The DVD Video: Conversations with Bernie, Health & Happiness is available at one store: The Wisdom of the Ages, located at 1408 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, CT 06070. Phone #. 860-651-1172.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you desire. Please include the copyrights and credits due the authors.

Our mailing list and your name is never sold, traded, or given to anyone outside of our organization. You can smile about that!

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"Don't let go of the vine." - John Weissmuller, from the film, Tarzan.
Life is full of opportunities. Go For It! Carpe diem!

© Copyright 2004, Lionel R. Ketchian, all rights reserved.