As Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?" Being happy is the most important thing you can do for the world and of course yourself! When she hid away in a room, Anne Frank wrote, "We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same."

I would like to quote Dr. Robert Muller, from his wonderful book: Robert's Golden Sayings,

"Everywhere you look, you will find love as the key to caring. And life without caring is tantamount to death. The reverse is equally true: If you do not love life, you will not care for life. If you do not love yourself, you will not care of yourself."

"Is anybody happier because you pass his way?" - John Hall
Happiness Empowerment to You! LIVE RICHLY...PRACTICE HAPPINESS!

Sending Love, and Happiness to you,
Lionel Ketchian

Reminding you to make the "Happiness Decision." Giving you our Happiness Club Meeting dates, bringing you The Happiness TV Show, on television and on the Internet, the newest happiness information, and your latest copy of the Be Happy Zone Article's that are published every other Wednesday in the Fairfield Citizen-News. At the end of this newsletter you can read the latest article called: One Psychologist's Perspective on Being Happy.

"Every problem has a gift for you in its hands." - Richard Bach
Think Smart, Look Smart, Be Smart...Be Happy! - Lionel Ketchian

Happ-E-Mail :) Thanks for all the uplifting reading. I glean a great deal from learning about all the world wide interest in happiness. I'm pretty certain you must be quelling over this weeks TIME MAGAZINE! Wow, an entire issue on HAPPINESS. Looking forward to making the meeting next week. Happiness New Year! Millicent (Mabel) Zolan

Happ-E-Quote :) "Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one." - Dr. Hans Selye

Happ-E-Mail :) "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life." Happy Day! From Renée Filloramo

Happ-E-Note :) Renée Filloramo is our wonderful Happiness Club web master.

Happ-E-Quote :) "You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation." - Bette Davis

Happ-E-Mail :) Happy New Year! I shall see you on the 20th! I hope to bring a friend along to share the joy you bring to my life. Perhaps you saw it, but in case you didn't, I wanted to bring your attention to the feature article of TIME magazine on HAPPINESS!!! It's the Jan. 17th issue. It's very informative and a delight to see - kudos to you for seeing what the country is just opening our eyes too. I love that in the opening few paragraphs the psychologist, Martin Seligman, said, as the new President of the American Psychological Assoc., that he wanted the goal of the assoc. to be to get from zero to +5, not to get from -5 to 0. In other words, not to get people from being miserable and get them to a "neutral" place, but get them to attain true happiness. It's worth a read. That's when I thought of you and your work. This is a thank you with much gratitude. You have grand foresight and I think I can speak for many and say that your efforts regarding the HAPPINESS CLUB (AND THOSE CLUBS YOU INSPIRED AND HELPED CREATE ACROSS THE GLOBE) have proved to be very rewarding for many of us...life is better and HAPPIER because of your efforts. Many thanks and much gratitude as always. From an always grateful reader and participant (whether silently or present). Alison Buchanan

Happ-E-Quote :) "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." - Dale Carnegie

Happ-E-Mail :) Happy Anniversary to you and all of the members of Happiness Club. So many wonderful things happen over the past five marvelous years. I look forward to many more happy years with you and the group. Five years ago, we had our very first meeting and this is what Joanne Petitti had written: "January 13, 2000 - 24 people attended the first Happiness Club meeting at Tommy's Restaurant. Despite the snowstorm, out first meeting was quite a success. I felt that there were many people that were interested in acquiring inner strength and the pursuit of happiness. It felt great to be a part of something that can help spread Happiness within our lives." You are a wonderful person and a wonderful friend, you share so much of yourself with others. Take Care! Love, Barbara Cartsounis

Happ-E-Quote :) "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." - Marcus Aurelius

Happ-E-Mail :) We have some words of wisdom from "The Doctor of Love" himself. This e-mail was sent to us from Dr. Bernie Siegel.

When you are grateful you are happy.
When you are happy you are a success.
When troubled just repeat the name of someone or something you love
who brings happiness into your life, and watch how your feelings change.

BERNIE

Happ-E-Reply :) Dear Dr. Bernie Siegel, thanks for your prescription to happiness. It works for me as I type up these pages to send to you and all my other friends. I cannot be happier. This newsletter is showing me how connected we all are in being happy and in sharing it with one another. Each of us can share what we value. In the light of the disasters that we have all been witnessing, it is in our experience of giving and sharing of ourselves that we find what is most important. The world is made far richer by the loving actions of each of us. The time and events are showing us that it is time to stop thinking of just "Me," and start thinking of "You & Me." Thank you for showing us, sharing with us, and sending us on the path to love, happiness, health and peace.

Happ-E-Quote :) "If you smile and laugh and practice 'Being Happy," the world is lighter for you, and brighter for others." - Lionel R. Ketchian

Happ-E-Mail :) Thank you so much for your offer to do a TV show about Dr. Robert Muller. It would be a wonderful show on Television and he thanks you for your idea..Would it be possible to have him on directly in April when we are in Washington DC or New York for the celebration of the United Nation's 60th anniversary? Then we can also announce the new reprint of the Robert Muller Classics Most of All They Taught Me Happiness...and the others to follow.

Secondly, after Robert read your Jan 1 newsletter he mentioned that the best way to start the New Year is to read your Happ-E-Newsletter and that the entire year of 2005 should be devoted to the rebirth of happiness...

Even Dear Abby started the year with her commandments which included being happy even just for today. Stay Happy...it spreads so quickly and it keeps your body healthy, Barbara Muller

Happ-E-Note :) Dr. Robert Muller, is a former United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Co-founder and Former Chancellor of the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. He is the recipient of 2002 World Citizenship Award awarded by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's.

Happ-E-Quote :) Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter. - Dan Reeves, Football coach and motivational speaker

Enjoy! Serge Ayotte

Happ-E-Quote :) "Whatever is good to know is difficult to learn." - Greek proverb

Happ-E-Mail :) I run across your site today while roaming the internet. I enjoyed your newsletters on happiness so very much. I'm looking forward to reading them every day. Thank You, Ruth

Happ-E-Quote :) "Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be happier." - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Happ-E-Mail :) New Year's is always a good time for reflection and to recapture ones inner peace if it has been lost during the previous year. One can find themselves again, a sense of hope. Hope is a great thing, which often carries us over the harder times we may be facing at any particular time in ones life. - Ursula

Happ-E-Quote :) "Help yourself and heaven will help you." - Jean de La Fontaine

Happ-E-Book:) I got a gift from Heaven, Heavenletters, Love Letters from God, Book One, by Gloria Wendroff. Her book and her daily massages mean so much to me. I am learning to love everyone and everything unconditionally. I think the words love and happiness carry the very same meaning. Gloria does a heavenly job of showing my mind what to dwell on and what I can let go of because it does not serve mankind.

Happ-E-Quote :) "When love is the nature of your heart, what else can belong there?" - Gloria Wendroff, Heavenletters, Love Letters from God, Book One

Happ-E-Mail :) Is your e-letter still available? I'd like to receive it, thanks! Yes, that’s me, Happy Dodson, age 61. I live near New Orleans or I'd try to get to your happiness meetings! Thank you! Happy Dodson

Happ-E-Quote :) "High expectations are the key to everything." - Sam Walton (1918-1992) Founder of Wal-Mart

Happ-E-Mail :) Don't know if you have this one already or not. If you do, well, here it is again! - Barry
"The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the changes, for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow. - Charles L. Morgan

Happ-E-Quote :) "When you need to correct someone, be resolved not to do so in a blaming manner. Before criticizing, view the situation from the other person's point of view. Then be careful to speak calmly and tactfully. Carefully edit what you say before you say it." - Rabbi Zelig Pliskin

Happ-E-Mail :) Hope to see you on the 20th. May your new year be blessed....and may your international club grow beyond your dreams. Cathie Pike author of the book....Generous Moments.

Happ-E-Quote :) "That which we are, we are all the while teaching, not voluntarily, but involuntarily." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happ-E-Mail :) Hi Lionel, It was really great speaking with you. I always either learn something about happiness or just have my enthusiasm and energy towards working harder or more creatively on happiness; usually both, when we talk.

I am so excited about how it feels that we are moving ever more rapidly towards achieving a critical mass when it comes to happiness work and awareness. It seems each new day brings more people and information about our passion and favorite subject. Of course, the Time magazine issue this week is devoted in large part to happiness and now I hear that the February issue of Psychology Today is focused on happiness. I can't confirm that yet, but I am going to look for that issue and check it out. Of course, much of the science on happiness is still rudimentary, but the fact that it is happening at all is cause for celebration.

Also, regarding the Happiness Club of California (in San Francisco), which has been on hiatus, is now ready to begin again. We (Aymee and I) anticipate resuming meetings in March and will most likely be meeting in one of the library branches in San Francisco; I'll report the exact day, time and location in the next newsletter. So, things seem to be moving along at a nice pace out here as well as everywhere else in regard to happiness. My love and happiness to you, my friend, Dr. Bob Nozik

Happ-E-Quote:) "Do all the good you can, and make as little fuss about it as possible." - Charles Dickens

Happ-E-Quote :) "Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

HAPPINESS CLUB MEETING :) Our next Happiness Club meeting will be a "How to Make it a Happy New Year!" We all look forward to seeing you. Come on down, meet some great people, get connected, and share the joy! Please bring a food dish or snack or drink to share with all.

Meet :) "How to Make it a Happy New Year!"

Date :) Thursday, January 20, 2005

2005 UPCOMING HAPPINESS CLUB MEETINGS DATES :)
Thursday, February 17, 2005

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Directions to Fairfield Sullivan Independence Town Hall
725 Old Post Road (corner of Beach Road) Fairfield, CT 06824
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 :) "Help someone who can't return the favor." - Author Unknown

The Canada Happiness Club has monthly meetings. Meeting times are from 700 - 8:30 PM. Meetings are held at: The Normandy Resource Centre (The Legion), 111, Church Street, St. Catharines, Ontario. This facility is fully accessible. Admission is A smile and as always is free. Cheers! Jane

Happ-E-Quote :) "The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands." - Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian
January 12, 2005

Dr. Stuart Losen has attended the last two Happiness Club meetings. Dr. Losen is a Ph.D. who has practiced psychology for many years. He said that he came to a meeting to check out the Happiness Club because he had heard about us. I started to see that Dr. Losen was recommending people he knew attend my meetings. I then asked Dr. Losen for some thoughts on his experiences and what he thinks of the Happiness Club. This is what he had to present:

One Psychologist's Perspective on "Being Happy," by Stuart M. Losen, Ph.D.

"The way Lionel Ketchian tells it, in his role as leader of the "Happiness Club," a group that meets on the second or third Thursday of each month at Independence Town Hall in Fairfield, all that one needs to do to feel happy is to act as if they are happy. His advice to the thirty or forty people who fairly regularly attend the free-to-the public Happiness Club, is not to devote yourself to all the things you may be told you need to do to pursue happiness, nor try to deny those circumstances which persistently make you feel unhappy. But, instead, to simply adopt the attitude that, despite everything, you decided to be happy, and thereby are able to make the best choices.

Any skeptic would likely, at least at first, chuckle heartily over the prospect that one can actually attain a happy state, for any meaningful length of time, by merely accepting the idea that he or she is already happy and must therefor, act and or make decisions accordingly. But there is much to argue in support of Mr. Ketchian's approach, if you think about it. Over time there have been many similar recommended practical approaches to life's vicissitudes, as well as a variety of philosophic views to warrant one's serious consideration of Happiness Club's basic theme. For example, around the time Johnny Mercer wrote the popular song, "Accentuate the Positive," Rev. Norman Vincent Peal popularized the "Power of Positive Thinking" approach, a pragmatic philosophy intended to get one through the problems of the day. Then during the post World-War II era, Dale Carnegie promoted believing in one's ability to succeed by over coming self-doubts through presenting oneself as positively as possible to the public. Therefore, the Happiness Club's concept, i.e., "acting as if" you are happy in order to be happy, is not all that new or different.

Another contemporary example of the value of a positive attitude is Keith Harrell's approach to deal with negative, upsetting or frustrating experiences. Harrel, a television motivational speaker, insists that by thinking positively and by working hard to enhance your "Natural Born Abilities," you can learn what you need to do to improve. He says you can do this by examining every failure and making each frustrating experience the fuel for future success instead of letting it knock you down.

Indeed, the act of focusing upon the positive attitude of being happy has certain psychological advantages. A behavioral-learning theorist might argue that in the act of behaving happy, your body movements convey messages to your brain which is interpreted as (and thereby further reinforce) you perception of being happy. A Buddhist might reason that, while meditation or attending carefully and focusing upon one's inner-self and / or the awareness of being happy, one transcends or rises above more troublesome daily preoccupation's and achieves a healthier perspective from which to eventually make more prudent, and "rightful" decision. A clinical psychologist might state the case for adopting a happiness attitude, thinking you are happy, actually may distract you from more preoccupying self-doubts and thereby block you from acting impulsively or precipitously in a doubtful, hesitant, self-critical or possibly self-defeating manner.

So if indeed you are able to convince yourself that you are overall a happy person, that perspective in and of itself (much as meditation is often designed to gain perspective before taking action) may help you make more constructive decisions about any number of concerns. In other works, the more perception of oneself as being happy can enable one to transcend the moment, delay possibly non-helpful impulsive actions, and instead encourage the patience and more thoughtful deliberation necessary to make more constructive decisions.

One other theoretical framework, an orientation advocated ages ago by the "positives" philosophers John Dewey and Kurt Goldstein (Later translated into practical therapeutic method by Carl Rogers), emphasized the view that human beings are primarily guided by their inherent need to positively enhance or self-actualize themselves. Consequently, the human organism will always act in a way which one believes better realizes their potential. If one, therefore, believes that he or she is happy, there is a greater likelihood that this person will behave in such a way as to make more positive, self-realizing, constructive decisions than if they feel apprehensive or too constrained by inordinate self-questioning.

In conclusion, the perception of being happy probably does increase the likelihood of behaving happier, including making better choices in life. Of course, this assumes that by thinking happy one isn't simply indulging in pervasive denial, or neglecting important life or health decisions, which need to be made.

Consequently, perhaps only to prevent undue resort to denial, occasional reality checks, regarding one's state of happiness with an objective counselor, minister or trusted friend, might prove worthwhile. Similarly, by attending and expressing one's views during a meeting of the Happiness Club, one might also help gain consensual validation. Whatever, the basic concept advocated by Lionel Ketchian and the Happiness Club is...it is not one which ought to be ignored as too simplistic. The basic thinking behind the Club's affirmation of the value of being happy, is worthy of even an avowed skeptic's more thoughtful consideration." - Stuart M. Losen, Ph.D.

Thanks to Dr. Stuart M. Losen for his contribution to the Be Happy Zone. The answers to life are simple, the complexities lie within us.

Our next Happiness Club meeting will be on Thursday, January 20, from 7:00 - 9:00. The presentation will be "How to Have A Happy New Year!" It will be held at the Sullivan Independence Hall, Fairfield. Admission is free; everyone is welcome. Looking forward to seeing you. Come on down, meet some great people, get connected, and have a great year!

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

REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS: To be removed from this Happ-E-Newsletter reply with "Remove" in the subject line.

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

© Copyright 2005, Lionel R. Ketchian, all rights reserved.