The Happiness Connection

Are you worrying about your problems? Guess what, everyone has problems. It is all about not letting your problems negatively affect you. Most people allow worry to get the best of them. Worrying is not going to solve your problems. In fact worrying is just another problem for you to deal with. Thinking about your problems is not the same as worrying about them. That is because thinking is directed toward solving the problem. Think about what solutions you have available to you. When you come up with solutions you will not need to worry about your problems.

Lighten up and be happy and you will find solutions to your problems even faster. You will even find better solutions because you will be in a better frame of mind. It is called emotional competence, so lighten up and change your attitude! Your negative attitude is a part of your problem. A poor attitude has a dramatic negative effect on your problems and your life. How does lighting up and being happy have a positive affect on you life? I'll tell you the secret if you promise to tell everyone. It is all about power, and power is energy that you have control over. Happiness is power because it produces energy. Happiness is energy of the highest order. Happiness is your power source, so get connected! It is about tapping into your power supply and using the energy.

Energy is all around us. Your connection is happiness. To prove it to you let's look at the opposite, which is unhappiness. Unhappiness is a feeling of being disconnected. Unhappiness is about being cut off from the energy that we feel when we are happy. Look at how we describe both states of being. We describe unhappiness as being down and out or feeling low. We describe happiness as feeling high or being in the flow. Happiness is our connection to power. Happiness is our connection to one another. When we experience happiness with another human being we feel connected. Laughter produces the same results. As an aspect of happiness it makes us feel better. It is an energy producer. It is a source of power as well because it brings people together.

Remember the old saying, "Laughter is the best medicine?" Medicine changes a weakened state into a healthy, more powerful state. To be able to lighten up and laugh may be one of the most powerful things you can do. Especially when things are not going well, or you are not feeling well. Maybe you, a family member, or a friend is fighting a serious illness. How can lightening up and being happy change such a serious situation? Lightening up can be the most powerful thing you can do. The reason for this is that you are taking control of yourself. That is real power! To laugh often and much, especially at your self can create the energy that you need to overcome the illness.

Whether you have medical, financial or relationships problems, lighten up and be happy and notice the positive benefits. What are they? Being happy when everything looks bad allows you take charge of the situation and yourself. You are not letting the situation tell you what to do. Once you become unhappy you are letting the problem tell you what to think and how to act. When you can allow yourself to be happy even in a bad situation, you become the most powerful person in the world. You become more of who you really are. Problems do not define who you are; they reveal who you are!

There is another way to live your life. Decide to be happy no matter what. Wake up in the morning and decide to be happy. You go through the day and experience people and events that would make most people unhappy, but not you! You're too smart for that. You know that only you are in charge of your happiness. You would not want anyone else to be in charge of your happiness.

The secret to living your life is to lighten up and be happy! This is your power source for energy. Yes, it does take discipline to stick to the decision to be happy. It's worth it, believe me. Nothing makes more sense than being happy. It will carry you through the valleys of despair to the mountaintop of exhilaration.

Our next Happiness Club meeting will be a presentation called: From Obstacles to Opportunities by Barry Shainbaum on Thursday, June 16, from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. at the Sullivan Independence Hall, 725 Old Post Road, Fairfield, CT. Barry was cured of bipolar disorder 16 years ago. Barry talks about many things that he did during his previous darkest days that brought him some happiness. Barry will travel to us from his home in Toronto, Canada and his presentation includes live music and many of the images from his book Hope & Heroes which was inspired by his journey of facing and overcoming adversity. Hope & Heroes includes Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Dr. Phil, Jane Goodall, Martin Sheen, Robert Schuller, Wayne Dyer, Arun Gandhi, Shimon Peres, and many more inspiring figures.

Published in the Fairfield Citizen-News June 8, 2005

BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

Life is complicated, happiness is simple!

Happiness Empowerment to You! LIVE RICHLY...PRACTICE HAPPINESS!

Sharing Love, Peace and Happiness with you,
Lionel Ketchian

Reminding you to make the "Happiness Decision." Giving you our Happiness Club Meeting dates, The Happiness 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 beginning of this newsletter you can read the latest article called: The Happiness Connection.

"To live happily, that is the success of life." - Dr. Robert Muller

Think Smart, Look Smart, Be Smart...Be Happy!

Julian Kalmar is doing a great deal to bring happiness into this world.

Happ-E-Quote :)

"I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become." - Carl Jung

Thank you for inviting me to speak at your Happiness Club at the last meeting. It was not only fun, but it was also inspiring. Meeting with you and Richard Ellis, M.D., and also with all the other Happy People was very joyful and joy filled.

As I mentioned to you, my wife made reservations to go to Alaska during June. I will be at the July 24th Happiness Meeting. Best regards, with much happiness, your friend,

Arthur Ladds, Esq.

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. - Janet Lane

It was great talking to you today. Looking forward to getting together. Please put me on the list to receive the newsletter and all other communications concerning happiness.

May you be well and happy
May you have strength, courage and peacefulness
May you have ease and well being

Your friend, Mark Curri
Happ-E-Quote :)

Being unhappy about a problem is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem. - Lionel Ketchian

"What I am looking for is not ‘out there’. It is within me. The past has no power over me. Negative thoughts have no power over me. I am the power in my world. Today is a wonderful day and a new beginning because I choose to make it so". - Author Unknown

WANTED TO SHARE THIS WIITH YOU, I LOVE IT, YOUR OLD FRIEND Dorothy

Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours. - Richard Bach

Thank you for your wonderful newsletter and thoughts on how to be happy. Also thanks for mentioning our book "Gratitude Works." - Eileen Bodoh

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day. -

Sally Koch

Loved your latest news letter. Thank you for a wonderful combination of thoughts, letters and your column. Robert and I read every word..

Thank you for including Choice from my dear Aunt Mary. I was the pastor for her celebration of Life and as I described her life via each decade I lit a birthday candle on her birthday cake. I lit the first candle for her birth for the light she brought to the world with her birth..the eighth candle was the relighting type and it relit after I blew the others out to show that her light will never be lost and her happiness and joy will always be remembered.

Love, Barbara and Robert Muller

"If you train your mind to search for the positive things about other people, you will be surprised at how many good things you can observe in them and comment upon." - Alan Loy Mcginnis

When someone drives you crazy, kill with kindness and torment with tenderness. If you say I love you to your critics, they don't know what to do and the day you stop saying I love you
they will tell you that you forgot something. - Dr. Bernie Siegel

To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against. - Christina Baldwin Writer and educator

I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. The weather is delightful and perhaps spring has finally sprung. Wonderful newsletter as always. It is such an inspiration. How was the last Happiness Club meeting? Great I'm sure. I was just looking at my calendar and on the day of the next meeting I'll be on an airplane headed for a theatre conference in Seattle and my annual week home to Alaska for my summer visit. The presentation you have lined up sounds very good and I'm sorry I'll miss it.

Enjoy the week and happy, happy June. Talk to you soon.

Light, peace and happiness

Love, Lynette

"There are two ways of exerting one's strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up." - Booker T. Washington

What a snappy opening to the Happ-E-Newsletter - and HOW TRUE! It is amazing how much our lives can change when we stop taking on the beliefs of others! Thanks again for your newsletter! I look forward to reading it when it arrives...WORLD PEACE & HARMONY BEGINS WITH ONE PERSON...YOU! BE IN JOY! ~ kristin reese

A much more effective and lasting method of face lifting than surgical technique is happy thinking, new interests, and outdoor exercise. - Sara Murray Jordan, Gastroenterologist

Dear Lionel; I am e-mailing you to tell you that your talk was the best I've ever heard - and that's 18 years of going to the Unitarian Meeting House. Thank you so much. I bought the book Gateway To Happiness by Rabbi Pliskin and it is wonderful. Even though I am Jewish, I am a humanist - so I substitute Nature whenever the Rabbi talks about God. Beside the God figure, the advice is wonderful. Thank you for letting me know about it.

"The kindest thing you can do for the people you care about is to become a happy, joyous person." - Brian Tracy

You have been a great teacher. Best to you and yours; Happiness, Howard Garrett

Here is a one-sentence formula for becoming a grateful person: Think, speak, and act like a grateful person does.

There is no mystery on how to become a person with the attribute of gratitude. Think gratefully. Speak gratefully. And act gratefully. When you consistently do these three things, you are consistently grateful. And even before you are consistent with this pattern, every little bit of thinking, speaking, and acting this way makes you more grateful than if you wouldn't have thought, spoken, or acted this way.

From Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s new book:

We are proud to present, at no charge, over one hundred 28 minute episodes we've taped so far in streaming audio (for 28.8 Kbps+), streaming video (for 56 Kbps+), and Select episodes in broadband streaming video (for DSL, cable, wireless and satellite) Internet connections.

Our next Happiness Club meeting will be a presentation called:

Date :) Thursday, June 16, 2005

Time :) 7:00 - 9:00 P.M.
Place :) Sullivan Independence Town Hall

Address :) 611 Old Post Road, Fairfield, CT 06824

We look forward to seeing you. Come on down, share the joy and meet some great people!

To see a photo taken at one of the meetings of the Happiness Club.

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.

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision." - Stevie Wonder

Jane Bradley is President and conducts the meetings.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, June 16, 2005.

This will be our last meeting till September. No meetings for July & August.
Meetings are held at: The Normandy Resource Centre (The Legion),

111, Church Street,

St. Catharines, Ontario.

The time: 700 - 8:30 PM.

This facility is fully accessible. ADMISSION: A smile and always free.

Cheers! Jane

"If you would be rich, you will be rich; if you would be good, you will be good; if you would be learned, you will be learned. But wish for one thing exclusively, and don't at the same time wish for a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly." - William James

Our Happiness Club meets

When: Sunday, June 19th.

Time: 3:00 - 5:00 PM.

Where: 333 First Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

(b/t Folsom and Harrison) on the third floor in the activity room.

The building is about a fifteen minute walk from BART.

Our topic is 'Being happy living with an unhappy whomever (spouse, mother, sibling, friend, boss, coworker, in-law, etc.)

Please RSVP because it helps Aymee & Bob prepare. Meetings are free, hope to see you!

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

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

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.