Happ-E-Newsletter for July 1, 2007

Welcome My Dear Friend!

Being happy becomes natural when we keep learning all we can and practice it. Your joy is my joy!

Congratulations to the facilitators of our new Happiness Clubs.

IT'S HERE!!! OUR FIRST HAPPINESS CLUB IN NEW YORK CITY!

We are also happy to announce the GREENWICH, CT HAPPINESS CLUB. Another wonderful creation of a our group organizers: Dusty Baldridge & Senia Maymin. Free and open to everyone.

Congratulations to everyone that is learning more about happiness by attending courses, reading books or attending meetings. John B. Sheerin correctly stated: "Happiness is not in our circumstance but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are."

Attend a happiness course given at Harvard University from your own home. Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D. the Harvard Happiness Professor and author of a great new book called: Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, will be our guest. On Monday, July 9, 2007 from 7:00 - 8:00 PM, EST in the USA, call the phone number: (712) 775-7000 and put in this Access Code: 122856# and join us.

FEAR!

Do you know what the opposite of happiness is? The opposite of happiness is FEAR! No, it's not unhappiness. Unhappiness is not a cause it is the effect of something else. To quote from my book, Food For Thought, written almost 20 years ago. "All fear is of the future. It's the belief in your inability to cope with the next moment. Fear is an emotion. An emotion is a thought, Why fear thoughts?"

Fear is without a doubt one of the worst things anyone can experience. Fear is a perceived inability to cope with life. Unfortunately, if not corrected, that inability becomes a disability. It's certainly true that when we experience fear, we are unhappy. Unhappiness is helplessness and allowing yourself to feel like a victim. This is a devastating way to choose to live one's life. If you are feeling fear, then you are thinking about the next moment or some future moment. Concentrate on right now and you lose your fear immediately.

I was doing some work with a woman that had a 30 year long fear of flying. Her husband had recently passed away and she wanted to visit her family who lived a great distance from her home. I was working with her fears so she could recognize the feelings she experienced. As I guided her through a disassociation exercise, she clenched her hands on the table in front of her till her knuckles got red and she started sweating. Later, when she was able to mentally deal with getting on an airplane, she expressed the following statement. "I feel so much better now. I don't feel afraid and uncomfortable like I did when you were leading me though the first part of the session." She said, "here I am in a safe room and I was acting like I was afraid for my life and I felt terrified. Now that I can cope with the feeling and the images in my mind about flying, I think it was really silly of me to be afraid." She recognized that once she went through the fear in a safe way there was nothing to fear. It was amazing to her that she could be afraid while safe in a room with nothing but her own thoughts to fear.

About seven years ago, while I was giving a class on Happiness at Sacred Heart University, Jane, a woman taking the course, shared a story with the class about her experiencing fear. Jane was divorced for about ten years at the time. She was uncomfortable about being alone, and afraid of being in the house by herself. Late one night she heard a lot of noise coming from the front door. She hoped that whomever it was would just go away. She knew that someone was definitely outside her front door, was terrified, and did not know what to do.

Jane finally decided that she had to do something, so she got a baseball bat from another room. Jane figured she would fling open the front door and scare the burglar away with the baseball bat. If that didn't work, she figured she would run out the back door. So she got the bat and headed in the direction of the front door. Right next to the front door, there was a window with a curtain. She decided to very carefully sneak a look out the window through the curtain to try to see the threat that was waiting for her.

She went to the window and could hear all the noise outside her door. She slowly lifted the curtain and looked outside her front door. She was really surprised at what she saw before her eyes! Instead of seeing some impending doom, Jane saw three baby raccoons playing on her front stairs. One of the young raccoons was jumping on her bushes next to the stairs. The other two little raccoons were frolicking with each other right at her front door.

Instead of being terrified, Jane broke out into a sidesplitting laughter because the baby raccoons were so cute and so much fun to watch. The interesting thing about Jane's story is that she said she was never afraid again. This experience was the catalyst that allowed Jane to overcome her fear of being alone. She said that the adventure taught her not to give in to her fears or her limited thinking about anything. Jane is a regular member of the Happiness Club and still attends meetings.

As John Masefield said: "Best trust the happy moments. What they gave makes man less fearful and gives his work compassion and new eyes, the days that make us happy make us wise."

Happiness is the freedom you feel from the release of fear. You might say that happiness is letting go of fear! You may think it impossible to live without fear in this uncertain world. The truth is, it is an uncertain world and you need to embrace that uncertainty but not give in to fear.

Fear is being out of control, while happiness is taking control of yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Do the things you fear and the death of fear is certain." The next time something reveals fear within you, go through it instead of running away. Running away only allows your fear to gain ground, while you lose ground. Not facing your fear is much harder than dealing with it. Use happiness for your ammunition and you can shoot through any fear!The only way out of fear is through it.

In the words of Shakespeare: "Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." If you doubt anything, doubt your fears, never doubt yourself.

BE HAPPY ZONE by Lionel Ketchian. Published in the Fairfield Citizen-News on June 27, 2007

Life is complicated, happiness is simple! LIVE RICHLY...PRACTICE HAPPINESS!
Everything we do in life is for the purpose of obtaining happiness! Happiness Empowerment to You! Reminding you to make the "Happiness Decision." Think Smart, Look Smart, Be Smart...Be Happy! Sharing Love, Peace and Happiness with you, Lionel Ketchian

Happ-E-Quote :) "A man must seek his happiness and inward peace from objects which cannot be taken away from him." - Alexander Humboldt (1769-1859) Naturalist and explorer

Happ-E-Mail :) BETHANY HOPKINS, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER Ask Robert Muller, the former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, for the key to dealing with life's biggest challenges, and he may offer an unusual suggestion: Smile. "That is the proper way to finding how to get out of the situation," he told the News-Press on Thursday. "I have had an incredible life with the decision to always smile, to always see the good side and think that the world, this planet, is a jewel in the universe." - Dr. Robert Muller

Happ-E-Quote :) "When you rule your mind you rule your world. When you choose your thoughts you choose results." - Imelda Shanklin

Happ-E-Mail :) From Chris Zurcher: "If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do...How would I be? What would I do?" - R. Buckminster Fuller

Happ-E-Quote :) "The world of those who are happy is different from the world of those who are not." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Happ-E-Mail :) This poem is by David Lazar

If I Controlled You
I would not have to face my fear
I would not have to face my self
I would not have to see my vulnerability
I would not have to know myself
I could keep the cycle going and never
really know, the way it is.

Happ-E-Quote :) "Change your thoughts, and you change your world." - Norman Vincent Peale

Happ-E-Quote :) "Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it." - Mary Baker Eddy

Happ-E-Quote :) "To live happily is an inward power of the soul." - Aristotle

Happ-E-News :) Recent articles on happiness!

CLUB HAPPINESS, E-CLUB :) Everybody should join this club, try it you'll love it!!!

VIRTUAL HAPPINESS CLUB :) Join us from your home, on your phone, on the new VIRTUAL HAPPINESS CLUB with Dr. Cynthia Barnett. You can listen and talk with a great happiness teacher each month.

Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., is one of Harvard University's most popular lecturers. More students have signed up to hear Ben-Shahar than any other teacher in Harvard's history. His classes attract 1,400 students per semester - approximately 20 percent of all Harvard graduates. He has been profiled on NPR and featured on CNN and CBS and in the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Ben-Shahar graduated from Harvard with a degree in philosophy and psychology. For the last ten years, he has been teaching personal and organizational excellence, leadership, ethics, and self-esteem.

Date: Monday, July 9, 2007
Time: 7:00 - 8:00 PM, EST in the USA.
Phone number: (712) 775-7000
Your Access Code is: 122856#.

FAIRFIELD CONNECTICUT HAPPINESS CLUB :)

WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT SMILING SINGLE SENIORS HAPPINESS CLUB :)
Featuring a talk called: Creativity Creates Happiness by Barbara Abraham. Barbara has a great
deal of experience in helping seniors cope with many issues. Her work as a visiting nurse and director of an adult day program and admissions director of a long term care facility and educator make her uniquely qualified to offer advice and guidance.
Date :) Thursday, July 26, 2007
Time :) 6:30 - 8:00 P.M.
Place :) The Westport Senior Center, 21 Imperial Ave. Westport CT 06880.

Admission is free and the meetings are for people single and over 50 years old. Meet some wonderful people using happiness in their lives. Stay happy and healthy - get well connected. Stacy Enyeart is the group facilitator. Future meetings to be announced.

NEW!!! GREENWICH CONNECTICUT HAPPINESS CLUB :)
Please join us at our first meeting on: "How and Why We Study Happiness," which will be presented by our guest speaker Senia Maymin. Senia is an Executive Coach and Editor-in-Chief of Positive Psychology News Daily. Ms. Maymin is an Assistant Instructor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Master program for Applied Positive Psychology.

The purpose of the Happiness Club of Greenwich is to gather people together to discuss happiness, and to show people tools and research-based techniques to gain more happiness, productivity, and success in their lives. Each meeting will feature speakers on happiness and success-related research and will feature new ideas. No dues, no registration and open to everyone!

Attend two talks about: Healthy & Happiness! How to stay happy and healthy will be the topic presented by two professionals.

STAMFORD CONNECTICUT TEEN HAPPY CLUB :)

Open to all high school students. Meetings are held twice a month on Saturdays from 11:00 - 12:30 P.M. At the Daniel and Grace Tully & Family Health Center, 32 Strawberry Hill Court, Stamford, Connecticut 06902.

GOAL: "To play with the latest research about happiness, success, and productivity. You're guaranteed to interact with at least five new people each time!" Hosted in association with the Creativity and Personal Mastery program at Columbia Business School, as taught by Professor Rao. No dues, no registration and open to everyone!

Date :) Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Time :) 7:00 - 9:00 P.M.
Place :) At Columbia Business School corner of Amsterdam and 115th street, Columbia University campus New York, NY 10027 - Warren Hall Room 416 (4th floor)

WILMINGTON NORTH CAROLINA HAPPINESS CLUB :)
Learn the Option Philosophy by Barry Neil Kaufmann, which is a group of observations that we can use to change various aspects of ourselves including our emotions and behaviors. This will be a fun and enlightening experience that just may change your life!

Date :) Friday, July (to be announced)

Time :) 7:00 - 9:00 P.M.
Place :) The Happiness Institute Counseling and Wellness Center, 6336 Oleander Drive Suite #4, Wilmington NC 28403.

Organizer' feature on the Meetup.com website:

MENTORS HAPPINESS CLUB :) Meeting: Not till September. We will be meeting on our conference phone line that will be open to all Happiness Club facilitators everywhere. More information to come.

Virtual Happiness Club - For more information:

New - Happiness Club WWW Chapter - No meetings till September. For more information:

Mentors Happiness Club - No meetings till September.

Happ-E-Quote :) "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

Happiness is an inner state of well being. A state that enables you to profit from your highest thoughts, intelligence, wisdom, awareness, common sense, emotions, health, and spiritual values.
Happiness is one of the most important things in your life. Don't give away your power by being unhappy! Practice "Premeditated Happiness," because happiness is an issue of power. We give our power to others for many reasons. We mistakenly think that doing this will make us happy. The truth is that we have given others power over ourselves. We can now consciously reclaim our power and experience happiness. Happiness does wonders for your soul. Now is the time to learn to use happiness for dealing with challenges and difficult people so you can empower your life. 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!

REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS: No longer wish to receive the Happ-E-Newsletter, reply with "Remove" in the subject line.

May the good lord be with you, Down every road you roam, And may sunshine and happiness, Surround you when you're far from home. - Words from the song Forever Young by Rod Stewart

"Unhappiness is a form of suffering." Eckhart Tolle. "Do or do not. There is no try." Yoda

If you're not happy by now, it's time to have a talk with yourself.

Make the Happiness Decision Now! THAT'S ALL FOLKS...NOW BE HAPPY!

© Copyright 2007, Lionel R. Ketchian, all rights reserved.