Be Happy

I start each day eating breakfast and reading the newspaper. I really enjoy reading the newspaper. I read every comic and every advice column. I read a lot of the news, too, but I don't miss the comics and columns. When I go on a vacation, I have all my newspapers saved up so I can keep up with the comics and columns.

There is one advice column that offers very practical information. The writer is Richard Carlson. He wrote the book, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. This past week, there was a particularly good column about happiness. I couldn't find a link to the entire article, so I will summarize it here.

The point I liked is that he says we get in our own way of being happy. This happens when we let our thoughts "override our happiness." He classifies those thoughts as "self-defeating, negative, angry, jealous and frustrated thoughts."

He says that it is important to be aware of the thoughts, but not as important as people think. He believes people can acknowledge the thoughts and then drop them.

I believe this is true too. It takes practice, but once you realize that the thoughts are just bringing you down and are not productive in any way and you practice "dropping them" out of your life, you will be much happier.