Happiness is a State of Mind

Welcome back lovely people to Phase 3 - Happiness is a State of mind.

Only One thing I ask of you, is if you would be so kind to Please let me know and share with us your thoughts and experiences and how life begins to change for you!

As you know by now, I love to add quotes in to inspire:
“Happiness, true happiness, is an inner quality. It is a state of mind. If your mind is at peace, you are happy. If your mind is at peace, but you have nothing else, you can be happy. If you have everything the world can give – pleasure, possessions, power – but lack peace of mind, you can never be happy.” Dada Vaswani

Do you believe or think that Happiness is a simple a mental state of the mind?
What have you done to shift your state of mind from negative thinking to positive thinking?
Mental state of well-being is created by positive and good emotions. Happiness doesn’t come to us, but it can only come from inside us. Here is my next post about Happiness comes from within and is a state of mind.
Once you have accepted Happiness is a Choice and Happiness is an Attitude of the Mind (having changed the attitude from negative to positive then you need to look at ‘how you can create your state of mind to happiness.’
What do you understand by a ‘state of mind?’ I understand it as a psychological temporary state, that is the emotional and intellectual content of our mind at that precise moment in time. In essence it is what is going on in our mind, a mix of emotions  and thoughts which are created by how we feel inside which is a consequence of how we react to our external world. The way we react depends on various situations, with different people, locations, environments etc…

Studying NLP and qualifying as an NLP (neuro linguistic programmer) Practitioner, I have really come to understand the in depths of how the mind works and how I can alter my feelings and thoughts by just simply paying attention to all aspects of me- inner and outer. In fact, our state of mind is the sum total of everything about us at a given time. It can be distraught, joyful, excited or any other emotion; but basically, there is a positive resourceful or negative un-resourceful state of mind. Most of our state of mind happen without us consciously realising it. For instance, we see or watch, listen to something and we respond to it going into a state, it’s the way we respond to it, most of the times it could be the memories we have associated with certain things that create our state.
Remember: A state of mind can be created by external factors that have influence in our life, but most importantly a state of mind can be created by ourselves.

Good or enabling states like love, joy, happiness, confidence, beliefs etc but there are even paralysing or bad states like depression, fear, anxiety, sadness etc… Your behaviour is the result of the state you are in and understanding your state is the key to understanding change and achieving excellence. It’s important to recognise, know and feel what state you are in for when the events happen- you react according to the state of mind in which you find yourself.

The way you perceive the world is largely dependent on your inner state of mind. If you are in a bad and negative state- you see all dark and bad but if you are in a good state, like when you’re in love, or you are happy about a work; you tend to view all good and you’re not really bothered much about anything else. I can guarantee you, that you are very unlikely to let anything ruin your state of thought and feelings.

How do you now feel now, knowing that the state of mind can be shifted? And, that it is in your control, regardless of external influences and factors?
What you need to learn is to change your state, from a bad state to a good state, from an un-resourceful state to a resourceful state so you can be in control of our life and live happily.
 This is how you do it and if you really want to it can be done in an instant:

• learn to change your state so you know how to change your state whenever you are in a state that you do not want.
• to keep it in mind, if you want to control your mood or mental state, so you are not at the mercy of events and our emotions.
• realise and acknowledge that you’ve ended up in a bad state
• make the conscious decision to change that state (you need to be aware of what is happening, you can hold still for a moment and take a deep breath).
• focus your attention on something else that is around you.
• think of something else that makes you laugh or even a fond memory that makes you smile and fills you with happiness.
• start using your physical body (adjust your posture/ position or start jumping fast, go for a walk, concentrate on your breathing). In fact, changing your physical state can help change your state of mind.
• change the location of where you are, even only moving into another room can be helpful.
• create and use affirmative which are like mnemonic devices for the mind. There are two types of affirmative cues: memory-based affirmative cues and activity-based affirmative cues.
• you have to be consistent in your actions.

Please don’t forget to post and share how you have got on and if you have any of your own tools and techniques which help you change your state of mind. I would love to hear about them.
“There is one thing in this good old world that is positively sure – happiness is for all who strive to be happy – and those who laugh are happy. Everybody is eligible – you – me – the other fellow. Happiness is fundamentally a state of mind – not a state of body.” Douglas Fairbanks
Thank you for reading- Join me tomorrow for Phase 4- Gratitude is the Key to Happiness. 

 HAPPINESS IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION!