Feeling glum, feeling down, feeling like crap, feeling anxious, depressed, guilty, shamed….

Life can be a bastard at times! And we just have to manage!

A previous Australian Prime Minister was once quoted, “Life wasn`t meant to be easy!”.   Who can trust a politician?  I say.

How we manage is the key. What have we got in our lives, the big stuff, the small stuff, the relationships, work, money …  Blah, blah, blah!!!

Worrying and stressing about being unhappy is probably not going to help rid you of the cause or the symptons!

Check out this ‘true story’ and see what you can get from it! And thanks to Tim Lott

I am going to come out of the closet, and make a shocking, even shameful, admission. I am not a happy person. In fact I am the sort of chap who complete strangers come up to in the street and advise to cheer up, since it might never happen.

I am not, I should emphasise, an unhappy person either. I love to laugh, and some of my novels have been admired as pretty good comedies. I think I am pretty much like most people, with moods that shift and transform. Sometimes I am happy, sometimes sad, most of the time I am pretty much neutral, with my mind elsewhere. Disappointment, fear and loss are as much a part of my life as achievement, hope and joy. It is all of a piece.

However this indeterminate state no longer seems to be socially acceptable. It is required of me, both implicitly and explicitly, that I remain in a state of continual near-explosion – passionate about this, excited about that, looking forward to something else. If not, I am antisocial, a grumpy old man. Worst of all I am a failure, because if I was a success, I would be happy. Neither am I a good person, since happiness has come to be seen as a moral end in itself.

This kind of happiness fascism is a relatively recent import from America. The British, not so long ago, were perfectly at ease with being hacked off. Moaning was once a pleasurable and acceptable pastime. No longer. Everything, as the (ironic) theme song of the Lego Movie insists, is Awesome.

Happiness, we are confidently assured, is the objective of life and it is something we “get” by working hard, shopping, playing and exercising, giving to charitable causes and taking part in the drama of late capitalism …….

Read more?  Thanks to this author.   READ ON… it`s worth it!

I was hooked at this point, so click here now … or stay bloody unhappy!

So often we seek happiness in things that we buy. Personal items, things for the house. We buy things to make us happy. Yes I hear you say! And while we have these ‘things’, we usually feel just great.

We`ve heard said “I`m in need of some shopping therapy”. Great while it happens, but we soon need to do it again!

The result, happy, short term thrill and credit card debt … growing.

“One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation,” says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades.

We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.”

My best memories are to do with travel, with holidays … being there and after, in conversations with friends, the pics and the videos on Facebook. And the saving up can be fun to do. The looking forward to the ‘happy time’ is also great. It teaches us lots and the build-up process about deciding and denying because “I need the cash for my holiday and travel” .. it`s just good for us?

>>>So what`s on your happiness bucket list? New York, Sydney, Antarctic, canoeing, desert hike, para sailing  …. and more

Read lots more about the Science of why we should spend money on experiences and not things. 

Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness and …

Most people are in the pursuit of happiness. There are economists who think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. We know that money can make you happier, though after your basic needs are met, it doesn’t make you that much happier. But one of the biggest questions is how to allocate our money, which is (for most of us) a limited resource.

There’s a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong.

 

So rather than buying the latest iPhone or a new BMW, Gilovich suggests you’ll get more happiness spending money on experiences like going to art exhibits, doing outdoor activities, learning a new skill, or traveling.

Gilovich’s findings are the synthesis of psychological studies conducted by him and others ……

Read on and build your happiness and well-being quotient. Happiness = new events = travel!

Click here now and enhance your HAPPINESS and WELL BEING!!

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3043858/world-changing-ideas/the-science-of-why-you-should-spend-your-money-on-experiences-not-thing