Happy Alone

Happiness lies on transitory things, so simplify your life and possessions to get a clearer path to a better internal life. When stuff, people, and the problems they bring fall away, the resulting stillness allows you to find the self-sufficient joy that resides inside.

Joy comes when you make peace with who you are, where you are and why you are. When you need nothing but your truth to bring peace, then you have settled into unshakable abiding joy.

It’s human nature to linger on feelings of regret. We look back and think that missed opportunities(real or not) could have set us on a different, possibly more rewarding path. Unchecked, these emotions become overwhelming sources of stress and anxiety.

• Acknowledge how you cope with regret: ignoring it makes it more present
• Stop the regrets spiral, until you are ready to face the situation with more clarity
• Revisit the story and identify practical lessons you can learn from it
• Treat yourself like your ideal mentor would
• Ask yourself why you feel regret and work backward to identify the values that are tied up in your feelings
• The cure for anticipating regret isn’t feeling lousy or overthinking, but pursuing solutions, using the wisdom gained through self-reflection.

People try to change the chance outcomes, and thereby their luck by using blind superstition or old ritual to affect the outcome, but there is no evidence of them working.

Luck can be increased with hard work, though what can happen out there is still anybody’s guess. The prepared mind that is able to act with speed and direction has more favourable chances than the one who is not paying attention.

Being lucky or unlucky often is our own perception and outlook towards life.

If we survive a car accident, we consider ourselves lucky to be alive or to be unlucky to be involved in the accident in the first place, ruining our vehicle.

A good apology takes two people: the giver and the receiver. An apology that heals is based on kindness, generosity, and compassion. 

The recipient accepts it with grace and, in turn, offers forgiveness. Without forgiveness, it cannot heal.

• Repair: An apology that rebuilds intimacy should have three parts: you need to own the mistake, and then you need to repair the damage. Lastly, you need to vow to improve.
• Forgive:  If you have been hurt, you may never completely forget, but you can choose to forgive. To decide to forgive means that you don't relive something that belongs to the past.
• Begin again: Unfinished business will accumulate. Let go of the small and the large wounds, so they don't pile up. 

• With too many options, people increasingly rely on recommendation engines to help them cope with choice.
• We pay more for the same stuff. To watch the good things on TV now involves paying monthly subscriptions to many services, where once you only had to pay a TV license. 
• Privatization of companies leads to many companies offering the same service - but we still feel that we are possibly paying too much.
• Education becomes a consumer good.

The ideology of choice makes us forget that not all things should be bought and sold. Moreover, more choice does not increase our happiness, security, and contentment. It does leave us overwhelmed and anxious so that we often turn to denial and willful blindness.

At least we are thinking about choice and do not merely follow the whims of the market.

Blaming, oversimplifying, and seeing oneself as a victim are all common traits of unhappy couples and failed marriages.

Conflicts should be approached by looking together at the problem.

Most of us don’t have adequate communication skills going into marriage. It is important to build this skill.

It is your time, doing what you want to do. People like to use their discretionary time with activities like watching TV, socializing, going to the mall or movies, spending time with their loved ones, or just doing nothing.

Discretionary time is the variable that decides how happy one is in their life.

• It improve self-awareness.
• It allows you to understand and see things from a different point of view. 
• It allows you to respond, not react.
• It facilitates a deeper level of learning.
• It improves confidence.
• It makes you challenge your assumptions.

• STOP: Take a step back from life or a particular situation.
• LOOK: Identify and get perspective on what you notice and see.
• LISTEN: Listen to your inner guide, the innate wisdom that bubbles up when you give it time and space to emerge.
• ACT: Identify the steps you need to take moving forward to adjust, change or improve.

This type of group is united by a common activity but it's not limited to a professional one.

It also works for hobbies and interests. 

This is a group based on being of or in a certain place.

To build such communities, use dedicated websites or use geolocation on your social media to find information about upcoming events, news and people close to you that you might find interesting.