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Greetings,
Welcome to July, a wonderful month for picnics,
vacations, and free time. Yet, in our culture of
"over-busy" and information overload, leisure activities
may
not be high on our list of priorities. If you'd like to
reclaim some good old fashioned relaxation (and the
happiness that can follow), this newsletter is right on
time. The theme? Happiness Tool
#3--Personal Power--from the authors of What
Happy People
Know. (Click here for a refresher on Tool #1, Appreciation and Tool #2, Choice.)
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Happiness Tool #3: Personal Power
Looking for a way to stop feeling like a victim to
circumstances in your life? It's all about becoming a
proactive force for YOU! In other words, claiming your
personal power. Dan Baker, PhD and Cameron
Strauth, authors of What Happy People Know,
explain that there are two components to personal
power: taking responsibility and taking action.
Sometimes life feels hard and commitments such as
work leave us too little time for the ease that
accompanies play and relaxation. In this situation, we
often feel drained and powerles--victims to
circumstances "out there" that we believe are beyond
our control. Happiness always seems out of reach. It
will happen later when such and such occurs, when
he/she does this or that. In short, the happiness we
seek is always off in the future. Such a belief results in
the loss of our personal power and, inevitably,
suffering.
In my work as a hypnotherapist, one of my jobs is to
assist people in taking back their own personal
power. I do this by de-hypnotizing them from beliefs
that no longer serve their needs. As clients begin to
acknowledge and accept their own personal power,
they naturally feel stronger and more in control. This
allows them to let life flow, instead of doing battle with
it.
One way that my clients become proactive is by taking
responsibility for their health and well-being, which
are enhanced by relaxation. When we allow ourselves
enough free time, time away from our jobs, time away
from our computers, etc., our sense of well-being
grows. This creates a feeling of personal power,
which leads to the feeling that happiness is here and
now.
I love this quote by Barry Neil Kaufman, from M.J.
Ryan's book The Happiness Makeover:
The decision to be happy, Kaufman says, "is actually
the decision to stop being unhappy."
It's another way of saying be proactive for your
happiness and take back your personal power.
Making the decision to be happy is taking
responsibility and initiating an action for YOU.
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Warmly,
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