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Volume 003 April 15, 2009 Hi … I’m Jimmy, and my mission is to improve your life by making it happier everyday.
I am a doctor, “rejuvenating” corporate executive, entrepreneur, author, and speaker. My wife (Jill), our two-and-a-half-year-old daughter (Joie), and our golden retriever (Sunny) live in Tampa Florida, Newport Beach California, and Vancouver, Canada (so we travel a lot).
I would love to hear from you on either how your life has improved by using the BeHappy! system, or how I can help improve your life more by making the system even better.
Please go to BeHappy101.com (or see the yellow box at the end of the newsletter) to provide your comments, suggestions, stories, or thoughts and I’ll respond to you personally as soon as possible.
Here’s to your happiness and to having the kind of life you want to have!
BeHappy! my friends
Inside this Issue
Introduction to The BeHappy! Newsletter (for new subscribers)
Happiness Facts
Can we Raise Happier Children?
Actions for the Next 60 Days to BeHappy!
What's New at BeHappy101.com |
INTRODUCTION (for new subscribers)
The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a regular and consistent supplement to the action-oriented process described on my website - www.behappy101.com - and in my first book, simply called BeHappy!
It is intended to make a powerful contribution to the amount of joy and fulfillment in your daily life by providing regular tools, reminders, and strategies to:
- Live everyday with more PASSION, JOY, and FULFILLMENT
- Create and maintain better, stronger, long-lasting RELATIONSHIPS
- More easily get through the TOUGH TIMES we all experience in life
- Live HEALTHIER — and even LIVE LONGER — with more VITALITY
- Be more SUCCESSFUL
- Make more MONEY (even get WEALTHY)
- Raise HAPPIER CHILDREN
- And much, much more
This is far beyond a “How To” concept. It is rather a “Do” system, which, when used in conjunction with the BeHappy! book, helps create your own personal “Happiness Plan” for your life. If you want a template or “blueprint” for this Happiness Plan, Click here and you can get it free.
Since my goal is to help make people happier, however, it is best to get the book to achieve maximum benefit from the plan (yes, that’s partly a sales pitch—but it’s true). Click here to order your copy now.
So get started right away. Take action immediately. Go to behappy101.com and join the many people whose lives have been changed.
Go ahead…
BeHappy! my friends
...Jimmy
HAPPINESS FACTS
- Smiling releases endorphins and makes us feel better. Even “faking” a smile can lead to feeling happier.
- Several studies have shown that a pet can reduce blood pressure and stress, promoting health and happiness.
“Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future.” - Zig Ziglar | - According to a new look at a 40 year old study on child rearing practices conducted at Harvard University, those children who were hugged and cuddled more grew up to be the happiest adults.
Can We Raise Happier Children?
The 3rd Happiness Fact here indicates that children who were hugged and cuddled in their early years tend to grow up to be generally happier people. Also, in the February 2009 edition of the BeHappy! Newsletter, one startling fact listed was that the fastest growing segment of the anti-depressant drug market is pre-school children! Can you believe that?
Even worse, the incidence of depression – and even suicide – amongst high school kids is unacceptably high ... and getting worse. Although this is unacceptable, it's not too surprising, given the fact that, in the US - clinical depression is 3-10 times more common today than two generations ago.
How can this be happening? We have so much more today than people had 50 years ago. More importantly, what’s to be done? Surely something must be done. And that's what BeHappy! intends to do. It's my mission. And regarding the happiness of children, well, this is a subject which has become even more meaningful to me as a relatively new parent. [For an interesting, although somewhat unrelated story about our young daughter’s name, read the side bar to the right] Sidebar: A somewhat unrelated, but “interesting” story:
Almost 3 years ago, when we found out our first little baby would be a girl, we decided that we would name her Joie (pronounced like the boy's name, Joey) – just because we liked the name – especially for a girl. The thought never crossed our minds that it might mean something. Well, about 3 months before she was born (she was born September 28th 2006) we were at a friend’s restaurant in Vancouver and he asked us what we were going to name our little girl. We said “Joie”. He asked how it was spelled, so we told him, “j-o-i-e”. He said, that’s pronounced ‘jwa’ in French, to which we asked, “what does that mean?” His reply was, “happiness” (and he didn't even know I had written a book on the subject). We were amazed! My first book, BeHappy! had been launched earlier in the year and we knew nothing about the French word “joie” meaning happiness, but it was obviously perfect! My life’s mission has always been to be a creative force for health and happiness (which I discovered when I took Tony Robbins' Date With Destiny program), and now, in the same year (2006), I would launch a book called BeHappy! and have a baby coincidentally and unknowingly named “happiness”. I love telling that story because it’s incredible how life works, isn’t it? Also because maybe, in some way, she can represent "happiness" her whole life! (That's her in the picture at the beginning of this section) |
Yes, something must be done to create more happiness in our world. And it appears it could start with the raising of our children. We must make our children happier, more fulfilled and more balanced. We must reduce the depression and suicide rate amongst kids. And we must reduce our dependence on drugs to help make kids – and adults – happier. All this is possible. And it’s somewhat of a “domino effect”, because happy children tend to help influence other children. And happy children have a much better chance of growing up to become happy adults (so there would be more happy adults). Then, happy adults tend to raise happier children, and so on. It perpetuates itself to the point where, perhaps, 50 years from now people will be happier than they are today - a trend reversal!
If you have children – especially younger children (say under the age of 13 or so) – what do you do for them to make them happy children? And by “happy children”, I mean for the long-term (in other words ... not the brief joy they might experience by buying them something or letting them do something they want to do). For example, do you have lots of rules for your children? In my book, BeHappy! I devote an entire chapter to the subject of rules. Why? Because it’s so important to our happiness - whether a child or adult. Do you have lots of rules for your own life? If so, how were those rules created? Many were probably developed based on your upbringing.
Rules – especially differing rules between people – create conflict. My former business partner, Tony Robbins, says that “every upset [argument/disagreement] between people is a ‘rules’ upset”. And with children, it is my opinion that establishing too many rules early on sets them up for increased conflict, pain, and, yes, unhappiness in their lives.
So, just like with our own lives, instead of creating and living by too many rules, we should establish guidelines for our children instead. Sure, children need “boundaries”. It’s just better to make as many of those boundaries as possible somewhat broad (which is the main difference between 'rules' and 'guidelines'). It will provide them with a sense that you trust them - especially as they get older. It will help them get along better with their peers (since their peers won't be breaking as many of their rules because they won't have as many as those children with lots of rigid rules).
That's the true basis for reducing conflict and anxiety - both at home and away from home. With fewer rules, there are fewer opportunities for our rules to be broken by others, which instills higher self-esteem, greater peace-of-mind, and a broader feeling of connection. These are all things which can help build a happier mindset, a more positive overall attitude, and a happier life!
BeHappy!ACTIONS TO TAKE UNTIL THE NEXT ISSUE OF THIS NEWSLETTER
Like everything in life, the old saying, “practice makes perfect” applies to happiness, too.
By using the tools and concepts in BeHappy - and applying the principles on my website (www.behappy101.com) and in this quarterly newsletter - you'll have the coaching and the “practice” you need to lead the happiest possible life. It takes daily action to get “perfect” at it, though.
So every quarter in this section of the newsletter, I’ll provide some simple exercises for the next two months (until the next edition of the newsletter) which will relate to the main "subject" of this edition of the newsletter and help make happiness a habit.
Just a few minutes of focus every day or two and you’ll be laying the foundation for the happiest possible life - both for yourself and for those you love.
If you do these things, I can promise you’ll notice a big difference in the quality of your life.
You will BeHappy!
Actions for the next 60 days:
“When you put faith, hope, and love together you can raise positive children in a negative world.” - Zig Ziglar |
By the time you receive the next BeHappy! Newsletter (around mid-June), here’s what you might consider if you have children under the age of 13 (even as young as 5 or 6):
- Sit down with them and talk about “rules”
- If you have many rules for them (or even if they just perceive you have too many rules), see if they can be changed to guidelines (there is a full description of how to do this in BeHappy!)
- Establish a reward system for living within the guidelines rather than a punishment system for breaking established rules
Use the process described in BeHappy! to change rules to guidelines. And, if you have children between the ages of 13 and 18, you might consider doing the same thing as above. Or, as an alternative, just sit down and talk with them about their overall happiness. Are they happy most of the time or not? Do they get “depressed” frequently? What makes them happy or sad? Finally, if you don’t have children, you might consider helping your friends out with this concept to make their children happier – because ultimately, it will help you and your family and friends by making our world a happier place. Or if your children are grown and have their own children, you might focus on helping their kids this way.
Because it is becoming more and more apparent that too many rules creates low self-esteem, bitterness, and unhappiness in children. That’s at least part of the reason why anti-depressant use, depression, and suicide are on the rise in kids.
You’ll find all this – and much more (and in much greater detail) – in an upcoming article on the BeHappy101.com website about raising happier children coming out later in the spring (I’ll let you know exactly when in the next edition of the newsletter if it hasn't already been released). For now (and for this next 60-day period) just get this process started by doing some of these basic things to help raise your children to be as happy as possble. If nothing else, just talking to your kids about these types of things can help establish better and more open lines of communication and a feeling of caring and support. And if you have really young children – under the age of 5 - make sure to hug and cuddle them a lot. According to the Harvard study mentioned in the "Happiness Facts" above, they’ll be more likely to become happier adults if they are just hugged and cuddled more.
WHAT'S NEW AT BeHappy101.com:
Every issue of this newsletter will keep you up to date on new stuff at BeHappy101.com so you can get maximum benefit from the BeHappy! system. You can access any of these quickly by just clicking on the links in the list below.
Here are a few additions over the past two months:
- PART TWO of an effective new goal-setting process for establishing and achieving goals.
- Part 4 of the “financial” series called, Overcoming Fear to Thrive in the Current Economy, which is intended to help us all get through the difficult economy we are experiencing in 2009.
Please contribute to the happiness of others by providing your own stories, jokes, testimonials, comments and personal tips on happiness, dealing with adversity, and relationships on the website (there are many places throughout the site to add your messages to help others)
To contribute HAPPINESS tips: click here To contribute RELATIONSHIP tips: click here To contribute ADVERSITY tips: click here To contribute GOAL tips: click here | - Several new "social networking" invitations which allow you - a visitor to the BeHappy! site - to contribute your own thoughts, tips, strategies and stories on how to BeHappy!, deal with adversity, start or maintain great relationships, and much more. SEE THE YELLOW BOX here ...
to click a link directly to one of these areas and provide YOUR CONTRIBUTION to the happiness of others
- Thought for Today - a feature on the site initiated February 1st which has provided a new thought every single day since then. Each new Thought for Today gets posted on the behappy101.com homepage every morning (365 days of the year) around 5:00 a.m. (unless I sleep in – then it might be 6:00 a.m.). These are thoughts to help start your day off right. The thoughts are generally about happiness, success, relationships, money, etc. So go to the website everyday for a new “thought”. You’ll soon become “addicted” – and it will improve your life tremendously.
- Several new “Quick Tips” to help increase happiness everyday
- New Quotes, Poems, and Jokes to help inspire and motivate you, or just make you laugh.
And much, much more. So until the next edition of the BeHappy! Newsletter in mid-June...
Thanks – and...
BeHappy! my friends
To ORDER BeHappy! NOW Click here
To go to behappy101.com click here now
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