Less is more

We often hear the saying less is more, but how many of us really accept the concept or understand how it can apply? I know I used to just brush it off, but not any more! Here is a brief guide on what you can have less of and have more happiness.

Brief Examples:
Less Twinkies, more jogging
Less mess, more focus
Less work, more enjoyment
Less judging, more accepting
Less rushing, more breathing
Less fast food, more family meals
Less frowny faces, more smiley faces
Less ugliness, more beauty
Less anger, more forgiveness

Alright now the break down of them.
Less Twinkies, more jogging
       Twinkies just in general are not good for you, and jogging is pretty much the opposite.  Wake up in the morning and go for a jog and you can feel the benefits the ENTIRE day! It gets your blood pumping and achieving a small thing like a morning jog and stimulate your mind into believe in yourself more. Simple things can have great rewards! or consequences.  Eating a Twinkie because "you worked out yesterday" just delays your rewards for working out. Don't fall for it, don't let the all mighty Twinkie suck you into its state of delusion.

Less mess, more focus
        The mess, by mess I mean basically clutter.  A lot of things in our life can be messy and sometimes just clearing them away and focusing more on less tasks allows for us to achieve much more happiness.  After all the point of this post is less is more.  Focus on less tasks and just enjoy the tasks you are focusing on.  Give them your all! and give them 100% attention. 

Less work, more enjoyment
        Like the one above, this one is about just relaxing more.  Sure it's nice to put in 50 hours in a week and get some extra cash, but I find it much nicer spending an extra 10-20 hours with family and making memories that last. When we die we won't take our billion dollar fortune with us, however we might take our memories (depends on your beliefs).  Time is the one thing we can't get back.  When it's gone it is gone so use it wisely.  Spend time with those you love, spend time doing what you love, spend time loving!
  
Less judging, more accepting
         People more often then not judge other people or even things, but who cares? For example I get a lot of people who think I am weird, but I don't care, I know who I am and that's all that matters.  We should just learn to accept people and things, we shouldn't judge them and want them to change.  We should label people or objects for that matter.  Everything has greatness, it's not up to us to decide. Plus if you accept people they may accept you and it's far greater to make friends than enemies.  Our true happiness lies in the hands of those around us, if they are suffering subconsciously we wish to help. Stop spending time judging and just accept them so you can help them. 

Less rushing, more breathing
          People rush way to much, slowing down and simply living in the moment can be the difference between going to bed happy and going to bed upset.  Quit trying to pack you're entire life into a day, simply enjoy the day.  When you start rushing and cramming your schedule you create a stressful environment which is counter productive to our happiness.  Instead when you feel like your in a rush, for example when you're late for work or class, simply breathe and enjoy the beauty around you.  You might say "What beauty, I'm in a traffic jam late for work my boss is going to freak!" The beauty is everywhere, look at the sky, look at the cars next to you, are there any kids in those cars? Kids more often than not have a way of cheering me up for they can see the simplicity in life and they smile at it.  Maybe you will get fired, but on the bright side that's less clutter, more family time while you apply for other jobs. Less rush, more accepting and breathing.

Less fast food, more family meals
         Fast food! I used to work at fast food and eat there all the time, but now I see that it just helps produce a rushed environment.  Instead of eating fast food for lunch pack a sack lunch and go sit on a lawn and eat, enjoy the days while you have them! Instead of ordering Pizza for dinner with the family, get them to help you make a meal.  Create memories yourself! Enjoy every moment you have with them while you have them.  Eventually your kids will grow old and go to college and you will rarely see them, spend time making memories with them.  I know I used to enjoy making things with my mom in the kitchen, I don't remember making much, but I do enjoy looking back at it.  So make family meals and have the kids help out! Less rushing and fast food, more enjoying.

Less frowny faces, more smiley faces
       Less frowning more smiling.  Very simple concept great rewards.  Smile at more things.  If something bad happens, find the good and smile at it.  A smile can defeat your greatest enemies.  

Less ugliness, more beauty
       Like the judging one, quit judging things and accept their beauty.  Everything has beauty, try and see it!

Less anger, more forgiveness
       Simple concept, overly hard to achieve.  Try to live every day with less anger, when someone does something you don't like, if you cant change it then don't let it bug/bother you.  When you feel anger coming or are angry breathe. Try to catch anger before it catches your.  Forgive people more instead of being angry.  Doing both of these will greatly bring more happiness into your life.  It's a hard thing to do sometimes but the rewards can be outstanding! If you forgive instead of getting angry it can make others look up to you and help inspire them, and life isn't always about us.  Our happiness is greatly impacted by the state of those around us, if you're their reason to smile, it usually allows you to smile more. 

Good luck! I hope this post helps improve peoples life!

Another great post similar to this, http://zenhabits.net/brief-guide/, Leo has a great way of explaining things.

Open source Blogging

I hereby agree with the idea of open source blogging, http://zenhabits.net/open-source-blogging-feel-free-to-steal-my-content/, Leo has a great way of looking at it and I agree. If you like anything I post feel free to spread and share it with no need to ask my permission. I don't care if credit is given to me or not, I'm just glad to help.  Also in my blog when I get things from other blogs such as Zen Habits, I will give credit to the blog/blogger, because I would hope that if my blog ever takes of other blogs would do the same to me.

True Happiness

Figured I would discuss true happiness and try to get you guys to go out and change the world, I can't change it alone. True happiness isn't bought or earned, I believe its revealed.  I believe it exists within all of us but only acts of kindness and compassion let it shine.  It can be easy to get yet we struggle most of our lives trying to find it.  Think back to when you have been truly your happiest.  Those times for me have been when I was helping others out.  In life all we truly seek is happiness.  We seek a good education so we can get a job so we can make good money because we think happiness will be easier to attain but in all reality I believe that only distorts our vision and makes it harder to achieve happiness.  True happiness is revealed when we help those who truly need it, when we decide "I have enough, they do not." and you give your time and work to help others.  It is revealed when we do community service or when we do something as simple as donate to a charity.  We can make a difference, we can choose happiness and choose to show the world we are willing to share it.  Go out and show compassion, show love, don't be afraid of failing because when you're helping others you are never failing.  True happiness lies within and only we can choose to let it shine. 

Tip:  Easiest way to let a little bit of the light shine? Donate, whether its donating 25 cents when you're at the mall next or donating 25$ to an online organization.  Donations help change lives, their lives can change the world to a better place. 

Pleasures

Figured I would write a post about pleasures and happiness since people seem to confuse them.  Some people believe pleasures are happiness or bring happiness and they can, but most of the time after the pleasure ends it leaves a void and the void is replaced by something and sometimes its even replaced by sadness.  It becomes hard to live in a world of pleasure when it just gets replaced by sadness.  I'll go ahead and give an example; a car would be a pleasure, it brings us happiness however it can also bring us frustration and sadness when it breaks down.  The point of this article is to point out life is full of pleasures, they all come into existence and they will all go.  We can not change when they quit working, when they break or when they die; but we can control how their faults affect us.  More often than not people become stressed and worried, which is often counter productive to happiness. I recommend that when that happens you take a moment to breathe, think to yourself "I was lucky to have it while it lasted, there are others less fortunate than me, at least I have memories with it." One of the biggest pleasures is life, living is nothing but a pleasure, we can't control when that pleasure ends but we can control how we let it affect us.  Appreciate what you have while you have it because it may not last your life time.  And remember! Breathe.  

Feeling like an outsider?

More often than not we have experienced the feeling of being left alone, us versus the world, no one to stand by us; this feeling has probably struck our hearts more than once and we all know its deep piercing pain and sorrow.  It feels like your insides turned to ice and betrayed your own soul.  Being an outsider is not an easy task, it’s not something most of us can just shrug off and push on by.  We struggle to get noticed; we often fight with our self over simple concepts. When we become the outsider we try our hardest to fit in, and that is where we make our biggest mistakes.  Life is not about fitting in, we shouldn’t need to struggle to try and fit in.  When we try too hard to get rid of the feeling of being an outsider we often push ourselves into what we originally feared the most, being someone we are not.  Instead of trying to overcome this feeling of pain, this desperation to be wanted, we should just be ourselves.  We will always have a group we can fit in with life, sometimes we just get separated from it.  It’s like a pack, animals and humans alike have packs we fit in with, when we get separated from them we try to fit in with another one in an attempt to be longed for, we become someone we are not in an attempt to get away from the feeling of being alone in life.  Don’t worry about being the outsider, we have all experienced this pain and sorrow, instead be one of the few who doesn’t conform to it and stay the way you are.  You will find a group eventually and it’s better to be part of a group that understands the real you then part of a group who knows nothing about you

Breathing

Well I decided to share my secret on staying calm more often than not, and that is the power of breathing! You can basically control your breathing and concentrate on it to relax, and best of all? it's pretty easy to do.  All you have to do the next time you're feeling stressed is breathe. The next time your spirit is down, breathe.  If you are relaxed and breathing usually you'll breathe through your nose taking a slow, even, and gentle breathe, so when you mimic this it usually calms you down.  It is even said to sometimes increase energy, personally I never feel the extra energy.  So the next time you're stressed, breathe.  The next time something is wrong, remember to just breathe.

Also another great reminder on breathing. 
http://zenhabits.net/breathe/

Change, The destroyer and creator of who we are.

You think Pebble wants to become a Boulder? I don't think so, it is content with being pebble and is glad to serve its task in life whatever that might be, why do we have to have such high expectations? Why can't we just be content with being our self, in reality we will never be the boulder we seek to be as we cannot change who we are we can merely create an illusion of being the boulder. We should be content with our lives and grateful for what we have and have been given.
We should not be afraid to be our self either, Being yourself sets you apart, makes you a separate pebble, sets you apart from the group, in reality it casts you out of the waters of Illusion and sets you apart from the pretenders, it takes you away from the water that erodes away at the lively hood of those who pretend to be what they are not, it sets you away to be an example so those still in the water of illusion can have a goal to achieve, so that they might have an example of what to try for. Be the lone pebble cast out of the waters of illusion and understand that being you in life is its own reward. We should not fear "Will he/she like me?" But we should fear "If I try to impress him/her in 10 years down the line I might realize I'm not that person, and even worse, he/she might realize it and I will lose all that I have striven for and tried to achieve in life". Be yourself, Accept who you are and be great full for being who you are.

The Goal

The goal behind this blog I’m writing is to change the world.  Simple enough isn’t it? Alright so who is it directed at? Well anyone who seeks a different view on things that affect us daily and wants to be a better person. So the point of this blog is to help people become who they want to be, life is too short for us to not seek out greatness. Also I have no degree in philosophy or anything for that matter; I’m a college kid seeking knowledge on life and how to achieve happiness.  During the writing of this blog I’m coming to understand so much more about myself so this blog is not only for you, but it helps me understand things and work on being a better person myself.  So this blog is for all those lost and confused in life, welcome aboard the boat, hope you enjoy reading and thinking about these ideas.  Hopefully some day we will all become better people and can change the world, I know I sure want to.