75 Daily Happiness Quotes to Overcome Fear and Depression

 

Here are 75 happiness quotes to brighten your day and move your mindset in a positive direction.

1. Smile every chance you get.  Not because life has been easy, perfect, or exactly as you had anticipated, but because you choose to be happy and grateful for all the good things you do have and all the problems you know you don’t have.
2. Never let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
3. Tell the negativity committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up.  (Read Learned Optimism.)
4. A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t get very far until you change it.
5. In a world where you can be anything you want, BE YOURSELF.
6. The more you love your decisions, the less you need others to love them.
7. It’s important to make someone happy, and it’s important to start with yourself.
8. Life is not about making others happy.  Life is about sharing your happiness with others.
9. Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something  you design into the present.
10. If you settle for just anything, you’ll never know what you’re truly worthy of.
11. Sometimes life gives you two options: losing yourself or losing someone else.  Regardless of the situation, don’t lose yourself.
12. If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, you do have a pretty big problem.
13. Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present.  Only you give it power.
14. Don’t worry too much about people who don’t worry about you.
15. Know your worth!  When you give yourself to someone who doesn’t respect you, you surrender pieces of your soul that you’ll never get back.
16. Sometimes you’ve got to emotionally let go of the things that once meant a lot to you, so you can move beyond the past and the pains they bring you, and open the next chapter in your life.
17. If you want to get over a problem, stop mulling it over and talking about it.  Your mind affects your mouth, and your mouth affects your mind.  It’s nearly impossible to move beyond something when you’re obsessing over it.
18. If it is detrimental to you emotionally, physically and spiritually, what choice do you have but to let go and flourish with self-respect.
19. Saying goodbye is one of the most painful ways to solve a problem.  But sometimes it’s necessary.
20. Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting, it means you choose happiness over hurt.
21. Stop looking at what you have lost, so you can see what you have.
22. Someone else is happy with far less than what you have.
23. Talk about your blessings more than you talk about your problems.
24. Sometimes people throw away something good for something better, only to find out later that good was actually good enough and better never even came close.
25. In life, you get what you put in.  Everything comes back around.
26. You can never change the past nor control the future, but you can change the mood of the day by touching someone’s heart with your smile.
27. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.
28. Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
29. It’s nice to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s also important to make sure you haven’t lost track of the things that money can’t buy.
30. You don’t need a lot of money to lead a rich life.  Good friends and a loving family are worth their weight in gold.
31. You will never fully believe in yourself if you keep comparing yourself to everyone else.  Instead, compare yourself to who you were yesterday.  (Read Authentic Happiness.)
32. You won’t always be punished FOR your anger, but you will always be punished BY your anger.
33. Give yourself permission to immediately walk away from anything that gives you bad vibes.  There is no need to explain or make sense of it.  Just trust what you feel.
34. One of the greatest freedoms is truly not caring what everyone else thinks of you.
35. As long as you are worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them.  Only when you require no approval from outside yourself can you own yourself.
36. Don’t let anyone walk through your mind with their dirty feet.
37. It hurts the most when you start pretending it doesn’t.
38. You are responsible for how you feel no matter what someone does to you. Remember, you are always in control of your thoughts so choose to feel confident and adequate rather than angry and insecure.
39. Being kind to yourself in thoughts, words and actions is as important as being kind to others.
40. Death is not the greatest loss in life; the greatest loss is what dies inside while you’re still alive.
41. Only when we begin to be awake do we realize just how asleep we have been.
42. You are always free to do something that makes you smile.
43. You define your own life.  Don’t let other people write your life’s story for you.
44. Don’t be afraid of change.  Oftentimes you will lose something good, and then gain something even better.
45. Worry is a massive waste of time and energy.  It doesn’t change anything.  All it does is steal your joy and hinder your ability to make positive changes.
46. If you want to be happy and bright, let go of your need to always be right.
47. In life, you usually get what you ask for and it rarely comes in the package you think it’s supposed to come in.
48. If you don’t like something, change it.  If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.
49. Life does NOT have to be perfect to be wonderful.
50. You look the best when you wear your smile.  There is no beauty like the one that comes from inside you.
51. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.
52. The time spent on hating is the time lost for living a peaceful, happy life.  It is a habit that controls what you see, what you say, what you do, and ultimately what you become.
53. Sometimes you need to be alone to reflect on life.  Take time out to take care of yourself.  You deserve it.
54. The good things we build end up building us.
55. You cannot change what you refuse to confront.
56. The difference between who you are and who you want to be, is what you do.
57. If you want your life to change, your choices and actions must change.  Every day brings a chance to start over.
58. Good things don’t come to those who wait.  Good things come to those who pursue the goals and dreams they believe in.
59. Don’t make a decision based solely on popularity. Just because other people are doing it doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for you.
60. Following all the rules leaves a completed checklist.  Following your heart achieves a completed you.  (Read The Happiness Project.)
61. Knowing yourself is one thing, but truly believing and living as yourself is another.  With so much social conditioning in our society, we sometimes forget who we are.  Don’t lose yourself out there.
62. Of all the things that can be stolen from you – your possessions, your youth, your health, your words, your rights – what no one can ever take from you is your freedom to choose what you will believe in, and who and what your heart will love.
63. When you find yourself cocooned in isolation and despair and cannot find your way out of the darkness, remember that this is similar to the place where caterpillars go to grow their wings.
64. Take all the time you need to heal emotionally.  Moving on doesn’t take a day; it takes lots of little steps to be able to break free of your broken self.
65. When you can forgive, yourself and others, and stop the imprisonment, you’re creating the love of your life.
66. What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for.  You become what you believe.
67. Keep your heart open to dreams.  For as long as there’s a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living.
68. When you try to control everything, you enjoy nothing.  Sometimes you just need to relax, breathe, let go, and just live in the moment.
69. Even though you cannot control everything that happens, you can control your attitude toward what happens.  And in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.
70. Life will never be perfect, no matter how hard you try.  Even if you pour your heart and soul into it, you will never have that perfection you seek.  There will always be broken hearts, there will always be days where nothing goes right.  But you must accept and learn that even the most imperfect things will always be made better with love and laughter.  (Read Stumbling on Happiness.)
71. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
72. Satisfaction is not always the fulfillment of what you want; it is the realization of how blessed you are for what you have.
73. Sometimes you just have to look back at your past and smile about how far you’ve come.
74. Just because it didn’t last forever, doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth your while.
75. It’s not that everything will be easy or exactly as you had expected, but you must just choose to be grateful for all that you have, and happy that you got a chance to live this life, no matter how it turns out. via marcandangel.com

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Be Your Best Self Today - Six Strategies for Coping with the Blues: Dr. Toni Bernhard

Some mornings I wake up and there's no denying it—I've got the blues. It's as if an internal weather front has unexpectedly moved in. I may not even be by myself when the blues descend on me, but they always make me feel isolated; it's part of their "flavor." (The blues is to be distinguished from a heavy or dark mood that goes unchanged for weeks at a time. The latter could be a sign of clinical depression in which case you should seriously consider seeking the advice of a healthcare practitioner.)

Here are six suggestions for helping with those periodic blues.

1. Don't engage in "comparing mind."

Engaging in what Buddhist's call "comparing mind" can make the blues worse. It may seem as if others don't share your moods, but human beings are more alike than we realize. That neighbor who's always cheerful probably gets the blues. That friend who's in the "perfect" relationship probably gets the blues. Billionaires get the blues. In my experience, neither money nor loving relationships make people immune from the blues.

 

No matter what public face you see on other people, you don't know what their inner life is like. The odds are, it's not so different from your own. This is because we all experience what the Buddha called dukkha—usually translated into English as "suffering"—and referring to the difficulties all of us face at one time or another in our lives. For one thing, we are all subject to illness, injury, aging, and separation from those we love. Billionaires don't get a pass on these. No one does.

In addition, we're all products of our past conditioning and our life experiences. For most of us, that means we have our share of recurring painful thoughts and emotions. If a parent always told us that what we did wasn't good enough, we're likely to have internalized that conditioning and, as a result, repeatedly subject ourselves to self-criticism. No wonder we wake up with the blues on some days! Most of the time, I don't know the source of my blues; I've decided that's okay. I just know they'll intensity if I engage in comparing mind by telling myself how blues-free everyone else must be.

2. Don't try to force yourself out of the blues.

Trying to force the blues away is likely to intensify them. Part of the reason for this is that underlying that attempt to force them away is the negative judgment: "I shouldn't feel blue." Ordering yourself not to feel a certain way almost guarantees that you will! So, just be mindfully aware, without judgment, that the blues have come to visit, maybe even saying to yourself, "Ah yes, the blues again. I recognize you."

Exposing them in this friendly way to the sunlight of awareness can reduce their intensity. "Friendliness" is one of the translations for the word metta which is usually described as the Buddhist practice of lovingkindness. Sometimes though, the word "friendliness" hits the spot for me. I don't need to love those blues, but treating them with friendliness allows me to hold them more lightly until they run their course and go on their way.

3. Try Weather Practice.

I describe this practice in my book, How to Be Sick . Moods are as unpredictable and changeable as the weather. The blues settle in and then lift, just like a dense fog. Seeing the impermanent nature of the blues keeps you from identifying with them as a fixed part of who you are. This insight enables you to just see them as part of the ebb and flow of life. They arise in the mind, stay awhile, and then pass. Seeing this, you can calmly and patiently wait for those blues to lift and blow away.

 

4. If you can, go outside.

 

Changing environments can change a mood. Outside, the air has a different quality, the sights and sounds are different from those inside, and you'll feel part of the larger world around you. Take a short walk or just sit for a while.

Going outside is one of my sure-fire ways to change a blue mood. There's an espresso place a few blocks from my house. On a day when the blues has come to visit, if they haven't lifted by early afternoon, I get in my little Civic and drive to my special place, even if I only stay a half hour. Just the brief interaction with the barista helps take my mind out of that blues groove it's fallen into!

5. Reach out to someone who's having a tough time.

The Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön said that sorrow has the same taste for all of us. I think the blues do too. Connecting with someone else who is struggling can help you realize that you're not alone. In addition, reaching out to someone takes you out of your self-focused thoughts. The simple act of helping another can stir up a wind that will blow those blues right away.

6. Treat those blues to a fun time.

Without trying to force the blues to go away, but also knowing that they're as impermanent as the weather, take them with you to an activity that's just plain fun, no matter how silly. For you, maybe it's sudoku puzzles or playing with crayons and a coloring book. I have a few movies I love to watch over and over, like a favorite piece of music. When the blues settles in, I put one of them on (Groundhog Day, Best in Show, Gosford Park). The characters in them are like old friends and, with their company, I can patiently wait out my mood. Quite often, by the time I'm finished indulging in my little pleasureful activity, those blues have lifted and blown away!

I've found that it's good to have some "blues strategies" at the ready, because the blues are never polite enough to announce ahead of time that they plan to spend the day. If you have some strategies of your own, I hope you'll share them by leaving a comment.

© 2012 Toni Bernhard  

I'm the author of the How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and their Caregivers , winner of the 2011 Gold Nautilus Book Award in Self-Help/Psychology. Website: www.howtobesick.com

via psychologytoday.com

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