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Happy Living Isn’t About Being Happy | happyliving.com

“I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”
(Carl Jung)

Happy living isn’t about being happy all the time. The ups, downs, struggles and triumphs, are what make our lives memorable, vibrant and worth living. Happy Living is a great name for a company, but you and I both know life isn’t just about being happy.

Life is ebb and flow of good luck, bad luck, misfortune and magic. Life is mundane, exciting, and everything between. Can we love without knowing loneliness? Can we know health without experiencing sickness? Can we succeed without failure? Of course, the answer to all these questions is no. Happy living isn’t about being happy all the time.

Happy Living, the company and concept, is about leading a healthy, fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful life. Our greater aim is the pursuit of significance. We strive to make an impression, leave our mark and change the world, one person at a time.

We will encounter the flipsides and antonyms to happy – sadness, grief, anger and pain, to name a few. Knowing the road ahead might be (probably!?) riddled with challenge does not make us wonder if we should forge ahead, instead it provides a bit of foreshadowing. If you knew you might climb a mountain in three months, would you start taking the stairs instead of the elevator?

Every challenge I have faced in my life came without warning – even if there was writing on the wall, I didn’t see it. When I look back, those tough times revealed who I am, what my habits are and what I do when things get tough.

How you do anything is how you do everything.1

Part of our work at Happy Living is sharing best practices for leading a healthy, fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful life. These habits, rituals and mindsets help us make thoughtful and persistent progress towards our goals. And our hope is that by sharing these best practices, you are able to borrow, craft or start to think about your own.

There are four basic practices that help me find happiness everyday while preparing me for the next mountain ahead. If happy living isn’t about being happy, then it might be about habits. For me, that starts with getting enough sleep, eating right, moving my body and practicing kindness.

In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg writes:

“When people start habitually exercising, even as infrequently as once a week, they start changing other, unrelated patterns in their lives, often unknowingly. Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. It’s not completely clear why. But for many people, exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change.”

If happy living isn’t about being happy, what does it mean to you? What habits and best practices help you lead a healthy, fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful life? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, email or in the comments below!

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  1.  Huffington Post: How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything by Laura Campbell