Have Fun…Be Happy!

Have Fun…Be Happy!
By Tommy Franks

Prelude: Have you ever seen a Christian that was unhappy, miserable, nasty, and upset at the world? Or perhaps this same Christian was full of doom and gloom and acting like a sour lemon. His whole world was falling in on him. What did you do? What did you say? Did you help?

I have some additional questions for you? Are you looking for happiness? Do you have excitement in your life? Are you passionate about anything? Have you ever reflected on why you do the things you do? Tell me something…What makes you happy? Once you have taken care of your basic needs (food, shelter, and clothing), what makes you happy?

You are not reading this by accident. I truly believe that you want to be happy and have fun in life. Dare to believe that happiness is right for you. As a human being you have a right to be happy. Happiness, wealth, good health, success, peace, and joy are yours for the taking. Read on…

In my past 30 years, I have read and written many books on motivation and the psychology of happiness. Why are some people happy and some are not. Why are some people wealthy and some are not. Why are some couples happy while other couples are not? In the next few minutes, this article (which is free of charge) could change your life.

If you are looking for true and lasting happiness, you can achieve it and obtain it. It rightfully belongs to you.

Are you truly happy? What do you want to change in your life? Are you happy with what is going on in your world? Unless you live in a cave or under a rock, you are probably not happy with what’s going on around the globe. If you are like me, you probably want to improve and change some things in the world. Many positive things are happening in our world, but some things could be much better.

You can be happy and have fun changing the world (in your area) for the better.

Your body and spirit reflect your emotional state. When you are positive and confident, you stand erect with your chest out and a smile on your face. How you carry your body affects your feelings. You can tell a lot about people by the way they walk. Really, it’s true. If they walk with their shoulders slumped over, a frown on their face, and sort of dragging around, they normally are not happy. People who slouch around are sick more than those who stand erect with their heads held high.
Our posture has a lot to do with our health and how we feel.

Contrariwise, if you carry yourself like a winner, you will feel like a winner. Your thoughts, words, and physiology will have a positive impact on you and your brain. This will affect how well you perform and feel.

To be happier and more successful, part of the process is to consciously work on your “thought” process and the words that you speak. Your thoughts have the biggest impact on your brain’s chemistry. When you have positive or happy thoughts, your brain secretes positive chemicals that help your entire well being.

Remember, true and lasting happiness always comes from within. External happiness and temporary pleasures never last. Your thoughts from outside stimuli have two components: Facts and Emotions. You may not be able to control the facts you encounter from the outside, but you can choose how to respond to those facts. If you choose positive emotions, you will be happy. If you choose negative emotions, you will become unhappy. Your happiness depends on what emotions you choose to experience and how you respond. When you exhibit love, generosity, lavish praise, and kindness, your brain secretes positive chemicals and enhances your natural abilities. Positive emotions make us happy.

Hate, greed, jealousy, resentment, and fear do not bring us happiness. Instead, these negative impulses and thoughts lower our brain’s chemistry and our ability to reason and function at a high level. Our negative emotions are the cause of most of our bad decisions, wrong actions, ignorance, and unhappiness.

Our thoughts affect our nervous system which affects our life and happiness. We are spirit. We have a soul. We live in a body. Even though you may not fully understand or comprehend how each relates to the other, your spirit is the real you. Your body will wear out, but your spirit is eternal. What goes on with your spirit is what really makes you happy. “For as he (a man) thinks in his heart, so is he”
(Pr. 23).

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Eph. 3). God can and wants to do so much more with us and through us if we allow Him to do so. Many Christians are already doing so many things that are right in their lives, but we all have room for improvement. Why settle for less when you can have more? You can be happy and content and also have a life full of joy and bliss.

Do possessions, people, property, and things make you happy? Do you depend on escapisms (television, movies, sports, playing games, or taking external substances) to make you happy? External things outside of your spirit…do not bring long lasting happiness. From your inner spirit (where Christ lives) is where your true peace and happiness abide.

Most of us buy things and spend money at various times on escapisms because they make us feel good. There is nothing wrong with enjoying these things and having possessions for relaxation; however, please do not expect these outside toys and activities to produce lasting happiness. They will not. They are only temporary “fixes”. The more we get…the more we need to maintain our happiness. Some Christians end up being “quick fix” junkies dependent on outside things and activities to make them happy.

Some Christians are telling themselves that they will be happy when they get a new car…a new home…a new job…a new spouse…a new boat…whatever. Others are trying to “buy” happiness. The dilemma is simple: True and lasting happiness comes from within your heart and spirit. If your spirit is filled with the Godhead, happiness and joy will be there. The wonderful thing about internal happiness and joy is that it doesn’t cost you any money to acquire and once you receive it, no one can take it away from you unless you allow it.

How do we create internal happiness from within? One way is to stop thinking about ourselves and start helping others. Think about others. The less we think about ourselves and the more we help others…the happier we become. When we help others, we are being generous with our time and personal resources. This brings about a feeling and sense of “well being”. If we take time out of our lives to help others, something deep inside of us makes us feel alive, content, confident, and pleased with ourselves.

Another way to create internal happiness from within is…The more honest and positive we become, the less stress we will experience in our lives. No one likes a phony or someone who puts on a front. We like genuine people.

How do you feel when you know that you have done the right thing? How do you feel when you have helped others? You smile and your spirit glows inside. You are happy and people can see it in your eyes and expression.

If you love your work and make an honest living by helping others…you are a very rich person indeed! Choosing a job you love adds happiness and years to your life.
Do what you love. The money will come. Zig Ziglar once said, “You can get anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” Continue helping others while being truthful, positive, and genuine.

The Creator designed and created you as a God-house. You became a living soul with a free will. As your spirit recognized God, you began to function according to the laws of God. As you are truthful, positive, and helping others…you will get rewarded.

Sometimes, we may find ourselves unhappy, bored, and down in the dumps. Is it because we are depending too much on the outside world to make us happy? Is it because we are paying the price for being negative or selfish? God gave us a free will to make choices. We can look for elusive happiness outside of ourselves or choose to find real happiness within our spirit by doing the right thing. The choice is ours.

We have the power to choose what we want in life…even if the odds are a million to one against us. We must focus on thoughts of success. If we allow imagined fears and doubts into our thinking, our success will dramatically increase our probability of failure. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” (Winston Churchill).

We know that we will not be 100% successful all of the time; however, if we are diligent, accept the risk, learn from feedback, and keep trying until we succeed, we will live a much fuller and happier life.

“To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice” (Confucius).

Positive thoughts and emotions elevate your chemistry. This allows your natural talents and abilities to increase. The more skilled you become at transforming your negative emotions into positive ones, the happier you will become.

Creating positive thoughts and emotions of love and courage allow us to push on in spite of our discomfort. Positive emotions cause our brains to secrete chemicals that give us additional energy. Happiness and success are the rewards for pushing ourselves beyond what others are willing to do.

It is so important to realize that our emotional state affects our entire life and everything that we do. It is a challenge to always remain positive. Someone said, “He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.”

“Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good” (Calvin Coolidge). Some individuals are always running around trying to suppress and restrain certain societal ills. What we need to do is focus on the good and expand it, enlarge it, and make others aware of the good that is in this world.

We all know that there is a huge difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it. It’s not what you know. It’s what you do that counts. It’s what you do that makes a difference. Some college grads are saturated and fully baked with all kinds of head knowledge, but they are lax when it comes to the “doing”. Everybody wants to be in the “know”, but not everyone is enthusiastic when it comes to “making things happen”.

You can have fun and you can be happy anytime, any day, anywhere! The seed of happiness is in your mind, soul, heart, and spirit. Allow it to blossom forth.