how to find happiness??

Here are 10 free tips to find happiness.

Please note that all these tips are applicable all over the world!!! It doesn’t matter where in the world are you, you can still be happy.

While reading these tips, think about your happiness and think how these tips applies to YOU!   

1. Decide to be happy

The first step is to decide you want to be happy! Happiness is a state of mind and it is inside us, in all of us. We just have to find it.

2. Positive attitude

Our attitude will determine our future. To be happy it is important to have a right attitude for it. With a right attitude you can change the world. If we think nothing is going to happen to us, nothing will happen but if we think something good will happens, it will.

Positive attitude brings happiness! It is well known that positive people are happier, of course. So this is not really secret but still people don’t understand the value of positive thinking. It does not only get you closer to happiness but there are other benefits too.

There is lot of studies regarding of positive thinking and the benefits it brings. Optimists live longer, they have better immune system, and so they don’t get sick so easily and their standard of living is much better than pessimist.

So thinking positive give you actual benefits, and its free!!!

Positive thinking is something we can learn but its need real work to achieve it.

We don’t born with positive attitude, we learn it.

3. Faith

Have faith. Faith will bring you safety, faith will give you comfort and faith will give you fulfillment. It will also give you some answers.

4. Live today

Live today! Life is about moments. If we think our life’s we just remember the moments. We have to see and feel the moments. Happiness is to live now, not in the past or in the future, NOW. Like one Wiseman said: “past is gone, the future is not yet born, present is now”. So we should learn to live in the moment and enjoy our everyday life.

Normal mindset is that we are happy when we get a better job or when we get married and so on.

NO! Look around and be happy now!

Don’t wait tomorrow to come, live today. Be happy today!

5. Love

Love is good, live is kind. Love is everything. Life without love would be like a day without air. We need love to be happy and this is one of the most important elements for happiness. But first we have to learn to love ourselves; we can’t give love if we can’t love ourselves. Love is everywhere and it is amazing feeling.

There are many different types of love; you can love your wife, your family, your friends and etc. It doesn’t matter what type of love you have, it is just important that you have it.

6. Appreciation and gratitude

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

STOP! Look around you, what can you see? Wherever you are, you can see colors and shapes. Imagine if you were blind.
Listen! What can you hear? You can hear music, birds, people talking and so much more. Imagine if you were deaf. Feel! Touch something. Feel the softness, hardness, stickiness or any other surface or thing. Imagine if you were num. Smell! Smell the flowers, smell your favorite perfume or smell good food. Imagine if you would lose your sense of smell. Taste! Food…mmm…!! Imagine if you couldn’t taste.

I think you got the idea.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Days go by and we don’t realize what we have, we don’t THINK.

Start appreciating things you have not things that you might get. That is the gemstone of happiness.

Think about your family. How often you tell them that you love them? Not often enough. The words are free, so why not to use them.

Appreciate your family and your friends and show them that, and you will live happier ever after.

Research has shown that the happiest people are close to their family and friends. They appreciate what they have and value it.

7. Stress free

Stress is path to unhappiness and poor health. A primary cause for stress is repeated desire for preferred results. Worrying things will not turn out as we’d like. Stress can be non-stop and can destroy a person. Stress is a physical reaction of a thought. A thought can be chosen; therefore having less stress in your life is a choice. If you integrate the following into your beliefs, you will reduce stress.

8. Work out and eat healthy for your happiness

Exercise, exercise and exercise!!! Healthy body means healthier mind. Your physical shape is linked to your mental health and to be happy you have to be mentally health. Happiness is a state of mind. 

9. Flow

Life satisfaction often occurs when people are engaged in absorbing activities that cause them to forget themselves, lose track of time and stop worrying that is called flow.

Start your engines, put on the first gear and step the medal to the pedal! Keep yourself busy! What motivates you? What keeps you going? What is your fuel?

Flow, in other words, to get something to do, is well known way to become happy and stay happy. Flow is a big piece of the happiness puzzle, the puzzle which makes you happy when you finish it.

Happiness is like a puzzle, you get the pieces together, keep them together and the happiness is yours.

Scientists have shown that people are happier when they keep their mind occupied, so they get stimulated.

10. Make time for yourself.

It is good to give time but it also good to take time for yourself. It is super important to we have some quality time to think and relax.

_____________________

Happiness is for everybody!!

We don’t have to be rich or poor to be happy. Happiness is FREE and it is for everybody.

HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND!! IT CAN BE FOUND IN YOU!!!

Let’s be happy.  

Happily ever after?

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” Dalai Lama

I have 2 more weeks left and I feel great. I feel amazing!! We have overcome lots of challenges and I have been growing up as a human to tolerate and be more patients towards other people but also I have learnt lots of new things which I think life is all about, to learn and to develop. I believe we are never ready and the life is constant learning and growing up.

"Happiness is the overcoming of not unknown obstacles toward a known goal."

The time here has been amazing, all the experiences and all the people I have met have made this beyond amazing. I have seen the beauty of this country and I have been lying on these gorgeous beaches relaxing and enjoying the life.

Happiness can be found in this country.

There is song called “I love my life” and it is playing here constantly on the radio and every time I hear it just makes me smile. We have listened it so many times while driving around the crowded streets of Freetown. It is a good song!! Music definitely brings happiness but also silence can bring you peace and happiness.

I met a guy last weekend on our diving trip to the Banana Island and he is from Latvia. He has been living on that small island for 3 years now. First let me describe the island…It is small island, two hours away from Freetown and it takes about 45 minutes to get there by boat from the nearest land. There are 150 habitants and they have own schools and small shops, African style though. J He had a newspaper business here in Freetown but all the stress and working drove him to move to the island. Now he said that he has never been happier and healthier in his life!! Couple more things about the island…There is no electricity and it is impossible to get there after dark.  

It was really cool to hear his story how he left the business life and trade it to peace and happiness.

Living on an island…Happiness? Maybe for someone but I think I couldn’t do that, I still need some challenges and people around me for my happiness but it was a good story.

Living happily ever after I need to take care of myself and I will give you some ways how I work out for my happiness. I have a secret for happier life and I will give it you. The secret is water…WATER!! Amazing!! So simple thing but so beneficial for your happiness and your health! What water gives you? It gives you energy, it gives you better skin, it gives you great feeling and it purifies you. Water is like high quality oil which helps you to run your engines. Our bodies are like engines, we need fuel to run it but we also need some oil to keep running. I try to drink 3-4 liters of water everyday. It is amazing what water can do for you.

Few weeks ago I felt tired all the time so I increased my daily water dosage and it helped, I have much more energy everyday.

  

I have never been on a diet but I have lost some weight few times because I have started to eat more. What?? More!! Yes, by eating more I have increased my metabolism which has led to weight lost; even I have wanted to gain some more weight. I try to eat at least 5 times a day to keep my motors running. Sometimes it is difficult especially here in Africa but I still try. I try to eat small portions and lots of fish and chicken. That is my secret for happy life.

The belly rules the mind.  ~Spanish Proverb

Food is really important for your happiness but also exercise makes a big difference to you mood and also to your health. Health and happiness goes together. Sometimes we are too tired to work out and we just eat some junk food because it is easy to get and it is tasty. I do that time to time and there is nothing bad about it. I know if I don’t work out in a week or I am not able to eat healthy, it affects me, it affects me a lot. Happiness comes inside us and if we keep putting all the junk inside us and do not burn them, we start feeling depressed. I have been feeling it many times but I have managed to get back to my routines, back on track, and started to work out and eat in a right way. It makes such a huge difference.

Worries go down better with soup.  ~Jewish Proverb

Three key elements for happiness and healthier life:

1. Healthy eating habits (low fat, chicken and fish)
2. Water!! (3 -4 liters per day)
3. Exercise ( at least 3 times a week)   

So let’s work out for our happiness.

How the rest of my time will go here in Africa? Today we will have a film festival. Some of us have made short movies and we will have a festival to see them and the best ones will be awarded. There are 10 movies and 6 prizes. Our movie is called “sal y amor”, salt and love and it is about love, salt and heroism!! J

On Saturday I will be a nurse for a day, just to see how it feels!! I am excited, new experience!! Next week I will hopefully work in our Starbucks Cafe serving café for our crew; also a new experience!! I also asked if I could cook for the whole crew and yes, I can, so I will also be a cook for a day and work in the galley. I am super excited for all these opportunities!! J COOL!!!

I am still going to be a full time Chief Officer but I want to do everything and be involved. EXPERIENCE!

Happiness is for everybody!!   

“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…”

Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

Are we all in prison?

The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart. –Thich Nhat Hanh

Freedom, what does it mean? I visited a local prison last weekend; I can tell you that the prison was “slightly” different which I we have used to see in Finland.

The prison is made for 300 inmates…currently there are about 900 inmates. You can do the math.

While we there we talked about some issues and one of them was; are we living in a prison or are they living in a prison? Literally they are but at the same time they can be freer than we are outside those gates.

So what is freedom?

Does it mean that we are not locked away or we are not under some foreign government or under some evil dictator?

I think freedom is how you think and act. I think freedom is to be able to control yourself. The question is: Are we really living free or are we prisoners of our own lives? Do we actually control our thoughts and our decisions? Is our body telling us what to do?

Many of us lives in a prison, prison of habits, prison of routines, prison of life. When we can’t get away from our routines or habits it means that we are living in a prison. It can be even worst than being in actual prison because there you can still control your thoughts and your actions but if some “force” is keeping you under command, making you do stuff you shouldn’t be doing, it means that you are living in a prison, prison of your own life.

Escape completely, like they say on the Princess Cruises ships, escape from yourself!! Don’t eat junk food everyday just because your body tells you to do that or don’t walk on the same routes everyday. Do something different, escape from your routines, escape from your prison. Escape from your life.

Some people spend their whole life living in their neighborhood and vacations they spend in their backyard complaining how things are so miserable.

They live in a prison.

We can choose, we can choose to be free. The person who is keeping you in that prison is YOU and only YOU can free yourself from there.  

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. –Abraham Lincoln

If we think about our lives and if we think about how many our decisions have been influenced by something, something external or even internal feeling or thing? For example: we know we should work out and eat healthy. Do always do that or does our body tell us what to do? Most of the times our body is the one who tells us what to do! Am I right? I know I am.

What about the decisions we make…Like working, how many of us work willingly??? Or do we work because we have to? We need the money. There are certain standards in every society which we are meant to follow. Most of us follow those rules and regulations because we have to, not because we want to. Is that freedom?

Free will and happiness goes together. Being control of your life make you happier. Making own decisions accordingly what is good for you; make you happier.

We shouldn’t do things like we have always been doing just because we have always been doing them or we shouldn’t eat all the junk food just because our body is telling us to do so. Of course we have to listen advises from other people but also we have to listen our own body just to know what is good and what is bad for us.

Living in freedom is happiness.

Living in prison is unhappiness.

I choose to live free. I choose to be in control.

If my body says that I should eat some sweet I can say no; and if it says that I shouldn’t work out just because it feel tired, I still will do it. I am controlling my life. I am in charge.

If I can do it, sure can you.

I want to be happy so I choose to be in control.

What does it mean, be in control? It means that you will do decisions based on knowledge not desire. I take advises but I still make my own decisions. Decisions which are right for me! I don’t let the pressure from outside to affect my decisions. I am in control. I am in charge.

If you want to be happy, set a goal, commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. – Andrew Carnegie

What love got to do with it?

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~Stacia Tauscher

Being so many kilometers away from all your love ones can be hard, I had one of those days yesterday. It was my kids birthday!! They are 7-years old now and they will start school this year!! I will miss their first school day. L I can see them being nervous and really waiting to see how the school is on their first school day. I so would like to be there, support them. Give them courage. But I will miss it. L I have missed so many things like weddings and birthdays. Life is about choices and decisions and we can’t get all the things we want. It is hard to miss all the special occasions. Choices & decisions!

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.~Angela Schwindt

I feel lonely. I am surrounded with hundreds of people everyday around the world and I feel lonely. I have so much love in my life but still I feel lonely. I am blessed with great family and amazing friends. I have amazing women in my life. My life is good but still I feel lonely. It is not fair. I don’t want to feel lonely but it is part of this life style.

As the sea is beautiful not only in calm but also in storm, so is happiness found not only in peace but also in strife.
IVAN PANIN, Thoughts

I have been travelling for years now and I should be used to loneliness but I’m not. Due to my happiness I am able to live with loneliness, far away from my love ones but still there are days that it just feels really hard.



Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

Franklin P. Jones

On the other hand it is good to feel, it is good to miss so I know that I am capable to love. To give love and receive it! Being alone so much have given me opportunity to explore myself, feel and see how much I love all the special people in my life.

Without love I wouldn’t be here doing the things I do. Love has given me strength to carry on. All the love and support from my family and from my friends have helped me to achieve all my goals and dreams so far. Love is the cradle which has kept me on track.

I know that I can always go back home and I can always get help if I need it and that has been my safety net on my adventures. Having a safety net has helped me to go further without fear and get more from life itself.

I love the people in my life and they know that because I say that to them. I only say that when I mean it and I find it really important to say that from time to time.

I love you.

Sometimes it is difficult to say it but it shouldn’t. You should be able to express yourself to the ones you care. Sincerely and honestly!

 “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”
George Sand

So love is everything, love is a feeling, love is power, love is strength. Love is good, love is kind. Love is around us and inside us. Love is everywhere!

Love is happiness.

Having love in my life is huge part of my happiness puzzle. Without love there is no happiness.

But there are so many different types of loves. You can love yourself, you can love your family and you can be in love. It really doesn’t matter what type of love you have, you just have to have it.

   -LOVE-

PS. I found out my blood type today…it is B+!!! J

BE POSITIVE!!

How cool is that??? That explains a lot!! J

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.

Everything is, everything exists, only because I love.

Leo Tolstoy