Happiness Increases Longevity

According to U.S. research, you can add seven and a half years to your life just by being happy!

Backing this claim up is Laurie Hayes, Life Strategy Coach from Ontario, Canada who also states that genuine happiness is the key ingredient being sought after by most people who come to her.

Ms. Hayes has been working with people who have recognized this missing element in their lives and want to take corrective action towards a more meaningful, balanced existence.

"The pursuit of authentic happiness is an ongoing quest for many," says Laurie. "Some people believe that by earning more money, working longer hours, and taking on more and more responsibility, they will somehow reap big benefits that will in the end guarantee happiness. Unfortunately that just isn't the case, and research has now proven that the more comfortable life becomes, the more discontented and unfulfilled we become."

Incredibly, professional men and women polled in a recent U.S. study were rated to be unhappiest of all. Most attributed work pressures, the need to achieve, family responsibilities, social pressures, busy lifestyles and the absence of personal and reflective time to feelings of discontentment, detachment, anxiety and even depression.

Ms. Hayes says people often wait so long to do anything about these feelings that by the time they come to her they are out of sync, overwhelmed, feeling heavy and isolated, and that it's only through supportive, strategic life coaching they are able to learn how to live, laugh, play, and dream again.

Coaching used to be reserved for top-level executives, movie stars and large corporations, but is now being sought after by average, everyday people seeking positive life change. Already mainstream in the U.S., it is still relatively new in Canada. Coaching identifies core values, personal strengths and obstacles blocking people's happiness and provides the forum for planning and carrying out a plan to create desired results. Unlike therapy, it focuses on co-creating a desired future based upon the person's natural abilities and skills.

Laurie explains she got involved in helping people find their happiness because she lost herself many years ago.

"I know personally what it's like to become so wrapped up in one thing that everything and everyone else in life seems to disappear. I experienced it years ago while building my first business. I was so caught up in success and achievement that everything else took second place, and I lost everything that really mattered to me - my home, my partner, etc.

Back then there wasn't such a thing as a life coach. I took a break, got my act together and reconstructed a more authentic and happy life. I learned a valuable lesson and now I want to do my bit to help others realize that they too can find happiness by not denying themselves. A lot of people don't have anyone to support and listen to them, and that's where I come in."

Thankfully, real happiness is attainable and doesn't have to come at the expense of something else. As a matter of fact, the source might be so close to us that we can't even see it! The secret of extended life might be right under our noses, only waiting to be discovered! ( By Laurie Hayes )

More Secrets to a Happy and Motivated Lifes

Your journey between here and there is your own unique experience that you must navigate on your own. No one can take the journey for you, and no one can pick you up and drop you off on the other side. The journey itself is what offers the strengths, insights, wisdom, and joy that you are looking for.

Therefore, you must walk our own path - but that doesn't mean you can't hold hands with some friends for a awhile. Meet with a nutrition therapist, life coach, friend, or advisor on a regular basis to keep you motivated. Your support people can help you though periods of self-doubt and instability and remind you that being able to feel more happy and motivated is what you want most.

Words Are Powerful

Be acutely aware of the words you use. Do the words you speak to yourself empower you or leave you feeling powerless? Are your thoughts self-supporting or self-defeating? Do you encourage yourself when things are going well and when things are difficult? Learning to motivate your self with positive, self-affirming, resourceful, and loving language is what allows you to feel happy and gain motivation to take each next step. Look into your own eyes in the mirror and speak kind, persuading words. It is up to you to provide the motivation you need to achieve success.

Take A Risk

Change requires you to move from your smaller, confined circle of comfort to one that is larger and more expansive. To achieve ultimate success, you will need to move beyond the edges of your comfort zone. Like Columbus sailing off to explore the edge of the ocean, you too are exploring unknown new territory. Allow yourself to be a beginner again - this is how you grow and transform. If you take a risk and fail, learn from the experience and adjust your actions. Just don't give up!

Create A Ritual to Honor the Change

Symbolically acknowledge your journey by creating a ritual to honor the growth and changes you have been making. A ritual can be anything metaphorical that has meaning to you. Perhaps it might be burying your scale, donating all your larger clothes, giving your diet books to the local library, a celebration of your journey with friends, or even listing all the things that have been holding you back on little strips of paper and burning them.

Take some sort of physical action to acknowledge the path you are moving along. Doing this creates a deeper sense of meaning and importance to your daily actions, and raise your motivation level. You develop respect for the transition that you are engaged in. A ritual may help you close a door that you are ready to close.

Get a Transitional Object

Your ability to feel happy and keep motivated can also be increased when you carry a transitional object. Your transitional object can remind you of your successes so far, and keep your vision on your overall goal. The object could be something that reminds you of your journey, or it could be an item that provides comfort.

Link your sense of touch to the feeling of being happy or motivated. For example, think of how a toddler is able to comfort itself with a stuffed animal or blanket, or how rosary beads can help move thoughts back into love. Find your own transitional object that you can touch, stroke, or hold to remind you of the importance of your journey and provide you with motivation to continue forward. Below is a list transitional objects you could easily carry in your pocket or on your body:

o Small smooth stone

o Crystal

o Special necklace

o Ring for your finger

o Sea shell

o Symbolic lapel pin

Your goals to end overeating, lose weight, overcome stress, or move beyond sadness and depression are important goals. Congratulations on your courage to move forward and make a better life for yourself. Use these tips and suggestions to keep yourself motivated, feeling happy about the changes you are making, and believing in yourself. Although your path may seem shaky at times, you truly can live the life of your dreams. ( www.LovingMiracles.com )

Are You Happy?

When somebody ask you this question, what will be your answer? Can you answer right away? Or you have to think for a few seconds before you can answer? Others will need a lifetime to answer this.

One of the reasons why when a person being asked this question think before answering is because he/she is not sure if he/she is happy with his/her life now. He/She might need to think and balance things up to come up with the correct answer. But all should learn how to get the answer.

All of us should keep in mind that happiness is not just being happy with the things we have now or how much money we saved in the last few years but what we have accomplished. Happiness comes after contentment. And we should first need to find this contentment before we can find happiness.

Having so much problems and so much pain in life shouldn't stop us from saying: "I am happy." We have to find a way to make ourselves be able to say this short but meaningful statement. We need to walk on the road that leads to contentment so we can find happiness which is next to it. Very easy to say but it's very hard to be done.

In life, we will always find someone who can make us laugh. He/She might not be the one who will make us happy for the rest of our lives but we should treasure and take good care of this someone who comes along the way. As he/she might not be there in the end but he/she is with us to help us along the way.

In the next few weeks, I'll be submitting some more articles on how to make ourselves be contented and happy afterwards, not just looking happy but feeling happy inside out.

Alona has been working in a foreign country for almost six (6) years now. Experiencing a lot of ups and downs in her life inspired her to write some articles that would make people be inspired despite of all the challenges in life: from emotional to financial challenges in life. You can check out her blogs on how she made it through with all these challenges at [http://lucas528.blogspot.com] and [http://work2brich.blogspot.com] plus know more of her dogs at [http://gretriever.blogspot.com]