What Makes Us Happy? Is it Health, Wealth? Why Happiness or Depression?

Both scientists and philosophers are concluding that unhappiness and depression are addictions or habits of the mind, but that we can free ourselves from these negative habits and patterns:

• How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People, Their Secrets, Their Stories

• A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club)

• THE MAJOR ROUTE TO HAPPINESS, discovered a team from Gothenburg University in Sweden, is goal-oriented work: the successive positing and achieving of specific challenges.

WHAT ABOUT WEALTH? The very wealthy, like Microsoft's Bill Gates and British businesswoman Nicola Horlick say that they will not be leaving their fortune to their children, but rather, to charity.

Barron Hilton has also said he would be doing the same thing with 97% of his $23-billion fortune, as his grand daughter Paris Hilton's antics seem to have shown him that giving unearned wealth is not what he wants to do.

ACHIEVEMENT is important, but researchers studying happiness also say that we constantly over estimate how happy we will be when we get that new car, new house, win the lottery, get a new outfit, a promotion, and so on.

What is actually most important, is our enjoyment of and the surprises of the "ordinary," including meeting with a friend, experiencing the changes in the weather, a joke, enjoying that cup of coffee and the fresh air after the rain.

THE VERY WEALTHY now know not to just give their fortunes to their children because we need to set out and achieve our very own challenges, but still, the fun and joy is to be found in every day things:

• WHAT MAKES ME HAPPIEST, says psychologist Oliver James, author of "AFFLUENZA," is “telling my daughter her bedtime story, when I manage to make one up that really makes her laugh, and the gradual shift in her breathing as she drifts off into the land of nod.”

• HAPPINESS AND PEACE OF MIND IS JUST ONE THOUGHT AWAY, IF YOU CAN FIND THAT ONE THOUGHT...according to Sydney Banks. I met Sydney years ago when he gave a talk about having had a flash insight, and suddenly seeing through ALL HIS INSECURITIES!

He realized in one moment that his fears were based on thoughts, and he was never unhappy again, or at least only momentarily until he could "change his mind" about any negative thought he had.

"THE PAST," HE SAYS, "IS BUT AN ILLUSION, AND NEGATIVE ILLUSIONS ONLY EXIST IN ONE'S THOUGHTS."

His advice? "Deal with it, Get over it and Move On."

You can see his site or contact the Medical Institute that has been inspired by his ability to help bring ordinary people to a higher level of contentment. West Virginia Initiative for Innate Health

• MEDITATING HELPS MENTAL ILLNESS: Meditation is being used successfully for mood disorders, to balance people's brains.

Patients with depression, anxiety and chronic pain were given eight weeks of mindfulness meditation. They were then shown a sad movie while their brain was being scanned during the sad parts.

This training seemed to quiet the parts of the brain that respond to negative emotion with rumination and self-judgment, as well as activating another brain region that integrates information about heart rate, posture and movement.

• MINDFULNESS-BASED PSYCHOTHERAPY is growing rapidly in popularity, and there is a $2.5 million clinical trial underway to assess whether it can prevent relapses as effectively as anti depresssant medication.

Dr. Zindel Segal is heading this study, and he is a pioneer in the field of assessing the value of mindfulness meditation as a treatment for mental illness and depression.

• Depression: Meditation Alters Brain Activity and Negative Emotions

• A JAGUAR PARKED IN THE DRIVEWAY, along with outdated, faded, slightly soiled orange shag carpet on the floor in his modest house, appeared to keep E.J. Hughes, the artist perfectly happy.

Mr. Hughes, a well-off and well recognized artist, painted captivating scenes of Canada’s West Coast. He worked meticulously every day until his death recently, well into his 90’s. He went every day to a restaurant called the Dog House where every one knew him, and his favorite dishes were waffles and fish and chips.

• “WANTING EVERYTHING, BUT NEEDING NOTHING," says author Neal Donald Walsh. To keep from obsessing about stuff, he says that he knows that “there is more where that came from.”

• Laugh and Be Happy: Join The World Laughter Tour *

• What is True Happiness? How to know your SELF: Association for the Happiness of All Mankind *

• Site with Resources and Experts for Self Growth and Choosing Happiness *

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