Happiness in 10 steps

1. Happiness comes from being in touch with who you are. Yeah, that squirmy self you do your best to hide is your key to happiness. Your parents gave you a bucket of genes and box of neuroses. You may be serotonin starved, endorphin addicted and histamine overloaded. You may know how to feel guilty about a clear sunrise, may be able to add 20 pounds to that shape in the mirror without breaking a sweat and feel like 2+2 is beyond your grasp. Secret: it doesn't matter, happiness is relative. When you move just a step toward the beautiful, smart, calm, insightful and charming person you want to be, your day is a success. Call it a day and declare happiness.

2. Do happy. Do what makes you feel good about what you've done.

3. Use Emotional Intelligence - Learn to trust your emotional instincts. Happiness comes when you take an emotional risk and don't end up as a lump of ground meat. Your emotional brain is smarter than your lizard brain (the one that tells you to not take risks). Learn to listen to your smart parts.

4. Take Care of Your Body - Sunshine makes you feel better. Vitamin D helps you feel alive. A little bit of good food makes you feel better than buckets of empty foods. If you don't get joy from making the food, the food isn't good for you. Exercise like a little kid. Run because you like being fast. Jump because you feel like you fly.

5. Build resilience - Bad stuff happens. It happens to all of us. Don't waste your day asking "why?". Scream, cry hysterically, pound the wall one time, then move onto something that will make you happier.

6. Find pleasure in life - remember life is a song, a dance, a ride, a leap. It is not hitting the best last note, the best final pose, the destination or the other side. Happiness comes from good experiences, so experience the good.
Discover something new. Learn a new thing each day. Go to bed smarter than when you awoke.

7. Act Happy - You don't get strong by wishing you had big muscles. You don't get happy by wishing you had happiness. Practice being happy. Try new experiences. Talk to new people. Do new things. Keep the ones that help you be happy. Listen to music, all kinds; find beauty in things that aren't your current favorites. Make music. Even 'stupid' music makes people smile. Dance randomly. You'll be amazed how happy people get if you do a little dance or sing a little song at dull moments. Your excuse is always "I just feel so happy I have to dance/sing/quote Shakespeare/draw sidewalk art". That makes those around happier and you get happier when they do.

8. Live life - Make a difference. Help those you see be a little happier. Your goal is to have others say,"he made me feel good about myself", and " she makes me feel happier when she is around".
Don't do what others expect you to do. Understand what is morally good to you. Live your moral principles, not someone else's. Your parents won't always be watching, find a moral code that makes a positive contribution to your life and to the lives of those you connect with.

9. Be honest - speak your thoughts and desires in a kindly way. You have value. Put "you" out on the stage of life as truthfully as you can. Get passionate about culture, politics, justice and community.

10. Know who you are - you are stronger, smarter, prettier, funnier, kinder, wiser than you think you are. Put the doubts away and be your best. Nobody ever lost a friend for being too smart, attractive, funny, kind, wise or loving. Yes, this repeats #1. Happiness is a cycle. Plan how to be happy, Do what you plan 100%, Check if you are happier, Act on what you learn. Repeat.

Yeah, and all that

• It's true, I'm a hippie. Have been since a particularly good day in 1965.
•  I like diversity and mixing of cultures.
• The natural and the free always seemed better. 
• I like flowers and trees. 
• I can spend long moments looking at a bug, a leaf, a flower and be perfectly content.
• Music always makes me feel like dancing, it just feels better when I move with what I hear.
• My 60s are not what most peoples 60s were. It saddens me for their loss.
• I love to share, have little sense of property. Money seems like a terrible burden, useful but not worth the bargain.
• I love to cook food that tastes different. Herbs and spices which bring a whole new experience to eating. My preferred foods are still rice, beans and crunchy greens. I love cooking, it's a gift I can give without buying into the consumerism.
• People like to play with a little hip-ness, a bright top here, some Birkenstocks, a quirky diversity in decorating or dressing. But, I was there down Folsom St, two blocks from the center of it all in 67 through 72. I know how hard it can be to live the principles that got sloganized as love, peace and happiness. I remember the failures, the misfits and the users that thought it was an easier way to hide from themselves. We had the power of our ideals then. Reality hasn't crushed them so much as trained us in a determination to persist.
• I have gone from loving everyone I see, to saying "its alright, you'll be alright". And who is to say that's bad?

The Terror Game

The greatest terror is that the future will be like the past. In this there is a fundamental error. You see, neither the past nor the future exist as real objects. Only the present exists in reality. If we are happy now, the image in our mind we call "past" only can make us unhappy, it can't make us happier. We are as happy with where we are as we ever will get from the experience.
This is our mind playing a game with itself. When we use the past to play this game we call it guilt. When we use the future to play the game we call it anxiety.
The healthy path is to stop playing these games and be happy now.

Truth

"The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling."
— Robert M. Pirsig

Palliative for Adrenal Fatigue

1

Speed. Moving rapidly through the environment can be either terrifying or invigorating. You don’t need to drive a car which accelerates from 0 to 100 mph in a few seconds to experience it. Just join the cycle race in your area this year or hire a buggy and go dune bashing. Learn to skate. Go biking. Go skydiving. Ride a roller coaster. Go bungee-jumping. If you live near the coast learn how to surfboard.You get the triple benefit of working that flab away, learning a new skill, and feeling the adrenaline coursing through your veins.

4

Confront your fears. Take stock of your fears and make a pact to conquer them today.Do you fear flying- take that first flight to freedom, do you fear heights- bungee jump your way to see the world as you never have before, if you fear public speaking, join a toastmasters club in your area.

5

Imagine. Imagine yourself in the most difficult of situations, like being in a zombie apocalypse with machine guns, chainsaws, and machetes. Imagine the thrill, the excitement, the experience of going through something so difficult, yet so exciting. The power of being strong also gives you adrenaline rush.

6

Music. A key factor for feeling an adrenaline rush. Play fast music and dance to it. This does actually give you adrenaline rush. You just got to "feel" the music and the vibe to it. It also motivates you to do things at a faster pace. It can also get you pumped up for an important event, like a track competition.

Self

“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”

Fear

I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear. And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love;