These are my ideas of what I think we need to do to live a happy life.

1. Live in the present moment. While living in the present moment, there is no past or future. You can control your thoughts, movements, and feelings in the present moment. If you can control those things, you can live the life you choose. And that, my friends, can make you happy (providing you choose good stuff).
2. Appreciate. We are all just people working our way through our lives in the best way we know how. Let’s appreciate ourselves, one another (and pay more attention), the love we can give and receive, opportunities, experiences, and the things that make our lives better (like a house, car, etc.)
3. Focus on the good. Moaning and complaining about what’s going on in your life will only bring you more of that. If you think about what is good in your life, guess what? Yep, you will get more of that.

These ideas are so simple. Take the first letters and make an acronym, LAF (live in the present moment, appreciate, and focus), to help you remember what you need to do. If we all did this – wow, oh wow  – the world would be a better place.

Think about this: The CEO of a corporation that is now price-gouging to make huge profits off overpriced goods decides to do the LAF things. How can they possibly still keep up the indecent act of stuffing their pockets and corporate/shareholders’ pockets on the backs of the American people? I don’t think they could.

Why?

By living in the present moment, they would be aware of the financial corner they are putting American consumers in with the higher prices.

By appreciating themselves and others, they would have the mindset that they are not the only ones on the planet or need to live so removed from reality with more money than they could use in one lifetime. They would charge what is fair to cover the actual operating costs and offer a decent profit without price gouging.

By focusing on the good, the same CEO can ignore all the wrong they are doing, but ultimately, I think it would make them realize that to feel good, you have to be a good person. I would hope so, but I really don’t know for sure. I’m simply putting out an example to show the possibilities of what could happen, doing the three things to live a happy life.

Here’s a great article on the rising food prices.

When we live in the present moment, appreciate and focus on the good, things begin to change for the better. We no longer dwell on the past and beat ourselves up for what we did or didn’t do or what someone did to us. We’re not worried about a future that does not yet exist. We are living one moment at a time and choosing how we spend them all.

Appreciating people, experiences, and things helps us feel their value, and when we value something, we take better care of it.

Focusing on the good gives us peace of mind. Believe that we create all the good in our lives and that we will create more and more by focusing on it.

Thank you for reading this today. I hope you find these simple ideas can make a lasting impact on your life. Why don’t we try them? The only thing we have to lose is an unhappy life. Leave me a comment if you’re going to LAF.

To Do,

Francesca