Some ways to help bring back the pleasure and excitement to your life

Do you sometimes feel that life is against you? People around you appear preoccupied and indifferent to you. There are constant hassles and upsets. Whatever enthusiasm you once had has disappeared and everything feels gray. You have little energy and feel like giving up. There’s no spark. No sense of excitement or joy in life.

If it happens to you, don’t ignore the situation and hope it will pass. Don’t tell yourself you’re maybe coming down with a cold, or you just need a few days vacation and you’ll be fine.

Try some practical ways to refuel your internal life.

Ignoring feelings like those described above is a mistake. Although not spectacular, they’re a symptom of your mind telling you that you’ve lost your way in life. Until you get back on your path, they’ll keep returning. Continued

How to use your time wisely by reflecting on experiences so you are free to make good decisions.

Webster’s Dictionary defines reflection as a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.

Reflection is not highly thought of today. Those of you who like to spend time reflecting may be accused of “doing nothing” and “wasting time in idle speculation.” If you take time to come to conclusions you are labeled a procrastinator. If you spend time with imaginative thoughts, you are a “dreamer” or accused of being idealistic and impractical. Modern society values immediate action. You are not given the time for reflecting on what that action should be. You’re expected to be able to select the correct action instantly, even though you have no basis on which to decide how to proceed.

This is ridiculous, and leads to all sorts of mistakes, when people are unable to take time to see the truth of what is required. The world is viewed through the ideas and values learned from the past. And that view will be faulty if those ideas and values are not sufficient for your to see clearly, or if they are obscured by falsehoods.

Will success only come about if you have experience you can call on? Are copying others or using standard approaches sufficient? Continued

Too many people rely on everything from blind intuition to excessive data collection when reasoning is a hand to help solve the toughest problem.

Do you seek help from others to work through your problems? If you do, it’s probably not because they have any specific knowledge about the subject. That’s not necessary. You usually have all the knowledge required. What you don’t know is how to organize your thoughts and come to a logical and reasoned conclusion.

Don’t rely on experience

If you have lots of experience, that may lead you to assume you can make quick decisions without bothering to collect background data. Sometimes it may work, but using your experience in this way can be a drawback. There will be a tendency to choose the answer which fits what you know. Continued

You are the best person to know how to organize your life. No one else will be able to help you as well as you can help yourself.

Don’t be swayed by other’s ideas
There are many books and programs on the market with titles which have the words Self Help in the title. These books and programs are full of other people’s ideas.

Everyone of them is written by someone who discovered for themselves how to sort out their life to make it more enjoyable.

You can waste a great deal of time trying out some of these ‘How To’ books.

You can’t live your life through others’ ideas
Why is it that these books don’t really answer your questions? It’s because you are choosing to take someone else’s path, one that probably caused them a great deal of trial and error, but that is now written down as a simple plan. Continued

If you don’t know where you want to go, follow the advice of the Cheshire cat. Try being open to the possibility of any road that may be as good, or even better, than planning — and certainly than taking advice from other people, all of whom will have their own agenda.

Here’s Alice talking with the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Like many of us, when faced with a choice, she has no idea where she ought to be heading.

Alice came to a fork in the road. “Which road do I take?” she asked.”Where do you want to go?” responded the Cheshire cat.”I don’t know,” Alice answered.”Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

“Shouldn’t I listen to advice?”
Of course, but beware. Others may try to set you on a path that they wish they’d taken themselves. Then, how do you know they have your best interests at heart? What seems a good idea to them, may be a bad idea for you. Even those closest to you don’t necessarily know you as well as they think they do. Even you may not know yourself as well as you think you do. Continued

Setting up your own special days to celebrate key life events can give you more joy and contentment

Americans have many special days in the year which they celebrate. There are national holidays and also events like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day.

As an individual you can celebrate special days of your own. There will be birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, a new job, the birth of a child — the list goes on and on.

Choosing your special days
Do you choose to celebrate these events or do you just let them pass by as of no importance? Do you feel that birthday’s are only for kids and after a while you shouldn’t bother with them any more? What about your own special days? They don’t have to be birthdays or anniversaries. They can be anything you want them to be. Continued