February, the time for love. Love and health are connected, specifically your health. For the love of a great and happy year read this article to get tips on how to increase your happiness.

Health, Wealth, and Love

What is happiness? The dictionary defines it as “a state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.”

Like many dictionary definitions, this may be accurate, but needs to be more specific to be of practical use. How do you experience this “state of well-being?”

One of the best practical definitions of happiness that I have come across is provided by Charles Haanel in his classic work “The Master Key System.” According to Haanel, there are only three things that can be desired in the “world without.” They are health, wealth, and love.

I have heard a number of people talk about the desirability of health, wealth, and happiness, but I don’t believe that is as accurate as Haanel’s observation. That’s because the three components of happiness are health, wealth, and love. And just as you can create virtually any color of the rainbow with the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, you can create any shade of happiness by learning how to control these three areas of your life.

The people who are the happiest are those with the most abundant health, wealth, and love. It’s true that exceptional people can be happy without the exterior manifestation of these qualities, but most people need some level of each in order to “feel” happy.

Those who have poor physical health due to an accident or illness, but who attain happiness, have learned to compensate their physical condition with superior mental, emotional, and spiritual health. A shining example of this is Christopher Reeve. But note that he also had an abundance of financial wealth and an enormous amount of love from his wife, family, and friends from around the world.

There are those without massive amounts of wealth who are still happy. But a close examination of their situation often reveals that they at least have sufficient wealth for their needs and good health and lots of love in their life. For every person without a lot of wealth who is happy, there are many more who live in unhappiness and fear. Being able to manage and increase wealth in a positive and peaceful way certainly increases a person’s happiness.

And what happiness can possibly be complete without love? Love, true love, is the most important quality of all. Not just the love between husband and wife, parent and child, but love for all human kind. But it is the love of those closest to us is necessarily deeper and brings the greatest levels of happiness. No one can be truly happy who does not have a heart filled with love and gratitude. There is no one quite so miserable who lives a life of indifference or in some cases hatred toward others.

The fantastic news is that each of these three components of happiness have their starting point in “the world within.” The world within is your heart, mind, soul, spirit. To improve in any one of these areas of happiness, the first place to start is with the world within. That means that every person of sound mind has the capacity to improve each area regardless of their current condition. If you have enough mental capacity to read and understand this article, you have every resource you need to create happiness for yourself.

You want excellent health? First, improve the overall quality of your thoughts. There is a mind-body connection that is undeniable. Positive thinking actually creates chemistry in your body that improves health. Second, use your mind to create excellent health habits (the right foods and the right exercise for your situation). Create the right causes, and the right circumstances will follow.

You want abundant wealth? It has long been established that all wealth ultimately flows from thought. Study and take advantage of the laws of wealth. Improve the use of your imagination so that you are able to create new opportunities for yourself. Take control of your financial habits and increase your awareness of how you use your money. If you use your mind to use your money wisely, more money will flow into your life.

You want more love? Love, being the one complete intangible of the three, ultimately comes entirely from within. To increase the amount of love in your life requires only an improvement of attitude. To receive more love from others only requires that you give more love to them.

It is this intangible quality of love that makes love the greatest value of all. Without some measure of love, of what real value is health or certainly wealth? This is why those who truly love are the happiest of all people.

“…and the greatest of these is love.”

Copyright (c) 2005 Bill Marshall – All rights reserved. Feel free to republish this article provided you include the copyright information and the weblinks where possible.

For practical self-improvement tips, visit http://www.poweraffirmations.com. Get my new free e-book, “Power Affirmations: Power Positive Conditioning for Your Subconscious Mind”

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We’re coming into the season of food. There will be food at work, at every receptionist’s desk, you’ll be sent food, you’ll cook food. Here some food, there some food, everywhere is food, food, food. Don’t dispair! We’ve got help for trumping temptations during the holidays. Read this article for tips on handling holiday  temptations.

Five Tips for Handling Holiday Diet Temptations

Well, the holiday season is upon us and that means a whole lot of parties, foods, and diet temptations. It doesn’t take much to go a little crazy and before you know it you’ve kissed your diet goodbye. These things can happen without you even realizing it but just because you’ve set your diet back a few weeks, it doesn’t mean it’s completely over. It only takes a little bit to learn how to control yourself from an out-of-control eating and drinking binge.

Try not to worry too much either if you can’t work out the exact calorie number of everything you ate. The holidays only last a couple of weeks so you only need to choose wisely most of the time. You won’t do too much harm to your diet. A few dietary experts are here to give you a helping hand, follow these five tips for eating healthy during the holiday season:

• Go easy on the trimmings – Take it easy on loading up your plate with all the extras which may add some taste but also those calories. I’m talking about nuts, cheese, cream sauces, gravy, butter, and whipped cream. None of this stuff will fill you up but will fill out your waistline. Try to cut these calories wherever you can. You want to leave get through the holidays feeling satisfied, not stuffed.

• Drink and nonalcoholic beverages – Alcoholic mixed drinks and beer are loaded with calories. No mixed drink you can make can compare to the calorie intake as eggnog can. One way to limit your calorie intake when drinking is to switch to a glass of water now and then between alcoholic beverages.

• Limit your choices of food – Dietary experts recommend putting only two items of food on your plate every time get up to fill up your plate. You don’t need to limit the amount of times you go back to the food table but watch how much you take back from it. A little bit of variety sparks your appetite. By limiting your food choices to few different items and sticking only with these, you will find it easier to control your food consumption and not eat a sample of everything available.

• Be picky – If you don’t think you’ll like a particular food, then simply don’t eat it. Look over your choices of food for what you like the best. Pass on the ones you don’t like enough to risk overeating or the ones you can get anytime of the year. You are not held accountable for eating everything that was put out for the party. It’s ok to use some restraint. Stick to what are your favorites.

• Don’t skip meals – Don’t change your eating habits or schedule during the holidays. If you have a party to attend, treat your eating schedule are you would any other day. Many people make the mistake of skipping meals in order to save up calories only to find themselves overeating later on. Try to eat sensibly throughout the day. This can take some of the hunger edge off your appetite and giving you a little more restraint later on.

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