This was a bench that I thought was awesomely awkward. Kinda placed in the middle of nowhere on Williams College Campus, while visiting the area...its seemed so out of place, but so much like it belonged there.

Granted I am sure I looked out of place bending over on all fours with my butt in the air to take this photo, but none the less...it put a smile on my face, maybe it will put one on yours too!

Feeling Down?

So I have talked to a few people lately who have been feeling particularly down for one reason or another.

I know from my own experiences, its hard when your feeling down, to bring yourself out of that slump and feel better. Although it may seem challenging, initially, eventually you will see that whatever or whoever its is that is bringing you down is a temporary problem. )Sometimes, the length of "temporary" can seem very permanent).

I do have some steps that I like to follow when dealing with a depressive state. I think it is important for each and every person to find their own method to doing so, but when you do find something that works, stick with it, and adjust or adapt as needed.

I often will start by trying to figure out what is causing my sadness or depressed feelings. You can't always identify all of them, but often some can be concretely figured out. Identify the issues more concretely, usually through writing them down or speaking out loud about them. I will caution...speaking to yourself without a bluetooth headset, makes you look crazy ;)

Once I have figured out some of the issues (not necessarily all of them), I attempt to pick one to work on. I figure out all I can ascertain about it. The reasons why it happened...the parts I played or others played...how I let it get to me...why it bothers me...and so on.

Eventually, you will start to formulate the things which you can control and the things you cant.

GREAT! We can now start to work on the things you DO have control over. Start actively changing or altering the way you handle those things. The things we can NOT control, obviously, our out of realm of change. So work on the things we can control and maybe get to some sort of peace with those. Follow this with the next one you identified and break it down in a similar fashion.

Eventually, the goal is to start changing the cycle of being depressed and feeling overwhelmed. Often you find there is a multitude of feelings compiling into a feeling of being down. If we break the cycle and start to combat the issues directly, you will probably be able to overcome the feelings of sadness.

Good Luck!

Enjoy and keep smiling...

Twitter say WHAT?

So I broke my own rules, I got on TWITTER!

I am still figuring out what this is all about, but so far, I think I have some followers. I don't know how much I'll be Twitting?? (maybe twittering?) but hopefully some people come and read!

Please follow along on BeHAIL and I will respond. Even if its not a question, just some comments so I know someones reading!

Little Statues in New York

This is a photo I took in New York. I had traveled to a wonderful little Hungarian Pastry Shoppe outside St. John's Cathedral. This was in the park area outside the cathedral. Periodically, I will be posting little photos of things that were nice to look at. The Blog is to help generate happiness, in all forms, not just words.

The little statues were actually on fence posts...but they were very intriguing to me so I took a photo.

Many of the photos will be from areas around Maryland.

Enjoy and keep smiling...

Help Support BHAIL!

I wanted to put a quick note in here to please list a link to the blog in your profiles for favorite websites. The More people who come to read the more I will keep writing....

Stressful Day?

Welcome back!

Today I wanted to write a little about stress. Often I see people getting extremely frustrated for really no reason. Although stress comes in many forms and from many sources, I feel that it basically comes down to one thing. Wanting something and it being blocked.

You may not agree with this, but I will tell you, it seems to reign true over and over again. I see in my own life, as well as the lives of others, that people get stressed, daily due to things such as their lattes not being made fast enough, or work piling up and not being able to accomplish much. The feeling can be overwhelming and sometimes feel like you are going to drive yourself crazy.

The thing I find most helpful to remember: WHATEVER IT IS...IT WILL BE FIGURED OUT.

Stressful situations will be resolved one way or another. The goal however, is to remember that even though you are stressed, and you may know a resolution is coming, you must also remember that its going to work out the way "it should"

I put "it should" in quotes because the way it works out is available for interpretation to many people. Whom ever is experiencing the stress (and therefore resolution) must realize that the way things have been resolved is the correct way, and therefore you need to work with it, not against it. The resolution may be altered slightly, but it can't always be changed.

I will delve into this more...but I figured this would be a good small blog for today.

Enjoy and keep smiling...
JM

Welcome

I would first like to welcome you to my blog. This is a blog I will be updating as much as possible for giving people advice on happiness. My main reason for writing this blog is to help those who want to find some happiness in their everyday life.

Over the the years, many people of varying ages and backgrounds have come to me for advice in their life. Although I have enjoyed speaking which each of them, I have also wanted to help more than just the smoker at the local coffee shop who wanted to talk about his marital problems.

The thing is, life today, there just isn't always enough time, or interest, to sit down and have a decent conversation with someone who wants to share their life story with me. After all, I have things I care about and frankly, sometimes their life really isn't that exciting. Granted I still will help as best as I can, but now, anyone who reads this and cares to come back is free to do so.

Please feel free to post comments of any nature. Provided your not being rude to anyone, I would love feedback on topics your interested in hearing about or discussing. This is not anything more than me sharing a little about what I have learned in life, and maybe giving you some incite into my opinion. Please, I am not making any claims to be an authority on life, I am simply trying to spark some discussion and reading!!!

Enjoy and keep smiling...
JM