{"id":925,"date":"2015-11-18T02:07:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T08:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/warhawkfitness\/?p=925"},"modified":"2015-11-18T14:06:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T20:06:47","slug":"a-dose-of-happiness-how-to-self-prescribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/warhawkfitness\/2015\/11\/18\/a-dose-of-happiness-how-to-self-prescribe\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dose of Happiness- How to Self-Prescribe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPeople wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, and all their life for happiness.\u201d With that being said: let\u2019s say we\u2019re in the midst of a sunshiny Friday afternoon on June 21st, aka the summer solstice, aka the first day of summer, aka the longest day of the year. It\u2019s the start of the weekend, the start of summer and a day of seemingly endless hours to spare. Does that mean you\u2019re instantly submerged in an overwhelming sense of contentment and bliss? As the previous quote states, it\u2019s essentially everything we\u2019ve been waiting for. It\u2019s in a sense, what we anticipated would be the start of our happiness.<\/p>\n

When things aren\u2019t how we imagine they would be we mope, we wait, we hope someday serendipity will cross our path and things will turn around, but we don\u2019t do<\/em>, we don\u2019t initiate<\/em>, we don\u2019t prescribe our own happiness. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Lately, I\u2019ve been expanding my concentration of health and wellbeing to include more of a focus on mental health, and how to maintain and enhance a healthy mindset. This includes the act of choosing happiness. Charming, isn\u2019t it? The simplistic idea of deciding you are going to be happy seems naive and out of our control. While there are occurrences in which under some circumstances we cannot control a given situation, there will always be factors we can change in regards to how our mind responds to it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve concluded that our determination of happiness is reliant on three things:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.) What we prioritize<\/p>\n

2.) The people we surround ourselves with<\/p>\n

3.) Our coping mechanism of choice when things go wrong.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also concluded our fault in inducing happiness when it comes to these three things<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1.) Priorities: we don\u2019t always got \u2018em in check.<\/p>\n

2.) People: It only takes one Debbie downer to damper your mood, and one negative Nancy to dull your outlook on life.<\/p>\n

3.) Blaming yourself, blaming others, resorting to spitefulness, envy, jealously, and cutting down others for having what you wish you had.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to create your own happiness: <\/strong><\/p>\n