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Some say that the purpose of life is to seek happiness.

Is happiness the purpose, or is happiness the result of another purpose? Is happiness the meaning of life, or is happiness the result of discovering what has heart and meaning for you?

There is not one right answer to this question. The answer lies within each of us regarding what gives meaning to our life.

WHAT GIVES MEANING TO YOUR LIFE?

Perhaps, in seeking happiness, we discover what has heart and meaning for us. Is this how it is for you? Or is it the other way around for you? Is happiness for you the result of loving yourself and others? Do you find that when you are open and loving, that you feel filled with happiness?

Maybe love and happiness are inseparable. Maybe when we are happy, we are naturally loving, and maybe when we are loving, we experience happiness. If this is the case, then is the purpose of life is to seek happiness, or is the purpose of life to evolve in our ability to be loving and compassionate with ourselves and others?

In my view, it is not important to separate out love and happiness. What is important is to discover what gives your life meaning. In my experience, meaning always has to do with love - with loving yourself and discovering how you want to share your love with others. When you discover this, you will likely be happy.

Perhaps the meaning of life is to discover what has heart and meaning for you and, therefore, brings you happiness. The questions to ask yourself are:

• What has heart and meaning for me?
• What brings me joy?

FOLLOWING YOUR BLISS

Gillian decided early in her life that what had heart and meaning for her was getting married and having children. She had decided that if she did not have children by the time she was 43, that life was not worth living. She started working with me when she was 42, unmarried, childless, and contemplating taking her life.

In the course of her deep inner work, Gillian discovered another source of meaning in her life. She discovered that learning to be loving to herself - to the spark of God that she truly is - was extremely satisfying to her. As she practiced getting to know and love her true Self, she discovered another source of meaning - helping others. She realized that working in finance was not fulfilling to her and went back to school to become a chiropractor.

Gillian currently loves helping people attain excellent health. In addition, she adopted a 10-year old girl whose parents had been killed in an accident. She has found great joy and meaning in loving her adopted daughter.

Gabriel consulted with me because he was depressed. He had become an attorney because that is what his father was, but found that he disliked it. It held no heart and meaning for him. In his soul, Gabriel knew that he was a writer. He decided to “follow his bliss”, as Joseph Campbell encouraged us to do. While Gabriel is currently not making nearly the money he made as an attorney, he is finding his happiness. By choosing to love himself and share his love through his creativity, he is finding his joy.

Love, happiness, joy - perhaps they are all One. If you choose to pursue what has heart and meaning to you, you will likely find your joy.

About the Author:
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is a best-selling author of 8 books and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding® healing process. Join the thousands who have healed their pain and discovered joy! Learn Inner Bonding now! FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com/welcome.Phone Sessions Available.

Keyword tags: heart, meaning, happiness, joy, inner peace, bliss, health, self help, self improvement, personal development, Inner Bonding, Margaret Paul

How can one tell if they are getting addicted to gambling? Well here are some tell tale signs to help you decided whether you do indeed have a gambling problem or not.

• Are you constantly logged on to one of those online casino gambling sites, even at weird hours, say three or four in the morning? Does this happen even on weekdays?
• Is when you’ll get to play your next game all you can think about as soon as you open your eyes in the morning?
• Do you constantly think of getting home to logon to the online casino to gamble while you are at work?
• Are you becoming a recluse and have stopped going out with friends or answering your phone, all you want to do is get online and gamble?
• Are you always working out different strategies to help you win at gambling?
• Do you find yourself borrowing or worse stealing money from your friends or family to feed your gambling habits?
• Are you always thinking that you are going to win the big jackpot, and planning ways of how you are going to spend your winnings?
• Do you try and keep your gambling habits a secret from friends and family, always minimizing your online casino screen when someone walks into the room?
• Are your thoughts so consumed by gambling that nothing else seems important to you?
• Do you often miss meals because you do not want to interrupt your gambling?

These are just some of the main tell tale signs that you are addicted to gambling. If you answered yes to more than half of these signs then it seems that you definitely have a gambling problem and should try seeking some sort of professional help. First and foremost before you can begin to move forward you must first be honest with yourself and admit that you are in fact addicted to gambling. If you are too embarrassed to seek professional help at this time and would like to try and control your gambling addiction for yourself then you will have to set some rules for yourself.

Do not try to stop gambling all at once “cold turkey” as this will not work, remember this is something you have been doing over a period of time, and to stop abruptly can have very drastic consequence. You may experience symptoms similar to cigarette addiction, when the cravings over take you, you will find yourself becoming very agitated and nervous, and you might find it impossible to control your cravings. Take it slowly and gradually, find ways to distract yourself that don’t involve gambling. Try picking up a new hobby, a physical one like cycling or running will distract you, tire you and the endorphins after a good run will make you feel better! If you’re more the sedentary type then why not pick up crafting or a new tv series or a new book or even join a chat room. Whatever you do you will find that can control your gambling cravings as you spend less time on those online gambling websites. If your problem persists remember there is no shame in seeking professional counseling, in fact it’s a sign of strength in that you know when to ask for help.

About the Author:
Sarah Harrigan is a professional casino player and reviewer on http://www.choosinganonlinecasino.com . For straight talking advice on online casinos be sure to visit her website http://www.choosinganonlinecasino.com for comprehensive reviews on the best online casinos and winning strategies.

Keyword tags: Gambling, Addiction, Gambling Addiction, Signs of Addiction, Self Help,

Don’t we all sometimes stop and ponder where the hours in the day go as it seems like you just woke up and it is time to go to bed again? Don’t we wish we had that extra hour or two every day, or better yet a replica of ourselves to complete all the tasks that we do in a day? While we can’t add another hour, or duplicate ourselves we must learn to make the best use of the time or manage our time optimally so we may maximize our talents.

How do we manage our time effectively? This can be through an array of skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific goals, tasks and missions. This will definitely involve a wide range of activities and these including planning of the activity, setting goals, delegation, analysis, monitoring, organizing, scheduling and prioritizing. One of the ways to manage time is to have personal organizers which can be accomplished several ways.

Earlier personal organizers came in a simple form. People used a diary for writing in all their engagements and maintained an address book for all their contacts. With the onset of a new year, all the information on contacts, birthdays, addresses, etc would be copied again into the current year’s dairy.

Eventually, the personal organizer, day planner, or personal planner evolved as a small book, designed to be portable, usually containing a calendar, address book, and other sections usually including blank paper. These helped in managing and prioritizing schedules and activities and were in a nice, tidy little book which didn’t involve the shuffling of papers.

In today’s day and age, personal organizers have taken the form of electronic personal digital assistants and personal information manager software on personal computers; quite a difference from the original methods of personal organizing. A big and very useful advantage of an electronic organizer over a paper based personal organizer is that you can set reminders and alarms when you need to attend an appointment or event. You can also sync them with your personal computer so that all your appointments and contacts are kept up to date on both. If you have internet access on your PDA then you can also send and receive emails, surf the internet, and much more.

There are numerous personal organizers available in various price ranges, colors and capabilities. You can find them in several different stores ranging from discount stores to drugstores, with the most specialized found in office supply stores. The one that will work perfectly for you is the one that you select and that you commit to using on a regular basis. That is the key and is essential to maintaining organization. These personal organizers help in accurately predicting when the activity will be completed, ensure that deadlines are actually achievable, adapt easily to new assignments and control your workload. This in turn, will save time and ensure more focus and commitment on your part. Another big advantage is the pleasure found in always arriving on time for events and work-related activities; something that would not be as possible without the features gained in personal organizers.

About the Author:
Lillian Esquival writes about time management and other career advice for http://HowToDoThings.com.

Keyword tags: TimeManagement,Self Help,Advice,Personal Management

No matter what situation you work in, or what type of work you do, there will usually be things which from time to time cause you to feel stress. Frequently employees in the workplace will end up having one or two days away from work, as a result of stress build up. For some, their time off may even be longer than that. The key to this is how people manage stress.

Some situations at work may cause you more stress than others; for example some people feel stress because of limitations on their time, whereas others feel stress because of the people they have to deal with at work. Many things are affected by how you handle stress at work, including your relationships with co-workers, your work performance, and even the state of your health.

Nobody can completely avoid stress, and this is an important point you must understand if you want to be able to cope with stress. If you are constantly trying to avoid stress, then your health and work performance are still going to suffer. The next thing that’s important for you to understand is that your stress symptoms are not cause directly by the work pressures, but by the way you look at them and how you manage them.

Businesses are now becoming more aware of the huge effect which stress can have on their employees and their business, and as a result many have stress reduction measures in place. Some examples of these include employment benefits such as massage and gym membership, or ‘mental health’ release days.

A lot of businesses which employ people in jobs that are known to be high stress also employ counselors, who help their employees to cope with their stress at work as well as stress they may be suffering in their personal lives.

We are all affected differently by stress, which means that one person’s symptoms of stress will differ from another’s. Therefore it’s important that you know what your stress symptoms are, as this will help you to cope with them. Amongst the more usual stress symptoms are stomach problems, allergies, sleep problems, back pain and headaches.

Habits such as biting your nails can also develop as a result from stress. If symptoms of stress are not dealt with they can often lead to the development of more serious issues, including life threatening ones such as heart disease and high blood pressure. Serious psychological problems can also result, including difficulty controlling your anger, and depression.

Stress at work does not, however, have to be a bad thing all of the time, and in fact some kinds of stress can improve your work performance and feelings of self worth. For example, if you have been allocated a particularly challenging task because your boss considers you the best person for it, then you will be likely to enjoy the challenge. You will probably then rise to it, even though you might have to put in some extra work.

So, prepare yourself for inevitable stress at work, by knowing how to deal with those times before you get to them. Physical activity is a good way of coping with stress, because stress causes a build up of toxins, which can be released by exercise.

You should also talk to someone about the things that are causing stress at work. It is important to share problems, and this may also help to work out solutions. Deep breathing can also help during times of stress.

About the Author:
Seomul Evans is a SEO services consultant for various free content websites http://www.seo-1-marketing-services.com http://www.articles-cafe.com http://www.seo-marketing-guide.org

Keyword tags: stress,self help,health,self improvement,depression,anger,anxiety,psychology

The Local Time Is Now

What a game yesterday. My thoughts on the game and how it impacts your life will be posted tomorrow.

I had an interesting talk with a client this morning and thought i would write it up for you guys.

David: Stop thinking about the future! The future is not right now.

We hear this all the time, but let me tell all of you this right now: if I could predict the future, you would not be sitting here with me right now. If I could predict the future, do you think I’d be spending this time coaching you guys?

I’d probably take my girlfriend and my dog with me and we’d go surfing on my own private little island. I heard Marlon Brando’s island is going to be up for sale eventually – maybe I’d buy that.

If I could predict the future, I would predict the winning numbers in the lottery. I would tell you the Steelers would win the Super Bowl and I would have put all of my money on it. I would tell you which stocks would rise during Obama’s presidency. If I could predict the future, there are so many different things I would do. But I can’t!

The only thing in life that we have the power to do is to remain present. That is it. We have no other powers.

So if there is a woman that you really want to get to know and you’re thinking about how to somehow swing her in your direction, you’re not really being present. You’re just thinking about how to get her to come to you, instead of really just having a great time. If you’re having a really great time and she starts to see you that way, you’re going to create attraction.

If you’re really enjoying the company of her friends, she’ll start to see you in that way. That’s how women look at things. But instead, you’re just thinking about the future. You’re not even thinking about that day. You could all be just hanging out at a bar on a Saturday night, but you’re not really there. You’re only thinking about how you can manipulate the situation and change the future.

The fact is that the future is not now – the present is now. Stay focused and stay present to what is going on in the moment. It takes a lot of work to truly stay focused in the present.

Client: Is there something that you can do to really work on that? I feel like I can’t really control it on my own.

David: You’re doing it right now – you’re listening to me. You’re listening intently to every word that comes out of my mouth. For the last few minutes, you listened to every word I said, and then you asked a question based on what you heard. And you did it with authority and conviction in your voice. You weren’t nervous, and you did it from your heart. I could see that it came from your heart, and I could see who you are as a person.

So that’s how you do it. You just listen. If you’re outcome-derived, or you expect something from somebody, then it’s not going to happen. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Don’t expect anything from anybody. If you do, you’ll set yourself up to be disappointed. Why should you be disappointed? Life is an amazing ride. Enjoy it. Enjoy the entire process.

About the Author:
http://www.davidwygant.com

Keyword tags: the power of now, dating tips, self help, dating, hot women