"What Brings Happiness?"

WHEN POLLED ACROSS THE NATION AS TO: "What Brings HAPPINESS?"

These EIGHT items were listed as NOT being of major importance to maintaining lasting happiness (the Eight Delusional Desires for Prosperity):

1. Wealth

2. Physical appearance

3. Age

4. Power/Influence

5. Children

6. Possessions

7. Fame

8. Education

These EIGHT items WERE listed as of major importance to maintaining lasting happiness (the Eight Keys to Happiness):

1. A feeling of being in control of one's life and one's choices. Being adaptable to experiences and outcomes.

2. A relationship, partnership, and lasting commitment.

3. A satisfying and rewarding job or career.

4. Good friends.

5. Leisure. Time to travel, retreat or relax. Private time to be alone, and authentic time to share with others.

6. Exercise. Exercising in any style, degree of effort, or time duration that you need or want.

7. Sense of feeling connected to God. Having an avenue to express and experience Spirituality.

8. Hope.

HOPE was given as the ultimate tool or method that enabled individuals to endure life while they were waiting for their unmet needs to be fulfilled or fall into place.

If a person loses HOPE -- in a strained relationship, a stalled career, or negative health situation, the lack of this emotion can lead to miscommunication, a separation (or divorce), ongoing drama or crisis -- or even death. Losing hope invites lack of vision, criticism, boredom, anger, stagnation, and letting go of one's desire to live.

The quality of your HOPE is the quality of your perception of life.

To assure a constant stream of hope in your life, the first step is finding key people who will listen to you (i.e., your needs, wants, and desires) so that you feel heard. When you feel heard, hope begins. You can lose hope when there is negativity in your life. Even when the darkest moment surrounds us, know that there is or will be a person who will listen to your pain. By accepting the moment and the future, you are believable to those who want to help you. Hope comes from knowing you can succeed. Knowing you can succeed comes from one or more persons who say, "you will overcome this challenge!" Therefore, it behooves you to (carefully) choose who you trust and tell your pains and problems to.

Interestingly enough, when we pray to God, the angels, or a loved one who has passed over, we are actually reaching out to "someone" who will listen to us. In praying to God, we open ourselves to taking responsibility for our past and present actions. In that one moment of internal realization, we attract someone who will step into our lives specifically to give us the hope and information we need. Hope always comes from knowing we have a friend, loved one, or a loving God who listens to our problems. In asking for help, a solution always appears. It may take days, weeks, months, or years to forget the pain we endured, but this expands our breadth of love to accept new personal growth.