Category: Article

By “Jim Chilson”

Happiness thermostat

Happiness thermostat has an emotional thermostat – if you feel down and ask yourself how I can make myself happy, here is how you can do it fast. One crucial way to find true happiness & even universal love is to track down where it comes from and then you can set your emotional thermostat to always be on to the max. There are still things in life that will bring you down, but hopefully, you can recover sooner and stay content longer. And you can do this at will.

Stop Judging – First of all, do not judge. Stop judging everything. Don’t judge anything as good or bad. Everything and everyone are just what they are. We want to judge and categorize everything, especially ourselves. 

What happens when someone says, you don’t make me happy anymore?

Suddenly feel hot? Emotions high? Well, it is not your fault because it is not your responsibility to make anyone happy. That is a guilt trip someone is throwing on you from people who don’t know they are responsible for how they feel. Not you. That is not your job.

I knew someone once who when it rained and she got wet she would make it my fault because the reason she got wet is she is with me and we walked outside.

Sound crazy? No argument from me. But our ego-driven brains act like that naturally and quickly. Like lightening, but who is to blame? We have to blame somebody or something else outside us.  

It is a human characteristic. Stop it. You are in charge of how you feel. Throw those chains away.

It is not anyone else’s responsibility to make someone happy. It is your job to think how to make yourself happy.

Why happiness is important?

It is up to each of us to choose whatever emotional state we want to live this life in. You can choose misery – a life of complaining and sadness and dreariness. One of fear where you think everyone is out to cheat you and you blame God for all the bad that happens to you. You forget of all the good things that happen in your life. We can easily forget to be grateful we are here.

For example, if we lose at love we hate everything. But there may be many reasons to find a little cheer. Maybe that other person was bad news you could not see and they were blocking you from meeting your true flame.

I know that is not much consolation, but think of this: you feel something. That means you are alive. You get to experience life. You get to recover and love again. Be grateful.  

And we all know when we are happy time goes faster, and when we are down the clock can slow way down. Why do weekdays drag on and weekends seem so short? You can help control that and know how to make yourself happier by setting your emotional happiness thermostat for life.

It is where you generally want to place yourself on the positive/negative scale. Of course, someone cannot be constantly happy all of the time. But how one sets their thermostat is where they will spend most of their time between the ups and downs of life.

When happiness doesn’t work?

Life happens. Your dog may chew on your shoes. Your neighbor may have just backed into your mailbox. Or far worse things could happen. Most people let outside incidents affect them and actually blame circumstances outside themselves as the reason for their mood swings. What happens to us can be out of our control. What we think about it and how we deal with it is not.

The amount that affects us throughout our lives can be influenced by our earlier choice to set our temperatures for the long term, knowing this will pass and sometimes we need time to grieve and feel sadness and that is fine. Please forgive the people who want to cheer you. They want to help. You have a right to feel how you feel. But when it is time to heal, please eventually return to the place you created on your thermostat.

Emotions such as happiness, frustration, love and fear are feelings. And we humans often let those emotions rule us. I have chosen happiness as the emotional thermostat setting for my emotional state whenever life happens. My feelings are all over the place in the background, but I know the thermostat will take care of everything, and I will return to the happier, more positive emotions I chose to set earlier. So, how to set your happiness thermostat?

Advertising people know it is not the steak but the sizzle that sells. It is not a thing, a person, and whatever outside thing that makes one happy. It is the feelings those things give you.

Love has become unclear over time; with too many different emotions, we have lost the true meaning of universal love. Happiness is that feeling or tingle of emotions that happens when we feel pleased. It could be seeing your loved one after a while or getting a bowl of your favorite ice cream.

So, what does universal love mean? Universal love is when one loves everything without conditions and can appreciate everything as it is. Give thanks for whatever you receive and move forward.

Love and happiness are different sides of the same coin. People or situations are responsible for love and happiness. But the fact is that we are responsible for all these things and particularly for happiness by where we choose to set the temperature.

How to make myself happy?

Now how to set your emotional thermostat up and make yourself happier: To turn it higher, remember to appreciate all the good things that come to you, all the things you receive. To make yourself happy, think of your relationships, favorite foods, your pets, and everything, and be thankful you receive it. And if you want to drop the temperature, do the opposite and start complaining.

We have the choices to see things as positive or negative. That does not mean when a box falls on your foot, for example, that should be considered a good thing. Of course not. Realistic common sense says, “ouch!,” or something more substantial. But if you continue to complain about the box and let that affect your mood about everything else in life, then it is a terrible thing that can affect your mood for a long time. Continuing to harp about that box can do much more harm than the original pain. Learn how to turn off your emotions quickly—our minds and what we think about is very powerful and can influence our lives. So be careful.

And stay away from the causes of negative emotions such as gossip from co-workers, the news, friends, judgment and family. 

It can be a balancing act, with emotions doing whatever they want. But as long as you set your temperature toward the positive, you will eventually return to the home place you set and get pleasure again from the little things in life. Then you will be just fine.

“Don’t worry, be happy.”

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