When you move to a different location or change a job without consciously changing how you are feeling within first, before you move, especially if you’re not happy, you can only take your unhappy self with you. You might be happy in the initial stages of being in a new place, but it will only be a matter of time for you to revert to how you felt before you moved. You will attract similar experiences to you because you are still functioning as you did prior to your move. It will be a case of different places, different faces, but the same experiences. If you want things to be different, you have to feel different first.

If you make a conscious effort to align yourself to feel better from within, and as you feel happy you then decide to move, or take a new job, you will in turn take your happy yourself with you. The outcome will of course be very different and will be a positive feeling one.

1) Be aware of your thoughts and how you feel now. We always have the power to focus our thoughts and change them if necessary. In addition, our emotions are our very reliable guidance system that clearly indicates to us how we feel.

2) If you don’t feel good, change what you’re thinking about. Focus only on what you want and check that you feel good.

3) If you’re not feeling good, you’re probably focused on NOT HAVING what you want, so refocus on something that feels better.

4) How you feel NOW is what is most important. Whether you are focused on the past or the future, you’re thinking about it now, so let it feel good.

5) How we feel now, in the present moment determines whether we are happy or not, and will or won’t pre-pave our future as we desire it to be. So ensure you feel good as often as possible. A person who feels good and is happy, is inevitably a healthy person. They also get what they want in life.

6) The way the Law of Attraction works, is that things of a similar nature are drawn to each other. Like will attract like. Whether you’re focused on something positive or something negative, you will attract whatever you are giving your attention to. The Law of Attraction is an inclusive Law and this means you get what you most focus on, be it positive or negative.

7) Many people think they are positively focused when actually they are negatively focused. Everything has two sides: 1) things you want and 2) things you don’t yet have but want. The Law of Attraction is 100% consistent and will always deliver what you are most focused on and feeling the most strongly about.

8) If you think about not feeling happy and wish you were happy, you’re drawing more unhappiness to yourself because you’re focused on what you don’t yet have. Thinking like this does not feel good and when you don’t feel good, the message your emotions is giving you is that you’re not on the right track to happiness yet.

If, however you feel happy about what you’re thinking and want more things to feel happier, you are then attracting more happiness to you. The positive feeling feedback from your emotions indicates that you’re on the right track to continue feeling happy.

9) Look for the best qualities, the good and the beauty in all people, places and things.

10) Make feeling good your priority in life. Make your mantra a positive one: to strive to feel happy no matter where you are, what you’re doing or who you’re talking with. When you feel good, you’ll attract positive experiences into your life.

11) Focus on the best aspects and qualities of yourself. Expand on them and appreciate them and yourself.

12) Surround yourself with people you love and who are positive and happy.

13) Go to places you enjoy that make you feel happy.

14) Speak of things that make you feel good. If they don’t, change the subject or remove yourself from the situation. Make a point of not discussing problems and issues that don’t feel good.

15) Be discerning about what you listen to and watch on the radio, on TV and generally in life. You can’t feel good if you listen to bad news, sad music or angry rants. Choose uplifting and inspiring things to tune in to that make you feel good.

16) Go out of your way to appreciate things just for the sake of feeling good when you think about them. This helps raise your vibration. Appreciation and love are very close in vibration and will engender good feeling, happiness and joy.

17) Life is meant to feel happy and because you are the creator of your own reality, you have the power to give yourself the happy life you desire. Appreciate who you are just because you exist. There is no-one in the world exactly like you. You are totally unique.

18) You were born to experience a happy and joyous life, to feel free and to experience a life of great variety and contrast that would help you grow and expand. These are the purposes of your life. You can be, do, or have anything you wish.

19) Follow your own gut feelings/intuition or instincts. Trust yourself. Other people can’t feel what you feel or think as you do. They can’t know what’s good for you. Don’t ask them because they can only give you feedback from their own perspective. Their viewpoint may have no bearing on how you really feel and can only be appropriate as they perceive you and not necessarily as you really are.

20) Always reach for the next-best-feeling thing you can manage. If you’re depressed, it’s a quantum leap to expect yourself to be happy in a flash, so work your way up, bit by bit to things that feel better.

21) Be kind and loving to yourself. Be easy on yourself. Talk positively to yourself.

22) If you have a physical condition that you don’t want, look for the moments when you do feel better, however slight they may be. You can be sick and have a positive attitude or you can be sick and have a negative attitude. Notice how you’re focused and do the best you can to be as positive as you can. Being sick and hopeful is better than being sick and being in despair or in fear or feeling sorry for yourself.

23) All negative emotions can be seen as messengers that tell you you’ve gone off track and can now refocus your thoughts to those that feel better. Our emotions always are reliable indicators as to where we’re focused. The good thing also is that we have the ability to choose to change our thoughts at any time.

24) You have all you need within you and are powerful creators of your own reality. You can give yourself the life you want at any time and the Law of Attraction will always be there to assist you. Just check you’re focused on what you want that feels good as you think it.

The question is, what are meaningful goals or worthwhile activities?

The experts say that what you find meaningful varies from person to person. According to Positive Psychologist, Tal Ben-Shahar, someone could find meaning in making furniture and another person may find it in volunteering in a homeless shelter.(1) When I heard this, my first thought was that it would be interesting to delve a bit deeper into what makes acitivities such as these meaningful. This article explores my thoughts on this subject.

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1. Activities that are meaningful because they make the physical world a better place

Examples of activities that help make the world a better place:

• Conservation (eg saving rainforests, conserving national parks and nature, ensuring animal safety from extinction/ hunting / harm),
• Activities that help make the world a more beautiful place to live in: eg keeping places clean, well-kept, nurtured, like gardening, street cleaning, park ranging, politicians in charge of maintaining nature in their sections of the world.

Why is it meaningful to look after the planet?

• To secure the Earth’s existence and its resources for future generations (for our children and our children’s children and their survival too).
• To make the world more enjoyable for us to live in (with beautiful nature to enjoy, with amazing animals to appreciate etc).
• Because “all is one” – and appreciation for all living things, and caring for plants and animals is in a way a gateway to opening your heart to love and appreciation for everything. Strong appreciation for nature can be a gateway towards higher levels of consciousness.

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2. Activities that are meaningful because they make people feel happy
Examples of activities that help make other people happy:

• Entertainment:
  - Comedians work, doing stand-up
  - Making enjoyable books, TV shows, movies
• Art: Making enjoyable art & graphic designs
• Music: Making enjoyable music
• Cooking: Making delicious foods for people to enjoy
• Teaching enjoyable hobby classes eg dance
• Doing enjoyable entertainment performances eg acting / circus performers / magicians
• Making products people enjoy (from clothes to building houses, from making soaps & perfumes to doing interior design; from making furniture to building gadgets; and also includes providing services that make life better or more comfortable)
• Talent scouting to find people who are able to make great content that others enjoy. Simultaneously you are making the talented individual happy by making their dream of being discovered and acknowledged come true.
•  Helping people feel healthy (which makes it easier to feel happy) eg doctors, nurses, surgeons, dentists, nutritionists, life coaches, therapists.
• Helping people feel safe (which makes it easier to feel happy) eg police, army, security work
• Helping people feel better about themselves and about the way they look eg stylists, hairdressers, orthodontists, therapists, hypnotherapists, teachers who help you uncover your talents and cleverness.
• Volunteering to help people in difficult positions improve their lives and therefore help them get closer to achieving happiness and well-being (eg helping at a charity, raising money for charities etc).
• Doing self-help exercises to help you feel good eg practising rampages of appreciation and gratitude.

Why is it meaningful to make people happy?

• Uplifting others feels good both to you and to the others. It breeds gratitude, bliss and other positive emotions – and in my opinion, breeding positive feelings in itself is intrinsically meaningful.
• Raising the amount of joy on the planet, in spiritual terms, helps raise the general vibration and consciousness of the whole planet. Some spiritual beliefs state that one of the purposes of human life is to reach higher and higher levels of consciousness.

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3. Activities that are meaningful because they broaden human understanding of the world and themselves
Examples of activities that do this:

• Research in fields that we don’t yet fully understand (eg spirituality, psychology)
• Teaching what we DO know in important subjects, enlightening others to understand themselves and their world better. eg through workshops, lectures, blogs, books, youtube videos and more.
• Meditation can allow self-exploration to increase understanding on personal or universal subjects.

Why is it meaningful to broaden human understanding?

• Broadening human understanding is a type of growth and expansion in a positive direction. Striving to improve and grow is intrinsically meaningful. It’s hard to explain it any further than this. Everyone likes to improve and grow. It’s satisfying, feels good, and leads only to good places.

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4. Activities which are meaningful because they allow us to feel we’ve made our mark on the world:
Examples of activities that do this:

• Having children & grandchildren to carry on our genes

Why is this meaningful?

It makes us feel important and like something of ours will live on even after we die.

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5. Activities which allow us to Experience Love

Experiencing and spreading love (family-love, friend-love, romantic love, even pet-love) is meaningful. Why? Partly because it helps us feel good, but there are other reasons too. Relationships can help us grow and evolve emotionally. They can be a source of fresh ideas, sown into fertile minds, to inspire us to do other meaningful things by making us aware of new things we may not have been aware of had we been completely isolated.

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That’s all I can think of for now. If you can think of any other meaningful activities or general big-umbrella categories for them, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

References

(1.) Ben-Shahar, T., 2008. Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment (click here to find it on Amazon.com ; click here to find it on Amazon.co.uk)

(2.) Yahoo Answers on “What is Meaningful to you in Life?”