Who wants to be happy?

When I'm asked the question "How are you", I generally reply with something along the lines of "I'm wonderful thanks", or something similar. People often look at me in a strange way when they hear such a positive response. It's as if being happy and positive is somehow strange or weird.

The underlying assumption of course, is that being average should be the norm. "Yeah, I'm okay thanks" or "Yeah I'm alright" being the usual responses to such a question.

To most people, being average is the norm, to be expected, and typical behaviour. Being more than average is somehow seen as strange. This is completely wrong headed thinking.

Most people simply don't get it. They don't think they have a choice, and go through life being passive in how they think and feel. Like a pin ball in a pin ball machine, they bounce from one situation to another, without ever taking control of their mood.

It is entirely possible to choose your mood. If you choose to be happy and positive, then guess what? You'll feel positive and happy. If you choose to be moody and negative, then guess what? You'll feel moody and negative.

If you wake up and tell yourself you're going to have a good day, the chances are you will.

There will always be times when you can't be in a positive frame of mind. Sometimes life deals you some terrible blows. No one can be in a good mood at all times. However, positive, happy people will bounce back far quicker than moody, negative people.

Imagine yourself on a really good day. A day when you are feeling energised, happy and positive. Imagine if you could feel like that nearly all of the time. Yes, even on a Monday morning. Wouldn't that be amazing?

Well, you can, but only if you want to. If you choose to. If that's what you want. 

If you do something for 14 days, it becomes a habit, and you can do it without having to consciously think about it. The same is true for your mood. If you wake up each day for 14 days, and be as positive as possible during that period of time, then the happy habit will have formed. You will have made the biggest difference to your life imaginable!

The difference between feeling happy and positive vs feeling moody and negative is simply a choice. 

So many people go through their lives being moody, negative and unhappy. I simply don't understand such people. Life is so short, why waste your precious time being anything other than happy and positive.

Happy, positive people aren't necessarily rich, or drive big cars or live in big houses. What sets them apart is that they are happy with what they have. 

They also tend to attract many friends. People like to be around them. Why wouldn't they? They're happy and positive after all.

Do you want to be happy? It's entirely your choice. Next time someone asks you "How are you?", make sure you reply with "Wonderful thanks", and mean it!

 

 

The world is so exquisite

"The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides." - Carl Sagan

Life's too short....

The fallacy of believing that humans are the most important species on the planet

I have had countless discussions with people who are of the opinion that the human species is the most important on the planet, and that everything we do is natural, because we are the products of nature ourselves. As both these fallacies often come up during the same conversation, let me address both of them together.

First of all, to think that the human species is at the top of any supposed pyramid of life is merely human conceit and vanity. In evolution, there is no 'winner', only losers in terms of going extinct. Unless we change our ways very soon, there is a very real danger that we may meet such a fate ourselves.We simply cannot sustain our current levels of pollution and destruction. In a short space of time we have evolved quickly, but also in that short space of time we have wreaked chaos and bloodshed on our wonderful planet. 

We have evolved intelligence, tool use, language, art, music, science, technology and a great number of other worthy facets to our big brains. However, it doesn't take a genius to see that we cannot keep plundering our planet forever.

The planet's resources are finite. While the human population grows ever larger, we take increasingly greater quantities from the planet, stripping back it's biodiversity. Despite our intelligence, we lack the foresight to see what harm we are doing to our planet. 

Secondly, to say that everything we do is natural is absurd. That is mere justification to keep going as we are. There is nothing natural about decimating our rain forests, oceans, skies and countless other species. That is completely unnatutral. Natural means to be in harmony with nature, the human species decimates it instead. The complete opposite of natural.

The people who state that everything we do is natural are also missing the glaringly obvious contradiction in their words. Surely if everything we do is natural, then the word itself becomes obsolete. 

Imagine for a second a planet without our presence. Everywhere you looked there would be savannah, forest, oceans and harmony. The planet's natural order would be slowly restored, and the damage we have wrought would be gradually undone. The seas and oceans would slowly be restored, as would the skies. Forests would slowly regrow and species would increase in numbers (the ones we decimate for profit and bring ever closer to extinction).

Like it or not, if we keep going as we are, we'll destroy the human species and most of the planet with it.

 

A riot is the language of the unheard

‎'When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up and express their anger and frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard." 

 

Martin Luther King

 

Riots on the streets of London

The riots that have been taking place in London have been beamed round the world and have been causing much debate on social networks. Let's make one thing clear though from the very outset, the people involved in the torching of buildings, looting, rioting and general social disobedience have nothing to do with the original protest, and are not in themselves aligned to the protest. They have hijacked the protest for their own ends, to mete out as much destruction as possible.

The protest was originally sparked by the police shooting of Mark Duggan. He died of a single gun shot wound to the chest according to a recent inquest. 

"Mark Duggan was killed by armed officers in Ferry Lane in Tottenham, north London, on Thursday after they stopped the minicab he was in to carry out an arrest as part of a pre-planned operation. An inquest, which began on Tuesday morning at North London coroner's court, in High Barnet, heard that the 29-year-old father of four died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead at 6.41pm on Thursday evening." 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/london-riots-mark-duggan-inquest

I am sure most of us would sympathise with the death of such a young father. The wave of rioting that has since swept through the capital has all but silenced his death, with media attention now almost entirely focused on the destruction that has been wreaked on our capital since his death. 

While the initial protests were entirely justified, the subsequent rioting we have since witnessed has been completely disproportionate. Setting fire to buildings, looting businesses and causing millions of pounds worth of damage is wholly unacceptable.

Here is a BBC link showing the before and after images of several of the buildings torched by the rioters.

Seeing these images is saddening to say the least. The wanton destruction of so many buildings cannot be justified, and the rioters responsible should face the full force of the law.

We have enough CCTV evidence to convict great numbers of these people, so I wait with baited breath so see what happens next.