The 21 Paths to Happiness E-Book

Aggil Loupescou

• Herausgeber: AKAKIA Publications
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 144

Beschreibung

Happiness is you decision. Dare to make the first step on the paths that lead to it...

The pursuit of happiness is an existential necessity, which is fulfilled only through society.

The 21 paths of happiness is 21 ways and examples to be happy.

The 21 paths say yes to life and give hope for a better tomorrow.

The hopeful voice you must hear. Win the knowledge that leads to happiness. Conquer the harmony of your inner and outer world. Learn to experience life positively to feel fullness and satisfaction. This is the happiness you are seeking for. The 21 paths presented in this book consist of 21 keywords that are analyzed based on the teachings of contemporary psychology to function as basic principles which can assist the reader to pursue a personal path to happiness. Read the 21 paths of happiness and give copies to those you love.

About the Author

Aggil Loupescou is a psychologist, clinical hypnotherapist (National Guild of Hypnotists, USA) and life councelor. She is known worldwide for her two new methods of therapeutic hypnosis: intuitive hypnosis through which she locates and identifies future diseases as well as details about the lives of third parties; regression to past lives through which she proved that the psychosomatic pathology of a person can be due to facts acted out in one of his past lives. She has offices in Cyprus and since 2012, in London, UK.

Leseprobe

Aggil Loupescou

THE 21 PATHSTO HAPINNESS

Copyright © Aggil Loupescou 2014

Published in England by AKAKIA Publications, 2014Aggil LoupescouTHE 21 PATHS

TO HAPPINESS

ISBN: 978-1-909884-82-3Copyright © Aggil Loupescou 2014CopyrightHouse.co.uk ID: 167852Cover Images:

Source: Source: www.freepsdfiles.net

Mixed and Designed by AKAKIA Publications

St Peters Vicarage, Wightman Road, London N8 0LY, UKT. 0044 207 1244 057

F. 0044 203 4325 [email protected]

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the Author and the AKAKIA Publications, at the address above.

2014, London, UK

CONTENTS

Author’s preface

Introduction

Path 1 : Self-knowledge

Path 2 : Excess, the enemy of happiness

Path 3 : The decision to live happily

Path 4 : Live the day

Path 5 : Rejection of negative self-suggestions

Path 6 : Be yourself

Path 7 : Say no to the role of the victim

Path 8 : Rid yourself of greed and consumerism

Path 9 : Say no to comparing yourself to others

Path 10 : The principle of mutual respect

Path 11 : Do not put off for tomorrow what you can do today

Path 12 : Action! Move fast from thought to action

Path 13 : See only the positive side of things

Path 14 : Show your best self in whatever you do

Path 15 : At the right place, in the right time

Path 16 : Determining and evaluating targets

Path 17 : Action and reaction

Path 18 : Happiness is shared

Path 19 : Learn how to forgive others

Path 20 : Faith is the weapon against the fear of death

Path 21 : Premonition

EPILOGUE : In the end, are there happy people?

Notes

Author’s preface

Happiness is defined in the dictionary as good luck, a fortunate development of things, success in achieving a goal, full or perfect pleasure one gets from his life. Obviously, the definition is very simple. It becomes however problematic if one asks, for example, which is the goal the achievement of which should lead to happiness, what abilities or capacities are required, what precedes happiness, how long should the effort towards happiness last, and finally, how long this happiness lasts? We could say that even the sound of the word ‘happiness’ could create an infinite number of problems, scepticism and unending concern. The cause of all that is that man and happiness belong to two different categories of existence. As a type of existence, man is characterised by the temporary, the ephemeral, the limited psychosomatic powers and abilities, while happiness belongs to the realm of the ideal and the eternal. We should therefore think of it as a reward of the struggling man and not as a god-sent gift. But man is a chaser of the good and beautiful but never its achiever because, due to his nature, he is in need according to Plato and incomplete according to Aristotle. He has a void in him, in other words, while happiness is absolute completeness. Achieving happiness is an existential need and its fulfilment to the extent this is humanly possible can be achieved only within and not without society. It is perhaps romantic for someone to sequester himself from ‘worldly affairs’, to isolate himself to his thoughts and turn his back to the problems that harass his fellow human beings. But then why should he seek the help of his fellow human beings if something unpleasant happens to him, something that is certain to happen since there is no such thing as life without sorrows? Will it then bear it alone and helpless? What kind of happiness will he have gained if he leaves this life in pain and psychological and physical duress? Happiness, according to Confucius is the daughter of man and is next to him, at the height of his heart. Small and big acts fill people’s hearts with joy when they are actively ethical and characterised by a wish for unselfish contribution to mankind, love for ourselves and therefore for others. Do you think this is strange? Yet, how do you think one can love others if his behaviour is harmful to himself? Leibnitz claims that there is no such thing as a ‘happy life’, just ‘days of happiness’. He might be right. When Croesus was displeased because Solon did not consider him a happy man despite all his power and wealth, Solon explained to him, as excerpted for us by Herodotus, that no single day in a man’s life is the same as the previous one and that was the reason why he could not say if Croesus was happy before seeing his end. Croesus then sent Solon away but eventually remembered his words when he was vanquished by the Cyrus, the King of the Persians. Are therefore happy people around or not? I am not going to give you the answer. We said above that happiness is the reward of a struggle and you would like to know the answer to that question without even getting into the trouble of reading through the few pages of this book?

Introduction

Writing a book on such a wide and subjectively interpreted subject constitutes of course a daring effort the success of which will be up to the reader to judge, when he will have applied the principles that we refer to below. It is quite natural for someone to ask whether happiness has the same meaning for all people. Of course not. They say that at the start of the last century, a very rich Englishman had achieved it all, whatever a man could have possibly coveted, and yet he felt unhappy. He could not understand why. He therefore tried to talk to the most well-known thinkers of his time to get to the secret to happiness but he was not satisfied from their answers. He even talked to Indian chiefs, Arab tribe leaders, and so on. They all talked about happiness but none of them said that he was happy. Two years later, after feeling utterly disappointed, he learned that there was a very wise man who lived in India. That man was an over a hundred-year old yogi who lived by himself in a forest at the foot of the Himalayas. He decided to go and see him as well. After many days of travel and a walk of many kilometres, he found him sitting on a rock and looking at the water of a river. The Englishman approached respectfully and asked him what happiness was in his opinion. The yogi showed the river with his hand. Surprised, the Englishman asked him: ‘What happiness is it to just look at that river?’ A question formed on the face of the yogi who then asked the Englishman in turn: ‘Do you think this might not be it?’

Happiness therefore is not the same for everyone and neither are the means for its achievement similar. Yet, over the centuries, human wisdom was crystallised in certain short key phrases that might prove helpful in searching for it. They are the ones that mark the paths to happiness. We analyse them of course on the basis of the findings of modern psychology so that they can be functional as basic principles. We however refer to ‘paths’ because there is not only one such. Every person has his own special path that leads him to the serenity of happiness. The reader would therefore have to interpret the analysis of every phrase we present subjectively, in order to identify his personal road in the existential labyrinth of his everyday life. This book aspires to act like Ariadne’s thread out of the labyrinth and help all those who wish to see reality with clarity. Searching for the lost paradise is a myth present in almost all the religions of the world and should be conceived as a search for existential completion, the type of happiness that has unfortunately been achieved only by very few. Mainstream religions, philosophical schools, old and new religious cults, all promise achievement of happiness, offering hope to modern man who is stymied by anxiety.

Modern man, now more than ever, is easily disappointed even by trivial events and turn a blind eye when he refuses to recognise the fact that for millennia, people have been facing the same problems. Whether they represent distilled popular wisdom and cannot be traced to a particular person or they were expressed by widely-known wise men, the phrases we have selected are not haphazard. We should not seek a modern guru, or a pseudo-prophet promising personal happiness to his disaffected students. The paths we refer to can lead you to the conquest of paradise and the achievement of happiness, provided you perceive them in the proper manner.

Path 1

Self-knowledge

‘Know thyself’

Chilon

A necessary condition for the searching for happiness is undoubtedly self-knowledge. It is for this purpose that the well-known saying had been inscribed on a prominent spot at the entrance of the Delphi oracle, so whoever entered it to seek the advice of the god Apollo, would keep in mind that interpreting the prophecy would be totally dependent on the level of his self-knowledge. Precisely the same is the case with happiness. There is no suggestion or advice that fits all, but each one with a knowledge of his personality, can find his personal path. Only when one acquires self-knowledge can one know what it is he really wants and in what situation he would feel existentially complete. Although self-knowledge is a well-known term, its extensions are to a great extent unknown among the overwhelming majority of people. This is the reason that so many religious-philosophical systems promise they will lead to its achievement. We will not pass judgment on them, but we will clarify a number of terms so that you will be able to understand in the best way possible the structure of your personality.

Modern psychiatry and psychology accept C. Jung’s theory that human personality consists of a conscious and unconscious part. We can get to know the conscious part, the one we present in our daily life, by combining our self-image with the image others hold for us. Not just any other, however, but only those we trust and who offer us constructive criticism. Our unconscious, however, is the depository of the experiences of our ancestors, it is the part of ourselves that suggests to us ways to coexist with our past, while at the same time it predicts the future and brings to the fore unknown facets of our character by means of dreams or differentiated consciousness. It goes without saying that you should learn how to decode its dream messages.1

Our progress in achieving self-knowledge depends on the strength of our will to overcome or selfishness. It is not an easy effort because selfishness blinds people, creates unjustified talents, over-emphasises the existing ones, forgives mistakes and hides our true self. In the exercises therefore that I suggest below, you should abandon your illusions and honestly record your talents and strengths but also your weaknesses, because in that way you will acquire the proper measure for what you demand of life.

Exercises for the assessment of self-knowledge

To assess the conscious part of yourself, e.g., the image you project onto others on a daily basis, I suggest you do the following.

1. On a sheet of paper, put down whatever you think your strengths are on the left, and your weaknesses on the right, as fast and as spontaneously as possible. Following that, ask your close friends whose opinion you trust and who are capable of constructive criticism, to candidly tell you which parts of your character they consider your strengths and which your weaknesses. Note down whatever they tell you in the same way as before and compare them to what you have written down. Underline whatever strengths you believe you have and were not reported, as well as all of your weaknesses that have not already been noted down. Τhe greater the number of differences the greater the possibility that the image you hold for yourself has not been properly projected to your social surroundings. In the future, you should therefore show all your strengths that remain unknown to others because you do not externalise them properly. With regard to the weaknesses others have noted down for you but which you did not, you should devote particular attention because this means either that you have not paid the proper attention to them or that you have completely ignored this side of yourself. Note here that in fact, whatever concerns your character is typically found at the midpoint between the opinions you hold for yourself and that which is held by others about you.

2. As above, record your priorities as regards your character ranking them in descending order. For example, (a) health; (b) career; (c) family; (d) money, etc. Next to each of them, note down the strengths which you consider necessary for their actualisation. For example, Family: mutual understanding, tenderness, open communication, etc. Career: decisiveness; courage, strategy, intelligence, etc. Then compare what you have written to your other two lists. In this way, you can see whether your targets correspond to your personality or what you should change in it to easier reach the target that will make you happy. The above simple methods will help you know your inclinations, predispositions and capabilities, so that you will achieve an essential level of self-knowledge which in turn will help you navigate towards your personal path to happiness. To render the importance of self-knowledge clearer to the reader, I will refer to the case of one of my clients.

George came from a family with great military lineage. During his childhood, he did not have any particular problems from the type his strict upbringing because he was good at school and quite flexible with his parents. But during adolescence, he started objecting to the principles projected by his father, while at the same time he showed an impressive proclivity towards the fine arts. He could sketch magnificently and all his teachers urged him to become a painter. Naturally, his father saw this option negatively. He wanted his son to have a military career, have a stable income and a good family. George himself was not sure of what exactly it was he wanted. He did not particularly like the life of the military and neither did he want to start a family soon. Nor had he realised what job would be ideal for him and his character. Finally, he made up his mind to follow his father’s footsteps. Indeed, he was successful in entering the the Cadet School, graduated an officer and was transferred to NATO European Command in Brussels. In his thirties, he married the daughter of a diplomat. Yet, while everything was going all right, he came to see me to tell me that he was deeply unhappy. Although he was impeccable in his duties, he did not like the surrounding atmosphere at all. He was greatly pressurised by his superiors, bombarded by advice from his father and prodded by his wife to have a child. He felt entrapped in a daily life he had not consciously opted nor was cut out for. I suggested to him to make some space in his daily schedule and start painting in his free time. This might relax him and perhaps save him from an upcoming depression spell. I did not hear from him for a long time after that visit. Five years later, I learned that he had quit the army, had opened up a studio in Brussels and had divorced his wife. So, why did he not follow a way of life that would suit him better from the start? He possessed the necessary intelligence to prioritise his life but finally chose something else because he did not exactly know himself. He thought that he would be able to respond well to the demands of another lifestyle, pleasing his immediate environment at the same time. Thus, at 35, he was hiding his real self and pretended to be someone else. But because his subconscious knew exactly what it was he wanted to do, it rebelled and he felt he was at an impasse. Finally, he understood that his lifestyle should fit his personality and conform to the values he believed in and not the values projected to by others. Listen to your inner voice and open the way to the path to happiness. Even the people closest to us might sometime ignore or fail to understand our deeper needs. Never underestimate your true self. Make sure you get to know yourself in time.

Path 2

Excess, the enemy of happiness

‘All in good measure’

(ancient saying)