How to be Happy

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I just ran along this site that seems to be dead on to how I learned to be happy. It seems to me that a lot of people here could use some of the skills he talks about. It is in a format I can understand...more scientific

http://lesswrong.com/lw/4su/the_science_of_happiness/

Thanks for that Cinbad. That's a lot of good information in a relatively small essay.

I'm more happy now than I've ever been (by a small but very perceptible margin), even though I'm older, an introvert, live alone (no mate) and suffer more physical discomfort (bad knee - chronic). However I recognize a lot of aspects in this article correlate to my current lifestyle:

MountainLaurel I am not that much younger and I can tell you that my health was so bad three years ago that I was on 17 medications. I have had 7 vertebrae operated on. I have 5 titanium bolts, 6 screws, and 4 plates in my lower back and neck. I raised three children with ADHD and AS by myself while getting three bachelors degrees (never accepted welfare). Three years ago my life had turned so bad that I had to make a decision whether to just die, or struggle to live. I had decided to die so I left my job, got rid of all the medications and just holed up in my room. But what happened was I cried for many months and wallowed in my sorrow. I had nothing left to lose. Then I got of all things....bored. Bored with facebook games and sitting in this room. So I figured I would do anything I felt like to please myself. I used extra money from work to take flying lessons, got my motorcycle license, a bicycle and exercised. I had unconsciously decided that I wanted to be happy. AND THAT was the KEY!

We are only as happy as we make up our minds to be. I consider myself now to be a very lucky woman with the things that I have and have accomplished. I don't want any more than I have. I am comfortable, I have three children who are aware of my AS and their own. But they have used it to their advantage. I now work with my son who started a business out of my house to help finance his nursing degree.

On another note... there are several of us from New England here in our middle age that I am trying to get together online somehow to possibly discuss our special situations. Would you like to join us? I think we could benefit from the unique perspective our region presents that nowhere else could understand. Such as the fast pace and puritanical ethics we need to fight to become accepted.