Living Above The Line

Living Above The Line

I was recently introduced to the concept of living above and below the line and wanted to share it with you. While many of us have heard these principles before, thinking about being above/below the line is a great way to visualize our patterns.

When we live above the line, we see life from a positive place and are hopeful, creative, and optimistic. When we live below the line, our attitudes are more negative and we can feel powerless, sad, angry, fearful or hopeless.

It is important to remember that we are in charge of how we see the world. While we are continually faced with challenges, the key is recognizing when certain thoughts enter our stream of consciousness and working on how we react to these challenges. To quote Epictetus – “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

For example, lets say you’re a sales person who just lost one of your biggest accounts. Many people would fall below the line and feel powerless and upset. Others might be above the line and think about how they could change the situation for the better. Maybe they would think of the possibilities that will open up now that they have more time to focus on other accounts or come up with solutions to the problem, like reaching out to some other potential clients. People living above the line focus on what can be done moving forward, while people living below the line have trouble moving past why something happened.

You’ll find that once you make a concerted effort to live above the line, you’ll attract happiness, positive energy, and feel more connected with people.

Have you heard of this concept before? Let me know your thoughts.

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Announcing The Happy Note a Day Challenge – Win $50 to Amazon.com!

Happy Note a Day ChallengeWhat’s better than spreading happiness and brightening someone else’s day? For the month of June, I am challenging you to write a note to someone every day letting that person know how much you appreciate him or her. You can write the note to the same people or you can mix it up. The notes can be given to friends, family members, co-workers, acquaintances, strangers, etc. Post a picture or write a comment on the challenge page on ChallengeLoop every time you write a note. This is a great way for us all to connect, share ideas and spread the happiness! If you miss a few days, no big deal. The winner only has to post 8 times to be eligible to win. Sign up here: http://www.challengeloop.com/challenge/happy-note-a-day.

Happy Notes

You can use any notes you want, but if you want some “official” happy notes, sign up to be a Happster here and I’ll mail them to you ASAP: tinyurl.com/imahappster

The best part is: A randomly selected winner will receive a $50 gift card to Amazon.com!

All you have to do is accept the challenge here: http://www.challengeloop.com/challenge/happy-note-a-day. There is also an iPhone app if you want to post on the go: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/challengeloop/id527824600?ls=1&mt=8

I really hope you’ll join me in making others happier this month! Email me at happsters@gmail.com if you have any questions!

* Full Disclosure – I work for ChallengeLoop, but would be doing this challenge even if I didn’t!

 

Spreading Happiness Over Easter Weekend

How to Spread Happiness Over Easter Weekend

One of my Happster friends, Allison, had a great idea for how to spread happiness for Easter. Once I heard it, I knew we had to do it! We got together and started working on the best way to make it happen. Here’s the plan:

1. Fill plastic Easter eggs with candy

2. Write happy phrases and words on the eggs with sharpie markers

3. Randomly distribute the eggs over the weekend so that some lucky people get a happy surprise!

How to Spread Happiness Over Easter Weekend

Will you join us in spreading happy Easter eggs around your neighborhood this weekend? Let me know in the comments!

Become an official Happster & get free Happy Notes to make it easy for you to express gratitude to people you encounter here: http://tinyurl.com/imahappster.

Happiness Postcard Calendar Journal & International Happiness Day

Did you know that today is the world’s first International Happiness Day, declared by the UN? According to The Huffington Post, The UN decided to create this day “to signal the importance of going beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of progress. We need, says the UN, better measures of society’s real wellbeing — including happiness.” Read more about International Happiness Day here.

In honor of International Happiness Day, I wanted to post about a project that I started a few months back called the Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal. I found the idea on Pinterest and changed it slightly to be more about positivity and happiness. The journal is made out of notecards, vintage post cards, and a fruit box. The original idea was to flip to the current date each day and write down something that happened. I decided to create this journal, but to specifically write something each day that made me happy. I absolutely love the journal because years down the line, I’ll be able to see all of the happy things that happened on that day. For example, I’ll be able to see the happy moments I wrote down on March 19th for 2013, 2014, 21015, etc. all on one notecard. Click here for the full how-to on creating this journal.

journal, diy journal

Question of the day: Do you journal? Do you find that it helps you organize your thoughts after a busy day?

 

Want to be an official Happster & get free happy notes? Sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/imahappster

Jar of Happiness

Happster Brenda let us know about this jar of happiness idea & we think it’s awesome!

Here’s the concept behind it: Write something that makes you happy on a piece of paper every day and put it into the jar. Whenever you need a pick-me-up, dig into your jar and read your happy thoughts!

What do you think? Will you make a jar of happiness? Share it on Twitter or Instagram with #imahappster so we can check it out!