Are you interested in starting a Happiness Club or want to talk with other Happiness Club Leaders? 

Then join us on a conference call on: Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014 from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST.

Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1212 then type in the Meeting ID: 852-643-082# 

 

Thanks to you, we have grown to over 100 Happiness Clubs around the world! 

Come learn how to:

Start a new club.
Grow your club.
Get answers to questions you have about running a club.
Find speakers and topics for your meetings.

Connect with other Happiness Club Leaders from around the world.

E-mail us with any questions at: Events@happinessclub.com

E-mail us if you want to be included in other conferences that will continue.

Come to Hartford's first Happiness Club Meeting and Find What You Need!

 

Starting May 1st, I welcome everyone to join me in Hartford the first Thursday of the month to share, learn and grow together. Learn that Happiness is a Choice.....Make it Yours! Founder, Lionel Ketchian will speak on: Embrace The Power of Happiness Within You.

Where:  Town and County Club
              22 Woodland Street
              Hartford, CT. 06105

When:    Beginning May 1st
              1st Thursday of Every Month
              7:00- 8:30 PM

Please RSVP by e-mail to: audreybcarlson@cox.net or call: 860-841-5894

I believe we are all connected for a reason. There are no coincidences, this I know for sure. I am thrilled to give you early insight for an exciting and informative monthly program of amazing speakers that are coming this year. Trust the element of surprise and join me to launch the first ever Hartford Happiness Club!

The time has come to spread happiness in Hartford Ct! I recently graduated with certification in Positive Psychology from the Wholebeing Institute taught by Tal Ben Shahar. I am excited to share and continue to grow as a lifelong learner giving my life meaning and purpose. My studies include a Masters of Arts in Experiential Health and Healing from the Graduate Institute in 2008. Dr. Bernie Siegel was my mentor who put me on a path to learn, grow and share. Bernie taught me how to take life and all it's complexities and make it simple. Through Bernie, I met Lionel at a workshop. It was at this point  where I was introduced to The Happiness Clubs. I never looked back. Lionel was put on this earth to plant seeds of happiness around the world. I am humbled to have Lionel in my life and be part of something larger than life.

My story is one of understanding and acknowledging the blessings and choices we all have within us all. I had to make the choice to live and not fall into the depths of despair. No one goes through life without pain, loss, failure or trauma, it is how we choose to respond and grow. May 22, 2002, our daughter Elizabeth was tragically murdered. There is nothing that can remotely prepare you for navigating your new life. I needed to redefine my life and not be defined by what happened.  With new tools in my tool box I needed to trust what I know for sure. There is one constant in life and that is change. I also trusted intuitively that our bodies naturally heal from within.  I knew to surround myself with those  older and wiser who could help me, teach me, and guide me to find my way.

 

I am humbled to have had amazing teachers in my life and am excited to share what I have learned and tell my stories of resilience, how I chose happiness, and how I begin my waking hours with a gratitude list. I look at what I have rather than what I do not.

Audrey Carlson, Facilitator

Hong Kong Happiness Club

Founded on March 13, 2014

We had our FIRST Happiness Club Meeting on March 13 here in Hong Kong! A week before the International Happiness Day on March 20th!

Looking forward to many, many more gatherings on Happiness! ♥

Hong Kong Happiness Club is a community initiative to bring together people for the common purpose of understanding & learning about Happiness in Hong Kong

 

Dina Sabnani, Certified ThetaHealer® and Happiness Club facilitator.
Website:
https://www.facebook.com/HappyClubHongKong


Dina Sabnani spent most of her time traveling around the globe. Being born in Manila, raised in Hong Kong and educated in California, where she received her BA in Communications from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dina entered the work force in California, Hong Kong, New York & Dubai working for over 15yrs in variety of fields like advertising sales, recruitment, client services and fashion retail marketing. Corporate life was an experience but one she had had enough of so then she spent the past several years crisscrossing the globe from San Francisco to Far East Asia and back again on her entrepreneurial adventures.

A true global citizen in every sense with a penchant for living life to the fullest - she hasn't forgotten her Indian roots where her interests lie in a deep sense of spirituality that stems from her upbringing. Along the way she had learned the old Japanese healing art of Mahikari, became a Reiki Master and continued being a part of her satsang group sharing discourses on living a life of 'Oneness' as purported by her spiritual Guru.

She realized she had spent years telling people to 'follow their bliss', to do what they loved and to love what they do and finally decided to walk her talk by getting certified as a ThetaHealing® practitioner after having some exciting shifts in her own life by taking sessions from others. In 2013 Dina went on to complete ThetaHealing® Basic, Advanced, Manifesting &Abundance, Soul Mate and RHYTHM a perfect weight® instructor certification courses and is now a practicing ThetaHealing Instructor in Hong Kong.

She is also a regular columnist for Beyond Sindh magazine where she contributes to the 'spiritual section' with thought-provoking articles urging individuals to understand the roles they play in creating their lives. Aside from her varied career path, Dina also became the UAE Ambassador for International Happiness Day and founded the Happiness Club in Dubai which garnered her publicity in on TV, Newspaper, Magazines & radio.  Following on from that - she is now forming the Happiness Club in her home town of Hong Kong (March 2014).

A true Sagittarius with a thirst for knowledge - she is willing to try everything at least once from jumping off mountains to white water rafting to speaking in front of half a million people. Capturing nature's beauty on film, taking bubble baths, dancing and giving love are things that make her tick. Her purpose in life is to help others realize their own magnificence & what a beautiful world we live in where anything is possible.

Dina's motto - 'changing the world one beautiful smile at a time.'

  Bernie Siegel, M.D.

What is happiness? That is a question that has many answers. Depending on the person who answers it, each will have his or her own opinions. Unfortunately there are many people who do not see their life as happy at all. With hard ships in life it is sometimes hard to notice the blessings when you are faced with life's challenges. Of course no one is perfect and we can take those times to feel unhappy there's always that time where we need to lift ourselves up and enjoy another day we have living. One amazing quote, by an unknown author, shares the very idea that was previously said in many different ways, "Being happy doesn't mean every things perfect, it means you have decided to look beyond the imperfections." Those words are so true and meaningful. It should tell people that not everything in their life has to be perfect for them to be happy. In life it is about the imperfections and the mistakes and experiences we go through that makes life interesting and helps us learn as it create each of us as our own unique person.

According to Lionel Ketchian founder of the Happiness Club, "Being in the present moment is essential to happiness. Awareness is a critical ingredient of happiness. Only a conscious person can be happy. Only a conscious happy person can use the power of making a choice for his own good. Ego is the enemy of happiness, and our negative thinking can create unhappiness. Learn not  to take things personally. Most of our thinking is about obsessing over things we have no control over. Happiness is a way to inner peace and a doorway for peace in the world. Find 10-15 minutes of quiet time twice a day to meditate or just be with yourself to embrace happiness and peace of mind. The more we can learn to be analytically mindful the more we will experience peace and happiness. Know  that you are on the right path, authentic happiness is found within, not in external situations." In 1999 in Fairfield, CT, Lionel Ketchian founded the now International Happiness Club. Lionel Ketchian is considered to be an expert on happiness hosting free monthly Happiness Club meetings, writing a by weekly newspaper column "Be Happy Zone" and authoring numerous articles and books on the topic that happiness is a decision. In Lionel Ketchian's "Happiness Newsletter" he offers a list of his top 20 happiness books. Among his top 20 happiness books is another book that mirrors his philosophy that happiness is a choice. On his list is "How we choose to be Happy" in which the authors states, "What distinguishes the extremely happy are the nine choices they make      throughout their lives - choices that determine their behavior in a wide range of circumstances. And what How We Choose to Be Happy shows us how anyone can incorporate these choices into their own lives to create personal happiness." (Rick Foster and Greg Hicks).

On the opposite side, some feel it is sometimes impossible to feel happy. For example being a kid is a lot of pressure. Having to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life and having disappointments come up in your life is difficult. The stress kids have on them with school and trying to figure out who they are and what they want to be is something that can cause lots of unhappiness. It is unfortunate having to think we need to be something instead of thinking about knowing who we are as a human being. In a recent interview 18 year old Spenser Johnson said, "I don't know what I want. Half of me is saying do this and half of me is saying don't. I'm afraid that if I choose something I want to do with my life I won't be able to or I will end up choosing the wrong thing." Although some people may feel this way about life, and feel there are long period of times where they can not feel happy there is something that can always help. Happiness is contagious. If someone can just be happy around someone who is feeling down it is almost 100% certain that they will feel happy too.

According to yoga teacher and health and healing expert (AND MOTHER OF SAVANNAH) Susan Rosati, happiness is a direct link to being healthy. Susan believes that controlling our thinking is a critical component to being happy. Echoing the beliefs of Ketchian, Foster and Hicks, Susan says, "Happiness is a choice. We can choose to be happy or we can choose to not be happy. It is a state of mind. When we choose to be happy, it directly influences the physical, mental, and spiritual essence of who I am. It is a direct link to our wellbeing. To be happy empowers our immune system to ward off illness and unwanted  negative thinking. It is our birthright to be happy healthy and holy. It brings us to a state of gratitude which equals attitude. I choose the attitude of gratitude and deliver myself to happiness..." Susan points to her own life as an example of how her thinking has helped her to create a happy healthy life.

Voicing what he has learned about happiness in his 70+ years of life, Carlo Rosati (GRANDFATHER OF SAVANNAH) offered the following wisdom, "Happiness is faith. Happiness to me is when I get up in the morning and be thankful for feeling healthy. When you're happy you can set yourself free." Although people may have their own perspectives on what makes them particularly happy, several themes seem to be universal. In KC Kings words, "Happiness begins when you let go. When you allow life to happen, instead of trying to control it, you begin to become free. In that freedom, it is so much easier to find happiness than it is when you try to force things. So relax, and allow life to have it's little imperfections," 

 

As demonstrated by quotes in this paper, some elements necessary for happiness appear to be thankfulness, faith, choosing ones attitude, choosing ones thoughts and simple making the conscious choice of deciding to be happy. Jeanne Crowley in a recent interview discuses the challenges she has encountered in being happy. She believes some of these challenges are based on pressure from media and a world that values thinking more than feeling. In her words, "Its funny because the younger we are, the easier it seems to just allow happiness  to overtake us. For example, no infant seeks happiness, they just explode into the moment with what ever they feel in the moment. You would think after naturally  manifesting such happiness in our earliest months of life, being happy would  remain an effortless way of being for us, and that we would get better and better at  being happy as we age. But it seems to go the other way: what we easily and  naturally felt as kids seems to become more elusive as we age. I think its because as adults we learn to trust our heads more than our hearts. We are taught to honor our thinking first, and to push down and ignore our gut feelings and hearts desires.  When we stop trying to think or plan our way to happiness, we embrace the  simplicity of instead allowing ourselves to open to and experience happiness. When we stop "trying" to be happy, we can be surprised by how little it really takes. In other words, perhaps TV suggests to us that happiness is sitting under a     palm tree on a tropical beach-so, if we believe that message, we may believe we surly cannot be happy on our own couch on a gray and snowy winter day. But if we ask our heart what we need to be happy, and believe our own heart wisdom more than the messages of the world, we will allow ourselves to fully surrender to the moment and discover to our delight that we can allow ourselves to be happy even without the palm trees and blue skies."

We see now that there are many different views when it comes to happiness because of the different lives and experiences each individual has. Happiness is all how you look at it. Everyone deserves to be happy in his or her own way. How ever they want to be happy in life is up to them but everyone should let their mind stop taking control and start focusing more on the heart. Happiness is what you make of it. If you can find the happiness in you your life will be much brighter. By practicing smiling at someone every day you can change a persons day and also change your own. Be happy because life is to short to spend it with a frown.

The club is: Cyber-Happiness-Club-1

Ready to start? Join Now! Go to the group home page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Cyber-Happiness-Club-1

and register to be part of the group and get all the postings. Get the ball rolling by posting your message.

You can add photos, create an event, or whatever you want others to know about. In short, make yourself at home in your new group.

Simply drop by the Cyber-Happiness-Club-1 homepage now.

Rabbi Richard Wolpoe is the facilitator and Saul Estreicher is the assistant.