Be Happy!

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Catwhispers
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Be Happy!

Post by Catwhispers »

This topic came to me within the last five minutes as I was contemplating my day and thought that the opportunity to post it was too good to pass by.

So, the moral of this topic is exactly what it says in the title; be happy!

Basically, what this topic is about, is to post all of those activities that make one really happy and glad to be alive. I've had my fair share of bad times (nothing serious, just the general down days that everyone gets) and it's always nice to shift it. Now, I've found a way!

Excersise! Yes, that's right, excersise. Me and my mum got the bikes out a couple of weeks ago and have been riding them recently. We went on a bike ride last night and another one today and you know what? It made me feel really happy! Mum noticed that I went giggly and talkative, which is really good. I don't know why, and perhaps excersise just affects ME that way, but I thought it was great. It can help me keep fit and make me happy at the same time. So, if you're ever feeling a bit down, why not get your bike out and go for a ride? Or perhaps go for a jog, or, if you don't have the stamina, go and get a skipping rope out in the back garden.

So, firstly, does anyone else get a high out of excersise? If so, please tell of your nice experiences. Secondly, what other safe methods have you come across that affect your mind in a positive way? Thirdly, happiness rules and don't you forget it. :wink:
Mesmirez
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Post by Mesmirez »

Exercise doesn't do much for me, at least lately-- but that's because it's over 100 degrees here and any strenuous activity doesn't do much for me XD I do enjoy it when it's cooler, though.

Things I really enjoy doing when I'm down are playing with my rats, drawing, singing and watching really corny musicals (Grease, Hairspray, Shock Treatment, Little Shop of Horrors, The Producers, anything with a really ohmygodgonnaexplodewithhappy ending). Though lately it's been staring at random Manhattan neighborhoods on Google Street and fantasizing, but let's not go that dorky yet x3. Oh, and listening to Flathead over and over usually does the trick too.
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Figment
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Post by Figment »

Buying books makes me ridiculously happy, proving what has always been suspected of me: that I am a soulless slave to capitalistic materialism.

Possibly the only thing that makes me happier than buying books is holding a book in my hands, one that I haven't read yet but know already that I'll love. Best feeling ever.

(I bought twelve books today <i>alone</i>. I'm not even going to count how many I've purchased in the past two weeks -- I try to forget how much they cost as soon as I've signed the receipt.)

I'm not an exerciser. I'd rather smoke. Cigarettes make me very happy! The feeling of my lung tissue screaming out in agony gives me thrills of delight. Add coffee or diet coke to the mix and you've got a divine combination. Mmm. Cigarettes. Think I'll go have one now.
tallan
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Post by tallan »

Oh, yes.

Books. More reading them than buying them, though. The intense emotional connection when everything just clicks, and you're there, in the story, experiencing everything as if you were one of the characters. And when you're finished you feel like sleeping for a week because you're completely spent.
(Buying books is great too, but for that you need money, and mine is sort of spent on other things, like food. And toilet paper. Toilet paper is important.)

Music, good music, the type that hits the right spot so that you understand. Music that manages to express your feelings better than you can yourself, music that brings hope. Songs that are stories. I can't really connect to music without meaningful lyrics, I have to be able to get it, to empathise, to recognise myself. But when I do, oh. It's magic. I spent a good part of my teenage years doing nothing but lying in my bed, listening and singing along. Those were good times.

I'd like to understand the thrill of exercise, but it's just so exhausting. I'm with Figment, I'd rather smoke. And do.
Alicorn
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Post by Alicorn »

Quiet a few things make me happy, lets see...

Like others, books make me happy. Buying books that I have been looking for or wanting is always exciting. Then reading books I know I’m going to enjoy or with characters you just fall in love with, oh yeah. Then re-reading books that you just love always makes me happy to cause it brings back those happy memories of when I first read them.

I also enjoy watching movies and anime and buying them (which is more expensive then buying books unfortunately, blah). Then there is listening to my music, which are all different kinds. Watching amvs fill me with such joy. The art some people do with these are just so awe inspiring, even the simple ones get me going. Playing my favorite games makes me happy, Sims 2 being my favorite (a new expansion pack where you get to travel comes out Sept 6th, I can't wait!). And of course talking to my fiancé and role-playing with her fills me with great joy!

I also don't exercise or really get a thrill from it. I get a lot of my exercise from work. Though I do enjoy rideing my bike now and again. I don't smoke either. ^_^"
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Figment
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Post by Figment »

Toilet paper is only important so you don't have to do as the ancients did and use pages from your books. :P

But yes, reading books is wonderful too -- that goes without saying. I love books so much that it's almost frightening at times. It's a deep, painful sort of love, not necessarily one that makes me happy. I weep over words, perfect sentences make my chest hurt, a really excellent book can throw me into despair for weeks. I love them more than anything in the universe.

It's just that the buying of them that gives me an immediate heady high, quite unique to that activity, unparalleled by the buying of other neat things, like antique birdcages or glass bottles. A good used bookstore is HEAVEN. I've been to three great ones in the past week and a half -- lucky for me and for my massive collection, bad for my bank account (or, rather my parents' credit line -- I am devious).

I won't try to trump tallan's eloquent riff on music. I'll just point to it and say I agree. The sort of music that touches your soul so deeply that it becomes a part of you -- yes, that's good stuff.
Hawk
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Post by Hawk »

Mmmmmm... music :D

Music helps when I'm having a really bad day - before I go to sleep I'll just lie in bed for an hour or more with the lights off, just listening and not moving at all.

Reading is also nice, but buying a used book that I know is great is the best feeling ever. Used books have so much character sometimes. Used bookstores smell nice too.

Luckily I live in a place with a lot of trees, so taking a walk really helps sometimes. The bird music outside often calms me more than actual music. I like to just grab my binoculars (which cost a lot more than books :D) and walk in the woods and watch the birds. Birds are incredibly calming (the wild ones at least - I don't have much experience with caged birds). Actually, just looking at a nice picture of a bird, drawing a bird, or listening to birdsong on my computer calms me down a lot. If I don't have anything else, I just daydream about birds. I would love to get a pet bird or two to talk to, but my parents won't let me.

Did I mention that I'm obsessed with birds?
Alicorn
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Post by Alicorn »

Oh yes, music that touches your soul and tells your feelings better then what you could express is great. All my characters have their own theme song or more then one. Heck I even give myself a few theme songs. ^_^"

I also forgot to mention that enjoy looking at my picture collection on my computer. I've been collecting pictures from the net for as long as I have had the net. From shows I love to animals to drawings, I just love looking at the pictures I've collected. I find it calming.
I also like doing random crafts stuff. All matters my mood at the time.
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danceu4ia
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Post by danceu4ia »

Exercise in the form of dance. :D
Most nights, you would not be able to tell it though. After 4 hours of continuous, graded dancing, I think you'd be a little disgruntled too. :P But once you've nailed that step, learned that routine, and consequentially aced that recital...wow.

Also, used book stores, and writing upon a crisp, new, journal page.
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tallan
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Post by tallan »

Figment wrote:Toilet paper is only important so you don't have to do as the ancients did and use pages from your books. :P
The thought alone is blasphemy!

But yes, book buying = immediate high, absolutely. For me, it's mostly giddy feeling of anticipation, of having a new adventure waiting for me. At times I'm reluctant to actually start reading, because it will be over so soon. The first experience, I mean. I can't take my time, can't savour the words slowly, I just gobble them all up. And then it's over, and it's like crashing down from a sugar high, and I don't know what to do with myself. Until I remember than I can read it again. :)

And oh, trees! I totally forgot to mention trees. They're absolutely wonderful. I live right next to a big forest (literally right next, there's a lawn and a small road between me and it), and when life feels particularly tumultuous I go and hide in it. All problems and worries and fears stays outside the borders. It's my safe space, basically. And being that surrounded by nature almost makes me feel religious.
Huggles
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Post by Huggles »

Baking cupcakes. What? You can't picture me in the kitchen baking strawberry cupcakes with pink icing and Barbie sprinkles like Donna Reed? I do, and they're damned delicious. I will admit that it's a rather recent occurrence. It started with baking them for my mom's church and her friend's grandkids. Then my store manager's birthday was coming up and we were also having a small baby shower for a coworker. I ended up baking and frosting over 100 cupcakes in two weeks. I just got done baking some lemon ones for no good reason at all, other than to give a couple to some coworkers who missed out on the others.

Redecorating is my motivation for going to that great mysterious world outside of my room and my job. It appears that anti depressants have increased my urge to make my living space pink and flowery. I'm mostly done with my room, but the bathroom I no longer have to share with my smelly brother needs quite a bit of work. I'll have to redo the floor with the faux laminate we have leftover from the kitchen. Then the hideous grandma floral wallpaper shall be painted white and the fixtures spray painted from gaudy gold to a shiny chrome/silver finish. I'll have to replace the faucets and shower head. Oh, and fix the toilet seat. Huzzah!

I like the way I feel about an hour after exercising. That's when I'm not out of breath and ready to keel over. It's a very nice little leftover adrenaline high. And by exercise I mean DDR, which I have neglected these past few weeks. Once I start I don't want to stop, but once I'm done I'm back to being lazy.

I also love anime series. I'm currently still putting up with Naruto and watching Bleach. I just finished Blood+ because I needed something to try and fill the endless void that was Death Note. I love reading, but not as much as Figgy. I had this falling out with our librarians, and I haven't been back. That means I have to buy books, and with around $900 on my credit card from redecorating, even after the $400 my dad gave me I'm dead broke. One of these days, maybe around Halloween, I'm going to go crazy nuts and spend a couple hundred on books and cds.
gomababe
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Post by gomababe »

I love going walking in the woods near my house ^_^, it's nice and peaceful and there are tons of open spaces for you to sit and relax. We also have a Roman fortlet in the area, which is nice to go visit and have a picnic if it's nice. It's even nicer when it's raning for some reason, makes the place lok more...magical I suppose. One of my friends penpals came over for a visit and described our town as Narnia pretty much, that made our day ^_^.

I also whatever'd the high of buying a good book since it takes me forever to decide which ones I want {I'm really only allowed to buy one every 5 months or so, but I do sometimes overspend :oops:}. Reading makes me happy unlike pretty much anything else, it's an escape from the drudgery of everyday modern life and I can always pretend to be someone I'm not. Re-reading old favourites is also a favourite passtime of mines if I'm not glued to my computer screen ^_^;.

One other thing that makes me happy is writing, that feeling that you've accomplished something once you've finished a drabble or even a chapter of a much longer piece. I enjoy writing fanfiction mroe than original works because I simply find it to be a much better workout for my writing skills. Sure, original works mean you have to do research and make sure your characters and story fit, but in fanfiction you have to make sure that everything stays canon and that the characters are actually in character. If you do things wrong, you're likely to upset a lot of fans of the work you're making the fanfiction of. I love it when I get decent concrit that I can work with for that reason ^_^.
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dandelions
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Post by dandelions »

Running down grassy hills, and the smell of rain.
anzuronamin
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Post by anzuronamin »

It's funny, my mom and I have a pull-off-daily calendar in our kitchen (next to our learn-a-new-word-a-day one, also a good way to feel happy) that lists off five things a day that can make you happy, usually ranging from "The sound of rain on the window" to "A new shampoo bottle."

Other things are what people have already said. Getting into a runner's high makes me giddy afterwards, and I always feel excited when writing something or daydreaming, sometimes so much so that I get up and walk around my house. Books make me happy, too, but lately I've been unable to read any that I want, since I have to do summer reading in the next 7 days... but sitting in bed with Artemis Fowl of a new manga always makes me happy.
Ailiel
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Post by Ailiel »

I also like exercise. If by like you mean HATE WITH A FIERY PASSION until it's over. But afterwards I like my runner's high and I even like whining about sore muscles to anyone who will listen. Whether they like it is another story.

Buffy. Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. No matter the question, the answer is always More Buffy. These days I do a little dance for new comics, but also reading Buffy fanfic, checking out Whedonesque to find out what's new with Buffyverse, and of course watching my DVDs. There is nothing that picks up my day like a 40 minute Buffy episode squeezed in somewhere. We've had our ups and downs, but for a good solid year now Buffy has been seeing me through. This fits in with exercise too because there is nothing like an episode of Buffy to convince you that you really can run to that fire hyrdrant, do that last sit up, or stake a vampire.

Neopets. Self explanatory.

Swimming. It is too hot and the pool is too lovely. In that vein, going to the beach, skimboarding, fishing.

Karaoke.

New clothes, nail polish, and nice hair always put me in a great mood. I am girly.

Lastly, TV. Movies have been a total drag lately but an hour or less of TV is the perfect length of time for me to watch something and I am loving TV right now. Not just my Buffy DVDs, but Grey's Anatomy, Project Runway, Heroes, Flight of the Conchords, and Big Love are all shows I've been enjoying, and this year I can't wait to check out True Blood (about vampires by Six Feet Under's Allan Ball) and Moonlight (vampires again) and of course the return of all my favorites.

One thing I do not like is SCHOOL and I have to go there now. But I want to end this by saying I have been unusually peppy and upbeat and just happy lately, so it doesn't take much these days to get me riding high.
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