Happiness Articles
Simple Tips to Increase Your Happiness

The Prayer for Peace
If you want to be happy, heed the serenity prayer. As far as he can recall, Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the prayer for use in one of his sermons in the early 1900s. If you're not familiar with the work, here it is:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

It's that first one that gets most people. Every day it seems I hear someone complain about something he or she can't control. And it's not your by-the-way complaining; it changes mood.

Sometimes it's crawling traffic. Other times it's noisy construction workers who start too early or go too late--or who don't work at all.

Whatever the case may be, happiness is edged out for people who can't accept the things they cannot change.

People are only human; I understand. It's only natural to tighten your grip on the steering wheel when the driver in front of you is slaloming down the middle of the road with the parking break on. But this is one time when logic has to win the war.

The next time something bugs you, ask yourself whether or not it can easily be controlled. Can you do anything about it? If not, and believe me it's going to take some strength to even ask the question, let it go.

Force yourself out of the grip of a snap reaction. Tell yourself that getting mad won't improve a thing but it will swipe away another moment of your life that could have been more peaceful or happy.