Sunday, January 16, 2011

Psychology: Learning to appreciate each day is healthy

Psychology: Learning to appreciate each day is healthy

Psychology: Learning to appreciate each day is healthy

Posted: 16 Jan 2011 05:28 AM PST

The beginning of a new year is often a good time to examine the way you are looking at the past, present and future.   

Are you dwelling too much on the past and

   spending a large part of your time thinking about how you could have been happy if only life had treated you differently?     

Or are you spending most of your time thinking about how you will be happy if or when something happens in the future? Learning from the past, planning for the future but enjoying the present are pillars of good mental health.

   

Are you the type of person who thinks to himself, "My life would have been much happier if I could have been more popular in high school; if my parents had been wealthy, I would have had a lot better chance in life; my first husband should have come from a better family for us to be happy"?

   

People who judge present and future happiness on

   what has occurred in their past are choosing to believe that life's die was cast for them by what has already happened.  

  This often leads them to think that because of these situations, happiness is impossible.   

Are you the type of person who thinks that happiness is just over the next hill?

   

For example: "I am going to be happy when the economy improves" or "I will be happy when my kids are out of school and on their own."

Other patterns of self-talk might include thoughts such as "If I ever meet the right person, then I will be happy" or "My future happiness is going to depend on how my employer evaluates me after I have been with the company for several years."

  

  If you are a prisoner of the past, or are always living for the future, you are missing the very essence of life - the here and now.    Appreciate your life each day so that you are not living only before the sun rises or after it sets.   

Hap LeCrone, a Cox News Service columnist, is a clinical psychologist. Write him at 4555 Lake Shore Dr., Waco, TX 76710; or send e-mail.  hlecrone@aol.com

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