The front page of the paper read “Finding Happiness”

Intrigued I found myself quickly immersed in the content of the article. I think its important first to define what happiness is before you can find it. The online dictionary defines it as the state of being happy., good fortune, pleasure contentment and joy. Hmm that not much help. It further states “Happiness results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good”. Ok that s getting a bit better. However what if I considered attaining 5,000,000 dollars a good thing, and never got it. Would I be chasing happiness s tale for the rest of my life? In my profession I see many unhappy unfulfilled depressed people. I also see many content, satisfied giving individuals who are seeing me because of an external pain. An excerpt from the newspaper article mentioned, “Brene Brown from the University of Houston has concluded that to be happy, people must embrace their own vulnerability, admit to their weaknesses and mistakes and learn to listen to others. People who are willing to let go of who they should be to be who they were.

My observations with my family and patients, is that happiness is never measured by external things. It s proven that more money won t buy your happiness. Well it does but to a point. Elizabeth Dunns a psychologist at Ubc found that Canadians got happier as their incomes rose…but only to about 75,000 .Beyond that extra money did not add up to extra happiness.
In Chinese Medicine being “unhappy” often leads to people being “unwell”

The powerful persuasion of the needles within ones body is sometimes the anecdote which assists our emotions to stabilize then to re discover joy and happiness.
I bring up happiness at this time as when we look at an opposite emotion anger could be considered. In fact there really are only two emotions love and fear, but that’s another blog. Anger is the true emotion of the liver meridian, the meridian which is represented by the season of spring, the season which only just began. Makes me consider that perhaps being happy in spring tending to the needs of my liver may assist slightly.

In fact it can help tremendously. Some suggestions are to incorporate a cleanse at this time of year. Your body is primed to release the winters overabundance and recharge with the energies of spring. Start by eating according to the season. Raw and sprouted foods, fruits such as lemons limes oranges strawberries tangerines. Sprouted alfalfa, clover sunflowers. Vegetables such as asparagus beets beet greens dandelion spinach. For those of you who are seriously considering a diet overhaul I highly recommend a spring detox. My Facebook site “Greenetea Traditional Chinese Medicine has a link for Dr Mikes 12 week Health Challenge. I highly recommend this incredible transformational journey to health and happiness.
Seems to me looking within, practicing gratitude, and good health habits is one way to succeed onto the path of happiness….
Oh and acupuncture..always acupuncture.