Simple Practices for Overcoming Life’s Challenges and Living Each Day with Joy
Xandria Ooi
Mango Publishing
Coral Gables
Copyright © 2019 Xandria Ooi
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and review.
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Layout Design: Jermaine Lau
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Be Happy, Always: Simple Practices for Overcoming Life’s Challenges and Living Each Day with Joy
Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN: (p) 978-1-64250-039-4 (e) 978-1-64250-040-0
LCCN: 2019944140
BISAC category code: SEL016000—SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Happiness
Printed in the United States of America
To my mother, who is my most treasured gift and absolute blessing in life.
Table of Contents
Understanding Happiness and Unhappiness
Fulfilment in Love and Relationships
Communicating Positively with Difficult People
Letting Go of Anger and Negative Emotions
Living with Joy, Positivity and Gratitude
Contents by Subjects
Acceptance
2. People Can Cause Us Pain, but We Can Choose Not to Suffer
3. We Can Always Choose, but Never Control, Our Happiness
4. Depression Is Not Our Identity
5. It’s Okay to Be Not Okay
29. Love Is Not about Sacrifices, but about Acceptance
31. Creating Positive Change Requires Us to See the Best and Not the Worst in Someone
32. To Help Someone Change, We Must Genuinely Accept Them
39. If You Expect a Dog to Meow, You’re Definitely Going to Be Disappointed!
47. When a Person Triggers You, Thank Them for Teaching You Something about Yourself
53. Letting Go Is Never for the Person Who Wronged Us—It’s For Ourselves
53. Don’t Let Your Pain of the Past Stop You from Fully Living in the Present
56. Take the Thorn from Your Heart and Throw It Away
62. There Are No Good or Bad Emotions, Only Those That Serve or Don’t Serve Us
63. Don’t Use Blame and Guilt to Punish Yourself
66. We Cannot Let Go of What We Pretend Isn’t There
72. When You’re Having a Difficult Time: Remember That Life Doesn’t Happen to Us, It Happens for Us
Awareness
14. Are Your Expectations Helping or Sabotaging You?
15. Don’t Let Resentment Eat Away at Your Relationship
17. Are Your Subconscious Expectations Hurting Your Relationship?
26. “But It’s Only Fair” Is a Concept That Brings a Great Deal of Misery
28. Don’t Outsource Your Happiness to Your Partner
30. Expecting Someone to Have No Expectations Is an Expectation in Itself
33. To Create Positive Change, Change Yourself
35. When the Going Gets Tough, How Do You Respond?
36. Do People Make You Unhappy? Or Is Your Belief Making You Unhappy?
37. When We Unintentionally Judge People, We End Up Unintentionally Unhappy
43. When Solving Problems, Ask, “Is My Reaction Part of the Problem?”
50. Other People’s Bad Behavior Does Not Justify Our Own
63. Hate Spills Over to the People We Love, Especially Our Children
Perspective
1. Life Is Either a Celebration or a Lesson
9. Nobody Can Make Us Happy or Unhappy
11. Your Normal Is Not the Universal Normal (Part 1)
12. Your Normal Is Not the Universal Normal (Part 2)
21. When Someone We Love Gives Us What We Need, It Is a Gift, Not Something to Which We Are Entitled
23. Everyone Has Their Own Journey, and Nobody Is Obligated to Us
40. When Two People Disagree, Who Is Right?
73. When You Want to be Easily Happy: Make Even the