Inspired by his personal mission to help others, Sandy has established an impeccable track record and his reputation is widely recognised by professors, psychiatrists, psychologists, general practitioners and counsellors who have referred people to him and his seminars.
An extraordinary man whose aim is to empower others.
Well Sandy has done it again. At the end of a decade of tireless work in the public arena he has produced his fifth book – “Creating Happiness Intentionally” – CHI. He has chosen to pass on the methods, exercises, techniques and tools from his CHI Seminar, without barrier and without reserve.
The reader will find the book a generous work of human sharing. It deals with:–
An approach to finding life’s purpose
A method to identify those things which propel you to your life’s purpose
Ways to resolve the tension between your life’s purpose and everyday life
Techniques to keep you on track
Stress management
Creating harmony and happiness in your life.
Do you want the most out of your life? The information in Sandy’s book will empower you to do just that.
It’s a must read and do for all – from students, business people to pensioners – it’s never too early or too late to demonstrate your own power by enhancing happiness in your life.
Remember – be ready at any moment to give up what you are for who you can become.
Take care,
Ken B Marslew
Introduction
Happiness is important to all of us. It is trite to say that we only get one shot at it. The fact is, no matter what our outward circumstances, we have to decide to be happy and achieve happiness all in the short space of our lifetime.
Imagine the frustration you would feel as an elderly person reviewing the course of your life and concluding you had spent most of it in wasted effort. I have been told by a palliative care worker that the people who have the hardest time coming to terms with death are those who have regrets, those who have not fulfilled their purpose. It is a fundamental question you need to address in life – we all have only one shot at it.
Here are the anonymous thoughts of a 90 year old woman who was obviously going through a process of reviewing her life.
“I’d Pick More Daisies”
If I had my life over, I’d pick more daisies. I’d try to make more mistakes next time. I would be sillier than I had been this trip. I would relax. I would limber up. I know very few things I would take seriously. I would take more trips, travel lighter …… I would be crazier. I would be less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice-cream and less beans!
I would have more ACTUAL troubles and fewer IMAGINARY ones.
You see, I’m one of those people who live practically and sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day …
Oh! I’ve had my mad moments and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them … in fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after the other, instead of living so many minutes ahead. I’ve been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat and road maps.
If I had my life over, I would start barefooted early in Spring and stay that way until late Autumn. I’d play truant more. I’d do more water and sun-fun things. I’d turn more somersaults and roll in the grass and go barefoot all over.
If I had my life to live over, I’d spend more time at fun places. I’d try to be more in touch with God and those I love. I’d pray aloud more and not care what people think or expect of me. I’d give more of me and take more of you. I’d just be ME more and more … Yes, I’d pick more daisies next time.
Happiness: Boots and All
On the 8th of January 1966, Dennis Ayoub had plenty of reasons to be unhappy.
Elsewhere in the world good things were happening to young men of his age – the freedom revolution of the 1960’s was well under way. Living standards were improving and young men were relaxing down at Bondi Beach or buying their first cars.
But on this day Dennis happened to have the dubious pleasure of finding himself right in the middle of the Vietnam War. On this day, for the second time, he found himself in the confined dank spaces of an enemy tunnel beneath the Ho Bo Woods in the infamous Iron Triangle, a Viet Cong stronghold. Not long after his first descent into this tunnel system Dennis had witnessed the danger of underground work. His section commander had become asphyxiated in the narrow confines of the tunnel and fainted. The deadweight body had been pushed, shoved and pulled from the tunnels. Contact with the enemy tunnel rats was possible at every moment. Above ground several Australian soldiers and some American servicemen had already died in the operation.
And yet, despite these outward circumstances, I can report from close observation, nothing ever stood in the way of Dennis Ayoub being a happy man. I can say this because I was his Troop Officer and he was my radio operator.
I’ll take up part of the story in Dennis’ own words:
After rescuing the Section Commander, Tex Cotter and I went back down the tunnel to continue the search. We found a small gallery in which there were two blue coloured US mail bags stacked against the wall. These may have contained enemy documents and we needed to recover them. However it would be too dangerous to pick them up straight away because they could be booby trapped.
I signalled to Tex to crawl back to a turn in the tunnel where we could talk. The way we communicated was for me to press my hands hard against his ears in a cone and whisper directly into his ears. I said we would go back to the mail bags, place a pulling rope, withdraw to the corner and pull.
We crawled back to the bags. We had only been away for less than a minute-and-a-half, but when we got back the bags were gone! The enemy were down there with us in the darkness and very close by! It was terrifying.
After his experience in Vietnam Dennis returned to Australia and continued serving in the army. During this period there were also factors which could have allowed him to be unhappy. Australia’s part in the Vietnam war was becoming more and more unpopular and returning servicemen did not receive the heroes’ welcome afforded to earlier generations of soldiers in other wars. In the background there was also the lingering problem faced by many Vietnam Veterans – that of post traumatic stress.
But Dennis applied himself wholeheartedly to his army life. He performed well, attended courses and gained qualifications. He achieved promotion from the ranks of Sapper (an engineer Private) all the way through to the rank of Major.
During this time he encountered another trial – that of heart disease. Prior to going to Vietnam he had not been a smoker, but when in Vietnam he started smoking the unfiltered cigarettes which were included in the American ration packs – our battalion group was attached to the American 173rd Airborne Brigade. He continued smoking heavily after the war. In 1973, at the age of 27, he experienced his first heart attack on the rugby field in Papua New Guinea. Not knowing what the pain was he left the field for 20 minutes and returned to finish the game after the pain went away! The fact that it was a heart attack was not diagnosed until 1987 when Dennis had his next heart attack and the doctor asked him to recall if he had ever experienced similar pain before.
Heart bypass surgery followed in 1987 and Dennis made a sufficient recovery to enable his return to work. Despite his return to