What are "Thought Loop" and "Instantly Happy"?
They are mind tricks that help switch your mind status and make you feel happy.
When you are feeling unhappy, your thoughts are going in circles. I call it the "Thought Loop."
I thought about giving an example of the Thought Loop. But I found the task of coming up a negative thought loop quite depressing, so I'll skip it.
Recognizing the thought loop is the first step to getting out of the loop, just like a hiker lost on a trail and going in circles.
Once you find out you are in a loop, you can attempt to break the loop, so the resulting unhappy feeling can be resolved.
The "Instantly Happy" is another technique that helps to make you feel happy regardless of your situation.
We are conditioned to think we are happy when we meet certain requirements. Like getting a raise and more money, buying something, winning a contest, getting married, etc.
Sure, we do feel happy for these big events. They are external rewards and affirmations, and can trigger a sense of happiness for most. So we tend to chase the rewards to feel happy.
However, seeking happiness with external rewards and affirmations is tricky. You would feel like you have to get the reward to feel happy. It is like a conditional reflex, and you are Pavlov's dog. For the approach to work, you have to get external rewards to feel happy. But to get external reward, too much depends on something you cannot control.
Believe it or not, "Happiness" is actually just a state of your mind or an emotion. And, amazingly, you can be happy without external rewards. You can be happy if you know how to find the state. Many people use gratitude to find happiness without an external trigger. Gratitude certainly is a path, although you can use your own path to find your happiness. Some people just smile or laugh. Laughter can be a trigger to be happy without an external reward, too.
Like athletic skills, a trained mind functions with more skills and gracefulness. "Instantly Happy" is a mind skill some monks and priests have practiced, yet not many people know or use it.
Be happy. Being happy is a choice and mind skills can help you be happy.
Happy people have a much more pleasant atmosphere than unhappy people. I'd rather hang out with happy people. The more happy people, the merrier the world.
