How to be Totally Miserable: Avoid Adventure

      While being miserable sounds like an easy way out, being miserable requires not doing anything. Nothing at all. While this may seem like an easy escape, miserable people aren't doing anything new, nothing different, nothing fun (Bytheway 65).  

     Although happiness may take a bit more work on your part, You will get much more out of life and will be able to experience the fullness of life. John Bytheway says this, "Happy people love to try try new things. And when they encounter a problem, they think of it as just another adventure" (65). 

     I love to go on adventures. Weather it be a walk on a new trail, or going on a road trip to somewhere I've never been before. Life is just to short to not experience all of the adventures you can. This summer, along with a small group of other Mormon girls, I went on a three day hike. We had to hike up, set up camp, learn how to make astronaut  food (yes, from a bag) and all of the other essentials of camping in the middle of nowhere Washington. Along with all of those things, we had a bathroom in the middle of the forest behind a giant fallen tree appropriately named, "Peter the potty." 
     
      The hike was something that I was nervous for. But, because I was able to do it, the girls I went with are now some of my best friends in the world. Whenever I seen them, the joy of that hike comes back and it like we are still in the bug infested woods. Adventure is necessary and a life without it is dull and boring. Happiness comes as you learn to live in the moment and choose to make the most of your situation. While happy people will dance in the rain, miserable people, "don't see an opportunity for adventure, they just think they're being picked on" (Bytheway 65). 
 
Being miserable is, just plain miserable. Don't be afraid to have fun

                                                       
"What would you attempt to do, if you knew you could not fail?" 

            -Robert Schuller 

   
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing"
            - Helen Keller 
                       



  ((What is one of your favorite adventures that you've gone on?))

Bytheway, John. How to Be Totally Miserable: a Self-Hinder Book. Shadow Mountain, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2007

How to be Totally Miserable: Avoid Good Company

"Instead of waiting for someone to take you under their wing, you go out there and find a good wing to climb under" 
          - Dave Thomas 

      
While being miserable may seem like the easiest route, making friends is inevitable. For me, whenever I feel like I am alone or even if i am just in need of a good laugh, my friends are always there. "A friend is someone who makes it easier for you to reach your fullest potential" (Bytheway 43).  No matter what anyone says, a good friend will always make you a better person. Even bad friends have an effect on you, teaching you not to choose people like that again. All around, friends are a blessing in your life. 

     John Bytheway puts it simply when he says, " Happy people build, lift, encourage, and motivate, and being and their company always makes you want to be better too. People who are trying to be miserable try to find friends who weigh them down with gloom and doubt" (43). Get rid of the friends in your life that make you feel bad about yourself and make you miserable. 
     
      By cutting out all negative people in your life, you can be able to find pure happiness in our life. through these small and simple acts you can find pure joy in your life. 

"Daily, constantly, we choose by our desires, our thoughts, and our actions whether we want to be blessed or cursed, happy or miserable."  ((And the same goes for picking friends)) 
          -Ezra Taft Benson 


                                                                                   
           


                      ((How has this information helped you re-think your friends?))

Bytheway, John. How to Be Totally Miserable: a Self-Hinder Book. Shadow Mountain, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2007

How to Be Totally Miserable: Don't Take Any Action

In order to be truly miserable, one must commit to absolutely nothing. Free your schedule and prefer to remain miserable and emotionally unstable. You may think that this is an easy task, however, this also means cutting off all the things you love about life, your favorite things to do, places to go and people to see. Now you get it? Being miserable is pretty... miserable. 
   

     "Those who feel miserable inside often stay inside; those who want to get misery out of themselves get themselves out of the house and find something to do" (Bytheway 21). 

      Unfortunately for us, living in Washington  makes it hard for us to, "get the sun in [your] hair and wind in [your] face" (Bytheway 21).  Instead of waiting for the rain to slowly make its way out, we can celebrate it. Instead of singing, "Rain, rain, go away, come again another day" we can ponder the beauty in our earth being clean again. 

     One of my favorite things to do is read, it calms my nerves and helps me to concentrate on the good in my life. Even in the miserable times throughout my life I can always pick up "Pride and Prejudice" and giggle at Darcy's awkward-ness. I can always be able to have a Harry Potter marathon with my dogs and by the end I always having an overwhelming love for Professor Snape by the end. But, of course, I also enjoy being in the summer sun, without the stress of school hanging over my shoulders. Small things like listening to a new record or getting new music to listen to or even just  waking my dogs up in the morning give me the most joy. Although these may be seemingly useless things in the real world, it is important to take time off weather it be an hour or three weeks just to yourself to become mentally stable once again.  John Bytheway adds, " Sometimes even moving the lawn is great therapy for getting depression off your turf'" (21). 

     "This one makes a net; This one stands and wishes. Would you like to bet. Which one gets the fishes?"
             -Chinese Rhyme 

"Be not afraid of growing slowly, be only afraid of standing still." 
             - Chinese proverb
               
                   ((What are your favorite things to do to help your mind take a break?))

Bytheway, John. How to Be Totally Miserable: a Self-Hinder Book. Shadow Mountain, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2007

How To be Totally Miserable: A Self-Hinder Book

         
             John Bytheway puts it simply when he says this, "We all have problems, but we also have choices. We can choose to be happy, or we can choose to be miserable." (1). I believe free agency is the most amazing gift that we have here on earth. We can choose to do anything we want, any good or bad and accept the consequences of those actions. Life is one large choice. And it always has been. 

         For the next quarter, I'm going to be learning "great lessons to be learned about feeling rotten..." (Bytheway 1). However, on the way, I might just find myself going in the other direction. 
  
         I like to think of myself as a primarily happy person, I enjoy the little things in life and I try to stay this way through everything. The key word in that is *try*. However, I am going to again *try* to make my most-of-the-time (sometimes) happiness an: all of the time happiness in the purest form. 

        John Bytheway gives some interesting advise when he says, "In order to be miserable, you're going to have to spend a lot of time thinking about your problems...The happiest people think their thoughts according to a plan, and in order to be miserable, you've got to have a plan too-plan to ignore all of your wonderful opportunities and ponder only your problems." (7) Recently, I was given the opportunity to go to my absolute favorite place on planet earth: Disneyland. (What's your favorite place to go?) I think for everyone, we have different things in our lives stressing us out and we all need some time to just forget about all of those things weighing down your shoulders. And, for everyone, there is a different place that we all have weather it be a specific spot in our own house or a place in the middle of Ireland. Where ever that place may be, try to make time for yourself and go there every once in a while just to take a deep breathe and get away from the stress of the world around you. 

       Anyway, I went to Disneyland about a week ago and it was exactly what I needed to follow Bytheway's request. Finding pure happiness is in no way easy, and I am definitely still at the beginning of the race. 
         
                     "Whenever he thought about it, he felt terrible. And so, at last, he came to a fateful decision. He decided not to think about it" 
                                     - John-Roger and Peter McWilliams 
                            (( What do you do to make you the most happy?))
-Julyn Robinson