The Happiness Advantage :)

I was shown this Ted talk in one of my classes and I was super impressed. I wanted to share it because I think this world could use a lot more positivity. I love when he talked about how our surroundings don’t predict our happiness. I think it is so easy to look at others peoples lives and compare them to our own. Especially compared to the media where everything is relished and exaggerated. It seems like everyone else's situation might be better than our own. It is good to be reminded that situations and material things don’t necessarily predict happiness. Happiness comes from within. Happiness comes from looking outward and serving others. I know that I am definitely going to focus on being positive and happy in the moment. I am not going to wait to be happy when…. I am going to be happy today! Its my choice! Just watch. He does a lot better job at explaining it than I do. J

I don’t think it is a coincidence that The Plan of Salvation is also referred to as The Plan of Happiness. Knowing that we have a loving Heavenly Father helps me to know that everything will be ok in the end. It helps me to keep a positive attitude and move forward with faith. This TED talk reminded me of President Gordon B. Hinckley. I feel like he was always so positive and so happy. He has so many great “happiness” quotes and I would like to share some of my favorite. He just has SO MANY that it was hard to narrow it down! 

“Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others...By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.”

“You can be smart and happy or stupid and miserable. . . it's your choice.”

“Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine.”

“Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great purpose in heart.”

“It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.”

“Be believing, be happy, don't get discouraged. Things will work out.”

This last quote is my favorite. It is so simple yet so powerful. Lets all try to be positive and happy! Don’t stress. Don’t worry. BE HAPPY J

Enduring Love

“Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered. Pure love is an incomparable, potent power for good, and the foundation of a successful marriage.”

–Richard G. Scott

—“I give counsel to husbands and wives. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion." 
- Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, Nov. 2009, p. 71

Sometimes videos are so powerful that they don’t even require any words. Every single time I watch this I am brought to tears. Marriage is an ideal setting for unselfish love. It helps us to come closer to Christ. Love is not about you, it is about the person you love. The more we serve others then the more we will be capable of loving them. I hope that someday I can have a marriage that is selfless like the one in this video! 

Below is a link to a blog post that circulated around Facebook a couple months ago. It goes right along with this video. I really liked the post and I wanted to share it! It is entitled, “Marriage Isn’t For You”.

http://sethadamsmith.com/2013/11/02/marriage-isnt-for-you/

St. Geezy

I was fortunate enough to go to St. George this weekend with a group of my friends. We had such a blast! It was so refreshing to get out of Provo and to enjoy some sunshine. The weather was perfect and I seriously have the BEST friends! 

This is one of the few group photos we got all weekend. We were in church and some of us forgot our church clothes haha. Of course I would be the one to ruin the photo haha. 

We are missing Barton and Chris in this photo but this was taken right after we beat a family in volleyball at the park. They were watching us play for a long time, almost evaluating us. They kept sending up one of the teenage boys to put money in the net. We were all so confused and then we realized that they were betting us money! They put $210 in the net! It was tempting to bet them the money but we decided to play them just for fun instead. Maybe we should have bet them because we ended up winning ;) haha 

25 on Main for lunch salads with ma main gurls Erin and Kennedy!

We went rock climbing on Valentines day. I felt so adventurous and it was so much fun! We ended up running into another group of kids from BYU and making friends. Kennedy and I were surrounded by about 12 awesome men! I would say my Valentines day turned out to be successful! 

I am so grateful to have such a fun group of friends! We had no drama and the trip was a great combination of sunshine, fun, adventure, relaxing, crazy, and everything in between. One night we were all sitting around playing card games, talking about how much fun we were having, and the topic of cell phones and media came up. We all agreed that one of the reasons why we had so much fun was because all of us kind of put our phones, computers, and social media away for the weekend. We were really able to savor the moment and enjoy each other. I think we all need to be careful not to let media take over our lives. It is so easy to be too concerned about posting on your Snapchat story instead of living in the moment, worrying too much about taking pictures, keeping up on your Instagram, and so forth. We all need to evaluate ourselves and our use of media. Remember to enjoy the moment and to appreciate the people that are around you! 

5 Great Songs To Cry Alone To

With Valentines day right around the corner, I thought that this was just great. This is so funny which makes it great. This is somewhat true which makes it even greater. This article was written by my good friend, Hali. (link below) She is just great. Valentines day is just GREAT! Great, great, great…. More like happy Singles Awareness Day to me haha J xoxoxo

http://thoughtcatalog.com/hali-carter/2015/02/5-great-songs-to-cry-alone-to/ 

50 Shades of Grey

Just kidding! This is not another post arguing about the release of the 50 Shades of Grey movie this weekend, but this IS a post about books and the hidden mysteries that are inside. In class earlier this week we talked about books and their content. It is funny how we hold books to a higher standard than other media. It is not ok to ever say anything bad about books because books are almost “untouchable”. Well I disagree with that. After looking at some of the popular teenage books, I was blown away by their content. There were lots of graphic sexual scenes and 100’s of F words in some of these books aimed towards TEENAGERS. If these books were movies they would definitely be rated R. The scary thing is that these books are all very readily available to children at a young age. Why are we allowing children and teens to read this kind of content but it is not acceptable for them to watch it in a movie? Why have ratings on video games, movies, and other types of media but not books?

This is an argument that makes lots of people really mad. I thought this topic was ironic because of the release of the 50 Shades Of Grey movie this weekend. I have seen countless numbers of posts on social media about this book that has turned into a movie. What if this book had a rating in the first place? What if people knew what they were getting into before they read the book? Would parents allow their teenagers to read this book if they really knew the content beforehand? I really do think that ratings on books could make a big difference. Hopefully people can realize that ratings on books would not be to discourage people from reading books, but it would be to monitor the content that they are exposed to. I think this is an important thing to consider. What do you think about ratings on books? Do you think this would discourage people from reading or encourage people to read even more?

The 16 most interesting college lists featuring BYU | Deseret News

I have had multiple friends send me links to different articles with my picture on it from the BYU vs. Virginia football game on September 20th. Deseret News came out with an article this week (link below) and my picture is in this article too! There was a group of us that slept out in line in front of the stadium to try and get good seats for this game. We definitely got great seats! Front row of the student section! We made this "Give 'Em Hill" sign and we thought we were so clever. I guess it got everyones attention because had a worker from ESPN come up to us during the game and tell us to smile at the camera during the break before 4th quarter. We made it onto ESPN! That was months ago, but it hasn't stopped there. We have been in KSL articles, ESPN, and now our picture made this Deseret News article. Who knew that this one silly sign would keep popping back up in the media?

The 16 most interesting college lists featuring BYU | Deseret News (Go to picture #7)