Happy to succeed

One of the things I love about New Age teaching is that it is so empowering. I create my reality! Here is an extract from an article from the American Psychological Association in which researchers have discovered that rather than success creating happiness, it is in fact the other way around. Conventional wisdom says that when my circumstances are right, then will I be happy. But New Age teaching says that when we declare “I AM HAPPY”, thus are my circumstances so defined.

 Here’s the extract.

“Personal and professional success may lead to happiness but may also engender success. Happy individuals are predisposed to seek out and undertake new goals in life and this reinforces positive emotions, say researchers who examined the connections between desirable characteristics, life successes and well-being of over 275,000 people. From a review of 225 studies in the current issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), lead author Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., of the University of California, Riverside found that chronically happy people are in general more successful across many life domains than less happy people and their happiness is in large part a consequence of their positive emotions rather than vice versa. Happy people are more likely to achieve favorable life circumstances, said Dr. Lyubomirsky, and “this may be because happy people frequently experience positive moods and these positive moods prompt them to be more likely to work actively toward new goals and build new resources. When people feel happy, they tend to feel confident, optimistic, and energetic and others find them likable and sociable. Happy people are thus able to benefit from these perceptions.”