The Happy Times Newspaper
www.happyherald.com

Happiness Club Empowers Members
by Bob Nozik, MD

Your work is fulfilling, you're out of debt and you've got a great boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse along with a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood. What's more, you lucked out by enjoying good relations with your warm, supportive parents and family. You've got everything; everything, that is, except happiness.

At thirty years old, Lionel Ketchian was confused about life and himself. He felt helpless, hopeless and was filled with fear and uncertainty, wondering if their was any way out of the pain and suffering I was experiencing. He felt that life had no meaning for him…he was unhappy! Lionel was experiencing what some have named, the dark night of the soul. His dark night took years before the dawn was to rise. His adversity, according to Lionel, "was not being able to understand life, my role in it, other people, God and most of all myself."

Lionel said he needed answers to life; he wanted peace. He read everything he could about religions, positive thinking, philosophy, psychology, oriental wisdom, quantum physics, self-help and spirituality.
After reading about 1,500 books, he started to find the answers he was looking for. At forty-five years of age he realized that I could choose to be happy all the time. Fifteen years later at sixty, he has learned to stay happy, no matter what happens.

Starting in 1999, Lionel taught a four-week course on happiness at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. At the end of the first course, the students desired to continue to learn and exercise the happiness they had learned about and the first Happiness Club was started in January 2000. Monthly meetings have been held since then and Happiness Clubs have expanded across the country. A website has been created that connects people around the world. Over 100 happiness TV shows can be viewed on-line and free e-newsletters are sent to subscribers to conquer unhappiness and practice being happy!

Lionel says, "The changes I have experienced in my life have taught me happiness, which in turn have enabled me to teach others. I wanted happiness for myself because I finally realized the importance of it.
I did not know that by becoming a happy person I would assist other people in finding happiness as well. Life is a happy person is incredible! It is filled with many dear friends and family and sharing happiness with them creates meaning and purpose in life.

By being happy, I have learned to enjoy life.  When life is troublesome, I exercise acceptance. I have learned that being non-judgmental, forgiving, present, aware, peaceful and diminishing my ego has made me more powerful than the devices of reaction and anger could ever do.

The best thing about being happy is the happiness that comes from sharing other people's happiness experiences. It's possible that no one has ever given you permission to be happy. You deserve to be happy and so I am giving it to you because life is short and happiness is the most important thing there is. Happiness is not just for you or me; it is everyone's right. You owe it to everyone including you!"

No worries when you make the Happiness Decision, according to Lionel Ketchian, founder of the Happiness Club.

Bob Nozik, MD, exchanges ideas with other Happiness Club members helping bring laughter and smiles to all.

Programs at Happiness Club meetings cove all the topics about happiness you can think of, including the practical ones you can use for making yourself happier. The programs vary from lecture, to discussion, to experiential activities. But no matter what the format, meetings are uniformly upbeat and you can count on leaving them happier than you were before you arrived. All, from the already deeply happy to the downright unhappy, are welcome at Happiness Clubs. But those who come are united in their desire to learn more about happiness and in their wish to become happier.

Join the doctors, professionals and regular people like you, who are holding meeting around the country to understand happiness and personally benefit from it.

One California Happiness Club holds meetings in San Francisco, CA. and was started by Aymee Coget, M.A., who is an Organizational Psychology Ph.D. student at Alliant International University in San Francisco, CA. Aymee began running the California Happiness Club and now works along with Bob Nozik, M.D. Aymee's e-mail: positiveleadership@yahoo.com.

Dr. Bob Nozik has starting another Happiness Club right in his little hometown of Lafayette, CA. at the Lafayette Senior Center. Bob is excited about it because it is a spun off from his course series on happiness called: Happiness: If Not Now, When? Bob is the author of Happy 4 Life: Here’s How to Do It. Bob's e-mail: PollyannaN@aol.com.

Dr. Richard Ellis, a retired physician, leads talks called the “Secrets of Happiness.” at the Westport, CT Center for Senior Activities. Richard has been collecting quotes for over 25 years as he followed the observation of Disraeli who said, “the wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations." Dr. Ellis also comes to monthly Happiness Club meetings in Fairfield, CT and leads in the participation. Richard's e-mail: reofnv@aol.com

Kathy J. Ward our Ambassador of Happiness for Elders in Chevy Chase, MD and is the Co Founder of WEL, World Elder Land. Kathy is the author of Journal for A Better Life. Kathy's e-mail: Connection@KathyJWard.com.

Jane Bradley is our Canadian Ambassador of Happiness. Jane ran the Canadian Happiness Club and now she conducts workshops and deals with the caregiver professions. Jane's e-mail: happinessclubniagara@yahoo.ca.

We are starting a Smiling Single, 55 Plus Happiness Club to bring people in communities together. We will be starting a Happiness Club for people who are mentally challenged at an out patient mental health clinic.

Start your own Happiness Club! I know that you love the opportunity to make a real difference. Now you have an opportunity to invest in yourself and your friends. Do more than spread a smile on your face, spread happiness across the world. For more information about starting a Happiness Club please visit www.happinessclub.com