Category: Happiness

So – How do you choose happiness (or at least a sense of calm) when chaos is raining down around you? One of my coaching clients posed this very question to me last week. Here’s my short answer:

Practice happiness daily.

Olympic athletes don’t show up on game day to give a peak performance without practicing a few (hundred) times.  To strengthen your faith, you need to practice building faith daily.  To strengthen your ability to choose happiness and increase your overall sense of calm, you need to practice choosing happiness daily.  And you can’t wait until your transmission leaves you stranded with a huge car repair bill and then hope you’ll remember to choose happiness in that moment if you haven’t been choosing it daily.

Practice happiness daily! Choose it every chance you get, and you get myriad chances sprinkled into your days.

What constitutes a happiness practice? 

There are LOTS of options, and it’s different for everyone, so you get to put together the pieces that resonate with you!  You get to choose what to call your daily practice (happiness practice, spiritual practice, faith-building practice), and select the tools that fire you up and make you feel energized and ready to seize your day!

A great place to start is to unfollow anyone and anything on social media that is not adding to your joy and start following people and businesses that do uplift your soul. You can find uplifting vibes at Practice Happiness Daily, along with about a million other choices to lift your vibe and inspire your day. When you focus on what you want, the Universe brings you more of what you want.

One of the ways I practice happiness is reading something uplifting every morning.  My current inspiration is coming from Jen Sincero’s You are a BADASS Every Day.  Jen describes what I am talking about in a much badassier way than I can, so let me quote:

“Strengthening these muscles of badassery is where something I like to call the spiritual gym comes in.  As we travel the winding road to greatness, we’ve got to have some sort of workout routine to keep our motivation strong, our belief in the near impossible unwavering, and our focus firm – because muscles don’t stay strong all by themselves.”  She continues, “Get specific about which practices make you feel like you could bench press a gorilla and make them a nonnegotiable part of every single solitary day with no exceptions.”

I couldn’t agree more! 

Your practice. Your choice.

Despite what religions would have us believe, there is no one right way to connect to Source energy. You get to choose. My morning practice has evolved over time and currently looks like this: five minutes centering, read something uplifting for ten minutes, write a gratitude letter, read it out loud, visualization practice for ten minutes max, core strength & stretching for ten minutes.  Then I like to write in my journal to process whatever I am growing through at the moment. It’s the first hour of my day and sets the tone for my energized and thriving life!

I sprinkle affirmations liberally throughout my day and do something active at least five days a week. One of my friends listens to inspirational podcasts while she runs on the beach in the morning, and another keeps a running gratitude journal throughout the day on an app in her phone. Lots of my friends practice yoga and meditation.

Creating your personalized workout for your ‘spiritual gym,’ consists of playing with any combination of options from the menu below, or myriad others that makes your feel like you could hike the Himalayas.  Or you know, remain calm, centered, and effective while everyone else runs around with their hair on fire.  You could even survive meeting your boyfriend’s parents, or calmly recite all the reasons you deserve a raise to your boss.  Who knows what you’ll achieve if you tap into the infinite power of Source!  Probably whatever you put your mind to.

Feel Free to add other menu items in the comments! 
I would LOVE to hear what energizes your day!

Spiritual Gym Menu – 

• reading uplifting books
• subscribe to uplifting blogs like this one
• centering/meditation ~ Link to my 7-minute recorded meditation
• write gratitude lists & read them out loud
• visualization
• affirmations – Click this link for affirmations on my photographs
• setting intentions  
• journaling
• podcasts or YouTube videos of uplifting speakers
• breathing in the light, breathing out anything that does not serve you
• exercise
• stretching
• yoga practice

Here are some great ones Sincero’s book added to my list:

• Making gratitude lists that leave you sobbingly aware of what a miracle your life is.
• Listening to music that makes you feel like an invincible pillar of joy
• Ensmartening yourself
• Making a vision board & staring at it all the time
• Reading biographies of people who inspire the crap out of you

Some books & speakers that inspire the crap out of me:

Books:

• Feng Shui Your Mind by Jill Lebeau
• uncovering the life of your dreams by Bruce Schneider
• You are a BADASS Every Day by Jen Sincero 
  • (apparently she has a whole series of BADASS books!)
• The Path to Wealth by May McCarthy
• Anything written by Tosha Silver or Florence Shovel Shinn 
• Thirst for Wholeness by Christina Grof
• Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd
• Ask and It is Given by Jerry & Esther Hicks

Speakers:

• Ted Talks
• Esther Hicks
• Wayne Dyer
• Jill Lebeau
• Brené Brown
• Gabby Bernstein 
• Nadia Bolz-Weber

Add your faves in the comments to expand my Universe!

It doesn’t matter what you choose to practice, so long as it uplifts your spirit, plugs your Soul into Source, and inspires you to step into a more powerful version of you!

“Make them a nonnegotiable part of every single solitary day with no exceptions,” so that when those less than optimal moments arrive, you’ll be amazed at how little they affect your vibration, and how easy it is to respond from a place of confidence and clarity.  You get to choose how to show up. 

One option is NOT to practice happiness, and show up like a cork tossed on the raging seas of chaos.  My choice is to practice happiness daily and show up awesome!

Awesome feels better in my opinion, but you get to choose for yourself!

Create an awesome day for yourself and those around you!

Don’t believe me?  Then you will forever be at the mercy of the whims of the world and whatever they throw at you to set your mood for you.

I believe that happiness is a choice, and I choose happiness every day.  Some days it’s easier to make that choice, no doubt!  Last week when Bekkie and I went to the beach?  Happiness galore!!  Sunshine, crashing surf, sea breezes, healthy food, reliable transportation, and GREAT company all added up to FUN and joy that seeped into my bones, charged my batteries and left me raring to go!

Easy choice.  Happy!

Tuesday I also chose happiness – not as easy, but even more necessary.  I awoke early as usual, felt great, had coffee, and then stood by helplessly as my back went out and crushed my paycheck for the day (for the week, it turns out, maybe more…).  At 7am I called the chiropractor.  She called me back and got me in at 8am.  I managed to get myself across town, though my car was making a very interesting noise that made me think it might join my back in letting go of it’s worldly responsibilities.

My chiropractor did the best she could with an activator and duct tape, and I felt better, but left knowing that I would not be able to give a massage for at least a few days.  On the way home, Lilu, my Chevy Impala, started doing this other interesting thing; after stopping at stop signs it no longer wanted to move forward.  I broke into a cold sweat and my stomach knotted itself into a scarf.

(This is the part where I choose fear, but don’t worry!  Happiness prevails, keep reading!)

My mechanic is closer than my house, so I gently and slowly inched across town, trying not to stop completely because it seemed to be having trouble getting into 1st gear.  When I got to the shop I pulled around with the intention of backing into an empty spot, only to find when I put it in reverse NOTHING happened.  I put her in drive and she didn’t like it.  She hesitated and balked, but finally inched forward off the street, though not parked legally.  I was visibly shaking.

He didn’t have to tell me the transmission was shot.  I can’t even change my own oil and I knew that much.  I sat in the waiting room and took some long deep breaths.

Shifting your breathing is a superpower!  Did you know that?  My joy guru, Jill Lebeau taught me that, and it’s a lesson for which I am tremendously grateful.  So I just breathed while my car guy told me the transmission was shot and a new one costs about twice what I currently have in my piggy bank.  They were giving me a ride home when I started my gratitude list.

• The mechanic’s car has seat heaters that felt amazing on my throbbing back.
• The sun was shining and it was going to be a gorgeous day.
• Lilu didn’t die in Bodega Bay last Thursday and leave Bekkie and I stranded and unable to get Bekkie to work on time.  
• Lilu died right in front of the only place it was actually convenient and I didn’t have to pay to tow her there.  
• It happened on the same day that I got my IRS refund.  I had planned to pay bills with my refund, but I did HAVE the money on that day. 
• He can repair the car and get it back to me by the weekend, Monday at the latest.
• My back pain is keeping me from my massage practice, but my coaching practice continues!  
• Last year when I had these same back issues, I had no clear vision of what I would do for income if my body finally said, “NO MORE massage!”  Now I know what my next career is, I am already transitioning, and adding some income from the new source.  That is a BIG chunk of gratitude right there!
• Lilu died on the same day that my back went out again, so that’s a clear sign from the Universe to STOP and slow down a minute; focus on what’s important.

What is important is my health, and while I have been pretty good about cleaning up my eating, I have not been GREAT.  I can do better and when I do better, the inflammation will cease to create and exacerbate the myriad health issues that continue to challenge me create opportunities for my personal growth.  I had been ‘too busy’ with work to focus on my meal plans, my cardio, my self-care.  So the Universe took matters in Her own hands and slowed me down for a gentle reminder to take care of me first.

Time to let go of what’s holding me back and release the last of the foods that I have been wanting to remove from my body for health’s sake.  No one is telling me I ‘should’ make these changes.  I want better health.  I want to feel energized every day in every way.  My coach and I are moving me toward my ideal goals one baby step at a time and I feel powerful in my choices for better health!

• So I appreciate the time off to focus on health, and growth, and joy.
• I appreciate my clients who are always so gracious and understanding when I call to reschedule them.
• I appreciate my mechanic for getting the job done so quickly.
• I appreciate the timing of the whole situation, which unfolded with ease.
• I appreciate that I can choose happiness no matter what’s going on in the world around me.

So – How do you choose happiness (or at least a sense of calm) when chaos is raining down around you? One of my wonderful coaching clients posed this very question to me yesterday.

I look forward to sharing my answer with you in my next post!

Create a happy day!

Here’s a little rant from Abraham and Esther Hicks to set you off in the right direction.