Love and hugs,

Sandy

5 Simple Ways to Be Happy with Yourself 

The desire for happiness is universal. We all crave it. I think everyone wants to be happy and we all seek for ways to maintain that happy state, but that’s a pretty tall order. Not everyone knows how to achieve that state.

Unfortunately, our culture hasn’t helped with this confusion. We have been conditioned to associate happiness with material and outward trappings.

The line of thinking is that, if we have more things, if we’re the most beautiful, if we have fame and money, we will be more fulfilled. As a result, a lot of people spend their entire lives chasing happiness, only to be left feeling less than, insecure and worthless. Happiness is not something that you find external to yourself. You won’t buy a new dress or purchase a new car and feel like you’re living on a cloud, at least not for long.

Sure, you may feel short-term gratification from all these material things, but this feel-good vibe won’t last. It won’t be long until you will be looking for the next best thing to fill that void.

There’s no magic pill for happiness. Happiness is an inside job, a choice that you have to make. Try the following to learn how to be happy with yourself every day.

1. Practice Mindfulness

How you start your day matters. If you begrudgingly roll out of bed, put on a pot of coffee, and rush out the door to work, how do you think your day will unfold?

I don’t know about you, but my emotions can get the best of me. If you don’t master your mind, your mind will master you. This is why I’m such a big believer in creating an empowering habits to support the life you want, and morning is a great place to start.

When you take the time every morning to nourish your mental and emotional state, you set yourself up for success. Meditate, journal, exercise, recite affirmations, juice, dance. Do whatever it takes to get yourself into a “high vibe” state.

Yes, meditating is great, but it’s bigger than that. You want to strive to live more mindfully all around. Think of mindfulness as a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience, without judgment.

Strive to be more present in every given moment of your life. Instead of rushing from one thing to the next, take time to pause and enjoy the little things.

2. Be Grateful

Gratitude is a way of living that focuses on seeing the good, no matter how dire one’s circumstances are. Of course, it can be hard to be grateful when you’re going through difficult times in life. However, there is always a silver lining in every struggle. You just have to be willing to look for it. When you adopt an attitude of gratitude, you shift into a state of appreciation. All of sudden, there is no room for sadness because you are choosing love.

Research shows that gratitude is strongly associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, and deal with adversity.

If you don’t already, I encourage you to start a gratitude journal. A simple practice like this one only takes a few minutes every day. It has the power to change your life. What are you grateful for?

3. Find Your Tribe

By nature, we are social creatures. Connecting with one another helps us thrive, especially when we are faced with difficult times (this is why social distancing has been a challenge for many).

Research shows that people who feel more connected to others have lower levels of anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem, and greater empathy for others.

I wouldn’t be who I am today without the solid tribe of people that I call family. These are my people. Although my circle is small, I know that these people will always have my back, no matter what.

You become the five people whom you surround yourself with. If you want to be a happy and successful person, you need to make sure that your friends have the same vision as you.

Strive to find people who empower you to become a better version of yourself. They will naturally enhance your happiness and make you feel good about yourself.

4. Connect to Your Body Intelligence

Where people get stuck is that they live too much of their lives in their heads and fail to connect with their body intelligence. Your body is a vessel that is constantly speaking to you.

When you don’t listen to it, you end up getting into trouble. The body is intimately connected to the gut. The more that you go inward and bring attention to your body, the more you are able to connect with your intuition.

It is the place of inner wisdom that brings you back home to yourself. In actual fact, every cell in the body is intelligent, with the heart acting like a conductor for the cellular processes taking place within us in each and every moment. There are a variety of different modalities that allow you to connect to your body intelligence, whether it’s dance, yoga, or chi gong. When you allow yourself to drop out of your head and into your heart, you come to realize that everything you’ve ever needed is already inside of you.

5. Don’t Take Life So Seriously

Life is so short. If you spend the entire ride worrying and agonizing about everything, you will miss so many beautiful moments. Not only that, but it will create dis-ease in the body.

An overemphasis on seriousness in life lends itself to a narrow way of understanding what’s worth your time and attention.

In childhood, we are encouraged to play and be free. However, a lot of people lose this desire once they become adults. If you can relate to this, let me ask you something… what would happen if you slowed down and took the time to enjoy life more?

You don’t want to get to the end of your life and wish that you had laughed and smiled more often. Nobody wants to live with regrets.

The next time that you’re taking yourself too seriously, step back and ask yourself: “Is this situation worth getting so frustrated over?” If not, move on and get back to enjoying life.

Final Thoughts

You can’t always control the external world. However, you can always control your internal world. Finding simple ways to be happy with yourself every day is a commitment. However, it’s worth the effort because you deserve to live a happy life.

*article source and inspiration: LifeHack

We have so much more courage, strength and passion in us than we think we do.  I was reminded recently of an experience from a colleague about how much stamina it takes to live this life and “run this race”.  In a allegorical sense, we are on a 50-mile marathon in this life.  It is hard enough to do a 26-mile marathon, but really, 50 miles?!  So this guy sends tells me how he literally had just finished a 50-mile marathon and during his experience he noticed two huge things: #1 – it was a hell of a lot harder than he ever imagined it would be; and #2 – he had a lot more stamina than he ever imagined possible.  This reminds me of our lives.  We are all running that marathon of life and sometimes we get so exhausted and sore that we just want to sit down, give up, silently saying and sometimes crying loudly “I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!”

My tree “Lacey” bent over by the ice.

I remember about six years ago we had a horrible ice storm, we lost power and were literally unable to get out and about for a couple of days (this is very uncommon here in Texas).  When I went out to survey the damage around my house (I literally had to break the ice away from the back door), I looked outside and noticed my little tree “Lacey” was having a crisis (see my blog post about Lacey and growing strong). She had been going through a difficult time that winter.  It was only earlier that fall that I planted her outdoors in my garden – she was trying to grow from a houseplant to a real tree for the first time.  When I looked outside at Lacey, in horror I saw that this little spindly baby-tree was bent all the way over at her slender trunk and submerged in the water of my hot tub! The heavy weight of the ice on her delicate face of leaves had been more than she could handle.  The next two mornings when I awoke I would immediately go out to check on the little tree. Each day she seemed to pull herself up a little until finally, on the third morning when the air was warmer and the ice had began to thaw, there she was, standing upright again!

My point is this: life is like running a marathon and we are like a runner who, against all odds and sometimes facing a race that is harder than imagined, finds more strength and stamina than he knew. Just when he thought he couldn’t run another step, he pulls from within himself the will and determination to get across the finish line.

Many of us are like Lacey, who struggled against the weightiness of the ice on her leaves that eventually bent her over to a near breaking point. Yet when the ice began to thaw, she stood up again, not broken, not shattered or split, but standing tall.

There is so much inside each of us. We have an endless supply of passion, pain, love, hope, ambition, desire – the full range of the human spirit. Even though life sometimes seems disappointing and harder than you ever imagined it to be, remember, like the marathoner, you possess more than you ever thought possible.  When you are set on a destination and you engage your strong will, nothing can stop you.  So, during this winter, think about the little trees outside and what they go through to stand tall, the seasons of change they endure, yet life always comes back to a healthy tree.

Be encouraged today.  I am thinking about you and sending much love and many hugs and wishes for your continued growth in this life, and I pray that you are wishing it for me as well, for it is also my goal.

Love and hugs,
Sandy

Article first published in 2014 on SaturdaySoul.com.

Despite Even Me

We had our time but it has passed 

One

Two

Three chances 

Missed 

This inversion nearly laid me out

Sucking down 

Pressing 

until there was no Oxygen

The most powerful of emotions

– Love 

Under the covering of a silence so heavy

Unwilling 

Chilling

Killing

my heart in the process 

A brick wall 

Laid steady stone upon stone 

Unmovable yet ready to burst

Longing draped so thick and heavy 

The weight of it is suffocating 

The hope of ripping it down to see the light again is

Waiting

Anticipating

Lifting 

Me to greater understanding 

Of chances

Wary of second glances

Fancy wordy romances 

This is my time to soar

Above the silence

Beyond the covering

of love’s strangled hope

Despite even me 

One

Two

Three times gone

Too many to count

Too few to remember

Snap!

I take flight! 

© Sandy Hibbard

The amazing image is from Take Flight/Charlize Theron, NYT