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

The Spring Healthy Eating Challenge

~ Leo Babauta
With New Year’s Resolutions a fading memory, it’s time to renew your focus on eating healthy again.
With that in mind, I’m announcing a Spring Healthy Eating Challenge.
It’s designed to help you change your eating for the better, making small changes, and doing it with friends and family.
How does it work? It’s based on the principles I used to change my life, losing 70 lbs. over the course of a couple years, and keeping it off for about nine years now.
 

Here’s the challenge:

• Pick one small healthy change to make a week (see list below).
• Commit publicly to the challenge, and tell everyone what your change is each week (optional).
• Put your entire focus on making that change happen. Set reminders, put visual reminders around your house.
• Review at the end of each week. Did you do 5+ days of your change? Success! Tell everyone about it. If not, figure out what your obstacle is and plan to beat it.
• If you were successful, pick another change to make the next week, but also continue your first change. By the end of the four weeks, you should have four solid changes if all goes well. If you weren’t successful, just continue the same change (or pick a different one if you didn’t like that one) and try again, but this time with a plan to get around the obstacle.

This is a general recipe for making small changes in your life, but healthy eating can be especially difficult, so I encourage you to do this challenge with your family and friends.
 

Small Healthy Eating Changes
What changes should you make? Here are some ideas for small changes.

• Add a vegetable to lunch.
• Add a vegetable to dinner.
• Eat a vegetable or fruit for a snack.
• Add fruit to breakfast.
• Prepare a healthy snack for when you feel like snacking (carrots, grapes, nuts, banana, raisins).
• Change a white grain at lunch to a whole grain.
• Change a white grain at dinner to a whole grain.
• Find a healthy breakfast recipe and try it (I love oatmeal).
• Pick a healthy recipe and cook 2-3 days’ worth of it.
• Eat a vegan meal each day.
• Pick a healthier protein for one meal (lean meats, plant-based protein).
• Eat no fried foods.
• Replace sweets with fruit.
• No liquid calories before lunch (tea, water, black coffee OK).
• No liquid calories after lunch (tea, water, black coffee OK).
• Reduce alcohol to one drink.
• Drink more water (set your goal yourself).
• Create a daily meal plan.
• Control portion sizes (set your goal yourself).
• Eat slowly and mindfully for one meal a day.
• Eat whole food instead of prepared food for one meal a day.
• Eat a salad every day.
• Replace soda with tea.
• Drink tea every day.
• Before going for seconds, take a 5-minute break.
• Cook one meal a day at home.
• Discover the pleasures of a new food.
• Add more fiber to your diet (vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, lentils).
• Switch starches for non-starchy veggies at one meal a day.
• Try cooking dinner without using oil or added fat.

Again, these are just a few ideas … you can make up your own!
Images for this post along with the recipes are located here.