Happiness is, or should be, the ultimate goal of pretty much everything we do every day. A close second is satisfaction. Not only are these positive emotions healthy for us, they keep us going in more ways than one. When we are happy, we are creative, resilient, optimistic strong, memorable and attractive. This state of joy has a pureness about it.
Here are a few reminders for a us that help us keep feeling when times are tough and we are about to “lose it”. A checklist, if you may:
Sleep: Get enough of it – quality and quantity. Preferably at regular times every day. In a comfortable, dark, clean and quiet environment. I personally love to sleep almost directly on a hard floor – with just a thick yoga mat and a bedsheet on it.
Meditate: Just 10 minutes a day is enough for a start. All we need is to be still and silent in a quiet room, sitting comfortably with our eyes closed. The intention is to be aware. We want to observe of every sensation on our skin and every thought, feeling or urge that passes through us. All the while, staying equanimous – i.e. without responding or reacting with a movement. There is no need for any chanting or visualisation – noticing our breath alone is enough. Gradually, increase the time we can sit like that to an hour straight. Keep a timer helps.
Laugh: See what activities, people, and places get us feeling light – ready to be jovial and jest around. Where we feel safe enough to be ourselves – bringing out our best side, likable without trying.
Help others: Make someone’s day and we often make our own. Focus on someone else’s problems, with the aim to solve it for them, and ours start seeming easier, less consequential. They say what we give is what we get in return – law of Karma. Quite true.
Delegate: “Many hands make work light” is one great statement. Ask for help. Most things other than realising and deploying our true, innate strenghts is a waste of time. Make our weaknesses irrelevant by letting someone else do it. Choose your battles carefully – fighting with all our hearts either those that are unavoidable or winnable in the grand scheme of things!
Create: The joy of holding something that we make with our own hands and/or seeing it work, like a computer program is one of the most satisfying feelings. Our human spirit is born to experiment, discover, tinker and invent stuff from the beginning our our existence. Be it a garden or a tool or a recipe or a work of art!
Thank: An attitude of gratitude is one of the surest ways to feeling good, no matter how tough things may seem. It is all about perspective. Simply recounting what we have that many others do not, and imagining how life would be without those assets & gifts ought to get us celebrating. Start with our own bodies and beautiful expriences in the past.
Keep similing!