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Nine Ways To Make Your Day Your Own

October 13, 2011 By Lena 2 Comments

When you practice living life to the fullest, one of the best things you can do is make your day your own. Even if your schedule is dictated by others, or you’re working at something that’s not exactly what you love there are still moments to be had where you can “seize the day” and do something to lift your spirits and the spirits of those around you.

A lot of it has to do with being happy. Making yourself happy has a residual effect that spreads to those around you. You can’t help but smile when you are thinking happy thoughts, and before you know it people are wanting to know what you’re smiling about. Even if you don’t share the thought you can’t help but share the energy … it’s a force unto itself that just flows, and soon everyone around you is smiling too.

So, what can you do to make yourself happy and make your day your own?

Here are nine things to get you started:

1. Make the choice to be happy today. Happiness is a choice. Owning your day is a choice. Seeing the good in your day is a choice. You can choose one of these, or you can choose to be miserable and grumpy. Which would you rather spend your day doing?

2. Live with intention. What do I mean by this? Do you use affirmations or set intentions for your day? And do those affirmations and intentions line up with the goals you have set for yourself? When you live with intention, everything you say and do is a step toward making your dreams and goals become reality. When you know you’re on your way to achieving a lifelong goal, even a baby step can lighten the load and make your day a great one.

3. Recognize how good it feels to be alive. Sometimes we take life for granted and just plod along throughout the day expecting that tomorrow will be there. Take one minute, breathe deep and recognize how great it is to be able to do that. I can tell you from experience, if you’ve ever been in a situation where you can’t breathe, you gain a whole new appreciation for the process and being able to draw a deep breath really does mean you’re alive and the day is yours. Every once in awhile I catch myself taking deep breaths just because I can. :)

4. Make the choice to play today. Whether you toss a ball with your dog, get down on the floor and play with your kids, or just do something child-like such as catch a snowflake on your tongue, letting your inner child out to play is a great way to own your day.

5. Smile a lot. Smiles are contagious, and by smiling at others and sharing your happiness you may lift their spirits too. Even when you’re feeling like your day is out of your control, if you can find enough energy to smile you don’t feel like it you’ll notice that you almost immediately start to feel better. It’s like that saying ‘Happiness is like jam. You can’t spread even a little without getting some on yourself.”

6. Choose to share your love with someone today. So often we keep all our feelings and emotions locked up inside us. (Could be why there’s so much stress and high blood pressure these days.) Tell someone you love them, send a note, or flowers, or surprise them with dinner. You’ll be amazed at how great this will make you both feel.

7. Choose to do a random act of kindness for a stranger today. Giving of yourself is a great way to own your day. When you give unexpectedly without anything in return it gives you a lift as much as the stranger that you are helping.

8. Choose to do something nice for yourself today. Just because you’re you and you deserve it. Go for a walk, treat yourself to a latte, buy yourself flowers. It’s your treat, just for you.

9. Be grateful for the day and all its blessings. ‘Nuff said.

As you can see, making your day your own is really all about choices. So many times we feel like our days are not in our own control but by taking the time to make a choice that leads to happiness for yourself or for someone else, you really do own your day. And at the risk of repeating myself, it’s your choice what you do with it. Why not choose to make it a great one!

Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: , , ,

If You’re Happy and You Know It

September 1, 2011 By Lena 14 Comments

… Show Your Gratitude!

be grateful for natureI haven’t been able to get the kid’s song “If You’re Happy and You Know It” out of my head today. But instead of clapping your hands, my words keep coming back to saying thank you. I should’ve maybe changed the title to “If You’re Grateful and You Know It” because that’s really what this article is all about. Showing gratitude.

Happiness and gratitude go hand in hand. You can’t really show or feel gratitude when your unhappy, and you can’t be unhappy when you’re being grateful. Nice circle to be caught in … not a vicious one at all!

I’m probably dating myself, but there’s a line in the Sound of Music song “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” that goes something like “love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay – Love isn’t love ’til you give it away.”

It’s the same with gratitude. As William Arthur Ward said “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” Which makes me think that gratitude isn’t really much more than a thought until you give it away.

Unfortunately we live in the age of assumption. So many people think things, but never actually say them out loud. And so we may feel love, or happiness, or gratitude for someone and they won’t have a clue because we never get around to telling them. We either assume they already know, or we assume they will reject our feelings and so we say nothing.

Let your feelings out and tell another person how you feel about them. I can tell you from experience that I absolutely love it when you email me or leave a comment on my blog and tell me you liked something I’ve written. You can’t see my smile online when that happens, but if you show or tell someone in your physical life that you appreciate them you will definitely see their smile.

So how can you show your gratitude?

We already covered telling someone you love them and are grateful they’re in your life. Here are few other ways you can show gratitude…

Write a thank you note to someone who has helped you. People hardly ever write by hand anymore. Taking a minute to send a card with a handwritten message is a great way to show gratitude. I know my insurance lady will be getting one this week for finding me a great deal. :)

Smile at someone on the street or in line at the checkout. It doesn’t cost you anything, and you can show your gratitude and spread a little happiness by smiling at someone when you’re both waiting for a streetlight to change or in line at the store or the bank or the coffee shop.

Give a friend a hug. It’s easy to assume your friends will always be there. Too often we take them for granted, and forget to show them how much we appreciate and love that they are in our lives. Giving a friend a hug is a great way to show your gratitude for their presence in your life.

Head outside and appreciate the sunshine and fresh air. It’s also way too easy to take nature for granted, especially if you live in an area where there is an abundance of open space. But believe me, when you live in an area where you don’t get that or don’t have a way to easily get to it, you really begin to appreciate every moment that you get to spend outside. Show your gratitude for the environment by doing whatever you can to preserve it, and get out there and enjoy it whenever you can.

Volunteer your time. What better way to show your appreciation for everything you have in your life by helping out someone who has less or is going through a tough time. There is so much hardship in the world right now that we should, as human beings, be helping each other through them. Giving even an hour of your time each week is a great way to share your gratitude for all the good things in your life.

When you share your gratitude, you also benefit from it. Being grateful is a core part of the Law of Attraction — what you put out is what you get back. Sharing gratitude and appreciation with others also sends more gratitude and appreciation back to you. And when you feel appreciated you can’t help but also feel happier and more positive about your own life.

So, to paraphrase that wonderful children’s song … If you’re grateful and you know it … Show it!

Filed Under: Ezine Issues, Gratitude, Happiness Tagged With: , , ,

Happiness is a Choice You Make

August 18, 2011 By Lena 2 Comments

Choose HappinessIt’s true what they say about happiness being a choice. My mother always told me that you have to make your own happiness, that you can’t rely on anyone else to provide it for you. And she was right. Being happy is a choice we have to make for ourselves, no one else can do that for us. Just as your inner peace comes from a place deep within your heart, so too does your happiness and it’s completely up to you whether or not you let it out.

Like anything worth having, happiness takes work. It comes from the choices you make, the attitudes you have toward life and living. Happiness can be long-lasting or it can be fleeting… again, it’s your choice.

So, what choices should you be making in order to ensure long-lasting happiness?

1. Choose to have a positive attitude.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Sir Winston Churchill

Looking for the good in everyone and everything around you is a sure way to help you feel happier. Think of the old “glass half full” scenario. Wouldn’t you feel happier thinking that your glass is half full rather than feeling sad that it is half empty?

It’s the same with your life. Choosing to see your life as filled with possibilities is going to leave you with a much happier feeling than looking at your life as half over and lamenting missed opportunities. That’s just depressing. When you look at it with a positive point of view, you will see that missed opportunities were missed for a reason… there’s something better just around the corner.

2. Choose to let the past go.

It’s very hard to be happy when you are filled with anger and resentment over something that happened in the past. I know a few people who have grown up to be very bitter because they can’t get past things that have happened in their childhood. As a result there is no room for happiness in their lives because they choose to hang on to the past instead of letting it go.

Once you choose to let the past go and forgive the people involved, you open the door to much more happiness for yourself.

3. Choose to accept that there are going to be things you just can’t change.

“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” – Aldous Huxley

How much of your happiness is wasted trying to change things or people that you have absolutely no control over? As humans, it’s in our nature to want to control everything around us. Whether it’s people or situations, the sooner you can accept that there are going to things you just can’t change, the more room you leave in your heart for happiness.

4. Choose to be grateful.

Gratitude and happiness go hand in hand. When you are grateful for all the good things in your life, you can’t help but feel happy to have them there. Choosing to be grateful for all the little blessings and miracles in your life opens you up to receiving and accepting even more blessings and miracles.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received is to keep a gratitude journal. Take five or ten minutes in the morning and again before you go to bed and write down everything you are grateful for. You might struggle at first, but the more often you consciously stop and think about the things in your life you have to be grateful for it will become so easy that you’ll have trouble stopping after five or even ten minutes of writing.

5.Choose to help others.

“You cannot always have happiness, but you can always give happiness. ” ~Author Unknown

When you choose to help others, you are also helping yourself at the same time even if you don’t realize it. It doesn’t even have to be anything big; sometimes all it takes is a smile or a kind word to someone who’s having a bad day that helps them get through it.

When you make choices such as these, to embrace the positive pieces of your life and be grateful for them, you open yourself up to more happiness and a more fulfilling life. You have made the choice to be happy!

Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How To Be Happy

August 1, 2011 By Lena 3 Comments

This is a video version of the article “15 Little Things You Can Do To Feel Happier Today.”

I was experimenting on the weekend and this is what came out of it. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts and whether you would like to see more videos.



Filed Under: Ezine Issues, Happiness Tagged With: , ,

Five Ways To Feel Happier When You’re Having a Bad Day

July 11, 2011 By Lena Leave a Comment

creating with crayonsIt’s no fun having a bad day. You know the ones I’m talking about where your brain feels like mush, and you have a hard time getting even the smallest things done. For a lot of people Monday is like that. Personally, I love Mondays… but today is one of those days and so for you I have my very own list of ways to feel happier when you’re having a bad day. :)

1. Eat Chocolate!

I love chocolate at any time of the day or night. But when I’m feeling cranky, there’s nothing quite like a nice piece of dark chocolate to stir those feelings of decadence and indulgence. Of course, all those health benefits don’t hurt either. Unless you’re allergic, of course, or if you really don’t like the taste… I dare you to tell me you can eat chocolate and not smile. I’m smiling just thinking about it! :)

2. Be an Optimist!

See your cup as half full. It’s a brand new day, and there are possibilities for wonderful things to happen. When you consciously choose to be optimistic about life you let go of the anxiety and fear that bombards us on a daily basis. Thinking optimistically also helps to start your creative process, because when you see possibilities in front of you, you can’t help but think of ways to make them a reality. Are you smiling yet?

And that brings me to my third way to feel happier when you’re having a bad day…

3. Be Creative!

Let your inner child out to play, and get creative. I’m very grateful to be able to work and home and create for a living. But sometimes even I need to play instead of writing the serious stuff. So I keep a sketch pad and a box of crayons beside my desk for those occasions when I have that overwhelming urge to let my mind wander. Alternative forms of creativity are a great way to get your mind off your bad day and make you smile.

4. Do Something Nice For Someone Else

Just because you’re having a bad day doesn’t mean you can take it out on those around you. (Oh my! I’m channelling my mother!) But it’s true… you owe it yourself and those around you to be nice to them. If you’re not you’ll feel like garbage when you realize what a grump you’ve been. So if you can do something little to put a smile on someone else’s face you just might put one on your own grumpy face too.

It doesn’t even have to be anything big. Here’s an example…

I’m six feet tall. And I absolutely detest having to go to the grocery store. It can turn a great day into an awful one when I have to stop for food on the way home. Can you see where this is going?

It never fails, no matter how grumpy and scowling I am, stomping through the store to grab what I need that an elderly person will stop me and ask me to reach something on the top shelf for them. It also never fails that when I do (and just for the record, no matter how miserable I might be feeling at the moment, I would never dream of saying no), they are very grateful for the help, and I end up feeling a lot less grumpy.

And it works the other way too. There have been days when perfect strangers have done something simple and unexpected for me, that totally lifted my spirits. The one that springs to mind is one day when I was walking home feeling very depressed, head down almost in tears because we were broke and the cheque I was waiting for hadn’t arrived, I passed a man going the other way.

“Smile gorgeous,” he said, “It can’t be that bad.”

I looked up and gave a little half smile.

“C’mon you can do better than that,” he coaxed.

So I laughed a little and couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s my girl, I knew you could do it! Have a nice day now,” he said and continued on his way.

I have no idea who he was and I never saw him again. But all the rest of the way home I smiled thinking about that encounter. I still do!

5. Find Something To Be Grateful For

There is always something to be grateful for, even when you’re having the worst day you could ever imagine. If you take a minute to stop and breathe, you’re likely to find more than a few things in your life that you are grateful for. Even something as simple as a hot cup of coffee, or that your pen didn’t run out of ink in the middle of writing an article, can make you realize that there are blessings all around us and being grateful for the ones in your life is a sure pick-me-up.

So… are you smiling yet?

I am. Thanks for being here and brightening up my day!

What do you do to make yourself feel better on a bad day?

 
Photo Credit: Bearvader | Dreamstime.com

Filed Under: Ezine Issues, Happiness Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Six Strategies for Increasing Happiness in Your Life

July 1, 2011 By Lena 1 Comment

be happyBeing happy or not is a choice we all make. Sometimes our level of happiness is a conscious choice and sometimes it’s an unconscious one that is forced on us by outside circumstances, or so we believe.

Sometimes, though, we need a little nudge toward more happiness when things aren’t going exactly as we planned. Here, then are six strategies you can use for increasing happiness in your life.

1.When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Sure it’s a cliche, but it’s also true. While there may be a lot in our lives we can’t control, one of the things we can control is how we react to the situations we find ourselves in . Practice looking for the positive in people and situations, and you’ll find yourself feeling better about things whether you can control the outcome or not.

2. Do something you love. If you have a dream or desire that you haven’t acted on yet, do it! Even if you only take baby steps toward it, you’ll still feel like you’re doing something. And you’ll feel happier because you’re making progress toward a goal or dream you’ve held for a long time.

3. Use your talents. The Universe, or God by whatever name you use, has given each and every one of us a purpose and the talents to accomplish it. A lot of unhappiness stems from us not using our gifts or living our purpose. Figuring out what yours is and how you can use your natural talents to achieve it will go a long way to increasing happiness in your life.

4. Make a choice to be happy. It’s so easy to sink into the trap of sadness and self-pity if we let ourselves. If you can make a conscious choice to be happy and have someone that can help to cheer you up when you’re feeling down, use that resource. You’ll feel better for having someone to talk to and you could be helping them to fulfill their life purpose by helping you feel happier. (Note: This is not meant as medical advice. If you feel you are suffering from depression, please please please get professional help.)

5. Develop your attitude of gratitude. It’s so easy in this era of “I need more” to get caught up in focusing on all the things that go wrong in life. Taking time to remember all the good things and feel grateful for having them is a giant happiness fix. Don’t forget to include grateful thoughts for family and friends, and for your job even if it’s not your dream job.

6. Use a journal. Sometimes when you’re feeling less than happy, just writing down what’s bugging you can go a long way toward making you feel better. Journaling can become another good happiness fix if you let it because as you write, you’ll often find the solutions flowing from your fingertips.

Use one or all of these strategies for helping to boost your feelings of happiness when you need to.

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