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Feb. 28, 2022
Finding Happy
I decided to call the episode, finding happy, this is not easy to do sometimes, and especially when we hear some of the news items that we've been hearing lately, like this the situation in Ukraine, it's absolutely shocking. It's devastating. I mean, I just, I feel terrible about what's happening, and I want to do something so bad, and I've, you know, been doing what I can to share with people and, and show my support in any way I can. But, you know, we do need to move forward. And, and it's important to not become too not to lose sight of the fact that mindfulness is important in our lives, and it's important to do remain grounded and to, and to remain on, you know, in focus and, and keep our goals in sight and so on. And so I thought, you know, let's just talk about happiness.
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iTunes / Stitcher / Podbean / Overcast / Spotify Maintain An Element Of HappyLet's just talk about how can we maintain an element of, of happy in spite of what is happening in the world? And so I thought about it myself thought about, okay, what makes me happy? What, what makes some of my guests happy?
I've interviewed over 700 guests. And it's so interesting to talk about people who value or to talk to people who value mindfulness, and to find out okay, what does happiness mean to you?
How Do You Find Happiness In Your Life?I began at dinner tonight, because I'm recording this on Saturday night. And I began by talking to my son and my wife about, you know, what makes you happy. And Darlene said, at the beginning, she said, Well, you know, spending time with friends, and she said, of course, with people I love with friends. And then she said later, she said, also being able to do small things, to help people. That's something that just truly makes me happy.
And when I talked to Ben, he said, he thought about it for a minute. And he said, hearing about events, or upcoming activities, and then being able to anticipate them. I thought, yeah, that anticipation of something that you're looking forward to, can be a big part of being happy in life. And so for myself, I thought of, of being happy.
Being With PeopleYou know, it's being with people, interacting with people, helping people, and certainly helping people through coaching and hypnosis, which I do on a daily basis. And, and that truly makes me happy and gives me wonderful, a wonderful feeling of satisfaction when I talk to them. And they tell me how their life has changed as a result of the coaching as a result of the hypnosis that we've done together.
Being With NatureAnd other things that make me happy being in nature, seeing and experiencing the sun, which is, of course, part of nature, sunrises, sunsets, just fill me with this incredible feeling of I think contentment, satisfaction, happiness.
5 Ways To Find HappyI put together five ways to find happy. And those five ways are certainly ways that I relate to I mean, I didn't research this or look it up, I this is just kind of coming from the top of my head.
1/ Being CreativeFor so many of my guests and for me as well. Being creative, is a really big part of being happy being contented in life.That could include music. It can include art, painting, or drawing or sculpting or any kind of art at all. It can include writing, because that's a fantastic way that almost all of us can use to be creative on the spot.
Being creative is a is a very effective way to find happy and I think that a lot of people and I think I've had this happen in my life too, sometimes is that we get so involved in certain aspects of our life like earning a living or working for a company or whatever it happens to be and sometimes we forget about the importance of being creative. So no matter what you're doing in your life, see, see if you can add this element, if it's not already there.
2/ Being ActiveI find in my life, that being active, is a really big part of finding happy. I think it's because, you know, once you become active, there are those endorphins that are being created in your body, and, and you just, you just feel noticeably better you, your body begins to, I think your body begins to work better, and you begin to just feel more motivated and, and feel more upbeat.
So whether that's running like I like to do, or swimming, or, or lifting, or bouncing, you know, a mini trampoline and, and that helps me a lot. It just gives me an incredible, upbeat feeling. If I bounce on the trampoline for a while, and it's very easy on your joints, easy on your, on your spine, and so on.
There are some ideas, you probably have ideas yourself, what kind of activity is good for you, of course, walking is, you know, goes without saying walking is an absolutely fantastic way of being active. Using that to help you in your life to feel better and to be happy.
3/ MeditatingI'm sure you're not surprised that I'm going to mention this and that is meditating. Whatever form meditating takes in your life. Meditating certainly makes it easy finding happy. It's one of those things that, you know, it's not like the minute I necessarily start to meditate, do I get happy? Or, you know, maybe it's not just after a couple of days of meditating.
It's the continuous process of meditating. Then I'll suddenly stop and think, oh, wow, you know, I feel really good. I wonder if it's the meditation that I'm doing. That is giving me that calm, grounded feeling. I believe it is a lot of times, and one of the reasons is because I interview so many people, and have interviewed so many people who have told me the exact same thing.
So it's not just me thinking this, it's a lot of people thinking that whatever form of meditation that may take in your life, it's probably going to help you to feel more grounded, more centered, to feel happier. That's a way to find happy.
4/ SmilingIt's such a basic thing. But have you ever noticed that if you just you're doing something you're busy, or maybe not even thinking about anything other than you know what you're focusing on at that minute, if you stop and you smile, it immediately can make you feel a different feeling in your body.
Smiling has quite a powerful effect. Do you notice it? You pay attention to the emotion you're feeling when you when you begin to smile. It's really quite incredible. There are reasons for it, of course. We don't even need to talk about what those reasons are just the fact that if you just stop and smile, even if no one's around, then that can really make you feel happier. Of course laughing even more so.
There's laughing yoga, you'll know about that from from different podcasts when we've talked about yoga laughter. And, you know, just laughing. What I'm told is that you don't have to have an actual reason for laughing. If you just begin to laugh. Your brain doesn't need you to have an actual reason for laughing. If you start laughing, it just immediately makes you feel better.
Try it, experiment with it. It certainly worked for me. You might want to, you know, join a yoga laughter session. You can do that online. And it's really fun. It really is.
5/ Helping PeopleThe fifth one is something I've already mentioned. That is helping people just helping people and practicing your ability to feel passion for every person. And if you start helping people more than maybe you regularly do, you'll probably begin to feel more passion for other people.
As you do that, you can up it a little bit more think, hey, what would it be like, if I felt even more passion for people, if I felt more supportive toward other people and caring toward other people really truly care about my neighbor, no matter what they're going through, no matter what their beliefs are, no matter what their opinions are about things, no matter what they've done to me in the past, is there a way to feel passionate toward those people? Well, I've asked myself that question about lots of people?
The answer is, yes, there is a way, there is a way to feel more passion for people. I find, when I practice, that, that ability, practice feeling more passionate, toward people, toward you know, anyone at all.
Certainly I can single people out in my mind that I want to feel more positive about, I want to feel good feelings about that person. And I simply just think about that person, and what it would be like, if I could feel more passion for that person, then I end up feeling a lot better, I feel more grounded and just feel happier. I definitely do.
Start NowFinding happy in your life. That's what I've been talking about today. And, you know, if you're experiencing a rough time, if you're experiencing, you know, trauma, or you feel like your life is just sinking, or you're on a downward spiral, maybe you're feeling like there's just something that you cannot move past. Maybe you have a habit that is pulling you down with incredible weight. Well, whatever, maybe pulling you down, you know, there are ways through this, there are ways to get to the other side.
This is what I've experienced with my coaching clients and mindful tribe. If you are experiencing any of these challenges, and you'd like to be able to move through it. Well reach out to me, and let's jump on a zoom call. Let's talk about what we can do what I can do to help you with this. I can help you through hypnosis and coaching and help you move through some of this.
Let's talk about the possibilities.You can do that simply by sending me an email and putting in the in the subject line coaching session. And yeah, it's a free coaching session. My email is Bruce at mindfulness mo.com and I would love to connect with you. So I look forward to that. And I look forward to, you know, creating even more episodes, so that I can I can connect and help people just like you.
Suggested Resources- Book: The Black Ball: Does Anybody Else Have A Secret? by Simon Lovell
- Book: You Were Not Born To Suffer: Overcome Fear, Insecurity and Depression and Love Yourself Back to Happiness, Confidence and Peace by Blake D. Bauer
- Book: The Gift by Daniel Ladinsky
- App: Insight Timer