Quick tips for holding onto happiness in the new year!!!

So often women find themselves in my office because they have lost their “happy”.  We have all kinds of profound conversations about what triggered the deep sadness, or anxiety, and what is contributing to it now.  We often explore old patterns and look at toxic relationships.  We examine their give and receive ratio (how much they are giving out to others, and how much they are allowing themselves to receive).   However, when it comes to feeling better quickly, we always have to go back to the basics….

1. SMILE often and especially in the mirror!  Yes, you are going to feel ridiculous, so just get over itJ  Muscle memory is a powerful thing, and you have every happy, joyful feeling stored in your cheek muscles.  So every time you go to smile, even if you aren’t in a particularly happy mood, you are triggering JOY.  The same way watching a fast food commercial can trigger a terrible craving for a mountain of French fries, smiling will trigger happy feelings.   Even better if you do it while looking in the mirror.  When you see yourself smiling, you are sending a powerful message to your subconscious mind that you are happy!  Your subconscious receives this info and then acts accordingly by sending out the powerful happy chemicals like serotonin!  Who doesn’t want that?!

 

2. At the beginning of your day, intend to BE HAPPINESS.  Take a minute in the morning in the shower to picture yourself throughout your day HAPPY.  What does happiness today look like, sound like, feel like?  Intend for nothing to get in the way of your happiness.  Intend to spread this happiness everywhere you go today.  Choose to spread positivity and be intentional about not going to the dark side (no complaining, criticizing, or negative statements today)!

 

3. Dress in colors that make you feel HAPPY, JOYOUS, & BEAUTIFUL!  Colors are one of the fastest ways to invite in new and happy energy.  When you are getting dressed in the morning, if your priority is to be happy, you should choose colors that make you feel happy.

 

4. Take 2 minutes out of your day to have compassion for yourself.  Most women look at me with a confused look when I say this….it’s alright if you are feeling confused a bit about what this looks like.  Stay with me!  Take 2 minutes or more to sit down by yourself and think about all that you have accomplished or dealt with today.  Put your hand over your heart and intend to send yourself some love.  The same way you would put an arm around a friend to comfort them.  If you are a visual person, picture your love as a color.  Send yourself bright pink and breath in this love and compassion in and out, until you are surrounded completely in this color.

 

5. Give yourself reminders around your house, office, and car, of your intentions to be happy.  You might write, “Today, I choose to live in limitless JOY!” on the bathroom mirror.  A good rule of thumb for any affirmation is that you say it to yourself, and then you take a deep breath and breathe it in to the deepest part of your soul, and say it again after your exhalation.

 

6. GET MOVING!  It doesn’t matter how you choose to do it, but choose to do it for 30mins a day.  You can dance, do some yoga, go for a walk or run, but get your body moving.  When your body is getting some healthy movement once per day, it is physically healthier and is better equipped to hold onto that happy feeling!

Happiness is a vibration like anything else.  It is an unconditional friend that will always come back to you when it is invited.  Intend to live it today, and watch how quickly you enjoy the benefits of its presence.  You so deserve in every way to be happy!

LOVE, LOVE LOVE AND HAPPINESS TO YOU!

Erin Williams, LMSW, BCD, CHt

www.healingplacecounseling.com

Erin Williams encouargement, Happiness, insight, positive thinking, Self love

There are 3 things that we know for sure about life:  it has a beginning, it will end some day, and we should make the most of it while in between.

It’s the gap – the in between that I want to write about today.

This is what I call the GAP – the place between 2 places.

How are you living in the gap? 

Are you living in a timid place full of fear?

-or-

Are you living in JOY full of laughter and peace?

To fully live life out loud means to smell the roses, enjoy the view, take the opportunity to meet and smile at a stranger and truly touch a life for that moment in time.

Sometimes we take life so seriously that we forget to exhale.  We run from one place to the next place and forget where we’ve been.  RUSH, FAST, HURRY is part of our vocabulary.  We don’t make time for ourselves because we’re too busy taking care of everyone else.  We even think it’s selfish to make time for ourselves.

Allow me to dispel that myth.

It’s okay to take care of yourself – to breathe – to exhale.

In my opinion, if you don’t exhale then you are probably almost on the verge of burnout.  It’s time to charge your batteries and take care of YOU.

So I believe there is a co-relation between slowing down and living your life out loud.

Do the things that matter most in life like spending time with your family, your loved ones.  Take the time to show the most important people in your life that they matter and you care.  Take the time to spend with friends.  Take that spontaneous trip.  In fact, I write this post on an airplane flying to Chicago.  My son is a pilot and he had sent me a text the night before stating he was flying to my town and if I wanted to catch a flight to Chicago with him since he had a few days off.  I pondered, and yes I was busy with work but I had the opportunity and I seized the moment – YES – I will!  Work will always be there, errands to run will be run, work will get done but precious moments with loved ones leave you with the memories of a lifetime.  So memories I created by going to Chicago with Kevin.

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson

Remember, may the possibilities of today excite you!

Happiness, JOY, Uncategorized, inspiration, motivation Happiness, joy