It is pretty hard to be excited about a day when you feel miserable. While you don’t have to be Level 10 bouncing-off-the-walls exuberant every minute of life, there are definitive values to happiness.
People who identify as “very happy people” tend to have lower levels of degerative stress hormones, better immune systems and, therefore, less illness. Happy people tend to be more fulfilled and more able to love. Yeah, this is big stuff. And, if you feel like suffering is a pre-requisite for success, that’s not quite so. Research has been revealing that those who choose happiness tend to make more money.
We all hear that “happiness is a choice” in the New Agey circles, but if you’ve ever sat down and just felt blank, bored or stuck in a space that you don’t want to be and try to “choose happiness” you know it isn’t just quite that easy. It’s like telling someone to “get out of their own way.” These words are so easy to say, but so abstract that they really mean nothing if they can’t be applied.
If you know me, you know I love science and philosophy as gets mixed into life. Today, here is some science about how happiness works… and a few practical ways to “choose happiness” today!
1. Intention is a powerful force. Use it!
Dr. Frederic Wiedemann wrote lots of interesting and simple articles (HERE) on the idea of manifesting what you want by living with intention. I found this very effective:
Personal Examples of Intentions:
• When I wake up, I ask myself “what do I want to feel today?” ANSWER: I want to feel good, happy, empowered, flowing, excited, and clear.
• When I sit down at the office desk to dig into paperwork, I ask myself “what do I want to feel here?” ANSWER: I want to feel effective, relaxed, and organized.
• When I am planning for a meeting, I ask myself “what do I want to feel here?” ANSWER: I want to feel insightful, inspired, comprehensive, and powerful.”
Now it is your turn. In your routine tasks, what do YOU want to feel? Fill in the blank: When I am doing _______________, I want to feel _________, _____________, and __________ .
It is a very fun exercise. It also really helps make better decisions and create clarity.
2. Happiness does not rely on a “perfect” life. Understanding this is a big shift.
Dan Gilbert sheds some awesome light on what creates happiness. It’s not what you think. Not at all. In fact, people with less options and less freedom of choice tend to be happier. Adversity can lead to as much happiness as amazing luck. We think we know what makes happiness, but the science that reveals the truth of happiness is incredibly shocking and freeing!
It’s so worth watching it!
Essentially, the big anarchist dream of living with “total freedom” and “going off the grid” and being in revolt against “the system” is not guaranteed to make you any happier that flowing with what is happening right now and making the most of it while you grow.
You can absolutely be happier right now. You don’t need to be perfect first.
Be productive, no matter what you have to do today. Productivity is a clear and simple way to be happier.
You direct your energy in a real way every day.
What does that mean?
In feng shui philosophy, you move things around your home and guess what happens? You re-direct energy.
What does this look like? What is energy?
This is what this means:
Where you tend to sit down and feel lazy, bored or depressed on a daily basis oin your home is now a space filled with color and art and light that makes you excited to read a book or turn on that meditation music you have never actually tried to use!
The bedroom where you have tossed and turned in bed is now a room that pulls you in and makes you feel intensely comfortable and relaxed.
And on and on…
This is what it means to actually “direct energy.” You clear the uncomfortable away. You add more comfort. you take away the anxiety. You add calm.
This is a decision, too!
Try it out: If you want to choose more happiness at home right now, clean your house and add at least one bright object that you love to the most avoided place in your home (yes, your messy closet counts!) with the intention of making it happier! Keep this up for a few weeks, cleaning and adding bright lovey things. See how that shifts your mood!
Do you have a compelling way to “choose happiness” that is practical?
What do you do? Please share below If you are open to it- this conversation can help so many people!
xoxo Dana
P.S.: The Cash Camp is coming soon, and the FREE 3-video intro series is all about wealth-building in profound and amazing ways. It’s nearly an hour of exercises to shore up your energy, focus and presence to start building more abundance in every way…!
You can sign to the free video series right HERE!
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The Joy Immersion is a 30 day negativity detox and a month of happy-making, mirror-polishing, life-lifting and simple space shifting!
It’s loaded with lots of actions (some you may know for sure even if you’ve never fully practiced them, some you’ve likely never seen or heard of…!) that can help you detox from your own negative stuff, uncover more of your greatness and light, and see happiness everywhere you look…! There’s feng shui, there’s life-shifting, there’s lots of creativity… and it’s a daily commitment to a positive life shift… which is a positive life shift already!!!
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And you can start right HERE! I’m doing the first thirty days with you, so let’s get started!!!
xoxoxo Dana
Man- he speaks fast! I dare to say you did more in a 3 minute read then he did in his 18, and it’s all so helpful. xo