Three Tips to Help You Life a Happy, Positive Life

Positivity is positively positive. 

Life is busy these days. I am the first one to admit that I struggle some days to get everything done. I often long for more hours in the day only to realize adding more time to my day probably won’t help. It really is all about working more efficiently and effectively with the time I have. It is about my state of mind. Thinking and acting positively makes life a lot more livable than thinking negatively. Being positive makes me feel better, happier really, and it makes me more effective, efficient and productive.  You know what else it does? It helps me spread the wealth and send out a positive vibe to others. You see I truly believe positivity is contagious, just like laughing or yawning.

I am the first one to also admit that it can be hard to stay positive. It is something I have been working on. It isn’t work really but it is all about improving my mind and spirit. I am always reading and listening for ways to grow and gain knowledge about living a better, happier, more abundant life.  So I am always looking for ways to be more positive.  Here are a few things I find help me stay positive and spread positivity. These are easy, simple things everyone can do, especially your children!

    1.Smile

“Peace begins with a smile.” — Mother Teresa

Smiling is so simple. It is one of those small but mighty things you can do. When you smile it just makes you feel happier (I think).  Research shows there are many benefits to smiling, including  helping to reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and dopamine and helping to increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphin (among other things). Let’s face it smiling just feels good and when you smile at others it makes them feel good too! I make it a point to smile at as many people as I can, making sure to smile at everyone I see when I am at work. 

  

Action Step: I challenge you to smile. Let’s pick a number, say five. I challenge you to smile at five people every day and then every week add another five people a day and see how many you can actually smile at.  Keep increasing the number, often! 

  2. Say Hello!
 

This really goes along with smiling. I try to smile and then say hello to anyone I walk past in my neighbourhood or when I am walking through the parking garage tunnel at my work. It is a simple thing but means so much.  I always think it is nice because it is an acknowledgement of the other person; it is all about being friendly and throwing out my positivity to the Universe. 

Action step: I challenge you to say hello when you are smiling at people.  Pick a number of people to say hello to every day and see if you can meet that challenge.  It is all about spreading your wealth of positivity. 

     3. Get Grateful

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."
-- Oprah Winfrey

Being grateful is so important to happiness and a positive attitude. I truly believe you need to be grateful for all the goodness in your life right now in order to welcome new goodness into your life.  There is a lot of research out there on the benefits of being grateful. It helps to activate the positive emotion centers in the brain for starters. Regular practice of gratitude can change the way your brain neurons fire into more positive automatic patterns.

Action Step: Keep a gratitude journal. Every day write down at least one thing that you are grateful for in your life. Keep it up for 21 days. Twenty one days is the length of time it takes most people to make something a routine/habit.  If you want to take it a step further share your gratitude with others. I like to post about what I am grateful on Facebook and Twitter because it helps me stay accountable and it also helps me truly see the blessings in my life.

Tell me about how you get positive? Share your tips and tricks to being positive and sharing your positivity with the world.

What I Am Grateful For

There is so much of our every day lives that we take for granted. It is often these things that make our lives better, easier and more live-able. 

Two weeks ago I hurt my left foot and ankle. 

It was incredibly painful. I ended up at the hospital and they took X-Rays. It turned out not to be broken and they figured it was sprained. They sent me off with crutches and my foot in a tensor. It was still painful. I ended up home from work for two days sitting with my feet up. All good! It was all good except when I had to get up the fifteen steps to the second floor of our house, where the bathroom and bedroom are. How the heck was I going to get up there? Well, I ended up crawling up the stairs and sliding down on my bum. So fun! 


Like so many things in our lives, we don't truly appreciate our health and a healthy working body until  that is not the case. We get up every day, slide on our shoes and head off, walking, into the world (or running, biking, scootering or skipping) often never really giving it a thought. Well, that is what I was like until the simple act of walking was extremely painful. Every single step I took hurt. Today, my foot and ankle are almost completely healed largely in part to my Chiropractor. You see I have seen a Chiropractor for years and last week when I went for a regular adjustment I told him about my foot situation. He took a look ( a painful look for me) and discovered it was not a sprain but there were several bones in my foot that were jammed. The only way to fix it was to complete several adjustments. The adjustments were very painful... are painful... but worth it in the end.

So today I am grateful for my feet. I am grateful for a healthy, moving body. Today I will honour my body.

What are you grateful for today?

What I Am Grateful For

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend up north. I took my girls to the cottage this weekend. It is our family cottage. There are always lots of people and this past weekend was no exception. My parents, both my sisters and my brother-in-law also joined us in cottage country. 

I am grateful for the time to slow down, disconnect and just spending time in real life with the people in my life. 

And then there is this view.....No word needed.

What are you grateful for?

Are You Happy?

Are you happy?

I LOVE this song. It just makes me feel happy. Does it make you feel happy too? 

But does feeling happy really mean you are happy? 

I think being happy is a complex thing.... it is simple and yet not all at the same time.  I think that we sometimes fall into the trap of what should make us happy. I mean that many people think the big PERFECT house, the perfect yard, a car, vacations, the perfect child/children and well, perfection, are all the things that represent a happy life. Let's face it, go on to Facebook or Pinterest and you will see status updates and photos showing people living what appears to be a perfect life. Is it real? That is a good question. Does it mean these people are happy? I don't know. Maybe.

I really think being happy means finding what makes YOU happy. It isn't about what other people are doing. It isn't about what other people have but what really makes you happy. You can't compare yourself to anyone else. It has to be about you. As the title of James Alchuter's books says "Choose Yourself", you have to choose yourself and be happy with what you are and have in order to be truly happy in my opinion. 

And that is the key to happiness I believe. It is learning to be grateful for everything you have RIGHT NOW! The only way to move toward better and brighter things is to see how your life is truly filled with great things now and by doing that more great things will be drawn into your life.

Action For Happiness recently posted a piece on the 10 Keys to Happier Living. Among the ten keys is taking a positive approach to life. Positive emotions - like joy, gratitude, contentment, inspiration, and pride -  do more than just make you feel great at the time. Recent research shows that regularly experiencing them creates an 'upward spiral', helping to build our resources.

Am I happy? I am happy but there are still things I am not happy with. It isn't that I am unhappy. I love my family, my husband and my children. I love that I get to create content and write every single day. I am learning to be happy about the things that I want to change. It is a journey. The path to complete happiness is never ending in my opinion. You take steps every single day along the path. It isn't about perfection and I often have to remind myself of that. Happiness is being grateful for everything life hands you every single day. 

 
What makes you Happy? 



What are you grateful for today?

I Am Grateful

Having an attitude of gratitude is so important.

BUT...

I feel like I am in a funk today.

 Man,  I feel like I need some reminders about how to see the bliss in everyday and to be grateful for everything that I have. It can be hard sometimes. Not because I don't have lots to be grateful because that certainly is not true. I have lots to be grateful for! Sometimes I feel a little tired, a little needy and in need of rest, relaxation and kindness. Do you ever feel that way?

Well, that is how I feel today. I am tired...tired of commuting, tired of working late, tired of being tired.


BUT.....

I am GRATEFUL for my job. I am grateful for the ability, talents and skills to do my job well. I am grateful for being able to make a great living. I am grateful to write!


What are you grateful for?

I Am Grateful

I think it is really important to focus on all the great things in life. I will also admit that I sometimes for get to do that... for myself. I sometimes get bogged down in life stuff ( ya, that's what I will call it, stuff!). So that is why I am starting a on going series of posts, a list really, let's call it a gratitude list or even better a bliss list because let's face it most of the things that I am grateful for in my life are also the things that give me bliss, that allow me to live a blissed life.

Today I am grateful for my family. All of my family. My parents who are super supportive, love and encouraging. I am grateful for my brothers and sisters ( even though they drive me crazy most of the time!). I am super grateful for my super talented and supportive husband ( even though he sometimes drives me crazy too!) and of course I am overly grateful for two beautiful, kind, loving and compassionate daughters!

What are you grateful for?

Attitude of Gratitude

We all want to lead happier and healthier lives. Don't we? OK, I am going to speak for you here and say yes, I think we all want that for ourselves and everyone else that we love. But we often look outside ourselves, seeking things to make us happy. We see what other people have and want those things, we want bigger houses, fancier cars and nicer clothes. You have heard that saying "The grass is always greener on the other side" but you know that isn't always true. Scratch that. It is never true. You have a fantastic life. You do! Maybe you can't see it because you are too busy looking over the fence. I know because I have done the exact same thing. We all have I think but you know there are some easy things you can do to see the beauty in your life right now and in turn you will bring more happiness and blessings into your life. It is all about your attitude. You need to have an attitude of gratitude. Be grateful for what you have and you will start to see more of the same appearing in you life.

Here are a few tips to help you be grateful for the blessings in your life.

1. Journal
 Writing helps you see the good things in your life. Try writing down a few things you are grateful for every week. Start keeping a journal. Once you feel comfortable doing that step it up to every day. This will help you get focused on all the great things in your life. Remember they don't have to be things. Sometimes the best things in our are lives are small, like a great sandwich for lunch, or no traffic on your drive to work, or great hair! Or they could be big things like great kids who are healthy, a loving family,  and supportive friends. Just write down and it won't take you long to see how bless your life really is.

2. Post it!
This is an extension of writing a journal. You can write your self little notes. Write down what you are grateful for on a post it note and put is on your computer, or you desk or even the bathroom mirror. Change it every day or even just every week. It will be a visual reminder of all the greatness in your life!

3. Be Thankful
I started doing this with my kids. Several times a week, usually after school in the car, we all say one thing we are grateful for that day. It helps to get them thinking about all the good things in their lives (me too) and saying it helps us all to acknowledge our blessings. We all have things that are good in our lives.

4. Touch Something
Use an object to help you remember what is truly great in your life. A long time ago, when my husband and I were dating, we used to go for walks down by the lake. On one of those walks we stopped to toss stones into the water and I kept one of those stones. I still have it. I see it every day and even touch it and I remember those days. It reminds me of what is great in my life, like my husband and children. Use and object to help you connect with happy memories or thoughts.

5. Tell Someone
We all have someone in our lives that we are grateful for, someone we couldn't live without. Well, tell them.

The Magic of Life

                                                    Are you living in the magic of life?

I am coming to believe that is something I need to ask myself every day. Am I living in the magic of life?

Some days I can honestly say No. I am working to make sure that every single day I ask myself if I am living in the magic of life that I can say YES!  I accept that is can be hard some days. It has to be a conscious shift in how I think and live every day. I think I am getting there but it is a process.

But what does living in the magic of life really me?

I think it means living a truly happy and authentic life. It is waking up every day being grateful for the blessings in your life. There is not doubt that much of the pressures of the world we live in can really put a damper on that feeling. We are surrounded by images trying to tell us that we need more to be truly happy. There is nothing wrong with wanting more in my mind but in order to want more, or to get more of those things that make you happy I believe that you need to be happy with what you have already. More isn't always more. When you come from a place of happiness and gratitude more happiness and things for you to be grateful for will come into your life.


I am always moving toward loving every day of my life. I don't want to say that it is work in a negative way but it is work. It is work in the most positive of ways. It is fun work. There is a total beneficial pay off for working hard at making sure of a total shift in thought because I become happier and more satisfied and more content with the life that I am living.

Are you grateful for what you have? Are you living in the magic of life?