Habit of Happiness
In my coaching practice, conversations are frequently centered around a client’s desire to be happy. You have probably heard yourself say, “I just want to be happy and content with my life.” My question to you and my clients is, “Are you chasing happiness or ‘being happy’?”
As a student of the Law of Attraction, I have come to understand that chasing happiness makes no sense, that to find happiness on the outside, one must find it within first. In other words, you must be happy to attract happiness. All that being said, this may not be as easy as it sounds however, there certain habits that you can embrace which will help you to ‘be happy’.
Habit One: See where happiness already exists in your life
When you are searching for the illusive something that you want in your life, your focus is on the absence of it. In contrast if you can turn your attention to where in your life happiness already exists, you begin to build on this and attract more of it. So often we focus on what is not versus what is. Shift your attention to those aspects of your life where you are now or have been in the past, happy. Notice how this shifts your energy.
Habit Two: Gratitude
Following on Habit One, once you see the happiness that already exists in your life, express gratitude for it. In the emerging field of Positive Psychology, the study of happiness, those who have a daily practice of gratitude test as being much more positive/happy in their approach to life. It is as simple as taking a few minutes everyday to notice and appreciate the positive aspects of your life.
Habit Three: Intentions
Set a daily intention which simply states: “I am happy. I spread happiness wherever I go. I am an agent of happiness.’ When you set an intention, you actually send out a ripple effect, or an energy field around you. Others will experience this in you and respond in kind. You have a choice everyday to enter the waterline of life as a positive force or not.
Habit Four: Tame the Inner Critic
Most of you have a voice that whispers things in your ear. This voice is rooted in fear and your ego; it is usually negative in that it diminishes you and pulls the plug on your personal power. Choose to re-program the voice. Listen in on the voice for the purpose of understanding what it is feeding you, become clear regarding what you would rather hear. Turn down the volume on the critic’s voice and raise the volume on your ‘heart voice’, the voice which believes in you and builds you up.
Habit Five: Acknowledgement
Learn to acknowledge yourself for your accomplishments and achievements. In the same vein, learn to accept complements from others. It is important to see your gifts, strengths and talents. Acknowledgment is simply an expression of gratitude for you God-given gifts.
Habit Six: Create time for You
It is difficult to be happy if you are always spinning. Everyone needs time each day, if only for a few minutes for what I refer to as selfness. Selfness is the practice of serving yourself first so that you can leverage your capacity to continue to serve others. It does not take a lot of time, in fact my recommendation is 1% of your day, 14.4 minutes; time dedicated to breathing, introspection and forming your intentions.
Habit Seven: Create your perfect relationship with You
Hold yourself in unconditional love and high regard. The way to attract both happiness and respect is to offer both to yourself first. I suggest that you write a contract with yourself whereby you stipulate what the qualities and characteristics are of your perfect relationship with you. Of course, one of these qualities would be the choice to be happy.
My challenge to you is to test out the habits of happiness and to notice what begins to shift in your life. Notice what happens to your HQ – your Happiness Quotient.
Until next time…
Betty