5 Thriving Habits to Happiness
I have habits I follow each morning which include stretching, dumbbells, tea, coffee, and a smoothy. These are warmups to begin my day of growth and contribution.
Two habits in the morning that are important are meditating and writing. Writing is my creativity that helps me clarify my thoughts and focus on my purpose. Meditating is a period of deep solitude that relaxes my nervous system, integrates my brain, allows me to reach into my subconscious for creativity, and allows me to separate myself from all the chaos in our world.
Exercise is a crucial part of my day. This is an expression of who I am. Yes I am connected to Nature by appreciating what makes my body healthier and prolongs my longevity with minimum illness in the process. All my internal systems benefit from exercising my body and cleaning out inflammation. Exercise also separates me from the negativity that can make us feel things are hopeless.
Contribution is our purpose and how we manage our time during the day is an expression of what we want to contribute. We are our contribution. Everything in Nature has a purpose starting with the smallest particles, atoms, and molecules. They express themselves to create everything we see. When you can see that your contribution helps other people, you are at purpose.
Kindness, generosity, caring, empathy, and protecting are behavioral habits. They are emotional connections to everything that lives. Just the fact you are a kind person defines you. The fact you are generous with your thoughts, respect, and encouragement defines you. The fact you care for and protect those in your circles defines you.
Notice, I haven’t mentioned results. We are often only results oriented and that can set us up for disappointment, jealousy, self-criticism, stress, and illness. We are often expected to be productive, but or productivity is a result of the foundation we have established in our lives. How we live our lives is an expression of our values.
Putting Our Habits Together to Form Our Days
If we love and take care of ourselves, love and care for others, and care about how we make the world a better place and make lives better with our efforts, it will determine what we contribute. We are best when we contribute from our passions. Yes, we continue the love into what we do because what we do is one more expression of how much we care.
Happiness comes from a process of contributing. People get rich when their contribution is valued and go to jail when they are at odds with what society is trying to achieve. The secret is to get in process with the right emotions that make us a valuable citizen. Taking care of ourselves and being concerned with others is what Nature intended for us and it is built into our DNA.
Eating, mating, caring for others in community, and learning have helped us evolve from a caveman. We often make life too complicated. Life is complicated, but that is when we look at the whole picture and feel the overwhelm. We need to look at our role and how to make our life meaningful to understand how everyone’s role contributes to what we experience every day.
Life was simple when there was only Adam and Eve as long as you didn’t eat the apple. Now with 8 billion people flapping their wings, there is much more stimulus and complexity. Happiness comes from separating ourselves from the complexity and adhering to the habits that make us more human. Buying a BMW is not happiness, it is us getting lost in the complexity. If God thought BMWs were important to our happiness they would grow on trees.
Our happiness brain chemicals of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins are stimulated by taking care of ourselves and others. They are stimulated by us learning and creating so we can make a better contribution. Consider your desires, your skills, and how you want to be remembered. Enjoy your capabilities and your humanity. Enjoy your passions. Everything else is part of the overwhelming complexity that we need to separate from who we are.
Read More
Emotions Are A Weapon Not A Hindrance
You Are in Charge of How Others See You
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As a Thriving Worker Consultant, I can engage in conversations with employers on how to begin the process of helping workers thrive and reach peak performance. It begins with a conversation to see how far an organization is willing to go to change the culture for workers.
Great practices for daily living can be learned with the Markap Series of Books. If your organization would like live presentations or Zoom meetings, they can be arranged for small to large groups.
