Happiness is a rather vague and subjective concept and yet as humans we tirelessly pursue it. It’s even in our U.S. Constitution!
But what does it mean?
It actually means something different for all of us.
Happiness is defined as a positive emotion.
Happy and positive are often used interchangeably.
Psychologist, Barbara Fredrickson is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the subject and she has compiled a list of the ten most common positive emotions.
Joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love. All of these emotions and more can be included under the umbrella of happiness.
So when you think of happiness it can be one of these feelings or a combination.
🖊 What are your favorites?
My top three are love, gratitude and abundance.
These three emotions changed my life.
You see, I lived most of my life mostly in a state of stress, overwhelm and scarcity.
In my mind, there was never enough. Not enough time, money or love.
And because I believed that that is literally what I would create over and over again.
Then one day after a major life crisis I decided that I had had enough.
I was ready to live my life differently and I knew that real change needed to come from the inside out.
I went to work.
I hired a Life Coach and we spent six months just working on all the thoughts that were creating my feelings of overwhelm and scarcity.
Because when I felt like there wasn’t enough I did things to create not enough.
This literally changed my life.
I went from not having enough time, money and love to waking up excited about my days, feeling passion and purpose.
Today, I do what I love, coaching amazing, brilliant women who are ready to create the lives they dream of.
I have more money and love than I have ever had before.
In fact, as I am writing this, I am sitting on a beach next to the love of my life!
My husband and I often ask each other, how can it possibly get better than this? And yet it does.
How did I go from stress, overwhelm and scarcity to love, gratitude and abundance?
The number one tool that I used to create my present life is to practice thinking about what I have.
I literally rewired my brain to see the abundance in my life.
Brains are wired to be negative and to focus on what we don’t have.
It’s called Negativity Bias.
It’s a survival skill and it’s completely normal.
But normal doesn’t always serve us.
When I focused on what I didn’t have, I felt bad and when I felt bad I would do things that kept me stuck in a life that was not satisfying to me.
What we think about we bring about.
So I began to deliberately practice focusing on all the good in my life.
This was not easy at first.
I started with clean drinking water.
Every time I would go to the sink or get a drink of water I would tell myself how amazing it was to live in a place where I had an abundance of clean water.
I could have clean water whenever I wanted it!
Then I would add new things like, I have electricity and heat and a warm bed!
I have access to the internet and health care. I have a reliable car. I have plenty of food and I live in a safe neighborhood. I have a family and incredible friends.
I did this all day, every day.
I rewired my brain by doing this consistently and this is now my new normal.
I see my life in a different way. The things I used to take for granted are now magical and awe inspiring to me.
I literally used to think, nothing works out for me and now I 100% believe,
Everything works out for me. I really do.
When I believe that, I feel abundant and when I feel abundant I show up powerfully, lovingly, purposefully and I create more and more love and abundance.
So, if you want to create more happiness in your life focus on what you currently have.
CHOOSE to feel thankful and grateful for it all.
Do this deliberately, do it often.
Make it a daily discipline and strengthen your happiness muscle.
Have a beautiful week and as always if you have any questions or comments just hit reply. I’m always here for you.