Motivation

How to be Happy when Life seems to be Crappy

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Let's discuss the 7 ways to be happy:

1. Three Walks

Research has proven that people who are physically more active are also happier in their day to day life. Exercise provides people with a greater feeling of enthusiasm.  It doesn't take much: half an hour of brisk walking three times a week improves happiness.

2The 20-Minute Replay

Studies have found that re-playing positive experiences improves people's lives and happiness.  Writing for twenty minutes about a positive experience dramatically improves happiness. Why? Because you actually re-live the experience as you are writing it and then re-live it every time you read it.  It helps us remember things we like about ourselves, people and our lives.

3. Random Acts of Kindness

Psychology Studies have proven that people who are kind to other people tend to be happier than people who are usually not. It's been found that kindness produces the most reliable well-being in any person who practices kindness.  Carrying out random acts of kindness every week will dramatically improve your happiness.

4.  A Complete Unplug

The richest, happiest and most productive lives are characterized by the ability to fully engage in the challenge at hand, but also to disengage and seek renewal.  Downtime after work helps people recharge. Turn off your phone after dinner, try to avoid as much as possible thinking about work issues while relaxing at home, don't use the Internet while on vacations, etc.

5.  Hit flow

When you get absorbed in what you are doing you are being challenged and demonstrating your skill - you are in your flow. People who find challenge and satisfaction of accomplishment tend to be happier.

6.  2-Minute Meditations

Brain scans (as part of Hospital Research), have shown that people who meditate show increase brain activity associated with compassion and self-awareness while stress levels shrink. Studies report that meditation can "permanently rewire" your brain to raise levels of happiness.

7.  Five Gratitudes

Make it a habit to write down five things you are grateful for from the past week.  As Charles Dickens wrote:  "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many, not your past misfortunes, of which all men have some" 

 

One of the core values we have as a company is to inspire and empower people in all aspects of their lives. Additionally, if you want to read about our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services, please visit www.isucorp.ca

Happiness… It’s all about attitude.

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"For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"   
Shakespeare

Question is:  why can't we think ourselves into a good mood whenever we want?

We all know it's no easy; people freak out, sweat and think something might go wrong - it's people's nature. We all have negative self-talk. There is no such thing as an eternal optimist.

 

Why do our brains focus on negative things, how can we learn to control it and make a conscious effort to be happy?

Our species have existed on this planet over two hundred thousand years, during most of that existence; life was mostly short, vulnerable to predators, brutal and highly competitive. Survival was key and being alert instead of complacent is what made people survive. 

The instinctive need for what we don't have yet creates in us a persistent state of dissatisfaction.  Unhappiness is nature's way of keeping people on their toes.

It begs the question: is that fear still programmed into our heads today?     

Yes

 

As Steve Jobs once put it "Only the paranoid survive"

 

Our brains still follow this paranoid model every day, and it's a recipe for unhappiness. We scan the world for problems because that led to our survival.

In today's world survival for food and safety does not apply as in the past, however rather than find good results and make them better, our brains still look for a problem and find a problem and that's usually all we see: problems.

So what do we do about it?

As Aristotle said:  “Happiness depends upon us"

In many cases, there is one main thing we can control in our life about ourselves and that is attitude.   

It's about choosing one's attitude in any given set of circumstances our own way.

Life is 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it.

90% of our happiness isn't based on what's happening but based on how we see things - our intentional thinking and activities.  Happiness is about seeing the half glass full rather than empty.

 

in our next blog, we will discuss the 7 ways to be happy right now.

 

One of the core values we have as a company is to inspire and empower people in all aspects of their lives. Additionally, if you want to read about our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services, please visit www.isucorp.ca

 

 

The Happiness Model

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There is a happiness model which most people follow in life - the thinking goes like this:

Great Work = Big Success = Be Happy

In real life the model does not work like that since most people tend to set new goals once they reach a previous one - why stop at a college degree if you can get a master's, why stop at being a Manager if you can become a Director; people tend to focus on the next job, next degree, next promotion.

We never get to happiness since it gets pushed further and further away.

What happens if we snap "Be Happy" off the end and stick it at the beginning? 
Be Happy = Great Work = Big Success

Everything changes!

So what is the first thing you must do in order to be happy? 

Be Happy FIRST.

Secret No. 1:  The first thing you must do before you can be happy is to Be Happy

 

In our next blog, we will discuss the single biggest reason it's so hard to be happy.

 

One of the core values we have as a company is to inspire and empower people in all aspects of their lives. Additionally, if you want to read about our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services, please visit www.isucorp.ca