Saturday, August 22, 2015

30 Day Happiness Challenge

Popular wisdom tells us it takes 30 days to change a habit or behavior. Does this apply to happiness?Take the 30 Day Happiness Challenge and let's find out. 

Any time you don't like the way you are feeling, choose happiness, right then, even before you fix all of those things you want to change. In any situation, just choose happiness.  

Whoa, any situation? Yes, pretty much. I haven't found one that can't be improved by the peace of acceptance at the very least. For example, if you read the last Breakout Message, you know I spent more than 2 years with a misdiagnosis for emphysema, taking the wrong drugs for the wrong thing, As my ability to breathe declined and the pain in my arthritic knees increased. I confess, I dreaded what appeared to lie ahead. Still, over and over I chose some form of happiness, sometimes, peace, sometime gratitude for this era of the Internet, connected to you and coaching via Skype.

Ready to start? Close your eyes. Take a sweet, slow breath. Notice your answer to this question: If you could feel any way you want to right this minute, what would it be? When you have an answer open your eyes. How do you feel now? Is it some form of happiness?

If you still want to feel some painful emotion, you've got some work to do. "Emotional Options: A Handbook to Happiness" will show you how. 
Reviews/info in digital or paperback format  http://amzn.com/1878639005  

Why 30 days of this choosing happiness? Decades of practice taught me that it's a challenge to remember and a bigger challenge to do it. Why would something so easy and beneficial be so hard to do? Because we have learned a different way. We may habitually, unconsciously use other feelings to make our way through life, like:
  • Fear to keep us safe
  • Anger to stand up for ourselves
  • Guilt to correct our behavior
  • Sorrow to prove we care
A guy named Destin posted a YouTube video that shows how hard it is to change the way we do something we've learned to do without thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0. It's well worth a watch to prove you aren't just lazy or stupid. It really is a challenge to change an emotional habit, or any other kind..

Choosing happiness is not the only component of emotional health but it's power and ease make it the best first step I know. Please take it and let us know how it goes for you.

Cheering you on to happiness and success with love, 
Mandy