WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY? WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY?

Tons of things! I mean “stuff” material objects and also “doing” tons of things…

·         Books- reading, reading, reading…worlds open up!

·         Movies and Documentaries -Fun ones, adventure filled movies, romantic ones, Historic films and documentaries, nature documentaries, even documentaries on how it’s made and how it works!

·         Writing- I LOVE writing. Putting my thoughts down on paper, making lists, dreaming in words, jotting down ideas that strike me, gratitude for what life has so generously given me. There is a particular magic attached to watching the words froming on paper….

·         Drawing and Painting – the artist in me keeps on pushing to the fore now and then

·         Cooking – this may have to do with the "creative" process or my passion for healthy food that is fuel for our bodies and sustains us. We all know that food cooked with love is delicious and generates wellbeing on more than just a physical level.

·         Meditation – Can’t do without it! It took me a long time to get the hang of it. Though a reflective introvert, used to stillness, solitude and peace of mind most of the time, I would start and stop meditation as a practice. Start all over again and then give up and so on and so forth. Guided meditations helped me as well the grace of having meditation masters. Now I live it daily, mindfully, blissfully.

·         Walks in Nature, City exploration walks, walks

·         Dancing – my favourite form of exercise!

·         Music – expresses every human emotion, nay the human soul! My audio player accompanies me everywhere, contains my prayers and meditations too!

·         Cleaning up – sometimes – very very cathartic!

·         Animals – pets, they make me laugh, their antics are adorable and their love unconditional

·         Nature, overall, fills me with wonder at the the way everything fits in and functions like clockwork

·         Kids – their wonder, curiosity and joy at the tiniest of things. Their innocence, the way their mind is open to everything – limitless

·         Exploring the depths of my own personality – who am I? Finding things I love and things I don’t like at all. Ugh! Is that really me? Get to work and weed it out! Transform it. Come out better, stronger, shining. Great! All done. Satisfaction. For a short while and then again I need to go on to work at something else or the same thing at a deeper level. It takes effort and pain and suffering and brings joy and serenity and satisfaction. Easy? Nope, but totally WORTH IT! 

·         Volunteer Work – contribution builds me up. It also feeds my EGO. Feels good to give. So I have to remind myself to be humble. Helps me see how very fortunate I AM!

·         Seeking my Purpose – seems to be an ongoing quest. I find it, I work at it, I realise there’s more to it, I seek more again, define it, refine it…WHO AM I? WHY AM I HERE? WHAT DRIVES ME?

What makes you happy? Find it. Do it. Live it. Feel it. Be it. God Bless!

GRATITUDE

I AM GRATEFUL for everything, for the fact that I AM ALIVE and WELL, my body functions to its best ability, I can see, hear, taste, smell and touch. I even have a functioning intellect and the possibility to reason, to tune into my intution.

There is a roof over my head, food in my tummy, people who care for me; I have amazing, adorable, loving pets. I move through the experiences of life smoothly, feeling and living ALL it has to offer, the deep pain and anguish that teaches me lessons, the amazing JOY that makes my heart sing, harsh and bitter anger that I learn to conquer and rise above, hair pulling frustration that I use to grow from and use to fuel new solutions, new beginnings, happy satisfaction at reaching and conquering new goals and then setting new ones again, raising the bar higher everytime… sadness at the passing of things I would so like to hold on to, transformed to acceptance of change and  eventually the outlook of welcoming change that will bring Growth and Evolution and Joy and Happiness. 

I am grateful for my life, for the big things and yet concentrated on the tiny things, the small moments and small victories that fuel my appreciation, allowing me to keep working at the bigger goals in the winning of my own personal race in life against my own self.

I am GRATEFUL for what I AM today, better than what I was yesterday, a definite improvement.

Deeply Grateful and Blessed!

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A VISION BOARD

Vision Board : a term we hear often these days, it’s been around for quite some time but seems to be becoming more and more popular, and righly so in my opinion.

Coming from a design background someone like me wouldn’t have any problem making my own personal vision board, yet, I kept on putting it off, waiting for a friend to do it with me, waiting for the right pictures, the right moment, season, mood…waiting while time went by, rather flew by...and I was always without my much desired Vision Board.

One fine day, I was quite desperate for things to change, could wait no more and decided to have a go at it, no matter what and strangely enough, within two days my friend also joined me. It took us all of two hours to pull out the pictures from the magazines we had been setting aside for over 24 months, sift through them, cut, arrange and paste them onto the chart. Two extremely satisfying and joyful hours as we let our fancy free, our dreams  resurface, our desires take flight. It took another half an hour to totally clean up the mess and put up the Vision Board in a prominent place where we would be seeing it daily, before going to bed and upon waking up. 

Work Done = Satisfaction and Pleasure

Roughly 12 months down the lane I must say that it has worked like a charm…not only does it give me immense pleasure to actually see what bring me joy and what I would like manifested in my life, it does seem to be helping in pushing me along to achieve it, to get further clarity in my aims and goals and thoughts.

I feel that it works even when I am not actively and intentionally looking at it.

The images remind me of what I love – beauty, harmony, quality, spirituality, relaxation, productive satisfying work, a holiday by the seaside, teaching, nature…. I am sure that having it around in plain sight, subconsciously, I am being drawn closer and closer to my goals. I am also becoming aware of what is missing in my Vision Board that I want, and I will be adding that, soon, very soon!

So, my personal recommendation to all of you who have not yet put your desires into words and pictures, please do it. Within the week. You will be very pleasantly surprised at the results! Things may even materialise beyond your original desires.

A few tips from my experience...

 

How to make a Vision Board:

Think carefully of what makes you happy, what you like, what you love doing, what you would like to do and have in life. Take your time over this, jot it down. Don’t worry if it’s still vague and hazy, just keep jotting down what makes you happy/ what you think will add to your happiness.

Gather some magazines/pictures related to your interests/wants/objects of desire. Choose the ones you like most, those you respond to on an emotional level, pull out and cut. Put together pictures of a similar kind, those for example that represent travel or family or home. You may have too many or too few of a kind but don’t worry, the process will help you clarify your ideas.

Grab some scissors, glue and board paper (A 4 size is too small, my suggestion is to go as big as you can handle). 

Start placing the cut pictures onto the paper, play with the placements and the free spaces. Have FUN!

This is the part where we have a lot of fun, it also helps us cristallize our ideas…we realise that we need more pictures of a kind or there is something we haven’t yet got. You could use artist’s tape to try placing the pictures and holding them in place until you feel sure, then glue them, add words if you wish, design around spaces if you feel like it.

Hold it away from you and bask in the satisfaction of having made your first Vision Board. This is a start, as time goes by, you may realise that you need to refine your vision, your goals. No sweat. Make a new one, more aligned with the new, clearer you! 

If anyone in the family does not understand it, bless them with love and understanding, that they too may realize how powerful it can be in helping them live their best.

Let the magic unfold. God Bless!

THE POWER OF WRITING THINGS DOWN

Has anyone noticed that when you put pen to paper, more things happen than when you simply keep them in mind? 

Be it To Do lists, Shopping Lists, Checklists of things you need to tell you car mechanic or your doctor, routines you need to establish, things you would like to do, goals you’d like to accomplish, whatever it is, having it down on paper seems to unleash miraculous forces that come together to make things happen.

Putting things on paper also frees your mind from having to remember. You can utilise precious energies and valuable memory space for things that are really useful and important to improving your life. It is true that mind-games like trying to remember numbers and names and lists may help to keep your memory sharp but there are more fun and rewarding ways to do it as well, ways that help you further your goals in life.

When you pen down lists, ideas and goals, you don’t forget something important. This saves a lot of time, energy and undue stress. Many times have I returned home from a shopping trip with everything in my bag except for what I set out to get, simply because I did not pen down a list or if I did take the trouble to do it, I forgot to check it at the store. This had me rushing back to the store, trying to look cool, calm and collected in front of the cash clerks or I would go to a different store, farther away or simply do without (not a nice feeling!). Quite hilarious now, in hindsight, but not at the moment when I needed the stuff and was pressed for time.

Our mind processes tens of thousands of thoughts daily, if we were to manage the quality and direction of these thoughts in a more conscious and intentional way, we can move faster towards the life we dream of. Rich, abundant, Joyous, Vibrant, Stress free…..

Despite having jotted down the things I would like to do and my goals in life at various points I did not always follow the plan or keep myself steadily on course. ‘Life Happens’ was my excuse and time and again I would find myself having to start the goal setting process all over again. 

All because I would allow myself to get distracted by the course of events in my life. Believe me getting distracted easily is not fun, even if it seems like fun at that particula moment and can you get to pay a very heavy price further down the line. Time moves on and suddenly we wake up to the fact that we have accomplished a bit less than we had dreamed of.

I would chance upon old notebooks with my goals jotted down neatly and I realised that I had somehow managed to achieve most of them, perhaps not in the time frame planned or not exactly in the way imagined, but still, most of them had turned into reality despite the distractions. The one regret I do have is not having put ‘Become Rich’ ever on my Goals List. I am correcting that. 

Another recent instance showed me the power of penning things down. A few months ago in a bout of inspiration I had jotted down a list of Fun tasks I would like to do. I taped it to a wall where I promptly forgot to look at it (working on eradicating this habit) and saw it again as I was looking for wall space to tape my new Babysteps to Wellness checklist. ‘I need to get down to doing these’, I was telling myself when I realised that I had already accomplished five upon the eleven listed! Not bad for a gal who in the meantime, has been travelling quite a bit, had her home burgled and struggled with a few personal issues.

It hit me again with force that when I jot things down, things start to “happen”. This seems to work best when you write things down onto paper, somehow different from typing them into an electronic device. There is something about the forming of letters by hand that seems to burn them into our brain.

This also brings me to the reflection that if I were to really concentrate my energies in keeping my goals in sight, planning them with a realistic timeline and keeping distractions under control, it won’t be long before I see miracles, more miracles, bigger, grander, more awe-inspiring miracles in my life. 

I am working on a lot of fronts in my life and at times I get very distracted still from my chosen path but I believe that I will get there. We all will. Thank you all for being part of my Journey and God Bless!

PS: ‘BE IMMENSELY RICH’ is on my list. The more you have, the more you have to give!