My last blog was about overcoming negative thought patterns. This time I will focus on ways that you can begin to cultivate habits for happiness. One thing is to think more positively because January is like an in-between month when Christmas is over, money might be tight and people can feel a little sad.
Here are Healing-Feeling’s 3 top tips to help you beat the January blues.
1. Laugh. A lot.
On the 24th January is Belly Laugh Day. Founder, Elaine Helle, suggests that remembering memories of strange, funny and ‘now I can laugh at’ moments with people who will laugh with you is a fun way to release build up angst. Laughter Yoga is also something I do with the children and parents in my workshops. You can do this too.
Here is a short audio of us laughing and having fun…go on, join in – or make your own laughter.
2. Spend time doing Colouring
At the moment all the shops and markets are inundated with colouring books for adults and children and there is a trend at the moment….this is no surprise with the rise in stress levels and anxiety in society lately. Even though some adults think this is a time-wasting activity, many people know that this is a very therapeutic activity. Colouring helps to reduce stress and anxiety and helps us to concentrate and focus better. Colouring is a left-brain, more logical activity that stimulates the right-side, more creative part of the brain. Colouring helps us to focus on the present moment and can be a great activity for introducing mindfulness based work.
3. Gratefulness
One habit I ask my student to do is to write 3 things they are grateful for each day. When they ask why, I tell them that behavioural and psychological research has shown that when you acknowledge the simple pleasures and things in your life that you take for granted, then what you are doing is developing a habit to focus on the positive things rather than on the ‘lack’ in your life. You are in fact creating new neural pathways in your brain towards abundance that is already present. You are allowing yourself to ‘see’ the blindspot that you are ignoring in your life. Giving thanks makes people feel happier and it improves health and reduces stress. A daily practice of writing things you are grateful for raises your level of resilience so you can return to this when you have had a set-back in your life.
Spreading Happiness
As you know, I am busy researching and writing my book “Your Happy Child, 10 Proven Steps To Raisign A Happy Child” and (4th happiness habit to cultivate) is to get some fresh air and spend time with family so we had a day out to Spitalfields Market today. I was really happy to attend a pop-up event organised by Museum of Happiness (as I mentioned in my newsletter a couple of days ago) as I am a strong advocate of spreading happiness. If you have not signed up for the newsletter, you can sign up here. I will be launching my website on 4th February and you can hear about the competition.
I was excited to have a quick interview with Shamash Alidina, the Co-founder of The Happiness Museum and Author of 7 books including “Mindfulness for Dummies.” Here is what he says about his future plans to my question “How do you see this idea develop?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdowSLkN5cU
