Would You Like to Create

More Joy In Your Life?

 

by Cheryl

Here are two key

points that I have

learned along life's

journey:

 

Focus on the Positive

Things in Life - Not the

Negative

&

 

Try to Create as Much Balance

and Harmony in Our lives as Possible

Here's Some Helpful Tips To Achieve This Goal:

 

  • Take Time Out for “Play”: For instance, make sure you take time out for “play” - to do the things you enjoy doing.  For example: skiing, camping, sporting activities, singing, dancing, creating beautiful pieces of artwork, and so on. By physically taking part in some kind of activity that involves getting exercise or being creative creates a positive atmosphere around you. You will feel better and so will anyone near you. Enjoy what you are doing.

 

Quality Time with Family and Friends:  And of course take time out to have some quality time for your family and friends. Enjoy doing things with them that you all like to do.  This will help bring to all of you more joy and happiness.

 

De-Stress when Faced with Life’s Challenges.   De-stress by going into your “happy place” - mentally or physically - whenever you can and relax.  You are calming your mind and body and will be able to face life's challenges with new, more hopeful, perspectives.  Also, if you can spend some time out in nature to take a walk or to sit in a park, to feel the positive energy that Mother Nature can provide to you, this will give you positive energy to deal with the situations or difficulties that you are facing.

 

  • Life’s Challenges:  When faced with life’s challenges face them head-on and deal with them right away. Focus on fixing or improving the problems in a positive way, instead of just dwelling on them and creating more stress.  They usually won’t fix themselves, so by dealing with them right away you can move forward and stop worrying and stressing about it.

 

  • Difficult Situations or People: Also, when confronted with an awkward or difficult situation or person, take a few deep breaths before responding. This will help to calm you down so you can make an informed decision on how to deal with the situation or person. If you just react right away, you might make the wrong decision which could cause things to escalate and go from bad to worse. By taking a few breaths you change your state of mind from a negative to a positive one, so that you are then able to see things for what they really are, rather than how they first appear to be. You then can do the right thing. The outcome will be better and can end on a positive note. It is always far more productive to deal with things in a positive manner.  Please click here for more on Dealing with Difficult People.

 

  • Stop the "Hurry & Worry":  Too often we are far too busy with our daily life routines, between working, and running errands, and driving our children to hockey practices, or dance recitals, etc, that we forget to de-stress and relax. We are always in a hurry. We need to stop and break that cycle.

 

  • De-Stress: And even during those times when we are in a hurry we can de-stress and relax by taking a few seconds to deep breathe, to calm ourselves down before taking on the next job or chore. By taking time-out to calm ourselves we put our mind and body into a positive state.  Our stress levels will go down and we will feel better. This creates more harmony and balance.  Please click here for more on Reducing Stress.

 

  • Simplify Your Life. Un-Complicate Your Life:  To do this, stop worrying about the “what if’s”.  Deal with things as they come about, instead of worrying about what might or might not happen. Don’t expect perfection.  It won’t happen.  Life is imperfect.  Do the best that you can do and don’t stress about it. No one is perfect.  We all make mistakes. We need to learn from our mistakes, let it go, and move forward. Be positive. Look at what we have gained from the experience, and then look at what we have accomplished rather than what still needs to be done. Take the time to reflect on our accomplishments. Savor the moment. Don’t focus on the negative and the things that we're trying to avoid, but instead focus on the good things that we have accomplished or gained, like what we have learned from the experience and so on. Be happy with it.  Please click here for more on Simplifying Our Lives.

 

Appreciate, Love and Accept Ourselves as Children of GOD - However Imperfect We Still Might Be:  Build upon our self-worth, self-appreciation, and self-confidence and be the best we can be. Don’t try to be something we’re not. Quit worrying about what others might think of us and instead accept ourselves for who we are. We are all special and unique in our own ways, so we can appreciate ourselves for our own unique goodness and insights. In this way we can change the negative things into positive ones and be happier with ourselves.  In the same way it's important to be generous, tolerant and understanding and accept others for who they are and not try to change them.

 

  • Have Good Intentions and Sincerely Work to Implement Them: Sometimes, regardless of our best intentions, we don’t progress to the point where we intended to be. We simply may not have achieved our current goals. For some people this might be partially due to a lack of motivation. Remember, just thinking about doing something, isn’t going to get it done. We need to make it happen.  So, how can we do that?

 

  • Sometimes It Helps to Set Small Goals that are Attainable:  Thus, by taking "baby steps" we can gradually move closer and closer to achieving greatness and our big goals.  Please, be realistic about setting goals and then be sure to follow through with each step it takes to reach that goal. By accomplishing the little steps, we will feel better and it will help motivate us to carry on until we actually achieve the bigger goals.  And it's important to reward ourselves for each little step we accomplish - this will also motivate us to keep going until we get the job or task done.

 

  • Take Action, Follow Through, and Do It!  Then reward yourself and feel good about your achievements! Not only will you get the job (or task) done, but the results may be better than what you had ever hoped for! Now we are more productive and will be more satisfied of a job (or task) well done.  Plus, we've greatly boosted our self-confidence level!  And that's a tremendous benefit!  It's a win-win situation!

 

  • Don’t Procrastinate: Worrying about something and putting it off to avoid it, is not the answer. Make a decision about how to handle it and then follow through with it.  Deal with it, fix it, and move on.

 

  • Be Grateful for the Good Things that We Have or Have Had in Our Lives.  This is absolutely crucial, because feeling sweet, humble gratitude to our Mother-Father GOD opens our hearts and allows GOD to fill us with all the Love, Light and Encouragement we've been needing. We often have a hard time receiving this Divine Assistance because we've unintentionally closed our hearts by  dwelling on the "hurries and worries" of our daily lives.

 

  • For Example: Even if life is difficult for us at the moment we can still focus on the positive by thinking of how we would like things to be, while simultaneously simply being thankful for being alive.  Remember, miracles can happen and our situation can always change for the better.  By focusing on the positive, and all that is good in this world, we can change our outlook and open the way for something good to come to us. Most of us have experienced living in a bad location, have been in a bad relationship, or some other bad situation, but we can change that and make our lives better - saving ourselves and helping our planet in the process.  By focusing on the bright side we can help make a better world for all of us. We have a beautiful planet and it is worth saving.

 

  • Keeping Perspective:  If we keep our fear based egos and self-destructive emotions under control, it can help us to give ourselves more accurate "reality checks".  In this way we can keep things in perspective, instead of blowing the negative things way out of proportion. It's helpful to remember that when we get upset or angry about something, it only hurts ourselves and those around us and clouds our better judgment.  So it's crucial to stop being angry and upset.  Instead, it's better to fix the problem in a positive way so we can move onto something more enjoyable.

 

  • Don't Be Rude: If we are rude, demanding, controlling, manipulative or negative in some other way, most people will respond to us in a negative way or possibly even retaliate. It is up to us to change our bad habits and our negativity to positivity. How we handle a bad situation is all up to us. If we respond to a negative situation in a negative manner then we should expect the situation to possibly escalate and get worse. Not always, but it often does. Some people like to fight or cause trouble. So, be careful.  Sometimes it is better to excuse ourselves and walk away before things get out of hand. Don’t argue with them.  In most cases that only makes things worse. Instead, accept that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and they aren’t necessarily going to agree with what we say or do.

 

  • Taking Baby Steps Towards Finding Our Happy Place: Sometimes in life we face difficult challenges such as a death in the family, dealing with mental illness, a disease such as Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Parkinson's, MS, or perhaps a brain injury, depression or anxiety, and so on. These life challenges have to be dealt with each in their own way, but joy and happiness can still be a part of our lives. Taking the following “Baby Steps” can help us to obtain joy and happiness in these challenging situations:

 

  • Breathe: Please always remember to breathe deeply. Taking a few seconds or minutes throughout the day can help to calm our nerves and help us to relax, so that whatever we are faced with we can do in a positive way in a positive state of mind and body. This will be a “Baby Step”.  Practicing deep breathing exercise techniques is a great place start. It helps to put our mind and body into a more positive state. Even if it is only for a brief moment, it is a start in the right direction and each moment that we do this creates a healthier mind and body which makes it easier to find our “Happy Place”.  As a result we can experience more joy and happiness in various aspects of our lives.

 

  • Finding a Support Person Or Group:  When dealing with life’s greatest challenges sometimes we need a little help from someone, whether it is a family member, a friend, a Pastor or even our pet dog, cat, bunny and so on. Having someone or something to talk to or hug is very important. Talking about our problems, issues, and concerns is a great way to help us deal with them. But be careful who you talk to. Pick someone who is kind and loving - someone who is supportive and who will keep what we say in confidence. We don’t want someone to share with others what we've confided in them. So be careful. If you don’t have anyone to talk to, then there are many support groups that can help. And sometimes while sitting at home we can talk out loud to ourselves or talk to ourselves in the mirror. By saying nice things to ourselves it can help us create more positive attitudes and better feelings about ourselves so we can develop better behaviors - thus switching from the negative to the positive. This can take time, but each moment we do this adds to a life filled with more joy and happiness. In this way we are changing ourselves for the better and blessing all life around us.

 

Remember:

 

We are all responsible for our own actions and

reactions - so make them good ones!

 

Be positive and happy and take time to relax,

play and enjoy life to the fullest.

 

Be kind to ourselves, as well as to others.

 

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For a related topic click here:  Nurturing Our Spirit.

 

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More of Our Articles On Positive Living:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Please Click Here to Return to Our Intro to:

The Art Of Positive Living Articles.

 

Please click here to read Cheryl's:

Advice from her Angel Friends.

 

And please click here to read

some of Cheryl's remarkable experiences with:

Angels and the Nature Spirits.

 

Have Fun, Be Kind, Be Happy!

 

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Copyright 2020 Bill Gaum. All Rights Reserved