Archives for October 2015

Treat Your Body Like a Temple for Increased Happiness

happiness

Treat your body like a temple, not a dumpster, and you can increase your happiness.

Scientists have discovered that about half of our happiness is based on factors we can’t control, like genetics and our upbringing. About 8 percent is attributed to circumstances in our lives, our educational level, marital status, and income. The remaining 40 percent is a reflection of our attitude and choices we make, especially the choices we make regarding our bodies.

Under normal circumstances, our bodies house all we need to function as human beings. We were designed to experience happiness. From our brain to every organ and system, we were created to be optimum living machines. We even have the drugs we need already inside of us, and our brain is the chemist ready to fill prescriptions as needed.

Access the natural drugs in your body

So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health.
—A. J. Reb Materi

Endorphins, which are three times more powerful at killing pain than morphine, are produced naturally by exercise, listening to soothing music, laughing, crying, and spending time in the sun.

Serotonin helps us have that happy feeling and controls our moods, aiding sleep and preventing depression. Bright light and exercise will increase our levels of serotonin.

Dopamine makes us energetic and alert and improves our decision-making and socializing skills. Eating bananas, foods with antioxidants, almonds, and sunflower seeds are all believed to produce dopamine naturally.

Would you fuel your car with soft drinks and expect it to run? I don’t think so. That’s because you know your car was designed to run on gasoline (for now). Putting anything else in your car will not propel it forward and will likely ruin it.

Even though we have lots of information available about what is good for our bodies, many of us continue to shovel junk in there. Especially when we’re young, we take our bodies for granted and tax them to their limits. Consuming unhealthy foods, neglecting exercise, shortchanging our sleep, and failing to drink enough water not only cause us to be overweight and lethargic, but also make us susceptible to illness and diminish our happiness.

Access nutrients from food

Because my sister Sonja died of multiple sclerosis in 2005, I always pause when I hear anything about this progressive and often fatal disease. One day I passed through the dining room as my youngest daughter was watching a video on her computer about multiple sclerosis. I stopped to listen to Dr. Wahls as she described how she had transformed her health and body after suffering for four years with secondary, progressive multiple sclerosis. When she was confined to a tilt-recline wheelchair, it became very hard for her to make her hospital rounds. Conventional medicine wasn’t working. She was afraid she would be bedridden for the rest of her life. That’s when Dr. Wahls began to study the research in auto-immune disease and brain biology. From what she learned, she decided to get her nutrients and vitamins from food rather than pills and supplements.

Using her Mitochondria Diet, Dr. Wahls recovered her ability to walk easily without a cane and ride her bicycle. Now she is devoting her life to lecturing and research. When she shared her story at a November 2011 TEDx talk, it went viral. Although she is careful to point out that her work has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and she does not promise to treat, prevent, or cure disease, she now uses these diets and protocols in her primary care and traumatic brain injury clinics.

Adopt healthy habits to increase your happiness

You may not be ready to adopt Dr. Wahls’ Mitochondria Diet, or any other organized eating plan, but your body will function better and help you maintain happiness when you do the following:

• Cook and consume a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables. Increasing concern for healthier eating and green living has resulted in better choices in major grocery stores and healthier choices in medium-sized stores.

• Gain access to better-quality food. At one time, it was difficult for low-income or more remote communities to have access to high-quality foods because of the absence or scarcity of grocery stores [and ample fast food drive-throughs.] But more and more communities of both high and low income levels are solving this problem by setting up community gardens, engaging in community-supported agriculture, and attracting farmer’s markets.

• Make water your beverage of choice and consume at least eight glasses each day. While there is disagreement over whether purified or filtered water is better than tap water, just choose your favorite and drink it regularly. It has become customary throughout the U.S.A. for commuters to carry a bottle of water with them.

• Exercise at least three times a week. Every day would be better. Walking is the easiest and least expensive exercise. Getting a walking buddy makes walking more fun. and keeps me consistent.

• Breathe deeply and consciously, sending oxygen throughout your body. Deep breathing helps your body get rid of toxins and helps reduce stress.

• Avoid sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. Not only do these provide no nutrition, but all are addictive and can impair our motor and other skills. Because I’ve been a lifelong coffee drinker, I was surprised recently to discover that I’m not enjoying coffee as much as I once did. I think exercise and healthier eating are making coffee less welcome in my body and less satisfying to my taste buds. (I’m still working on this area however.)

• Start your day with a healthy breakfast. Not only is it the fuel that gets you going, but it also gives you energy, enables you to think better, and prevents you from binging, when you’ll eat anything to satisfy that late morning/early afternoon hunger.

• Avoid eating after 7 p.m. This one is a challenge for me because I admit I love to snack in the evening.

You certainly wouldn’t trash a place you hold dear or for which you have reverence. You have been entrusted with the precious gift of a body. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to taking care of it. Invest time to research what combination of food, living habits, and exercise works best for you.

We spend a lot of time talking about attitudes, but without taking care of our bodies, we’re missing a critical component. Take loving care of your body, and it will take care of you, resulting in the greatest benefit of all—happiness.

Like you, I’m still working on adopting healthy habits. Which habits are your greatest challenge? What can you add to the healthy habits list?

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This is an excerpt from Chapter 4, Making Happiness a Way of Life in Color Your Life Happy: Create Your Unique Path and Claim the Joy You Deserve, 2nd edition. Visit https://coloryourlifehappy.com to to learn more about the book before it is released on Amazon and other major booksellers. [/feature_box]

Filed Under: blog, Happiness, Healthy living

How to Harmonize Family and Work [An excerpt from Color Your Life Happy, 2nd ed.]

By Flora 2 Comments

We are checking out the Olympic Village during the 1984 Summer Olympics.

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you,
as you are to them.

—Desmond Tutu

When I see parents pushing a baby in a stroller, I often wonder if they realize what a precious life they have been given. And more, I wonder if they realize what a tremendous opportunity they have to help this new life grow up to be a joyful, happy, and loving person.

So many of us get caught up earning the money we need to take care of our families that we neglect to devote the time, love, and energy to them that they deserve.

Even as a very young girl, I always expected to have both a family and a career. None of that either/or stuff for me. Growing up watching my mother run a successful home-based beauty shop while she raised three girls probably had something to do with my ambitions. Seeing her play the piano and organ at our church every Sunday, then dash home to cook a scrumptious dinner convinced me that balance was quite doable. I didn’t learn until later that this harmonizing act required skill, determination, and a secret ingredient.

The secret to harmonizing family and career

The secret to harmonizing your family and career is learning to take care of yourself first.

Wait! Don’t panic. I don’t mean you should neglect either your family or ignore your business. I mean you should do the things that make you happy and are important to you, so you feel full. By full, I mean complete, believing that you are enough. When you’re not engaged in satisfying activities, a career you love, and fulfilling your life’s purpose, you will feel an emptiness. Some people try to fill this emptiness with external pleasures like food, drink, drugs, sex, and other risky behavior. Those don’t work. Only by taking care of your needs and pursuing the life you love will you be able to give to your family and others.

Think about this. When airline attendants go through the emergency information just before the plane takes off, they always say, “In the unlikely event of loss of air pressure in the cabin, an oxygen mask will drop down. Put the oxygen mask on yourself first before assisting a child traveling with you.” In other words, you won’t be able to help anyone else if you’re incapacitated. The same thing is true in the rest of your life.

This simple truth applies especially when it comes to harmonizing your family and your career. You must take care of your own physical, psychological, and spiritual health so you’ll be able to work and be there for your family.

But there’s another important reason you should take care of yourself first. Your children, partner, family, customers, and others learn how to treat you based on the way you treat yourself. If you value, honor, and respect yourself, then others will, too.

Make harmonizing family and work a top priority in your life

Until recent years, it was mainly women (but not men) who faced the challenge of harmonizing family and work. That’s because, despite all our modern thinking and open lifestyles, the woman is still expected to bear the major responsibility for maintaining the family and the household—even if she’s a corporate CEO or the first woman elected president of a country. Advice on harmonizing family and work is still addressed to women in publications like Parents Magazine, websites like Working Mother, and increasingly in business publications like Forbes. Fair (2013) breathes fresh air into the parenting advice arena by confessing that it’s impossible to perfectly balance the ups and downs of juggling family and career. Her guilt-free tips urge us not to aim for perfection, but to decide what matters most and is long-lasting for our children, caring for ourselves, and enjoying satisfying careers too.

There’s no question that both family and work are important. Without income from work, the family cannot be housed and fed. But without a harmonious family, the benefits of work are lost. It is the responsibility of both parents, whether one or both have outside jobs, run a business, or stay at home.

Creating harmony is critical to family happiness

We need only to look at the lives of successful celebrity parents to see the struggles and failures disharmony can cause. Perhaps one of the most notable examples of inharmonious parenting was Bing Crosby, famous for his crooning love songs and his smooth rendition of “White Christmas.” As friendly and easy-going as he was on the screen, he was known by friends and others to be a violent, neglectful, and abusive parent to his four sons from his first marriage. After Bing’s death, his oldest son, Gary, wrote a tell-all book, Going My Own Way, about the abuse and neglect he and his brothers suffered. Sometime after the book’s publication, Gary confessed that he exaggerated some of his claims. Two of Gary’s brothers committed suicide and the third one died of a heart attack. Bing Crosby was loved by his fans for the gentle, loving, and happy-go-lucky guy he seemed to be in his songs and movies, but in his most important role—parenting—all the benefits of his fame and wealth seemed lost, at least with his first family.

In his second marriage, Bing was older and spent more time with the children of this marriage. Thus, they remember him with much love and affection. The PBS documentary Bing Crosby Rediscovered neither vilifies Bing nor puts him on a pedestal.

Another celebrity parent, Joan Crawford, was the main character in another famous tell-all book, Mommie Dearest, written in 1978 by her adopted daughter, Christina Crawford, and made into a movie in 1981. According to Christina and her brother, Christopher, Joan Crawford’s bouts with alcohol and men and the stress of her acting career caused her to become abusive. Joan’s obsession with perfection made life unbearable for Christina and her brother as they found they couldn’t live up to their mother’s standards.

While there is much we adults can do to help ourselves overcome sad, abusive, and horrible childhoods, it would clearly be far better to have been nurtured and valued in a loving environment as children. We can do for our children what our parents did not do for us. We can maintain a harmonious family and succeed in a career. This is the toughest harmonizing act in life, and yet many achieve it. How do they do it? Most important, how can you do it?

I’ve already mentioned the importance of taking care of yourself first. What else can you do to ensure that you will be able to harmonize family and career?

Start with intention

I’ve always marveled at the way a cocktail waitress correctly remembers the drink order of each person in a large group without writing it down. When she returns to the table later, she asks who wants a refill, again remembering the drink order of each person. Most amazing is when the party leaves and a new group is seated at the same table, the process starts again. The waitress erases the previous group’s orders from her mental slate and now takes the new drink orders. How is she able to do that? Intention. She plans to remember, has faith that she will remember, and commits to remembering.

To harmonize family and work, you must intend to do so and commit to it. Decide that you want harmony, then be willing to do whatever it takes to bring it about. You can’t approach raising a family and succeeding at work as a “maybe” or a test run. It isn’t a rehearsal. It’s your life, and you must live it full speed ahead if it is to be harmonized and happy.

Give up the if-onlys and what-ifs.

Looking at the present as a reason for not going after what you want is a trap. It holds you back from finding ways to get what you want.

If only I had sent my children to private school, they would have gotten better jobs.

A person who looks backwards is like someone driving forward while looking in the rearview mirror. You are focusing on something you can’t change while ignoring the only time you can change: the here and now.

Use regrets as lessons

If you do find regrets of past actions creeping into your mind today, use those regrets as lessons to help you create a better life now. But also use them to forgive yourself and others. Here how:

Accept responsibility for the mistake you believe you made, but don’t dwell on it. A problem claimed is a problem that can be reframed. I like to ask myself, “What did I learn from the experience?” as a way to begin healing.
Give yourself credit for being a caring person. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t feel guilt, shame, or pain for your behavior. Use your past behavior only as a starting point to build a different future.
Don’t waste time thinking that forgiveness means condoning mistakes or poor judgment. You’re human and therefore guaranteed to make errors. Forgive yourself so you can heal.
Imagine what you would say to your best friend if she were in the same situation. Chances are, you would offer her encouragement. Say these words of encouragement to yourself.
Think of one small step forward you can take. Once you can take one small step forward, you are no longer stuck. Now you are in transition, which is a great place to be.
Look around you and think about the things in your life you have to be grateful for. Dwell on the fact that there are many in the world who would consider themselves wealthy to have some of the things, relationships, and experiences you take for granted.
If your regrets linger, get professional help from a therapist, group, spiritual leader, or medical professional. There’s no need to go it alone.

The idea is to work with what you have. You don’t need a mansion, and you don’t need to shower your family with toys and gifts to be happy and successful. Your intention to create harmony in your family is the best start.

What are some ways you can harmonize your family and work? Do you have a tip to add to the ones I shared here? Tell us in the Comments.

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This is how I begin Chapter 7, Harmonizing Family and Work in Color Your Life Happy: Create Your Unique Path and Claim the Joy You Deserve, 2nd edition. Visit https://coloryourlifehappy.com to to learn more about the book before it is released on Amazon and other major booksellers. [/feature_box]

Filed Under: blog

Simplify Your Life, Increase Your Happiness [Excerpt from Color Your Life Happy, 2nd ed.]

By Flora Leave a Comment

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
—Henry David Thoreau

In the movies of my childhood about the westward migration of Americans in the 1800s, there was always a string of rickety wagons loaded with families’ worldly possessions slowly crossing the prairies. Bed frames and rocking chairs were tied on top with pots and pans clanging against the sides. Drawn to what they hoped would be a more prosperous life on cheap land they’d heard about in letters from relatives and friends who had gone before, the pioneer families pushed on in spite of dwindling supplies, wagon breakdowns, and occasional fights with cantankerous fellow pioneers along the way.

As the movie family grew weary of fighting off disease, battling with Native Americans who were desperately trying to protect their land and families, stopping only to bury those on whom the trip had taken its toll, plus trying to keep up their spirits, they eventually realized they could travel faster if they lightened their load. The western migratory trails became lined with discarded household furniture and other possessions.

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you need.
—Vernon Howard

While the pioneers shed their possessions to expedite their westward journey, throughout history, people have chosen simple living for spiritual, secular, health, anti-consumerism, and other reasons.

He has the most who is most content with the least.
—Diogenes

The move to simpler living

Simple living has deep historical roots. Diogenes of Sinope (fourth century BCE), believed that happiness comes from meeting our basic needs. He is credited with many witticisms regarding simple living. Thoreau (2013), American author, poet, abolitionist, and naturalist (born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts), conducted a two-year experiment with simple living in a cabin he built beside Walden Pond. Mohandas K. Gandhi, born in India in 1869, is best known for non-violent civil disobedience and living a simple life of self-sufficiency.

Many ordinary people today are throwing up their hands in defeat, trying to keep up with the Joneses at the cost of amassing huge debts. They have engaged in a “simplicity movement” to reduce stress and become participants rather than bystanders in their lives. The possessions we craved in the past, such as luxury cars, expensive wardrobes and accessories, and a big house with a big backyard, have betrayed us. The satisfaction we expected from our expensive possessions is short-lived. Our sense of well-being also declines as we see the cost of keeping up our possession-rich lifestyle becoming too high.

Putnam (2000) found these efforts to keep up with the Joneses by commuting to higher paying jobs disturbing, not just for what it does to our personal lives, but for what it means to our community. Those of us who have been freeway fliers making long commutes to work didn’t need Putnam to tell us those commutes are killers. Putnam found that every ten minutes of commuting results in ten percent fewer social connections. Commuting adds to social isolation and is destined to contribute to unhappiness.

I’m a former road warrior. Trust me—you do not ever get used to the commute. It’s not the miles that get you down. It was the uncertainty brought on by changing weather, the rising cost of gas, and accidents and detours that persuaded me to move closer to my job. After driving thirty-five miles one way to work the first year of my last full-time job, it wasn’t long before I vowed to move closer. Yes, it meant selling my house and uprooting my kids, and getting settled into a new lifestyle. But my peace of mind depended on it. When I found a house eight and a half miles from my job, I was elated. For the first time in my married life, I could be home in minutes, easily attend my kids’ school events, and even walk to the store, the post office, and other places if I chose to do so.

Americans’ fascination with cars has diminished so much in our nation. In fact, the less time we have to spend in them, the happier we are. A major consideration for families considering a move is the “walk score” of the location, which you can find for your home and workplace at http://www.walkscore.com. The more errands, socializing, and civic engagement that can be accomplished on foot, the higher the walk score.

More than just a reaction to economic conditions, simpler living is enabling families to spend more time together. Parents can read to their kids at night. We worry less about bills and upkeep. On a practical level, moving to a smaller dwelling also means less to store and clean. People who can downsize without feeling deprived can better enjoy the possessions that have high value for them.

You may already have the life you want

Many of us find we are happier when we simplify our lives. But many of us are also like the American tourist in the following story, which is similar in spirit to the philosophy of the Chinese philosopher, Chuang Tzu.

An American tourist stood at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village and watched as a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his catch and asked how long it had taken to catch them.

“Only a little while.”

“Then why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the tourist asked.

“With this,” the fisherman said, “I have more than enough to support my family’s needs.”

“But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening. I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”

The tourist scoffed. “I can help you. You should spend more time fishing and use the proceeds to buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you could sell directly to the processor and open your own cannery. Then you would control product, processing, and distribution. You could leave this small village and move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually to New York, where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise.”

“But, how long will this take?” the fisherman asked.

“Fifteen to twenty years.”

“But what then?” asked the fisherman.

The tourist laughed. “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!”

“Millions? Then what?”

“Then you would retire,” the American said. “Move to a small, coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings, where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

Do you, like the American tourist in the story, long for a simpler life, but believe you can only have it in some distant future? The truth is, of course, that you can have it now. You can use one or more of the following ideas to simplify your life and enjoy it more every day.

Slow down

Since the beginning of the Industrial Era in our country, we seem to have become obsessed with doing things faster and faster. Have you almost been sideswiped by a grocery shopper rushing to beat you to the checkout line? Or was that you who whizzed by me?

Our lives are so rushed, it’s a wonder we even see the scenery as we go through life. Oh, that’s right—we don’t.
Honoré (2005) pointed out that slow is a state of mind. He said,

Fast isn’t turning us into Masters of the Universe. It’s turning us into Cheech and Chong…Slow is just a new word to understand old problems…It’s a re-freshening of ideas that have been there since time immemorial. But there’s a new appeal about the word slow. It’s pithy, it’s countercultural. (Cited in Green, 2008)

Americans are so unfamiliar with the concept of slowness that when his book was published in the U.S., its title was changed from In Praise of Slow to In Praise of Slowness (but with the same subtitle).

The Slow Movement

The slow movement began in Italy in the 1980s as the Slow Food Movement. Now “slow” is a term used to encourage us to do everything at the right speed, whether it’s education, exercise, sex, or work. The slow movement isn’t “anti-speed.” It favors connectedness. Rushing through everything prevents us from savoring food, enjoying life experiences, and associating with people. Honoré doesn’t suggest that we slow our lives to a snail’s pace. But he finds it troubling that we have one-minute children’s stories, speed dating, and the need to amass thousands of so-called friends on Facebook, each of which diminishes the opportunity for a meaningful encounter.

If you always feel tired and rushed, and can barely remember what you did, ate, or saw in a day, then you know you need to slow down. It’s no surprise that the Slow Food Movement began in Italy, the home of fabulous food. When Carlo Petrini learned that McDonald’s planned to build a franchise near the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, he organized a demonstration. As weapons of protest, he and his followers threw—what else?—penne pasta. Soon after, Petrini founded the International Slow Food Movement, which encourages us to take care with what and how we eat. The Slow Food Movement’s advocates want to save endangered foods such as the red abalone, Northern California heirloom turkeys, and Vella Cheese Company’s dry, aged Monterey Jack cheese, promote responsible agricultural systems, and help us return to the joy of food preparation and consumption.

If you’re ready to slow down, here are some ideas to get you started:

• Avoid cookie-cutter homes by visiting www.TheSlowHome.com.
• Enjoy your travel. Ease over to SlowPlanet.com and wrap yourself in sustainable clothes, jewelry and furniture at http://alabamachanin.com.
• Disenchanted with instant messaging? Try the slow electronic mail movement at www.slowlab.net.
• Learn more about the Slow Movement at www.CarlHonore.com.

Investigate these ideas on slowness. The slow life may be just your speed.

Have you cut back, slowed down or simplified your life in some way? Share in the comments how it affected your happiness.

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This is an excerpt from Chapter 6, Simplifying Your Life for Happiness in Color Your Life Happy: Create Your Unique Path and Claim the Joy You Deserve, 2nd edition. Visit https://coloryourlifehappy.com to get updates on when the book is available at Amazon and other major booksellers. [/feature_box]

References

Green, Penelope. (2008, January 31). The slow life picks up speed. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/garden/31slow.html

Honore, C. (2005). In praise of slowness: Challenging the cult of speed.
New York: Harper One.

Putnam, R. D. (2000) Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American
community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Thoreau, H. D. (2013). Walden. New York: Empire Books.

Filed Under: blog, Happiness, simplify your life

Do More of What You Enjoy

By Flora 2 Comments

I couldn’t resist posing at the typical tourist spot by the Leaning Tower of Pisa

It’s inevitable that as we get older, we will attend more funerals. There’s nothing that reminds us of our own mortality like watching our friends and contemporaries succumb to illnesses or die of natural causes. One of my friends uses funerals to remind herself to keep busy enjoying her life. “Every time I return from a funeral,” she says, “I book another cruise.”

What do you enjoy?

You may not long for cruises, but surely there’s something you’ve always wanted to do. If you don’t do it now, when are you going to do it?

Maybe you’ve always wanted to pursue a certain hobby, write your life story, climb a mountain, travel by rail across the United States, or learn another language. The possibilities are endless.

But I can already hear your objections:

I don’t have the money.
I don’t like traveling alone.
I don’t know anyone to go with me to [fill in the blank].
I’m too old to [fill in the blank].
I’m afraid to fly.
I’m afraid to drive.
I don’t like public transportation.

For just a moment, pretend that none of your objections exist. What would you love to do? Make a list. Since this is all imaginary, feel free to make your list as long as you want and make your wishes as elaborate as you can imagine!

What do you need to do?

Now look at your list and pick one wish and write all the things you would have to do to have that wish come true.

I’ll give you a personal example. I mentioned that one of my goals was to travel to Europe. What did I need to do?

Get a passport.
Choose a country.
Look up airfares.
Look up organized tours going to that country.
Check out prices of tours.
Select a tour.
Investigate and rearrange my finances to see how I could comfortably afford the trip.
Talk to people who have been where I want to go to get tips and advice.

What are the immediate things you can do?

Your next step is to make a list of each of the items on your list, and for each item identify what you need to do to accomplish your goal. For example, to get a passport I needed to find out:

Where to get a passport
The price of a passport
The application process
What else is involved.

By the time you get to this third tier of your list, you will see that there are things you can do today or tomorrow. For example, it takes only a few minutes to find out where to get a passport. If you have access to the Internet, you can find out all you need to know about passports (or anything else) very quickly. If you don’t have access to the Internet, your local library does. The librarian will be happy to help you find the information you need.

This is just the start, of course. But keep it up and your objections will begin to evaporate. Get busy, and start on your first list now!

And by all means, don’t wait for someone else to be ready.

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What do you enjoy? Have you delayed doing it? What is a small step you could take tomorrow? Share in the comments.

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This is an excerpt from Chapter 5, Taking Responsibility for Your Happiness in Color Your Life Happy: Create Your Unique Path and Claim the Joy You Deserve, 2nd edition. Visit https://coloryourlifehappy.com to get updates on when the book is available at Amazon and other major booksellers. [/feature_box]

Filed Under: blog