mindfulness

HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS TIP: BE THE KIND OF PERSON PEOPLE WANT TO ASSOCIATE WITH

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Who we are is paramount. It matters so much more than what we do or communicate. The key to every successful relationship – whether romantic, family, work, or business related – is being the kind of person who first and foremost cares about others, seeks to understand, and genuinely wants to be helpful. If you do this, gaining trust and support from others and connecting with others is much easier.

So many pursue individual agendas and wonder why they have trouble connecting with others or building successful business (and other) relationships. You have to be the kind of person people want to associate with. They don’t care so much about what you do or what you want. They care about who you are. And if you are the kind of person they can trust, respect, and count on, then you will build the kind of relationships that last for years (if not decades). And these are the kind of relationships you want. Those that add happiness, comfort, and warmth to your life.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships

HAPPINESS IS EASY

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Happiness is easy:

If you want love, then express love by being loving towards others.

If you want kindness, then be kind via your thoughts, words, and actions.

And if you want to be valued and respected, then value and respect others in your day to day thoughts, actions, and communications.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships

HAPPINESS TIP: LOVE, MARVEL, AND LET GO

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Well, just what exactly are you looking for? Magic and mystery and music and magnificence dance and abound all around you every moment of every day. The sunshine smiles, the skies wander, nature sings, animals love, and the earth spins in rhythm with the heavens in perfect balance and harmony.

What more than this is needed to make one smile, sing, and dance with joy and boundless love, wonder, amazement, and appreciation? What more I ask? What more could you be looking for?

Life and living is here right here and right now. Simply love and marvel and let go and waltz with the never-ending warmth, beauty, and flow.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness

HAPPINESS TIP: CLEAR THE CLUTTER AND TAKE STEPS TO LIVE INCREASINGLY HAPPIER

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Frequently, when you life coach people, you come up with alternate approaches for improving oneself and living happier. This is because everybody is different.  Something that works well for one person doesn’t work as well for someone else (and vice versa). Recently,  I worked with someone and came up with an alternate approach to living increasingly happier instead of the technique I originally used. It works like this:

Ask yourself what aspects of your life tend to affect you in a strongly negative way – creating substantial unhappiness in your life. When doing this consider activities you engage in, the work you perform, your financial situation, the people in your life, the information and media content you tend to surround yourself with and expose yourself to, your living situation, the goals you are presently pursuing (and any new ones you are considering), that which consumes your life more than you would like, any new experiences you are considering, and any personal issues which repeatedly create substantial unhappiness or negativity for you such as recurring stress, depression, anxiety, guilt, anger, and temptations, addictions, and compulsions. Becoming mindful of these aspects is helpful because awareness is the first step to change.

Upon gaining this awareness, you would next ask yourself what steps you can take to address each of the aspects of your life which affect you in a strongly negative way. Potential ways to address these generally fall into two primary categories: (1) those which involve creating distance or limiting participation (to include perhaps even removing oneself completely where possible or feasible), and (2) those which involve taking steps to work through or making significant changes. For those which fall into the second category – which might include current life challenges, work, and recurring personal issues (stress, depression, anxiety, etc.) – you would consider actions you can take to address these such as reading books on the topic(s), getting professional assistance, going to a support group or workshop, talking with others who have gone through similar experiences, and investigating/employing various other potential resources and sources of support. 

Once you have sufficiently addressed the strongly negative aspects, you would next consider what aspects of your life inspire or affect you in a strongly positive way – creating substantial joy and happiness in your life. You would then ask yourself what you can do to move towards, or increase your participation in, these strongly positive aspects and start taking these steps.

Once you’ve addressed all of the strongly negative and strongly positive aspects of your life, you would then repeat the above process by considering and addressing the moderately negative and moderately positive aspects.

As you fill more of your life with the positive and less with the negative, you will clear the “clutter” from your life and become increasingly happier. Once you’ve made significant progress in these regards start over and repeat these steps. Some people like to perform this process on an annual basis, perhaps the week leading to New Year’s or the week leading to their birthday, while others prefer to do this more frequently. Just do what works for you or those you are offering assistance to. 

Every time you inventory your life in the above fashion and work towards improvement, you will move in a positive direction, your life will get better, and you will feel increasingly happier. So don’t delay. Start today.

Here’s the original technique I used in case some of you would prefer this approach. Both approaches work well for promoting happiness in life but some prefer the original approach while others prefer the alternate approach addressed here. Just experiment with each of these and do what works best for you (or others you are offering assistance to). 

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships

HAPPINESS TIP: HOW TO CREATE A HAPPY, PRICELESS, BEAUTIFUL LIFE FOR FREE!

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

People frequently ask why I am always so happy, why I care so much about animals, and why I pick up recyclables when they see me walking or running. Well, much of it has to do with the way I look at life.

Consider this:

Imagine you loaned the use of your home to a house guest for a few days while you were away. When you return, you find your home has been completely trashed and has become a dirty, stinking, filthy mess. How would you feel about your house guest?

Now, imagine you loaned the use of your home to a different kind of house guest. When you return, you find your home has been thoroughly cleaned, polished, and beautified. In addition, you receive a card and gift thanking you for the use of your home. How appreciative would you feel towards this house guest?

Well, the spiritual world operates in much the same way. We are all just house guests of our creator – who has so graciously loaned us this planet (and everything in it) for all of our days. And those who genuinely care about and express appreciation towards the planet (and every creation in it) will experience blessed lives filled with love, peace, beauty, and happiness – the spiritual world continually recognizing their appreciation and showering them with more to be appreciative of. And this cycle of joy, positivity, and appreciation can continue from day-to-day, week-to-week, and year-to-year.

So, the above summarizes my philosophy on life and why I am ever so thankful and grateful and continually express this appreciation.

Everything that surrounds us has been loaned to us by the most gracious of givers. So let’s all strive to become the most gracious and considerate of guests while living here on this planet. Simply BE KIND, DO GOOD, and BE GOOD and watch your world transform into a life filled with love, beauty, and joy. What a wonderful world we could all share if we each did our part in these regards. So, do this. And do it often.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships

HAPPINESS TIP: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF TRUST

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

One of the more difficult things to do in life is to build trust. It’s far easier to break trust than to build trust. But it’s also much easier to build trust than to repair trust.

So, never underestimate the value of trust. Trust is important for all types of relationships including romantic relationships, friendships and family, and work and community relationships. So, if you want to live a happy and peaceful life, make it your goal to live with a sense of discipline and commitment such that you avoid breaking trust.

The reason why it’s so difficult to repair trust once it has been broken is you have to develop not only a track record of trust and a consistent positive change in behavior but an OBSERVED, DEMONSTRATED, and PROVEN track record in the minds of those you are seeking to repair trust with – people who already have doubts about you and may have a lot of trouble believing your good intentions. This doubt and negative bias can be extremely difficult to overcome. So, do yourself a favor and put forth your best efforts to live a disciplined life and maintain a sense of trust. If you do this, your life will be much easier, happier, and more peaceful.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships

HAPPINESS TIP: ON THOSE NOT SO POSITIVE DAYS, FOCUS ON HOW YOU MOST WANT TO FEEL AND THEN OFFER THAT TO OTHERS

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a happiness tip on getting yourself into a positive place on those not so positive days:

There might be times in life when you are not feeling your best. A good thing to do, when this happens, is closing your eyes and – instead of focusing on how unhappy you presently feel – asking yourself how you might most want to feel and focusing on that. Many people, in these situations, do the opposite by focusing on the very negative thoughts and feelings they are seeking to moderate and overcome. It can be extremely difficult to move in a positive direction with so much attention focused on the negative. So, instead focus on how you most want to feel and take actions to gently move in this direction.

For example, if you feel lonely then you might most desire to experience feelings of love and appreciation. So, instead of focusing on your loneliness, focus on love and appreciation and steps you might take to gently move in this direction. A wonderful way to do this is offering what you most want to others. So, if you most want to escape your loneliness, then make someone else feel less lonely. And if you most want to experience love and appreciation, then offer love and appreciation to others. You will be amazed at how much love and appreciation comes back to you when you do this. Anytime we graciously and selflessly give to others that which we want for ourselves, it comes back to us in overwhelming abundance. So, do this often in your life.

And keep in mind that you can perform this process not only with people but with pets as well. So, don’t forget about your furry friends when doing this.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships

HAPPINESS TIP: FOCUS ON CONTRIBUTIONS INSTEAD OF RESULTS

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

In such a “results and outcomes” focused society, it can be easy to feel over-burdened and unhappy at times. However, if you focus solely on, and allow yourself to be happy with, your contributions instead of on results and outcomes you will feel much better about your life and about yourself. We do not control results and outcomes. We only control our contributions.

Many things in life happen the way they do no matter what we do or how much we give. So, get in the practice of detaching from results and outcomes. Just do your best – whatever your best might be at the time given everything you have going on in your life and how you are feeling at the time – and be content with that. It’s the best you can do and you can feel good about that. Don’t worry so much about what you cannot control. Just do your part. That’s all you can ask of yourself (and others).

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness

HAPPINESS TIP: AVOID MAKING “PERFECT” DECISIONS

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

There is no such thing as “the right decision”. There are good decisions, bad decisions, and decisions which lie between these two extremes. One of the keys to living a happy, stress-free life is making and being content with decisions which are good enough instead of those which are “perfect”. Because, perfectionism is never worth the cost. Nothing will ever be perfect no matter how much time, energy, and resources you put towards something. Simply consider a few facts or indicators, make a favorable decision based on these, and move out on that decision. You will live happier and make more progress in life if you do.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness

BE A SOURCE OF PEACE, PATIENCE, AND POSITIVITY TO OTHERS

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

One thing which can be helpful when those you love and appreciate are burdened by something or experiencing extreme negative thoughts and feelings is being a consistent source of peace, patience, and positivity for the troubled person (and others in your life). Anytime others perceive us as a consistent source of these kinds of positive qualities, they will spend more time with us and communicate with us more – both in good times and bad.

If you truly desire to serve as this constant source of peace, patience, and positivity to others, then focus on this desired vision for yourself and ask yourself what actions you can take today, tomorrow, next week, and next month to progress towards this and then start taking these actions. In addition, review and reflect on your progress by asking yourself, throughout your days, if your behaviors, actions, and communications have been consistent with your vision and make adjustments accordingly to ensure you converge towards it – saying “yes” to anything which moves you closer to your vision of peace, patience, and positivity and “no” to anything which does not. If you do these things, you will begin to embody the positive qualities you are envisioning for yourself.

I used this very technique to help a young woman I coached recently named Anne. Anne was worried because her girlfriend was becoming distant – not spending as much time or communicating with her as much as she had in the past. After talking with Anne further, it came to light that her girlfriend was getting overwhelmed by the health problems her mother was experiencing and the need for constant support. And things kept getting worse.

Up to that point in time, Anne would freely share her day-to-day problems, issues, and concerns with her girlfriend. It’s just something they had always done. I pointed out to Anne that her girlfriend – in going through the challenges with her mother – was living a life far out of balance and the imbalance and happenings in her life were creating a substantial amount stress, negativity, and chaos. As such, burdening her girlfriend further by communicating her own problems, issues, and concerns would make her girlfriend feel even more overwhelmed and intensify her negative feelings of stress, irritability, sadness, anxiety, and chaos – all of which might create additional withdrawal and isolation (in the best case) or a quick, desperate reaction (in the worst case).

So, I strongly encouraged Anne to refrain from sharing her day-to-day problems, issues, and concerns with her girlfriend during this period of time and instead sharing them with others in her life if she felt the need – others who were not going through such intense challenges in their lives. I also challenged Anne to focus primarily on becoming a consistent source of peace, patience, and positivity for her girlfriend because of the increased likelihood they might spend more time together and communicate more with each other if her girlfriend associated Anne with these kinds of positive qualities – positive qualities which offered: (1) a safe haven away from all of the chaos and imbalance she was experiencing, and (2) a way of gaining back some of that balance and recharging and rejuvenating herself in the process.

Well, Anne did exactly that – actively taking steps to become a consistent source of peace, patience, and positivity to her girlfriend – saying “yes” to anything that moved her closer to this vision and “no” to anything which did not. And sure enough, her girlfriend started coming around much more often and they were able to recover from what might have otherwise resulted in a tragic event.

So, always keep this in mind when dealing with people in your life who are experiencing significant challenges. They might need a break from everything they are going through – and if you can offer this to them, this might be the very thing which allows them to successfully navigate and overcome the highly stressful challenges and events in their lives.   

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships