Category: Self Help

3 Keys to Happiness in Daily Life

It doesn’t take a whole new routine to instill a dose of happiness into your day—but it does take a little self awareness.

1. Be grateful for the good & the bad.

Research shows, grateful people are happy people. It’s also important to understand that happiness is not the absence of negative feelings. Gratitude is a focus on the present and appreciation for what we have now, rather than wanting more. Embracing gratitude, as a state of mind, can have a positive affect on all aspects of life including our happiness and overall satisfaction.

Up your mood by taking a moment daily to think of your world with gratitude. Start a gratitude journal or take a walk in nature paying attention to all the gifts around us. Think of a person that helps you on a daily or weekly basis – a spouse, parent, friend, pet, teacher, cleaner, or babysitter.

Quiz: How grateful are you? Take the Gratitude Quiz published by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

2. Flex your creativity muscles.

Do you have a passion or hobby? It doesn’t have to be a formal activity, simply engaging in creative thinking can enhance well-being by enhancing cognitive flexibility and problem-solving abilities. A recent study out of New Zealand, published in The Journal of Positive Psychology explains that creative activities can trigger an “upward spiral” of well-being.

“Practicing an art — no matter how well or badly — is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” – Kurt Vonnegut.

Make some space in your day to create, even if it’s just for the sake of it. Try exploring unique textures or even natural and recycled materials to make something for your home or a friend. Looking for some tips on how to add more creativity into your daily life? Read this list of 101 creative habits to explore.

3. Get connected, Stay connected.

Being apart of something larger than yourself can help bring perspective as well as a sense of belonging. Scientific evidence strongly suggests that feeling like you belong and generally feel close to other people is a core psychological need; essential to feeling satisfied with your life. The pleasures of social life register in our brains much the same way physical pleasure does.

So take the time to nurture a friendship that is important to you. Make an extra effort to show you care, send a card, make a plan to have lunch, or give them a call and really listen to what they say. Smile and say hello to a stranger. Tell a story when someone asks how your day is going. Notice how you feel when you share something with someone new.

Struggling and need support? Join a support group and talk to others that can relate. Find your tribe: support.therapytribe.com – a free online support community brought to you by TherapyTribe.

TherapyTribe - Wellness Tracker Tip: Check out the wellness tracker. It’s a simple but powerful tool designed to help you remember the promises you make to yourself. As you complete wellness activities your tree will blossom, and so will you!

ADD Therapy

The ADHD Brain

Since my first post about “procrastination” and how impossible it was to get started on doing something that needs to be done to promote my psychotherapy practice, I have learned a lot about blogging and establishing an effective online presence. In our digital world, it is imperative to have an active website that stays fresh and inviting to my readers – whether they are friends or clients.

Then why the reluctance to dig in and just write the articles to flesh out my services provided tab? I started thinking about how I operate and how I perceive obstacles and rewards. And how I don’t like being told to do something a certain way. And how urgent deadlines amazingly seem to make things happen. And the realization that other little things become so much more important than doing something that could help me be more successful – despite the fact that I am a good writer who used to really enjoy it.

And then, ah, yes… The Ghosts of ADD Past, Present, and Future… The lack of motivation, distractibility, inconsistent focus, “forgetting” to eat because it’s supposed to be computer time (don’t online games count as computer time?), or repeatedly visiting the pantry to avoid being at the computer, and an inability to get into the zone where the universe hums with rightness and things get DONE! Certainly not the whole list but definitely hallmarks of how attention and focus can be challenged and interfere with one’s productivity.

And then the lightning strike comes in the form of a Facebook post from ADDitudeMag.com, my favorite e-zine, and I realize what I need to write about! Having worked with ADD/ADHD clients and their families for many years, the e-article Secrets of the ADHD Brain by William Dodson, MD, seemed to be the catalyst I needed to begin writing as well as valuable information to share with readers. Dr. Dodson does an excellent job of demystifying ADD/ADHD and its impact on functioning in a world which thinks and operates differently, then offers some strategies for finding systems that work for the individual.

As he beautifully captures, “Most people are neurologically equipped to determine what’s important and get motivated to do it, even when it doesn’t interest them. Then there are the rest of us, who have attention deficit.” (William Dodson, MD in Secrets of the ADHD Brain). Check it out here.

Procrastination

Procrastination

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”

– William James, letter to Carl Stumpf, 1886 January 1st

And that is exactly how procrastination feels to someone who has been told by a zillion marketing and advertising experts that a “blog” is what’s needed to promote my online presence at the next level.  To a therapist whose approach is one of live interpersonal interaction, who relies on spoken words and subtle body language to communicate and understand, the creation of a disconnected monologue to the unknown cyberworld allowed for post-it notes of to-do items to be moved from day to day, list to list, and unrealized priority to unimplemented task.

So today, I am confronting procrastination by checking off a to-do item and making it a DONE item.  I might not be writing a blog the right way.  It might not be long enough – or it might be too long.  It might be too personal, or it might not offer my readers what they (you!) want to read.  But by tackling something that I have been avoiding, I hope to learn that the relief that comes from just doing something scary or unpleasant far outweighs the exhaustion of knowing it remains undone.  And by surviving, I hope to demonstrate to you that you too can cross one thing off your list!

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