HEALTH AND WELLBEING —
Put more happiness revs in your day! Feeling a bit sluggish after a relaxing break? For some it can be a slow-moving, unproductive start back at the workplace. Once you realise your body is like a high-revving Ferrari you can make sure you’re performing at a high-level right from the start line. And just like a Ferrari, your body performs best when it’s kept in tip top condition. What differentiates high performers from others is their critical eye in figuring out what is going to be meaningful to their life experience. They spend more time doing things that they find meaningful, and this makes them happy. Waiting and wishing for happiness, or putting off happiness until you’ve got things back to normal or until you’ve achieved some goal only serves to limit the amount of happiness available.
“Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.”
– Don Herold
If you want to power up with happiness you need to fill up with high-octane happiness fuel! So, how can you put more high-octane happiness fuel into your day? Every day you can make a massive difference to your happiness levels by repeatedly doing a few small things. Here are three short habits that take only a little time. If you do them every day, they will supercharge your feelings of happiness and also power up your health.
1. Breathing in the big ones Tune up two minutes per day using deep connective breathing – inhale using deep, slow breaths filling the lungs with fresh fuel in the form of oxygen then exhale very slowly to get rid of all the stale air and waste products. Tuning up morning, noon and night works even better. This technique will soothe general anxiety, keep your racing emotions in check, and keep you calmer when facing stressful situations or obstacles out there on the track so you can do your best.
2. Having fifteen minutes of Ferrari fun It would be sacrilege if you kept your high-revving vehicle inside the garage every day without taking it out for a spin, wouldn’t it? Your body is like that too – doing 15 minutes of aerobic exercise daily, the kind of activity that gets your engine pumping, means you’ll get the most out of your body and you’ll feel happier. You don’t need a race track – outside in the open spaces is naturally the best place to build the pace up. You can start
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slowly if necessary and walk so you actually enjoy it, giving yourself a good chance of staying with it. A walk around the block at lunchtime is just great. Make a commitment to take your body out for a spin in the fresh air every day – as a result there’ll be no internal rust and your happiness levels will roar!
3. Firing up then putting your foot down High levels of happiness in business is paramount for long term enjoyment. For two minutes a day, think of one positive experience that’s happened during the past 24 hours. Fire up your mind, highlight every amazing detail you can remember, put your foot down on the gas and relive the buzz you felt. This works because the brain can’t tell the difference between imaginary or real, visualisation or actual experience. Creating peak enjoyment by doubling a meaningful experience in your brain keeps on firing up that happy feeling inside! It couldn’t be easier. For helpful, practical strategies, communication tools and techniques Linda has written the Award Winning book Transforming Your Stress Into Business Success. This is available at: www.transformingyourstressintobusinesssuccess.com
Linda Wells – The Business Stress Specialist. Linda is a speaker, trainer and consultant. Over the past 14 years, she has inspired and educated men and women to lead, communicate and respond more effectively to avoid overwhelm, reduce stress and increase productivity, success and enjoyment.
