Episode Summary
I gained an incredible insight from someone on an Impact Theory Video this morning. They were talking about how they define happiness and how that helps achieve that state more often. They recommended a very simple exercise you can do which I explain and share my results.
Episode Transcript (Edited)
Hi and welcome to today’s episode of Hope, Help, Happiness.
Today I want to focus on the subject of happiness.
I was watching an Impact Theory video with Tom Bilyeu this morning. It was one of his compilation videos where they take segments from a range of interviews on a particular theme. This video was about 10 hacks to get more out of your life.
One of the guests interviewed talked about happiness. Now unfortunately, I didn’t take note of her name and in scanning through the episodes, I couldn’t find it again. So I apologise for not being able to credit the source of what I’m about to share with you.
This lady has a project related to teaching happiness and shared people’s common misconception that happiness is a state of continuous, euphoric bliss. In her opinion, that’s not what happiness is.
Her paradigm shifting statement for me was happiness is really about small moments of contentment.
I thought it was really interesting to describe it that way, and it gave me a different insight.
I tend to want to make big shifts in my life in one massive leap because I’m impatient and because I’ve usually left the “itch” much longer to “scratch” than I should have. But what I’m learning in other areas of my life is it’s the accumulation of small changes that build up to the bigger shifts I want to make.
So her point was really powerful for me.
She suggested a simple exercise to explore what makes you happy. It consisted of keeping a record of all the moments of contentment you have throughout the week. Gather a list of what you are doing when you feel a sense of contentment.
It could be something as simple as enjoying your morning cup of coffee or taking in the view out of your window. The purpose of the exercise is to identify the behaviours that bring you contentment to raise your awareness of them so you can replicate them at will.
I had a go at listing when I am contented, and over the space of a couple of minutes, I quickly jotted down these things
- A walk around my local neighbourhood first thing in the morning on a sunny day is fantastic because of the avenues of trees and really nice houses. It’s just a really nice environment.
- A walk around my neighbourhood in the evening sun. It’s the same walk in the same place, but there’s a different feel to it that also brings contentment.
- Having a couple of pieces of organic, dark chocolate with my green tea. That is a guilty pleasure and makes me very happy.
- Another thing that makes me happy is a sense of smugness and relief when my morning exercise routine is over. When I’ve finished my press ups where I’ve collapsed; and I’ve done my sit ups and my abs are sore; and my legs aching from the squats I’ve been doing, when I finished, there’s this wonderful feeling of a good job well done coupled with feeling glad it’s over.
- I feel the same about having a cold shower too.
- When I read an inspiring book I feel good because of that.
- Greeting any one of a number of friends who I see regularly always makes me happy.
- Doing the warm up routine at a dance lesson is always a lot of fun.
- Having a good dance where you connect really well with your dance partner is very special.
- Looking back on the podcast episodes I’ve recorded and reflecting on my journey since starting it makes me happy too.
- Watching some of the impact theory videos makes me feel good as well.
The list took me less than two minutes to write and I’m sure if I monitored my behaviour over a week, I’d spot more. Doing the exercise made me realise there are things I can do every day that will give me that sense of contentment. These will accumulate to create an overall sense of being happy.
I notices the things I listed I’m happy with are also the kind of things I appreciate and I’m grateful for at night before I go to sleep.
So it’s a very short episode today. I just wanted to share that and have you think about what makes you happy. I encourage you to try the exercise. Remember it can be something as simple as a cup of coffee.
Do that over the space of a day or even a week, see what makes you happy and see how many more of those things you can plan into your day.
Until tomorrow.
