10 ways to feel happier and healthier

Transform your life in 10 steps

1. Time swap

Swap 30 mins a day of TV or dead time for sometime fun, creative or nourishing that moves you forward with your goals.

If you haven’t established clear goals yet, this is the time to create them. Start with these areas: Health-Wealth-Love-Happiness

2. Treat yourself to a date-night

No partner needed. I personally love a “me” date night and am a big advocate for it. Crack out the candles, make yourself a delicious meal, buy yourself flowers, run yourself a bath, drink that wine you’ve been saving for a special occasion, go to bed with a hot water bottle, hot chocolate and a great book, camp in the garden, go on an adventure.  It doesn’t matter what it is, the key is that it gives you pleasure. Put a date in your diary, plan for it, and enjoy making yourself a priority. No guilt needed. You are worth it.

3. Swap your stimulants for relaxation

We are a body-mind and if we want our bodies to support us in our often very busy day, we need to take care of it. Stimulants do what exactly that - stimulate our nervous systems. So whilst it´s a typical thing if you are feeling anxious, stressed, busy or overwhelmed, to reach for the sugar and caffeine to keep going, the likelihood is that your nervous system will already be working really hard and this can make it worse.  Help your body by giving it relaxation and herbal tea in these times instead.

4. Use your environments to manage your state

We are sensory beings - therefore we can impact our inner state via outer environment.  Think about space, colour, texture, organisation.

Feeling overwhelmed and too busy? What can you get rid of to create more space?

Feeling anxious or can’t sleep? Which colours do you find soothing and how can you make your space more relaxing?

Want more money? What does luxury mean to you? Luxury towels, nice bed linen? What things (within your budget- this isn’t about putting yourself in debt) can you include in your house, that makes you feel abundant?

Want to feel empowered at work: what positive messages/affirmations can you put up on your computer, that remind you? What does your workspace say? Sorted, organised, successful? If not, how can it?

5. Tackle your life admin

It’s very difficult to put energy and focus into creating new things when you’ve got a mounting list of to-dos/debts/unresolved issues that you’ve been ignoring or putting off. It’s time to tackle them. Plan time when you can take an inventory of essential tasks, make a plan and create a reward system for when you complete each one. Think how amazing you are going to feel afterwards and both the mental and physical space you are going to gain back, in which to do things you love.

Reflection Questions:

What is going really well in my life that I’m grateful for?

What am I avoiding/putting off?

The activities that make me feel happy/healthy/successful/connected are…

The things that I’m doing that make me feel bad are...

6. Get back to basics

Take your life back to basics. Write down how you spend your resources (time, money, energy). Categorise them into ‘essentials, desires and drains’. What can you eliminate from this in order to have the money, time and energy for the things that are important to you?

7. Give what you need- become what you are seeking

If you want more love in your life- be loving to others.

More money- find ways to offer generosity to those in need.

More happiness in your life- find ways to bring joy into the world.

Like attracts like. If you want to attract more of anything, start with your actions.

8. Technology detox

Give yourself a technology free hour, every day for a week and notice the benefits.

9. Unleash your inner God/Goddess

In Mehrabian's communication research, he found that in our interactions just 7% of communication is based on words - the other 93% non-verbal. This can include the way you present yourself to the world - how you dress, your posture, tone of voice and facial expressions. People will react to this, even if they aren’t consciously aware of it. To unleash your inner God/Goddess into the world: stand up straight, pay attention to your appearance, experiment with clothes that make you feel hot, attractive and awesome, (there are no set rules here, just make it an expression of you) give as much eye contact as you´d like to receive (no staring or looking at the floor), practice breathing steadily- even when terrified.

10. Working with the negative committee

In order to change our outer reality, we need to change our inner reality. Many of us are on negative loops that are eroding our quality of life, but it´s been going on for so long it´s become our normality. We might start assuming that everyone else is unhappy or that this is the “way it has to be.” Wrong. It just means your wiring needs a rewire.

The first step is to become aware of what we think and what the patterns are. To start, a useful way of making them conscious is by using an elastic band or something similar on your wrist. Every time you criticise, pressurise, or put yourself down, ping the elastic band. This pushes a pause button. Get curious - how often are you having that thought? What effect is it having on your life? What would be a more compassionate, empowering thought instead?

“I CREATE THE FOUNDATIONS THAT SUPPORT ME IN BUILDING THE LIFE I DREAM OF”

Love, Ismene xxx