Happiness Habits For Success

So why are building Happiness habits important?

It’s not just about being happy all the time; we want to be happy of course, but its about so much more. Especially at the moment.

I’ve used these habits myself in my own life and with clients since 2014; it has been truly life changing and a way of thinking differently about our lives, our wellbeing and our success. A way of thinking differently and breaking the mould of traditional thinking, society and much more.

Traditional society is very much focused on lack… what’s wrong with people, situations etc and how do we fix them?

Positive psychology, the science behind the happiness habits flips this all on its head and is based on the latest neuroscience and research around when we focus on what is right rather than wrong. We look at how we can elevate our levels of positive emotion and this releases amazing happy chemicals in our brain, fuelling our brain and giving it energy, reducing our fight/flight mechanism and enabling us to be creative, innovative and productive as a result. These habits even increase our immune system!

I do feel the world is moving more towards embracing Positive Psychology and similar practices as the paradigm is shifting, so we are beginning to see hope. As we shift more out of a patriarchal society and the structures we have had for so long, it’s starting to shift. For example did you know the word ‘strategy’ has only been used in our language since war times? The amount of war words we now use in everyday life ‘strategy’ ‘fighting’, ‘challenge’ but they were never part of our vocabulary before but have become so ingrained with this lack mindset. Especially in the medical world ‘what’s wrong with you and how do we fix it’ has become ingrained in everything.

In the corporate world, I felt like I was fighting and challenging a lot and this led me to burn out. When you put a positive psychology lens on this, you can see why. As soon as you use these war related words, of course it’s going to consciously and subconsciously trigger your fight/flight mechanism.

What if we used words like healing, expansion, shifting… why do we need to feel like we are being challenged? It’s yucky! If we focus on what words we can use to create positive emotion then of course the benefits will rippled out and this is shown by neuroscience in the Positive Psychology field. Why we would ever want to make someone go into fight or flight mode with our work? I do not understand, but I think it’s so ingrained it’s not deliberate.

I eventually stopped by dulling my light and actually started to stand up for this shift and be a leader in this space funnily enough after a few years of creating these happiness habits in my own life. My fight/flight mechanism needed some time to chill out I think! Also I had built the happy hormones in my brain enough to boost my self belief and care less about what people thought. Positive Psychology can show you there is more to life.

When I had the opportunity to apply for TEDx (and got through to the top 30 out of 400 applications) I just knew this was my time to share my message so these happiness habits helped boost my brain and showed me the way to share my message.

In the corporate world I felt like I was fighting and challenging a lot and this led me to burn out.

So what are the practical ways you can bring these happiness habits into your life? (These will really shift you if you dedicate time to them, I promise!)

In TEDx I talk about these and they come from the research of Shawn Achor which I’ve completed my own research on and seen dramatic results (Thanks Shawn for permission for this and also to use in my TEDx!)

So we are basically looking at ways to bring positive emotion into your life, tapping into joy, choosing joy every day. As we now know this is not just a self-care or nice thing to do there is a responsibility to do this for our friends, family, clients and the collective conscious, research is now coming out to show we can impact on a global scale with this stuff!

So the 5 activities I talk about - Being Thankful - Gratitude, Random Acts of Kindness, Exercise, Expressing in Writing (journaling) and Staying Present (Mindfulness).

With gratitude thinking of three things you are grateful for every day has been shown to massively shift positive emotion and even be more powerful than antidepressants. This can be a big thing you are grateful for or a small thing such as a cup of tea! It doesn’t matter; it’s getting into this thinking that’s important creating new brain pathways for happiness (a bit like the pathway through the woods I talk about in TEDx!)

Acts of kindness again can be as simple as texting a friend or you could combine the too and share your gratitudes with people you are grateful for. One to watch out for here though is making sure your act of kindness comes from a place where your cup is really full… I see a lot of time with clients people not putting themselves first and ‘helping’ or being kind from a place where they are using it as a distraction and they are actually burning themselves out by helping. Remember the ripple effects you have when you

Remember the ripple effects you have when you focus on your self care.

focus on your self care. Make sure you are filling your own cup first with this one.

Exercise - this goes without saying but this could even be a simple walk round the block. We are looking at getting those endorphins going and your heart rate elevated.

Journaling - This is a great therapy tool, with positive journaling you want to be journaling about positive emotion. I will sometimes journal just about anything that comes up and then combine with gratitude and journal a page all about what I am grateful for.

Mindfulness - This is a really key one as this can help to build our awareness of both positive and negative emotions and think about what we need to process or heal with the negative emotions. The fact that Mindfulness is a big part of positive psychology also shows it’s not a ‘happy clappy’ thing but based on very real and researched emotion! I found in a recent Mindfulness programme it actually shifted the way people worked, improved their relationships and one client looking to lose weight actually cancelled her weight loss programme as Mindful eating had far more powerful results!

The minimum amount of time to benefit from Mindfulness is 6 minutes and Marines were shown to have dramatic impacts on their focus in the field after 12 minutes of Mindfulness. Where do you have 6 minutes in your day? Where could you fit this in? What could you achieve with more brain fuel? If this resonates with you and you would like to incorporate happiness habits into your life and business and really start to make this shifts in your own life, please get in touch.

https://www.thehappinessbranch.com

Article By Gemma Sandwell - TEDx speaker, Mindfulness Teacher and Mindset Coach

Nibbles &Tipples August

Article By Cheryl Cade, Beer Educator

This year has been a curve ball for the hospitality sector.

Thinking ‘outside the box’ to survive is the norm, from home deliveries to off-sales and ‘cook at home’.

Some have also taken the opportunity to give places a facelift or change things they would never have time to do before.

When guidance was released, that helped larger (pubcos and chains) while making it harder for smaller establishments to open.

Thankfully the little guys have been inventive, creating new ways to keep customers safe yet still have a pleasant experience enjoying a pub, restaurant or hotel. As a teacher I have been providing Keyworker cover in school and so would not visit a local until ‘I’ was ‘safe’. With the end of term, I gave it a couple of weeks before I visited my first pub. There has been a lot of debate on social media about how awful it will be, not being able to go to the bar, the atmosphere will be different etc.

So, what did I find, feel?

Scared, nervous, yes all of those, yet… I loved it! I like table service. I can ask the staff questions about the drinks. I felt more relaxed and for once, my short frame did not lead me to get ignored at the bar or shoved to one side. Now the panic has died down, you only need to book if it’s a busy time. I found in some places the range of beers was less, yet all were in great condition and with something for everyone. There was a one-way system in place and real thought had gone into every aspect.

On the plus side for the pubs, I spent more. As 4 people together (from 2 separate houses) we did not always finish at the same time so staff would pop up asking if I would you like another. “Ok, while I wait,” was my response.

We visited, The Artichoke Brewery Tap (new name for The Fat Cat Brewery Tap) and Kings Head. The places were busy and have different opening hours.

We also visited Sir Toby’s on Friday evening. They have worked with the local council, market and food stalls to open a number of tables at the top of the market in the evenings at weekends.

It was well run, with a table booked for longer than needed. Fresh menus on the tables with the feeling of a European drinking experience, with drinks to suit everyone. Food was catered by Cocina Mia, Chilean street food all freshly cooked and quick. They hope that they will be running these in the weekends during the summer and more food stalls will be open.

As I write, Norwich Beer Festival has announced it will not run this year. They are planning a range of events to encourage people to visit local pubs instead.

My final words are still to shop local and support the small guys; without them every pub will be a Wetherspoons and every restaurant an off the shelf, Mac d’s, Wagamamas or Starbucks.

Cheers, until next month. Cheryl

Visit: https://cherylcade.com