Stereotypes and Happiness: Can One Survive without the Other?
What came first? Happiness or Brands and thus…..Stereotypes??
The thought process for this blog post started with Branding and then as a result of what my ideas of Branding became, I realized I was indeed Stereotyping my thoughts around Brands 
Interesting circle! (Branding for Business aside!)
I like Ford vehicles, New Balance Walking Shoes, clothing form Mark’s and Reitmans and Plum. I like, really like, maybe even LOVE Lays potato chips, Winkler Sausage, Sonia’s Fries and Half Moon Hot Dogs….did you recognize many brands in there? I am particularly fond of Tanner’s Bookstores and Reading Room salads, Lush hair care products and Rocky Mountain Soap Company …soap I’ll go out of my way for City Bread Rye Bread, Central Meats Ham Sausage and Gondola Pizza…especially Gondola Pizza…have actually been known to drive 25KM round trip for that Pizza!!
My point is, I like what I like because I like it, can rely and depend upon it, but not because it makes me Happy…although I might argue that point when it comes to Pizza When I see a certain yoga company’s logo on the back of yet another hoodie, I don’t think “Gosh, that person must be happy!” But instead think, “Cute hoodie, sad that the wearer is so label conscious.” But there in lies the tie to stereotyping.
In my judgement of people who drive the hot new Edge (now that I no longer WANT one), love gel nails and french pedicures, also came the realization that I couldn’t really know if they do what they do, have what they have and buy what they buy to make themselves happy through cars and nails and toes, or indeed start out Happy and find accessories along the way to express their inner levels of peace and Happiness.
Ya OK, I don’t really buy that theory either, but the point is, different strokes for different folks right?? Because I choose to cultivate Happiness from the inside and derive pleasure from the stuff I like, do I in fact have the right to sit in judgement of those who dance to the beat of a different drum. The honest answer is…NO, absolutely Not!
And so, as my little tirade of brand bashing turned stereotyping came to a close, I had learned a pretty darn good lesson…self awareness is key, and the path to Happiness is truly an individual and very personal journey, that no one, from anywhere, on earth or beyond can dictate, comment on or sit in judgement of.
Do what you need to do to raise your own level of Happiness…from the inside, the outside, or whatever, just…
Be Happy….OK !!
It’s true what they say, you really do learn something new everday!!
Much L-O-V-E!!
LA xo
Happiness in Progress…
Happiness is and always will be a work in progress, and it’s our jobs to keep planning for it.
Recently, me, the self proclaimed happy guru, she who has always believed herself to be of the born happy happy’s…became unabashedly happiness challenged and had to go into planning mode.
Talk about having to put your money where your mouth is, walk the walk and all that…WOW!! What a lesson learned. But you know, well worth it, so very well worth it.
Truly, challenge = opportunity and as such, being happiness challenged, created for me, happiness opportunities of epic proportions. I wasn’t going to go the easy route and just do a few happiness cultivating exercises, oh no, not me…I dug deep…right down to the very core of the cause of said unhappiness, and found…well, I found some true gems in surprising places.
Life is funny, it really does present you with what you need when you need it, if only you allow yourself to listen. The old adage that states the teacher is there when the student is ready to learn, couldn’t have been more appropriate at any other time in my life.
Big change is headed my way, and that’s OK…with my own, deep inner Happiness always in Progress, I can weather anything…look out world!!
Be Happy All Ways,
LA xo
Happy Birthday !?!
This is me, I really am “Just a Hula Girl at Heart”, and I absolutely love Jimmy Buffett for writing that line.
But back to Happy Birthday !?!
Today, on the occasion of my 45th Birthday, a more personal post than most. Today, when my Mom called to wish me a Happy Birthday, I congratulated her back, as 45 years ago today was undoubtedly one of the best days of her life. I have always had a weird take on Birthdays, but this one really threw her for a loop…but, right then and there, it was decided, for as many of my Birthdays she has left, the celebration will be hers.
As I truly find joy and Happiness in every single solitary day I am lucky enough to grace this planet, it is not necessary for me to specifically celebrate the day of my birth and have a Happy Birthday day only. I am happy for my birth every moment of every day. Even with the trials and tribulations of a less than charmed life, this inner feeling of peace, Happiness and joy has kept me going day in and day out, and I truly find celebrations in each and every one of them!….I just need to look harder some days than others.
I believe in honouring myself in all that I do every day, by maintaining a personal level of integrity and heeding the callings and warning signals of my inner GPS. I have had many not understand why I find the celebration of my birth on a specific day to be unnecessary, and I simply believe that they don’t have to. I would much rather receive tidings of joy on a normal day than on one where it is an implied mandatory obligation to do so. I subscribe to the school of random acts of gift giving, finding it a ton more fun to send a gift off in the mail “just because”.
Mainstream this idea is not, and misunderstood I stand, happily on my Birthday and every other day of the year, and with each trip around the sun as well!!
TeeHee!!
LA, xoxo
PS, Here’s a good laugh…my husband gave me a the equivilent of a gift card to order a Birthday Cake, so I went ahead and ordered my favorite, chocolate with chocolate icing and raspberry filling, and had them put…. Happy Birthday Ken on top! He did laugh hysterically when he opened the cake box after dinner
Do you remember a point in your life when you felt like you just had it all going on? A time when things were ticking along beautifully and you felt just fantastic?? Take some time to stop and think…ask yourself, When? When did I feel as if I were in a continuous state of joy and bliss…when was I at my happiest?
Your Happiness Rocks Exercise for this week is : A Self Imposed Trip Down Memory Lane!
This may take a while, this trip down Memory Lane. If you feel your life as been less than Happy for some time, you may have to spend a considerable amount of time, looking back with the goal of recapturing past feelings of happiness and joy.
But the idea is to get there. However long it takes, just get there, so you feel those feelings again. Feel your heart expand as you remember times when you felt truly happy, joyful and even peaceful. Allow yourself to bask in the pleasure of these feelings, embrace their warmth and glow, and then dig a little deeper.
More questions…what was going on in your life, what were you doing, what weren’t you doing? How does this happy time compare to your life now? Where are the differences? Where are your opportunities to change? What can you bring forward from your past to help you know?
We tend to forget, as we progress through daily life, getting bogged down by silly little details. We forget pleasant experiences that meant far more than the challenges we may be facing today. If you have felt feelings of happiness at any point in your life, you can draw on them now to raise your inner levels of peace, happiness and joy..it just takes a little work, a little practise, and a little time .
When you consider the potential of the end result being a happier life for you and those you love, isn’t the time effort and energy all worth it in the long run??
Take the time, do the work, Be Happy All Ways,
LA
Happiness Rocks:Shifting Perspective
Happiness Rocks:
Shifting Perspective!
As a vital component in your plan to increase your inner level of happiness, peace and joy, shifting perspectives could actually also be the pivot point that helps you turn the corner of challenge.
Visualizing a pivot point in a situation will assist you with embracing the shift. For instance, back to “in between stimulus and response you have the power to choose”, if you use this gap as an opportunity to make a shift in perspective, you are choosing to look at the situation from both sides. Cultivating the use of this gap is fundamental to incorporating a perspective shift during situations which would benefit being seen from both sides…which are many if you stop to think about it.
The visualization element can take the form of yourself actually turning to face the other direction, as in doing so, you will be able to see the situation from the other side. This does require you to stop in the moment. This does require you to temper a knee jerk reaction. This does require you to utilize compassion when considering how to proceed.
Compassion is also a key element to shifting perspectives as often, a situation requires being seen from the perspective of another person. Giving yourself the ability to pivot in their direction during a challenging situation will allow you to recognize and appreciate their point of view as well as your own.
Your exercise for this week is to establish the visualization you will use to identify with your perspective shift.
If you plan the process ahead of time and train your mind to use the visualization before an issue arises, it’s like you are preparing your body for a marathon. You do the training first, to ensure you have the stamina required to finish the race. This is the same for the training of your mind .
Create a situation in your mind and the visualization that goes along with it that sees you handling the situation through a shift in perspective. Practise this daily until it feels natural and like your own second nature. Inject compassion into the mix to truly understand and appreciate the point of view of the other person or component involved in your challenging situation and feel the peace that is derived from this action.
Changing perspective and cultivating compassion assist in raising your own inner level of peace and happiness by allowing you to let go of ego and work from your heart. Doesn’t that put a little smile on your face and create a bit of a warm fuzzy inside???
Shift Baby Shift!!
LA
Happiness vs Pain: The Battle is ON!!
The battle to maintain a high inner level of happiness, peace and joy can be challenged indeed by the advent of pain. But alas, with a little love, and some tenderness, and a change in the way we think, we can , and I say CAN from personal experience, alleviate some of the anxiety this sometimes debilitating condition can impose upon us.
Pain, chronic or otherwise is a massive Happiness robber! One can contend with a lot of things and still maintain a decent level of inner joy and happiness, but when it comes to pain, the challenge truly gets kicked up a thousand to be sure.
I read a life changing line a few weeks ago that has spurred the writing of this post. It is from `The Art of Happiness`and the quote is by Howard Cutler, MD. It goes like this….
“We convert pain into suffering in the mind.”
I did have to stop reading and reread this line a number of times to have it register in my own mind. One little sentence with such profound impact. Cutler goes on to report…
“To lessen the suffering of pain, we need to make a crucial distinction between the pain of pain and the pain we create by our thoughts about the pain.”
Goodness, this should be a billboard! Having spent the past 27 years battling chronic pain from a series of car accidents and back injuries, I have been diligent about keeping the pain out of my head, and it has been no easy task. Reading these lines in this book felt like I was now being given permission to carry on in this vein and encouraged to spread the word!
As with so many other areas of your life that can be positively affected by a change in thoughts and beliefs and habits, how wonderful is it to embrace the fact that the same can be done for your pain?
Battle your pain…rather than focusing on what it won’t allow you to do, challenge it by finding a new way to do old things!
Can’t bend down to tie your shoes? Buy slip ons!
Can’t vacuum? Get someone else in your household to do it for you .
Can’t carry your groceries? Get them delivered!…I have even had my cart emptied at the check out by some lovely cashiers .
The idea is to think in terms of solutions to your issues rather than solely focusing on the issues themselves. Give power to solutions and get up and out and enjoy your life in terms of what you Can do rather than what you Can’t.
It’s a tough journey, and it requires some real soul searching, but the results are so well worth the time and effort.
What can you change your mind about today?
Go forth and conquer that pain, don’t let it win! Choose Happiness instead!!!!
LA
Eat Pray Love: A Review Part 3 and Final
Eat Pray Love was to say the least a big surprise to me!
Althought I finished this lovely and endearing book a few weeks ago, I just couldn’t bring myself to write the final part of the review because well, it just felt so final .
Alas however, I have mustered the courage, motivated by the fact that those who have not yet read this book, really need to know that it is definitely worth their time, effort and energy.
Eat Pray Love is truly a testament to a woman’s journey of self discovery as she navigates a new decade. As those of us who have traversed many can attest to, the leap from one decade to the next in a woman’s life can bring with it certain challenges. Challenges that we tend not to even realize until we are in the very thick of them! (I can hear and feel the collective Oh Yeah’s)
In Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert valiantly shares her journey, raw and stripped down to her very core, something a lot of us can learn a great lesson from. I simply cannot bring myself to share the details of her exursions form India to Bali, as I am so convinced that this is a book every woman should read. Whether you have a belief in God or any religious affiliation is of little importance as the true value of this book lies in the uncovering of ones’ true identity and the vital importance of an individual path.
Buy it, read it, get lost in it…Ms. Gilbert has done us a great service in writing this book and it deserves paramount attention.
I am a true believer that tools come to you when there is a need for them in your life. The old adage that the teacher is there when the student is ready to learn could not be more true. So, even if this book does not jump off the shelf at you right now, buy it anyway, as there will come a time when it will be exactly what you need.
Have a Happy Journey!!
LA
Happiness Rocks: Create the Soundtrack for Your Life
Happiness Rocks:
Create the Soundtrack for Your Life
Music inspires, there is just no doubt about it.
Music can also soothe a soul in torment, commiserate with a broken heart and reinforce feelings of anger and anguish. It is just that Powerful a medium.
As such, choosing to use it to your benefit as a Happiness building tool can really become an ace in your back pocket. Put your thinking cap on, load up the cd player and generate a positive and Happy soundtrack that is a true reflection of the life you want to lead.
What would your opening song be? What makes you sing and dance as an embarassement to your family? What puts an amazing smile on your face? Close your eyes and truly get into your happy place, feel the groove of your life :).
The internet is ripe with avenues by which to express and build your Happy Soundtrack. From iTunes to BlipFM, you can add happy and magical music to your personal players each and every day. Studies have shown that even the practise of trying to instill happier habits in our lives leads to the eventuality of creating the habits. This means that even through the sheer practise of putting a smile on your face everyday, whether you mean it or not, the habit of smiling will eventually develop, thus raising your built in happiness set point. How easy!
Play a little uplifting music, and you won’t even have to remember to practise your smile, it will indeed just become a natural state!
Feel the music in your soul…
LA
Happiness Rocks: Debunking The Myth of Balance
Happiness Rocks: Debunking the Myth of Balance!
I threw this out to a group I was teaching this past week and the collective heart attack that was had was quite entertaining. That is, until you physically do the Balance Exercise.
It’s quite simple really….
1) Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, arms out to the sides of you, palms facing up.
2)Emulate the scale in this picture….visualize all your “life stuff” separated and segregated on the scale until it is perfectly balanced.
Now What? Yes, you are balanced, but you are also stuck. You can’t move, right. One more thing comes your way, and whamo, you’re out of balance, take something away, and you’re back in the planning phase again, trying to regain “balance” . Going backwards instead of moving forward.
In balance, your “life stuff” has all been beautifully and perfectly planned out, your are organized, on a stringent schedule, everything in equal time and in equal measure…right
Are you still standing in scale mode?
So what happens if you start to move your arms in a bit of a fluid motion and put a little rhythm to it….develop a little harmony…move and sway with a great tune in your head….all your stuff goes everywhere right….but you’re moving and you’re even dancing a little and well, you’re stuff’s all jumbled up, but does it matter? One thing might overlap the other, you may now be doing two things at the same time, but again does it matter?
Which feels better, the stringent organized immobile scale or the free flowing rhythmic harmony?
Harmony means that you have flow to your life, one area melds into another and all is honored together. Harmony is the true melting pot of all that is good and right in your life coming together for the benefit of your definite purpose.
Harmony is not exclusionary. It doesn’t tell you that you can only do one thing now and another thing later. It doesn’t tell you that this has to be on one side while that as to be on the other….harmony is you in motion, you moving with the rhythm of your life and enjoying every chaotic little bit of it!
To get a great visual, think of harmony as a traffic circle…everything merges, everything is in flow….a new vehicle needs in, others adjust their speed to allow that to happen. Sure, there might be some pushy drivers, and allowances may need to be made here in there, but it is much easier to do when one is already in motion.
Let go, stop trying to control every single solitary little bit of everything and allow yourself some movement. Cut yourself a little slack keeping in mind that….
” whether or not it is clear to you,no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
Timely quote compliments of the Desiderata. It’s all already taken care of on your behalf, so let go and enjoy a little would ya??
This exercise is going to be one of those that requires a lifetime of practise. You have to do some breaking down, or debriefing if you will, of all the messages extoling the benefits of balance that have been thrown at you for who knows how long. But when you get into that rhythm, when you feel the true harmony of your life, you’ll know in an instant that the work you have done to achieve it was a most worthwhile practise.
Flow Baby Flow!!
Be Happy All Ways,
LA
A Special Message From Michael Bernard Beckwith
From “The Secret”…
“ I believe that you are great,
That there’s something magnificent about you.
Regardless of what has happened to you in your life.
Regardless of how young or old you think you might be.
The moment you begin to think properly,
This something that’s within you,
This power that’s in you that’s greater than the world,
It will begin to emerge!
It will take over your life.
It will feed you.
It will clothe you.
It will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence…..
If You Let IT!!
Now that is what I know for sure.”
Find Michael Beckwith online at www.agapelive.com
I absolutely LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE this quote, and it’s the one that’s plastered all over my house
