Here is a list of the 4 feel good chemicals in the brain and how to get your fix of all of them. Each chemical has a list of 5 actions we can take to get those feel good vibes going. Do you think you could take one of the actions from each category to help yourself? Might not be a bad idea to print this out and have a check list of sorts.
Here is another great way to improve your life and increase the feel good vibes. Pick someone close to you and incorporate one action from each category for them! You will not only only increase their happiness, you will strengthen the bond between you and increase the joy in your friendship.
These lists are far from complete. Think of what actions you could add to each category. Increase the good feelings and vibes as often as you can!
Have you ever thought about what stands between you and your goals? When I ask people this question at seminars, a lot of different answers come up. Money, time, network are just a few. What many people either fail to realize, or fail to admit, is that it is not lack of resources that is stopping them. It is lack of resourcefulness.
If we were to look back at the evolution of even the largest companies, we would no doubt see humble beginnings. They worked with what they had until they learned our acquired more. My own success has mirrored this path. Starting this blog came with a great deal of ignorance to begin with. I knew nothing of how the blog world worked. Today we have been viewed in over 200 countries. Writing my first book? Same story. It seems with every book I publish, I learn something new.
How about you? Are your excuses standing between you and your goals? With a little more effort, could you overcome a seeming lack of resources? Denying this is only serving to hold you back.
Many people are confused when I tell them I listen to motivational content almost daily. Sometimes on my morning commute. Sometimes at the gym or on a walk. Why would someone who has spent the last 20+ years providing such content listen and learn about it? Firstly, because I am a lifelong learner. There is always something new around each corner. Only fools think they know everything.
Another reason is hinted at the quote above. So many of us check social media first thing in the morning. A lot of us listen to the news on the way to work. This can be poisoning our minds before the day even begins. Could you surround yourself with negativity and still have a positive life? I suppose you could, but it would be a lot less likely and a lot more difficult.
Putting good stuff into a body, brain and spirit will increase the likelihood that good stuff will come out! Want an even more compelling reason to surround yourself with positive things? It makes having a great life that much easier! Having a daily motivational calendar makes it far more likely you will come across something to inspire you than hoping your coworkers will quote Marcus Aurelius.
How do you get good stuff in? What actions do you take to surround yourself with positive influences? Subscribing to this blog is one way to introduce positivity into your life daily. What are some other actions you could take?
Falling in love with life will be the theme of my upcoming fourth book. Do you remember how it feels when you first fall in love with a person? You feel like you are floating on a cloud. Nothing can bother you. Imagine feeling the same way about life!
There are secrets to get this feeling back. It is much like love in a relationship. After a while, we begin to take things for granted. We begin to see the cracks and faults. Sometimes to the detriment of all the good and the magic. That is why children have a much more magical view of life than adults. Life is new. Everything is a miracle. My next book will help you capture that again as an adult.
In the meantime, I would love to hear things and situations that help you fall in love with life. Even if just for a moment.
As we get older, we appreciate how fleeting life is. It was difficult to understand this as a child. Isn’t a year always the same length of time? It is, but as the years go by, they seem to go past with a quicker pace. The loss of a childhood friend yesterday, before the age of 50, just proves life may not even be as long as we think it is.
That is why it is so important not to save the good things for the future. The joy, the love, just enjoy them now. You may not get another chance. Share love, share happiness. Live now, it’s later than you think.
Here is a thought I had inspired by bishop T.D. Jakes. I might have mentioned my sources are vast and varied. In a sermon he was giving, he said a line that struck me. I was reminded of this line the other day while pondering the meaning of life in the shower. That line was simply that people often do not open the gift because they do not like the wrapping.
To me, this means that often our greatest blessings grow from our greatest pains. In my own life, I know when I found myself at one of my lowest points, I met the woman who would, and continues to, change my life in ways I could never imagine. I do not think I could have learned, or more to the point appreciated, the gifts that she gave me without going through the pain I did. Many of my wounds in life were self-inflicted. To a point, I think we can all claim that. We look back and wish we would have spoke and acted different. In reflection we can see that sting of regret is often the catalyst to improved outlook and behavior.
There is a big difference between reading something in a self-improvement book and feeling the emotions of going through it. If we could look at our life from afar, I am sure none of us would choose painful experiences. However, those are what often lead us to the greatest blessings. Think about your health. Who thinks that they would like to put their body through months of soreness and stiffness? Nobody. Who would love to be in great shape with lots of flexibility and energy? Everyone.
I have heard this quote many times. It is so true in what we are discussing. Another place this shows up is in the struggle to break free from addiction. It is a hard and daily process. Everyone wants to be free of their addictions, but it can be too much for many to go through the long and difficult process. The gift is worth it, but the wrapping is not appealing.
You may not be fighting an addiction, or struggling to get in shape, but life has so many gifts that we overlook because the wrapping in which they are contained can appear as pain or struggle. One last important note. Many of us through away the gift after struggling throw the wrapping. Asking ourselves what is the gift in our pain can transform our life. It may be nothing other than being able to relate to, and help, others who have gone through the same pain. When you do so, you will discover what a great gift that is. It is one that could not be accomplished without the pain.
How true is this statement? In everyone’s life, there have been moments that seem so dark we want to give up. It can feel like our life is over, that there is little hope. If we hang in there, things can turn around to a surprising degree. It can start with a Crack of light in the darkness, or dramatic like a sunrise.
The cliche that it is always darkest before the dawn rings true for a reason. Maybe it is the dark that allows us to appreciate the light more? Perhaps it encourages us to be more attentive to what we should be grateful for? Regardless of the reasons, we can experience some of our greatest moments after our darkest days.
Next time you find yourself in the bottom looking up, think of the cliche about it being darkest before the dawn. Clichés become Clichés because there is some truth to them. I’ll leave you with this quote from one of my favorite poets. Think of yourself as that bird.
It can be difficult to look back at moments in our life and not cringe. I’m not just talking about some of our fashion choices in high school either. No, there are choices we made, be they actions or words, that change our life. This can often be not for the better.
It can be tempting to look back and have feelings of regret, despair and even a little anger with ourselves. Sure, a giving ourselves a little pain can make sure we do better going forward. Still, I heard Les brown say “If you are mad at yourself for something in your past that you would no longer do, than you’re convicting an innocent person.
Like we discussed last post, if you learn, it is all part of life. Now, about those high school fashion choices…
That sounds like a great life. Never lost, just win. Also sounds a little impossible. Looking at this quote from Nelson Mandela, we can see it is not only possible, it may be easier than we think. Whatever life throws our way, we can use it to our advantage. That’s why I would like to tweak Mr. Mandela’s quote a little bit.
“Lose or win, I will never fail to learn. – Neil Panosian
Did I really just quote myself? Yes. The reason why is simple. This is a mantra I have used, and continue to use to put my life on a never-ending upward trajectory. Whether my life is in a peak or a valley, it is always improving.
How do you accomplish this continuing and never-ending improvement? Through a change in mindset, but even more simply, asking a simple question. That question is “What can I learn from this?” When you learn your life improves. You can learn in celebration. What went well? What skills did I use to create that success?What bad habits might I have avoided that could have sabotaged my success?
We learn a great deal in pain and loss. Feeling the pain of losing a loved one, which can be the most painful, can show us how to better love those we still have in our life. Losing a job sucks, but we can learn how to develop new skills, be resilient and better prepared next time.
One of the most powerful situations to use this in (although I recommend using it all situations in life) and one of the situations with the most dramatic returns is intimate relationships. Think of it. You do something that lights your partner up. What was it? What about that thing you did or said affected them so greatly? You did something to hurt or disappoint your partner? You can learn from that. What not to say or do. What hurts them and what emotions may get triggered.
Bonus learning – try looking at the opposite of situations to gain twice the knowledge. That way you can improve your life twice as fast. The successful times can teach us about failure, just as hurt and pain can teach us what truly brings us joy.Get the most out of each moment in life and you will get the most out of your life in return.
This simple mindset shift transforms life. One feels good. One does not. One makes your life feel good. One does not not. Neither changes events, yet both change your reality. How can reality change if facts do not?
The reality we feel is seldom reality in actuality. Instead, it is a reality as viewed through the lens of our past experiences and our focus. The first we have little control over. The second we have absolute control over. In fact, the only way we can effectively change the past, is by changing the way we view it.
How we do this is simple. Have you had a tragic event in your life? You can view it as the trauma that prevents you from moving forward. Then again, you can view as the reason you developed such resilience. The facts didn’t change, just your response to them and the meaning you assigned them.
In a broader sense, the same applies to life. There are things that appear negative to us. We can choose to view them as so, or we can ask ourselves how we can use them. Can they teach us something? Can they remind us to be grateful for something else? Perhaps, like we mentioned earlier, they can help us be more resilient? The choice is ours. We cannot often change events, but we can change what we decide they mean to us and our reaction to them. More on this next post.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 