7 Action Steps to More Joy, Energy and Health
What if a few minutes a day could double your enjoyment of life?
Would that be worth it?
Who does not want more joy, greater energy and/or vibrant health?
It just seems like we have so little time in our modern world. “I don’t have any more time to add more techniques. I’m busy enough already. Besides, I’m doing OK.”
That’s why I put these 7 Steps together for you. A few minutes a day is all they take.
Plus you can start with just one at a time…even adding one per week for seven weeks can work wonders for your joy, your energy and your health.
- Intuit
- Prioritize
- Breathe
- Dream
- Be Mindful
- Love Yourself
- Celebrate
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1) Intuit
Believe that the answers are within.
You have all the power, all the resources already within you to meet life’s challenges.
Guidelines for intuiting from The Zen of Joy:
“…there are 50 million bits of information coming at us every second…The conscious mind doesn’t stand a chance. We have been trying to operate in this world with both hands tied behind our backs…Never will we have all the information on which to base a decision. There are just too many variables, seen and unseen, for the conscious mind to take in, never mind sort out. It’s like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle that is constantly moving. More likely a four or five-dimensional puzzles in dimensions we don’t even know exist—all in constant motion…
…ask a question of your subconscious. With the understanding that the subconscious is plugged into the infinite wisdom of the universe, anything we ask it, it can answer. It does so by scanning, for want of better words, the infinite records of the universe. The records that are always there, but not open to the conscious mind. A great way to do this is:
Just before falling asleep, ask: ‘…I ask for and am willing to receive the answer to this question: (state the question). Thank for providing the answer for me. And it is done.’
Don’t be surprised… if you receive elegant solutions to some of the stickiest “problems” or situations in your life. It has happened for many others. It can happen for you too.”
2) Prioritize
Getting answers to sticky challenges is a wonderful first step. We may however still feel overwhelmed by the many demands on our time. Welcome to the 21st Century.
It has become almost a badge of honour to be extremely busy.
It is time to end the glorification of busy!
First, we need to recognize that overwhelm is an emotion. In reality, it has nothing to do with the number of tasks on our “To Do List.” It IS an emotion and as such it is possible to resolve it.
Second, recognize that the “To Do List” will NEVER be finished. Breathe and let it go. (We will address breathing in a few moments.)
Third, ensure you are addressing the most important items in your life. As Steven Covey told us in THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, the most important things are not always the most urgent. If we only do the most urgent things, we can find ourselves not focusing on what is important to us in our lives.
Here is one way. Use your intuition skill that you are developing to identify what is really and truly important in your life. Then, once a week identify three things you can do to move forward with your important items.
Now, this is a critical point: ensure that those three things are do-able within one week. They may only be baby steps and better if they are.
Then, COMMIT TO DOING THOSE THREE THINGS, NO MATTER WHAT! COMMIT.
If you make them baby steps, it is easier.
Then, when you complete each one, CELEBRATE! We will shortly cover that as well.
3) Breathe.
Stay in the Present Moment
From The Zen of Joy:
“The self-development literature tells us that when we hold our breath, we come out of the “present moment.” And all our power is in the present moment. Unless you have found some secret of time travel that the rest of us don’t know about, you cannot act in the past. The past is over. As much as we may want to go back and correct mistakes we made, we can’t go back in time and act. It’s the same with the future. We can’t act in the future. We can plan to act, but we can’t teleport ourselves into the future, not even one minute…
… All our power is in the present moment because it is only in the present moment that we can act. So, how can we increase our power?…
The answer: Be present. Live in the “Now.” How many of us actually do that? “Well, I would if it was easy.” “It’s OK for some, but I have to earn a living. Do you know the pressures on my time? Work, family, taking care of the daily chores, fixing the leaky pipes … . It seems like I never get any time for myself. How am I going to find time to meditate?” That’s why the Zen of Joy was written, for you to find the easy way to do this, to open up to the power that is available to us at every moment…
How to make deep breathing automatic and unconscious
This is called The Pause Method. Do it with me now:
Focus on the pause between the in breath and the out breath. Then, focus on the pause between the out breath and the in breath. During the process of inhalation and exhalation, there is a very slight pause in between the two.
See for yourself. Stop reading for a moment and notice your breath. Did you notice the pause? We are not to try to control the breathing in any way. And we are not trying to locate where in the body the pause is. We are just noticing.
At first, you may do this for 5 minutes or so and you will notice a difference. You can work up to 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. Even at the beginning, you may find one session has you breathing deeper and more relaxed for more than an hour afterwards.
The more you practice this, the more your ability to take a deep breath will increase on its own. Keep it up and you will soon develop an unconscious habit of deep breathing that will go on automatically. This is one of the easiest and most effective methods of learning deep breathing. Give it a try.“
4) Dream
Record Your Dreams
Have either a recorder or pen and paper handy on your night table. When you wake up, record what you remember of your dreams.
(Everyone dreams. If you believe you don’t, try this: Last thing at night before falling asleep, ask your higher self to remember your dream. Use the intuition skill you are learning.)
Trust that your higher self is creating dreams for your benefit. Reflect on them…just a little. Don’t get obsessed. Patterns may or may not emerge. Some “ah-hahs” may occur.
Have fun. Just remembering dreams can be fun. You may even look forward to falling asleep for the next instalment in the longest running comedy/drama “TV series.” And it is created just for you. Enjoy it more fully by recording it in your “dream journal.”
5) Be Mindful
Pay Attention. Work on/Play with Becoming More Aware
You may have heard about this latest catchphrase: “Mindfulness.” In fact, you may heard it one too many times.
If so, bear with me. Mindfulness is nothing more than unhooking from the overwhelm of emotions in the modern world. Also as the rightful death of an impossible concept: “Multi-tasking.”
Multitasking IS impossible. Because of the way the human brain operates, we can’t even talk on the phone and drive at the same time, even if it is hands-free. See details here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/01/10/brain-chains-multitasking.aspx
Mindfulness just means “paying attention.”
We live in a world of distractions. So much is vying for our attention: Look, it’s raining…what’s the forecast? Look, terrorism, be afraid. Look, the latest virus to threaten human life on earth as we know it. Look, the world’s environment is falling apart. News is addictive and we can allow ourselves to be easily distracted by the “crisis of the day.”
If you were to believe the media (and many do), we are ALWAYS on the eve of destruction. “The state of the world is desperate…as usual.”
We can easily buy into “busy-ness” as our “Standard Operating Procedure.”
Mindfulness takes heed of the saying: “Nature never hurries, yet everything gets done.”
How do you expect to improve on Nature’s Standard Operating Procedure by hurrying?
Mindfulness is about paying attention. When you are walking, take note of how your foot and leg moves forward, note the pressure of the foot on the ground. Deepen that attention.
When you are washing dishes, put one dish in the drying rack before moving your attention to the next dish.
When you are sitting down, settle in and notice the movement.
Slow down. Trust that everything will get done. That’s how Nature does it. How do you think you can improve on Nature?
Slow down. Notice.
You can eventually speed up and still notice.
6) Love Yourself
Look in the Mirror. Say “I Love You, I Really Love You.”
Look in the mirror, look deeply into your eyes and while holding your hands over your heart, say: “I love you. I really love you.” Say for 20 seconds as one of the first things in the morning.
No one can love you more than you love yourself. Remember what we started out with?
”Believe that the answers are within. You have all the power, all the resources already within you to meet life’s challenges.”
We have been taught to search for love outside of ourselves. The great secret is that love is within. This sounds easy, but it can be one of the most challenging things ever. Stay with it. Move through any uncomfortable feelings. Yes, it may be uncomfortable at first. You can choose to move through that discomfort.
“Love yourself first and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” -Lucille Ball
7) Celebrate
Celebrate EVERYTHING.
Something else we have been taught is be hyper critical of ourselves. This is supposed to do what? Motivate us to do better? Does it do that? Or does is de-motivate us?
If a child receives constant criticism, what happens? The answer? We are human, if we get battered, the reaction is to shrink back, curl up in a ball. It is a natural defensive response.
If a child receives praise for getting something done, what happens? Does that child tend to blossom more than the one who is constantly criticized?
We have also been taught not to “blow our own horns.” That has some value, no question. However, if we combine that with constant self criticism, we can also shrink and curl up inside, just like the child.
Try this out. See what happens. When you do something right acknowledge yourself. Don’t poo-poo it just because it was a small thing.
From The Zen of Joy:
“ Whenever you have a “win,” whatever it may be, celebrate it. Now, the first thing is recognizing a “win.” A win is whenever we do something right. And guess what? We do all kinds of things right all the time. We have been conditioned to gloss over them and just notice our mistakes! We have even been conditioned to downplay our “wins” and feel uncomfortable when someone compliments us. Many of us even pooh-pooh our accomplishments, “Oh, that! That’s nothing…
This double whammy of pooh-poohing our own talents and skills and at the same time keenly looking for and finding our mistakes and faults means we are not living in good feelings or living in “the flow.” Being “in the flow” is where the magic happens. Feeling energized by praise for a job well done means we have the momentum to keep going and enjoy the process. Really enjoying what we are doing allows us to be more efficient, more effective and more productive at what we do. So, how do we get into “the flow?” Celebrate All Wins!…
You can start right now. Because you are reading this, you are in the small minority of people who are actually taking action to improve themselves. Most do not. Most want a pill to take or someone else to do it for them.
So celebrate that, right here, right now. Right now make a fist with your right hand (or left if it is the dominant hand). Reach out and up with your fist, palm side up. Bring your fist down and back to your side strongly and say, “YES!” out loud. Do it again, even stronger. What does this do? It “anchors” the win, the feeling of accomplishment in your body. It takes ownership of the accomplishment.
It means you are taking credit for your success. You are praising yourself and rightfully so! What else does this do? By triggering good feelings in the body, it is now easier to move on to the next task at hand in a more positive frame of mind, or “state” of being or feeling in the body. This helps to ensure you are bringing more of your abilities, skills and, yes, talents to bear on the next item on your list, to your next task, your next challenge. Also, this gives you a “tool” you can use to power your way through the inevitable challenges you will face in the future.
How? The next time you feel fear and/or anxiety, you can use this action of fist pumping to release the fear and access the “winning state” in your body. When next you feel fear or anxiety, simply pump your fist and say, “YES!” out loud again. You will immediately access the previous successful or winning state in your body and be fully empowered to access your abilities, skills and talents on the fear-inducing challenge.“
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Please now take the time to celebrate your “win.” You chose to make some positive changes in your life by reading this Special Report. Celebrate the win.
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Bonus Step #8: Meditate
Two Minutes. Sit. Watch Your Breath. Daily.
We all the same number of hours, minutes and seconds in each day. Yet, how are some able to accomplish so much? Author Deepak Chopra has written 80 books in his career. As of this writing, he is only 68 years of age. How did he do that? And how does he continue to do so?
He spends two hours every morning doing his meditation and other self improvement “stuff.” And still he has time to write 80 books over his lifetime. It took me 13 months to mine! (The Zen of Joy http://zenofjoy.com/ )
Can we stop to consider that perhaps it is BECAUSE he spends two hours meditating and “stuff” that he is so productive? Could it be that the state of mind he enters because of the meditation allows for more “flow” in his life? Could it be that meditation produces a deeper connection with our intuition? Could it be that allowing some direction from our subconscious through intuition, that we may find ourselves more productive as well?
From The Zen of Joy.
“The word “meditation” may conjure up images of monks sitting in solitary caves in saffron robes and living simple lives with no possessions.
However, meditation is just a process to become more mindful and aware, to be fully present in the “now.” Past and future are concepts that live in the mind. Meditation allows us to feel the fullness of life energy coursing through our bodies, minds, emotions and spirits. Meditation is, therefore, a ritualized way of getting into a blissful state.
For me, it is a wonderful, joyous, blissful and ecstatic ritual. There are many different schools of thought on meditation. You do not need to become a “Meditation Scholar” to get benefits. You can choose the method you are drawn to and are comfortable with.
Here are two that I like. The first one is from Ho’Oponopono and it is as simple as can be. It takes little effort and can easily and relatively effortlessly be integrated into your daily routine. The second one is “The Presence Process.”
The Ho’Oponopono meditation goes like this.
Sit comfortably. I like to think of a silk strand attached to the top of my head at the back suspending my spine. Visualize the individual vertebrae being like pearls suspended on a string. Ensure a good posture that allows for relaxation of your muscles as much as possible. Focus also on relaxing the muscles around the eyes, the mouth, jaw and neck.
Take a big breath and sigh it out. I find that a good preparation as it helps to relax the system even more. You may choose to do protocol #1 to get connected to the Inner Smile. Now, this is a series of 7 breaths. You may keep your eyes open or closed or, my preference, halfway closed, so I am still aware of my surroundings but not captivated by them.
Here is one way of keeping track of the number of breaths. Place your thumb on the end of your index finger for breath one. For breath two, move your thumb to the next finger. For breath three, the ring finger and breath four the pinkie. Start again at the index finger for breath five, six and seven.
Each breath consists of four parts. Breathe in through the nose for a gentle count of 7, hold for a count of 7, breathe out for a count of 7 and hold for a count of 7. That is one breath. Now the thumb moves to the next knuckle (the inner knuckle of the finger next to the forefinger) for breath #2. Continue until 7 breaths are complete.
It helps to have the Inner Smile in place, but is not essential as the Inner Smile can arise on its own during this process. Your focus is on the breath. This is an easy and gentle way to discover and or deepen your meditation practice.
You don’t have to in any way worry about your thoughts. Just let thoughts do what they do. As you focus on your breath, you may find the “Witness.” The witness notices the thoughts but is not attached to them. No need to go looking for the witness or wonder where it is. There is no need to do anything except breathe in the prescribed manner.
If you find your mind wandering and lose focus on the breath, be assured that this is normal and absolutely fine. It is important not to kick yourself for lack of focus. Just gently bring yourself back to noticing the breath. It’s as simple as that.
The benefits of this meditation are its simplicity and its minimum requirement for any great amount of discipline. It calms your system and does it fairly quickly. It also takes little time. That is one of the main factors in the Zen of Joy. The protocols all need very little of your day to practice and get the benefits. Each breath takes me about 20 seconds. Therefore seven of them equals about 140 seconds, or 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Let’s call it 2 and a half minutes. Twice a day is 5 minutes.“
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I Believe when we open to our potential, the world changes…dramatically and for the better.
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If you are not inclined to spend two hours daily in meditation, consider The Zen of Joy for the same benefits: http://zenofjoy.com/
The “Zen of Joy” is a series of 24 protocols that uncover the joy and bliss you have inside you.
It does it immediately and it increases the joy and bliss over time as well.
Are you working too hard and not getting enough time to enjoy life?
Are you wondering when will it be your turn to feel the joy and vibrant energy you see in others?
Are you sometimes finding it all too much? Keeping your nose to the grindstone is all very fine, but where is my payoff?
“I know I have weekends, but even then, there are chores to do, shopping, fixing things. It just seems there is no let-up. I am always behind the eight ball.” Is that you?
Joy, energy, health, happiness and yes, bliss, reside in you right now.
The 24 protocols of The Zen of Joy are designed to uncover your bliss and do it just minutes a day. http://zenofjoy.com/
Each protocol builds on the previous one to easily create new, empowering, healthy and energizing habits that crowd out the unhealthy habits we may have.
The Zen of Joy is designed to be read one chapter a week, followed by implementing a “Mission, should you decide to accept” for that week before moving on to the next chapter, protocol and mission.
The protocols are created in bite sized chunks so that anyone who is leading a busy life and has little time to waste can still use the information to “plug in” to their own bliss…all in minutes a day.
At the least, plug in to the free resources on the site: http://zenofjoy.com/
Love, Laughter, Smiles
Matti Anttila
P.S. #1: 90% of long term happiness is predicted not by external circumstances, but by how the brain processes the world. In only minutes a day you may create more fun, less stress and better health. Go here now: http://zenofjoy.com/
P.S. #2: 108 Tips for More Joy, Energy and Health, includes How to Feel Authentic Joy, Even When Unhappy (No-cost) http://joyenergyandhealth.com/
P.S. #3: The Single Most Important Habit to Acquire (Special Report)
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I Believe when we open to our potential, the world changes…dramatically and for the better.
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“Sitting is the New Smoking.” Special Report:
Yours with a no-cost Subscription to Mastery Newsletter
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108 Tips for More Joy, Energy and Health, includes How to Feel Authentic Joy, Even When Unhappy (No-cost) http://joyenergyandhealth.com
Love, Laughter and Smiles
Matti Anttila, Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher. Zen of Joy Consultant and Author of: The Zen of Joy. How to Rewire Your Brain for Happiness & Success.
How Joyous are You? Free Zen of Joy Questionnaire. Click here: http://zenofjoy.com
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“When we open to our potential, the world changes…dramatically and for the better.”
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Publisher Matti Anttila © Copyright 2016 Matti Anttila, 304 – 1834C Oak Bay Avenue, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8R 0A4
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