Exercise & Happiness-What’s the Connection?
Having a bad day? Feeling down? One of the ways to increase your happiness level is to exercise-move your body! Moving our bodies releases those wonderful feel-good hormones called endorphins, as well as other mood-enhancing bio-chemicals—and they are all legal!? The effects of these mood enhancers can last up to 12 hours! That’s a lot of mood enhancement without putting artificial chemicals in your body! Exercise also works on reducing the levels of stress hormones that get produced when we’re stressed and anxious. So, not only are we getting a boost of mood enhancers, we’re…
Does Exercise Make You Happy?
If you have been following me for a while, you know I walked the Camino de Santiago from Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain last Fall (of 2021) with my husband and some friends. We covered at least 160 miles. That’s a lot of walking-but to be fair, it was done over 2 weeks with a few rest days in between. Nonetheless, we walked 8-10 miles a day. It was great! It put smiles on all of our faces-at least most of the time. Maybe not so much when it was hot and we were walking…
Gratefulness is the Vitamin C of Daily Life
Gratefulness is a very potent practice for up-leveling your happiness. It’s like taking regular doses of Vitamin C to support your health and immunity. Being in Gratitude is even more powerful. It works on your emotional and mental well being! Here’s how it works: when we appreciate all that we have-especially the good things in our lives, it expands us. Practicing gratefulness on a daily basis has us focus on those things that fill us up and keep us present. When we are filled up-we’re not in a state of “lack” or “wishing” we had…
Personal Musings on Taxes & Holidays
As the deadline for filing taxes here in the US looms before us, I have to say I am extremely grateful that my wonderful husband gets ours done early. I know this time of the year can be a stressor for many people. On top of that, there are a couple of holidays and possibly even spring break time, depending on where you live. How do you keep the calm through all this? As we are in the month of Stress Awareness…take note: does waiting until the last minute to do your taxes stress you…
What makes you feel good?
In a recent article on the Energy of Happiness, I invited you to think and feel about what either expands you or contracts you. An easy way to increase our overall happiness level is to do things that have us feel expansive-on a daily basis. What if you simply made a list of those things? And, what if you looked at that list everyday and focused on doing, experiencing, and/or thinking about at least one thing on that list? Can you imagine how doing that on a daily basis would implant a happiness habit for…
April is Stress Awareness Month.
Being aware of the stress and what stresses us out in our lives is vital for us to be able to have more happiness in our lives. There has been lots of news articles, studies, reports and more that tell us how stressful these last 2 years since the pandemic began, has been. And, while these last 2 years have been especially challenging and stress and anxiety producing, the pandemic is not the only thing to blame. Stress, it seems, has become for many, a part of everyday life. We over schedule ourselves, we over…