The past 5 years has not been the happiest of times for my immediate family. Life limiting health challenges and an abundance of black clouds of medical messages has had various members of my family consistently living in fear, constant concern, sadness and even hopelessness at times.
One of the things that lead me on an every increasing path of personal leadership and still today keeps me passionate on that path, is how I found I could affect my own level of happiness even in the face of an overwhelmingly depressive environment.
For me – personal leadership has become a sacred path of self care. By focusing on what is most meaningful to me even in times of personal stress I have managed to create a level of personal fulfillment that surprised even me.
By simplifying (limiting) things down to their “value essence” and then creating observable behaviours that demonstrated those values – I began to get highly tuned into my performance in those behaviours in a pursuit of personal mastery and as a byproduct – my happiness levels are ever increasing.
Now some of the values and behaviours I focus in on are unique to me – as they fit with my own definition of success. Some of them I think however are more universal.
Universal in the sense – I believe most sensitive women would benefit from them. See if you resonate with any of the following ideas:
8 ways to Find Happiness in Times of Stress:
The opportunity is to find with crystal clear clarity the meaning in your life – and then begin by better living authentically and courageously; doing things that fit with your own essence I believe are personal leadership possibilities that anyone can adopt.
1. Appreciate beauty and excellence. Being sensitive to and appreciative of beauty raises energies of lightness and love. Appreciation also helps you further development a framework of the best of what is. Understanding more about the best of what is – can be a super way to hone your own skill of personal mastery.
2. Cultivate an open mind & open heart. Being open to multiple perspectives can raise your emotional vibration dramatically. Limited perspective often means you have no where to go and no hope of being a full choice. It may feel good to be “right” in the moment – but often that awareness is fleeting. Being open means you use the power and praise of pause effectively – and then respond. No more reacting in a knee-jerk fashion.3.See over the hill of hope. Hope is a powerful happiness accelerator. Being able to reach into the future with positive expectations of hope , can create an openness to possibilities and the ability to see beyond the current situation or place of time
4. Measuring the meaning. Meaningfulness is a connection to your unique spirituality. When we develop our beliefs about our purpose and purposefulness in our communities and then go about doing measurable and observable behaviours relating to that meaning we increase our levels of personal fulfillment – and THAT is happiness raising.
5. Wait for clarity.- The practice of patience waiting for our ability to “know” something – is something that can raise our level of happiness. When you are no longer robbed of happiness by needing to control an outcome or force a perspective and can wait for the “truth” to emerge – your happiness comes along with patience.
6. Run a current of congruence. Congruence – having your heart, head, and hands in alignment and resonance is the active demonstration of being authentically you. It’s speaking what you feel; it’s working on what you love and its mind, body and spirit working in concert. It’s this natural flow of this congruence current uninterrupted by holding back self-expression for fear of someone not liking it – that brings us closer to your true happiness – and essence
7. Raise the bar. Raising the bar has everything to do with being in integrity, doing what you say you will do, giving things 105% and asking yourself to continually do better in those things you choose to focus on. There is a happiness byproduct that happens when you can say to yourself – I have done and am doing my very best. It raises your self- esteem.
8. Connect with the flow of life. Being in and with nature, recognizing we are all one and all the forgiveness and love that brings forth.
Do any of these ideas resonate with you? Would you like more of them in your life? Or would you like to get just a little bit better at them?
For myself, I found by bringing in more appreciation, positivity, patience, perspective and awareness of my own thoughts and emotions and by focusing my energies – I increased my own level of happiness – even in the face of the overwhelmingly limiting experience of illness in my family.
It took me realizing a few things before I gave myself full permission to focus on my own happiness in the face of what originally seemed unfaceable. It really took giving me permission to take care of myself and be happy even when those around me were not.
