What do you want?

**Be sure to read posts:  True Happiness, Re-invention, and Expelling Your Past Beliefs before reading this post.

The main idea behind the Law of Attraction, if you are not already familiar with it, is positively visualizing the life you want to live or the goals you wish to achieve.  Today's happiness task deals with just that.  This can be fun!!  It also takes a little soul searching.  Start building the script for your future.  Listed below are a few different ways you can do this.  Pick a way that works for you or find something else that better for you.  Make sure it is something you can easily look back over often, even daily, and meditate on.  It should allow you to paint a picture in you head so vivid you can feel it, taste it, smell it.....you get my point. 

• Scripting - Write the "script" for your future.  Think of it as a journal, but instead of writing what actually took place that day....write about your day as if you have lived the life you are meant to live.  Be descriptive and  feel its power.  There are no limits. 
• Note Cards - Write down each goal or dream for your future on a note card.  Keep them with you or somewhere easy to access.  Read through them and meditate on them daily.
• Speak it - Speak about your future as if all your dreams have come true and record it.  I use the recording app on my phone and listen to it daily.  My favorite time to listen to it is in the car (by myself of course.....I'm not looking for crazy points here from my friends and family).

Whatever path you chose to help you meditate on the future you are meant to live make sure to focus on what you want to BE, DO/EXPERIENCE and HAVE in the following (but not limited to) areas of your life.

• Relationships (Love, Family, Friends...)
• Spiritual
• Career/Success
• Finance/Wealth
• The Tangibles (ex, car, clothing, furniture....etc)
• Home (your home should be an extension on you)
• Travel
• Education
• Social/Entertainment
• Health/Fitness

 As you build your scripts or lists you will discover what you want may change.....and that is okay.  As you begin to reach your goals and dreams new ones will surface or existing ones my alter.  This means you are evolving and truly experiencing your life.  Enjoy!
   

Expelling Your Past Belief About Money and Success

**Note:  Be sure to read True Happiness and Re-invention before reading this post.

    

  Many of us have been told since we were young that “you have to work hard for things” or heard phrases like “filthy rich” or “money can't buy happiness.” How do sayings like that make you feel about wealth or success? I have a different option about wealth, success and happiness.  I believe we are all meant to live our lives to its fullest potential and having wealth or success is not a bad thing. I believe it is not money people really want, but FREEDOM.  Picture the freedom you will have in your life when money is in abundance.  Freedom is being able to act in a moments notice to do anything you chose.  Want to take your family of five out to lunch and to a Sunday movie?  Want to lay on the beach in Mexico with your husband for your anniversary?  I DO!  There should be no shame in this!  DO NOT BE ASHAMED TO HAVE OR WANT WEALTH!  The universe is abundant.....act as though.  Take comfort in knowing that.  Look past the life you are living now and imagine the life you wish to live.  I tell my children this all the time to think about the life they want to have when they grow up....then to think about what needs to be done in order to have that life and do it now.  Make that life (or better) your reality.  
        Make a list of every negative thing you have ever heard about money, wealth or success.  Actually, go one step beyond that and add every negative thought you have about yourself and why you can't achieve wealth or success.  Look at that list....take it in....breath it in, then breath it out.  Let it go.  I guarantee that if you look at every thought on that list you can think of an exception to it.  Clear your mind of these negative views and feelings and know the exception to them.  Now, throw the list away!  When (or if) these thoughts try to sneak back into your head, know that you have made a commitment to let them go.  I stop and close my eyes and think of the thing that makes me feel the most happiness.  For me, this is my husband.  For you it could be a person you adore (and adores you), a moment you remember feeling the most happy, or a dream for you future that makes you smile.  Really take a moment to feel that happiness you have with that thought.  Sometimes my eyes even well up with tears.   Use its power and move on.

Re-invention

**Note:  Be sure to read True Happiness before reading this post.

       It is time I take some control over my life!  I truly believe everyone is meant to live an extraordinary life full of heart fluttering love, belly clinching laughs, remarkable experiences, prosperity free of fear and guilt, good heath and amazing people to share you life with.  This year I hit the not so big anymore, but a turning point none the less 3-1!  At the age of 31 the only real accomplishments I have made are my three super awesome kids and the heart pounding relationship with my husband of almost 12 years.  In this area I am wealthy beyond compare, but missing many things in my life that would add to my "extraordinary" life experience.  I have lived in fear for years and sometimes (maybe more than sometimes) abandoning responsibilities because of fear.  Today I take charge of my thoughts and my life, set out to start building happiness habits and freeing myself of distractions that hinder me from living my BEST life.....hence a re-invention.  My first step is to do some self reflecting and examining what changes need to be made to my existence, then setting a plan into  action to build these changes into habits.  I will use this blog as my source of accountability. I plan to work daily on making changes that count!! To make happiness a habit everyday and break the relapse cycle when things are going well. I invite you to follow along as I challenge myself to accomplish a "happiness task" each day and experience the changes that occur with me.

          Today I am going to take some time to examine my bad habits.  This might actually be painful to do, but I think it is important. To make this short and sweet, the brain consists of instincts, memories, habits and much, much more. Some brain functions you are born with and some are developed. Voluntary motor control, emotional functions and routine behavior or “habits” are examples of brain functions that stem from the basal ganglia located at the base of the fore brain. However, self discipline is developed in the frontal lobes of the brain. The brain, like a muscle, requires training to make it stronger. Today we will focus on building the frontal lobes of the brain that aid in self discipline.

     I recently read a case study of a women who was at a very low point in her life. In conjunction with this meek point in her life she was a victim to many bad habits. Recognizing this low point in her life she set a goal. A big goal. A goal she knew she could only accomplish if she rid her life a particular bad habit (for her it was to quit smoking). So she stopped this habit immediately. As she progressed toward her goal she realized not only had she rid her life of that particular bad habit, but many others as well. She noticed that her whole life had improved as well. Part of the case study included high-tech brain scans while she was working toward her goal. These scans were able to show development in her brain during this life altering experience. The scans showed development and changes in the frontal lobes of the brain where self discipline is developed. In short, by making the commitment to stop one bad habit she was able to develop the part of her brain aiding in self discipline creating the self discipline to stop many other bad habits with out even noticing.

       I invite you to examine your bad habits as well. Write them down. My list looked like this: procrastinating (on bills esp), setting things down were they don't belong (causing clutter...which produces major stress for me), picking at my bad skin/acne (thus making it worse), distracting myself from the more important things in life with social media (Facebook), not following though with things, worrying about what others think of me, eating foods I know are not good for me (food is meant to be nourishment for my body after all), not being active/getting good exercise, not drinking enough water, allowing myself to get worked up over small things, yelling at my kids when they do not respond when/how I want to what I am asking (usually when asking multiple times.....but there has got to be another way....because yelling at them makes me feel like crap), and being negative when my husband asks me to do things for work that I don't like to do or find to not be productive in the past.           

         After examining this list I decided to break these bad habits and build self discipline. In order to develop the self discipline I wanted and be able to succeed I knew I acknowledged all of the bad habits on my list, but picked three that I will spend the next 21 days quitting COLD TURKEY! I vow to take a break from all Facebook, drink my eight or more glasses of water per day and force myself to not touch a single blemish or break out on my face! Make this same decision for your self. Pick one, two or even three (whatever you know you can handle quitting cold turkey for 21 days) and begin to build your own self discipline.

True Happiness

      What truly makes you happy? Are you experiencing your ultimate happiness at this very moment? I am not talking about “sure, everything is fine” happiness...I am talking about waking up and knowing “today is going to be amazing; tomorrow is going to be even better; I cannot believe I get to live this life I have” happiness. Experiencing a life beyond happiness. Living in complete EUPHORIA. If you are already living a life that cannot get any better, then you have already made happiness a habit. If you are like me (or the old version of me), then you have made a habit of gossip, envy, guilt, helplessness, debt, clutter, disorganization, frustration, sickness, an unhealthy body, troubled relationships and the list could go on. Now, don't get me wrong...the old me did have happiness in my life but I was used to mediocrity or just getting by. I was not living my best life. I was not experiencing my ultimate happiness.
               My husband I have been self employed since the day we were married. Many circumstances led us to “the family business.” My husband's father was a brick mason and my husband grew up working hard from a very young age. While in college his father became very sick with cancer that eventually led to his untimely death. My husband chose to leave college to work full time laying brick to help his parents make ends meet during his father's losing battle with cancer. For a myriad of reasons, I did not complete my four year college degree either. We married young (which worked out well for us, but definitely NOT for everyone) and decided not to wait to have children. Though the years I have mostly stayed at home with our children, helped my husband with scheduling and book keeping and temporarily worked outside the home every now and then to bring in extra money when business was slow. I may not have missed a precious moment with my kids, but we lived a life of mediocrity. We just barely stayed afloat year after year.

            My day of enlightenment came when I heard about the book The Secret by Rhonda Bryne. Both my husband and I read the book and watched the DVD. We consider ourselves to be open to new or different ways of thinking, so the concept of like attracting like was one we were open to and wanted to learn more about. Reading The Secret led to an snow ball effect for us. Our favorite date night was now going to the book store looking for any books we could find pertaining to the idea of the power of attraction.

We could see this new way of thinking making drastic changes in our lives. However, being creatures of habit, we would focus intently on attracting great things to us and just when things were good we would just get lazy with our focus again and find ourselves back at square one. We did this dance with ourselves for about three years...once again, just.....getting.....by. I call this our relapse. Even though we could see the cycle and see the positive things brought to us by the power of attraction our old selves continued to get in our own way. We would revert back to having clutter and disorganization in our lives causing us frustration and unhappiness.

              Last year my husband noticed a habit of hair pulling that my son developed. He was literally pulling out his hair under his bang line. I still am amazed that my husband was able to catch this bad habit so quickly since where the hair was being pulled out could not be seen by just looking at our son. I am not going to lie.....I. Freaked. Out. I immediately, I ran to the internet to research this behavior and looking for advice to help us help him. As we learned more and more about this bad habit called trichotillomania we also learned a lot about habits and ways to break bad habits. Fortunately, we were able to examine this habit with our son and find the cue that started the behavior. Once we found the cue we were able to replace the behavior with another task (replaced the act of hair pulling) and, Voila, no more hair pulling. Examining and researching my son's bad habit he had developed started a whole new thinking process for me. It was what Oprah calls an “Aha Moment” for sure! We are all creatures of habit. If the power of attraction is the theory that like attracts like and ultimately I want to attract happiness, then I have to be happy. How do I create good habits? How do I make happiness a habit? I have to run on happiness autopilot and make happiness a habit.

          After completing further research on habits, I combined my new knowledge of making/breaking habits with my experiences of the power of attraction and devised my happiness habit plan with the purpose of attracting happiness into my existence. We have all joked about how you drove to work this morning and don't even remember how you got there. That drive to work is a habit and did not require your brain to focus on it completely. You were able to focus on other thoughts and still make it to work in one piece. You got to work running on autopilot. This connection of building habits to the power of attraction was a realization that physically knocked the breath out of me!

               I am so excited to share this idea and knowledge. I am not a professional writer (ekkk....obviously). I am not writing this blog to stroke my ego with what an eloquent writer I am. I am writing this to share my enlightenment. I am writing from the heart. I am writing from an urge I have pushing me to share this realization I have had with as many people as possible despite how silly I may feel about doing something I am not comfortable with. Now, I want to urge you to make a commitment to being happy and start your Happiness Habit today. You will begin to experience your best life. Together we can create a habit of happiness; thus, attracting extreme happiness into their existence. Happiness, like a clock; it requires many cogs make it run. Examine all of the ideas, relationships, experiences etc. that are required for your happiness. You can attract all of those cogs into your existence and create your euphoria. I am excited to take this journey day by day and share my experiences.