The Keys to a High Quality Life

Nine habits that I believe are essential to a high quality life no matter your age, income, or social status.

#1 Move it or Lose it: Humans were designed to run, jump, crawl, and play as a form of enjoyment and also for protection. As we age our bodies stiffen if we don’t practice movement; therefore make sure you are moving as much as possible. Take the steps, park in the most remote spot, walk everywhere within a couple miles of your house, stretch out while you’re watching TV, etc. On top of that if you do an intense workout you can get some endorphins flowing, which will make you feel on top of the world. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?

#2 Step Outside: Breathing fresh air is essential to our existence, so do it everyday. Connecting with the universe is renewing, reassuring, and helps you explore the world that we live in.

#3 Sleep like it’s Your Job: Someone once said, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” No you won’t because you’ll be dead. Our brains are like rechargeable batteries which means they shut down when they don’t get enough charge. Sleeping repairs not only your body (beauty sleep), but also your mind. Another thing I’m sure you haven’t heard before is that people who get enough sleep usually feel happier and more energized. Make time to sleep and enjoy it.

#4 Eat Real Food: Good food is worth the slightly higher price you will have to pay for it. Have you considered the price of cancer lately? How about heart disease? Diabetes? You pay with your life. A much better trade off would be to eat high quality foods as much as possible that come from local farmers who are dedicated to your health and longevity. The environment, your paycheck, the farmers paycheck, and the animals will profit from your purchase (plus your body will thank you). Just a tip - if you stop eating out and cook all of your meals at home you can actually save money buying organic food compared to buying cheap produce or meat from Walmart and eating out often. Remember that no one is perfect and it takes time to make the transition to buying/eating organic food, alas deciding to start is half the battle.

#5 Avoid Pesticides: Pesticides can cause memory loss, slow reaction times, bipolar behavior, cancer, and they screw up your hormones which leads to even more unfavorable diseases. Avoid pesticides by making your own cleaning supplies and toiletries, buying organic/grass fed foods, and by having a no-shoes rule in the house (shoes track in lawn fertilizers). Below are a few DIY recipes.

Shampoo - 1 cup water + 1 tbs baking soda

Conditioner - 1 cup water + 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

Lotion - coconut oil

Jewelry cleaner - baking soda + water

Laundry detergent - washing soda + borax + shredded scented castile soap

For more easy recipes and tricks check out http://www.diynatural.com

#6 Drink like an Elephant:

Water makes up more than half of our bodies and about 75% of our muscle tissue. The recommended amount is 6-8 cups per day, but I would suggest about a gallon a day. You will probably have to pee a lot more than usual but eventually your body will adapt. Water also aids in digestion, endurance, and survival so drink up.

#7 Live Minimalistically: Simply put don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Do you really need a monster energy drink every morning? How about a TV? Do you need all of your old college T-shirts? Do you need 78 different pairs of shoes? These are all wants, not needs. If you feel like your items own you, I suggest you try the minimalist challenge. http://www.theminimalists.com/game/  Being freed of your material items will greatly reduce stress and make life much easier.

#8 Live Passionately: Cultivate your talents and do activities that you enjoy often, but also try a little bit of everything because you never know what will catch your eye. Don’t just follow the crowd; lead the crowd by being authentically you and not collapsing to peer pressure. Be creative and innovative. Set attainable goals and work to reach them. Never let your passion die out.

#9 Meditate Like a Monk: Get in the habit of meditating for at least 10 minutes a day. I prefer to do it in the morning because then the calmness I find stays with me throughout the day and I don’t get as stressed. No matter when you meditate it will diminish stress, calm your body, help you take control of your mind and renew yourself. Me time is especially important in the busy world we live in today.

What do you think? Are there more to add or maybe one that doesn’t fit? All comments are welcome!

-Liz

Chasing Happiness

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’ve finally found it! I finally reached my goal and now I am forever happy!”? No, you haven’t. No one ever says that because that’s not how it works. Everyone is out there searching for happiness. That’s what they want to be when they grow up, that’s what they want when they purchase “stuff,” whether it be clothes, accessories, furniture, or electronics, even relationships; we want them because they make us happy. All we want is happiness. Happiness is the sugar of life, our brains crave it.

The only problem is… you will never find it! Happiness is not meant to be found! Happiness is meant to be lived. Right now. Right here. Buying more stuff will not make you happy and neither will throwing away all your stuff! Even reaching your goals will not make you happy! Something can make you happy for a few seconds, maybe for an hour, a day, or even a year, but happiness is a choice.

You. You have a choice. Are you going to choose to be happy? Or are you going to choose to follow the crowd and blame others for your struggles and your fears? Every day we have the choice to be happy and take control of our attitude. We can get up, take a deep breathe, and smile. We are still breathing, why wouldn’t we be happy? Your car broke down, your dog is sick, you got an F on your essay, your parents are mad at you, you have no friends, etc. None of that can hold you back from being happy. You have the opportunity to find the good in all of those situations.

Stop chasing happiness. Just BE it.

*Note I am not saying that I am perfect. I fall victim to chasing happiness rather often. When overloaded with schoolwork I tell myself I would just be happy if I could get this paper done, or this assignment finished, but deep down I know that’s not going to fix everything. This is just a reminder to myself and anyone reading that happiness is a choice, not an object to be found.

Be happy,

Liz :)

How to Get Over Irrational Fears

Needles. They said it wouldn’t hurt, they said it would be over in the blink of an eye. I trembled as I thought of everything that could go wrong. What if they put the needle in the wrong place and I bled to death? What if I lost the feeling in my arm and was never able to move it again? For the last two weeks leading up to my injection that was all I could think about. Everything that could go wrong was always in the back of my mind, preoccupying my every thought. When I finally went in to get the injection I was almost in tears. The doctor was like “Now dear, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” I thought, of course I don’t want to do this, are you crazy?! She even went so far as to assure me that no one has ever died from this procedure before. When they finally numbed me up and stuck the needle in I couldn’t even feel it, and it was over in less than 10 minutes. All that worrying for nothing.

Raise your hand if you have ever let the fear of the unknown hold you back from enjoying life to the fullest. I’m guessing that everyone raised their hand. Whether it was an important job interview or going out on a blind date or giving a speech in front of a large crowd. All of those “what if” questions start popping up and we start to imagine the worst. As humans, we have a bias towards noticing negative news over positive news (Altucher). Same goes for having negative thoughts over positive thoughts. It is just plain easier to be pessimistic than it is to be optimistic. When I ask my friends what they want to be when they grow up or what their dream is, the most common answer I hear is, “I want to be happy.” We fall into this common misconception that if we make this amount of money or we get this type of car or have this many friends we will be happy. The truth is that being happy is a present-day activity, it’s a choice. It’s not a destination, or something you work towards. The people that are happy choose to be happy. They choose to be optimistic instead of pessimistic. No one has everything perfect. No one is perfect. Even the people that are happy have their bad days when they can’t stop worrying about a certain upcoming event in their life. The difference is that they notice it, pull out of it, and keep trudging forward with a smile on their face.

Next time you catch yourself worrying or having irrational fears about an upcoming event try to imagine everything that could go right. Look at all the positive possibilities. Try seeing yourself getting that job interview, making a great connection on that date, and giving the best speech in history. If we can learn to be automatically optimistic in everything we do and stop worrying about the future we can enjoy life in the moment.

Set yourself up for success and happiness by being optimistic. :)

Sources:

Altucher, James. "HOW TO GET AN MBA FROM EMINEM." Altucher Confidential RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2014.