2014: The Year 2 Bee Happy

Well it’s coming to the end of 2014 and I would like to share with you some tips to help you to end your year on a high.

For me, my year has been a mixture of highlights and lowlights. I have accomplished some of the things I set out to at the beginning of the year and other things have gone by the wayside. I feel as though I am continuing to progress but some of my old patterns of behaviour continue to hold me back in some ways. This is why doing an exercise such as the one I am going to lay out for you, is important. Not only for reflection, but also to enable you to catapult yourself into 2015 with enthusiasm and a thirst to create the best year yet.

No matter what has happened this year for you, it is possible to end the year on a high and here are some tips to help you to do that.


1) Look back at your year and list all the things you are grateful for

The list might include people who have supported you through good times and tough times in the year. It might include events you have attended, it might be witnessing someone you love achieving something. It might include your pets. It might include giving up an unhealthy habit; it might be deciding to change something in your life. It might be a holiday you have been on or even having gratitude for where you are right now. It might be simple things, such as the food you eat or and home you live in. Whatever it is, having a grateful heart towards the things you have in your life, will create an attitude of abundance and that will make it possible for more of the same to come your way.

2) Create some time and space to stretch your body

At this time of year, it is very easy to get stressed. We all have so much to do. The festive period and the year end can also make us reflect on the things and people we have lost in our lives. So it’s really important to treat our bodies as kindly as possible at this time. Creating a 10 – 20 minute time gap in your day, and devote it to stretching your body, will not only reduce your stress levels psychologically but also reduce muscle tension. You can find free and easy to follow yoga tutorials on YouTube.

3) Connect with others

Social connections are really important for us human beings to thrive. It’s really good for us to connect with those who surround us at this time of year. Some of us are lucky to have family and friends, whom we can call upon and be surrounded by at this time of year. It’s a time to show the people we love how much we appreciate having them in our lives. If you feel isolated and alone at this time of year, it might be an idea to see what is happening in your local community for people who are in a similar position. You should find information on this at a local community centre, library and your GP surgery may also have information of groups and services which can offer you support over this time.

4) Practice compassion

Compassion, I believe, is the most intelligent aspect that we can draw upon, as human beings. It can take some practice to get good at showing compassion to a person or an animal. However, once you have mastered it, it will have health benefits for you and for the recipient. I find that really amazing. For example, compassion can be smiling at someone, holding a door open for them, a soft touch, listening. Basically, opening your heart to a person or an animal and showing them you care, are there for them and they can depend on you. This creates trust and the release of a hormone called Oxytocin in yourself and them. Author, Dr David Hamilton, has researched Oxytocin, and has found that it has been shown to reduce blood pressure and is therefore cardio-protective. If we collaborate this information, we can come to the conclusion that; people who show compassion to others have healthier hearts.

5) Have fun when you can

This is one great aspect of this time of year that can help us to be light hearted. Whether it is dancing, being silly, listening to music, dressing up, going out with friends, it is good to have fun wherever you can. Any opportunities you get to have fun, take them. Don’t forget to laugh at yourself and whatever you do, try not to take yourself too seriously. It is the season to be jolly after all

6) Write a 'Let Go' list

In your 'Let Go' list you can include anything you want to let go of in 2014. I find this really therapeutic. I also find it helps me to be grateful that the end if the year has come because it gives me the opportunity to let go of anything I want. Examples could include, unhelpful reactions to events, poor communication, anger, a grudge against someone, painful emotions, a habit. Once you've written your 'Let Go' list you might want to take it outside and set it alight, as symbolically this will be letting go of the list completely.

I hope you find these tips useful and help you to end 2014 on a high, no matter what the circumstances you find yourself in. I will look forward to January 2015, where I will be giving you tips on manifesting the year of your dreams. I wish you all a Happy Christmas and have the best time at New Year.

Here are some quotes I find help me to apply the tips that I’ve shared with you:

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving somethingbigger and better than your current situation. Brian Tracy

Stretching your body, is just as important as stretching your mind. Aimee Stewart

Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness. If it doesn't feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructive. Brene Brown

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama

More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams. Amy Grant

In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself. – Deepak Chopra







                                   

Bee in the moment, busy bees….

It’s time for the 5^th instalment of my blog. Last month’s blog was all about Flying with Stress. I shared with you 3 tips to help you deal with stress in a more effective way. These were: 1) Bee aware – this was to help you to take a course of action when you noticed stress coming on, that would enable you to deal with stress effectively there and then. 2) Create some time – this was advice to create at least 30 minutes for yourself each day and to spend this time doing something that helped you to relax. 3) Get up, dress up, show up – this was to continue to do all of the things you normally do, even in the presence of stress. I hope you had fun applying these tips and if you haven’t read all my instalments. You’ll find them in my blogspot at: www.aimeejstewart.blogspot.co.uk .

So this month has been pretty full on for me, as I am sure it has also been for a lot of you too. Between juggling work, dogs, exercise, family, friends, working on new goals and throw in whatever else applies to you too. There is no getting away from the fact that life is busy. This can become overwhelming at times for all of us. Maybe negative thoughts such as, “I can’t cope with this”, “What’s the point”, “Give me a break”, pop into your mind. These exacerbate the overwhelmed feelings and ultimately lead to a lowering of our enjoyment of life. So my main aim for this month’s blog is to share with you ways to help you cope with a busy life and actually enjoy it. You might find that you end up thriving through those busy days and look forward with positivity to more of them.

The title of this month’s blog is: “Bee in the moment, busy bees.” As usual I am going to share 3 tips on how to create a mind-set that helps you to Bee in the moment throughout the busyness.

So here goes:

1)    Begin your day with a stretch and a smile

In my opinion, the beginning of the day is the most important part. Setting off on the right foot, so to speak, is a great practice to get into. So in order to help you cultivate this, I suggest you begin each day with a stretch and a smile. It’s quite easy to get into a rut when the alarm goes off, beginning your day with negative thinking and taking at least an hour to properly wake-up. However, it doesn’t have to be like this. Getting out of bed and purposefully stretching after your alarm goes off with a smile on your face, will help to cultivate positivity for the rest of your day. Even if it is a fake smile to begin with, we have learned through my first blog that smiling helps to release those healthy hormones, such as dopamine, which help us to feel good. When you stretch, reach up as far as you can with both hands above your head, bring both arms down and out to the sides , whilst stretching out as much as you can, then reach down to your toes as low as you can and then return to standing posture, with your shoulders back and down. This creates the confident posture that I spoke about in my 3^rd  blog.

Your mind and body respond well to a ritual. By setting the tone of your day each morning with this positive intention, can really change the subsequent events of the day. Try it and see what you think. :)

2)    Take it one step at a time – write a To Do List

We all know what it’s like to have 101 things to do and not know where to begin. It’s so easy to get lost in the chaos and be up shits creak without a paddle. Let’s not let it get to that. The beauty of a To Do List, is it helps us to see what we have to do and instead of it being a mish-mash in our mind, it’s in black and white in-front of us. You can then look at your To Do List and break it down further. Write down, what needs to be done today, what can wait until tomorrow and what can be done at the end of the week and then review everyday…This helps you to feel more in control of your life and puts you in the driving seat. Rather than things driving you, you’re driving them. It’s a pretty great feeling to know you’re driving your own life forward and a To Do List is a simple action that can cultivate this feeling and help you to Bee in the moment.

3)    Exercise – walk, run, dance, - whatever you do, move!

Did you know that exercise is fundamental when it comes to creating mental well-being. We were born to move. Unfortunately in society today, a lot of us have jobs that prevent us from moving around a lot. Our bodies were created for movement and it’s important that we put them to use. The benefits of 30 minutes exercise per day, are enormous.

Some of the benefits I have listed below:

·         less tension, stress and mental fatigue

·         a natural energy boost

·         improved sleep

·         a sense of achievement

·         focus in life and motivation

·         less anger or frustration

·         a healthy appetite

·         better social life

·         having fun

  

30 minutes of activity each day could be a walk, a run, dancing, an exercise class, an exercise DVD. Anything, as long as your moving your body. Personally I find exercise the thing that keeps me sane. It might feel like a chore to begin with but after it becomes habit, you may find yourself looking forward to that part of your day. I get exciting now before I begin exercise. It’s a part of my day that I really look forward to because it really helps me to forget about the events of the day and transition into “me time”. Ultimately it helps me to Bee in the moment and forget about the busyness.

I hope you find these 3 tips useful and they help you to cultivate more positivity into your day, even if you are busy. Good luck. :)

Fly With Stress

Fly with Stress


Hello, it's time for the 4th instalment of my blog. There's been a bit of a delay with this one but I'm happy to say that I'm managing to publish it before September has finished, so mission accomplished. ;)

My last blog was called "Confidence Buzz". I shared with you 3 tips on how to cultivate more confidence. These were: 1) The Power Pose and the importance of posture 2) The Fake It Until You Make it technique 3) 3C (Peripheral) Vision. I hope you found these tips useful and they gave you the ability to cultivate more confidence.

This month's topic is all about stress and learning how to "Fly With Stress". Stress is good! Without it we wouldn't grow, change or evolve. We are led to believe that stress is bad for the body & mind. I believe the opposite to be true. I believe a certain amount of stress is good for us, as it is a signal from both our minds and our bodies that we are living, breathing and human. Daily, we put ourselves through stress. Our journey to work, our interactions throughout the day, the food we eat, the exercise we put our bodies through, the activities we engage in, the thoughts we think, all cause us stress. Something to remember is that we all have a baseline that we feel is normal for us. When life-changes happen, that baseline will be altered and stress levels will rise. Sometimes we are completely unaware of this, other times our sleep is effected, or our emotions will change, our thoughts might race, we might go into fight/flight mode, our appetites can be effected, our concentration too, the list goes on. I am going to share with you 3 tips on how to learn to "Fly With Stress..."

Flying with stress is a way to be able to continue with life, even if it feels chaotic and here's how:

1) Bee Aware

The first step to change is awareness. When we are stressed we might become more irritable, we might lose our appetite, we might experience thoughts we wouldn't normally. It's all down to you as an individual. This might all come on unnoticed and before you know it, you're MEGA stressed. A way to be more in control when we are stressed is to have an awareness of what is feeding our stress and how you are reacting to it. Take a note of what you believe to be feeding your stress and also how you believe you are reacting to it.

A great quote by Einstein ~ You can't solve a problem with the same level of consciousness that created it. Once you are aware of what is feeding your stress and how you are reacting to it, you can begin to make changes to your reaction. The stress will still be there but your reaction will be different, so the effect of the stress won't have less of an impact on you.

The note could look like this for example:

(Stress) Late for work > (Reaction) Irritability and rushing

(Stress) Late for work > (Reaction) Staying calm and listening to some of your favourite music on the way in

Or

(Stress) A bill to pay > (Reaction) Avoid opening it and continue to worry about it

(Stress) A bill to pay > (Reaction) Open it, break it down and plan on how you will pay it

2) Create Some Time

Once we recognise we are stressed, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to create some time. 30 minutes a day is what I recommend. This time is for you to set aside and use to do something that you know will relax you. It could be a bath, reading a book, going for a walk, focussing on your breathing, doing a guided meditation. If you've never tried meditation, you will find lots to choose from on youtube. Find one that you like the sound of and suites you. 30 minutes a day, just for you to spend on what makes you feel relaxed.

3) Get Up, Dress Up, Show Up

When we are stressed, sometimes retreating and avoiding seems like the best thing to do. In actual fact, the best thing to do when you are feeling stressed is to "Get Up, Dress Up and Show Up" to life and everything that you have to "Get Up, Dress Up and Show Up" for. It will make you feel better in the long run, provided you are persistent and consistent with it. Make it fun and don't forget to use the tips in my previous blogs to help boost confidence, happiness and letting things bee theatre out with your control.

One thing I like to remember is that usually following a period of stress, something wonderful happens. Something clicks into place. You get the job, the house move goes well, you perform better than you thought you were going to, you move on to something better than you were experiencing in your life prior to experiencing the stress. Stress moves us towards change. I hope you find you are able to "Fly With Stress" over the next month. 😊 

Confidence buzz!

So my last blog was all about using the “Let It Bee” approach to cope with situations that are out with our control. I showed how it is possible to let these situations evolve from something that we try to resist and causes negativity in our lives, into a positive experience, so that we can enable ourselves to soar above our challenging circumstances. The three techniques I shared that you can utilise at these times were; 1) Taking a step back and asking yourself what you could gain from the situation 2) Sharing your vulnerability with others and 3) Acceptance. I hope you found these tips helpful and found you were able to “Let It Bee”, in challenging circumstances …I would be interested to know of any successes…

The next topic that I am going to share with you all is: “Confidence Buzz!” This is a way to induce and cultivate more self-confidence and I am going to share with you, 3 ways to help you to do this…I believe that confidence is the intrinsic quality of people who lead happy, successful and fulfilled lives.

It helps us to:

• communicate our wants and our needs to others
• set and achieve goals
• experience success at work
• plan and deliver presentations
• connect with new people and cultivate new relationships (personally and professionally)
• begin a new interest
• cope effectively with life’s challenges
• broaden your life experiences

Being able to induce a “Confidence Buzz” can help us through most circumstances, before, during and after they arise. To me confidence is like a flower…It begins as a seed which is planted in the soil (or within us), it needs nourishment, care and attention, to grow and evolve, until it finally blossoms, into something that is beautiful and an intrinsic part of who and what we are…

If you think of the most confident person you know, think of their qualities…For me, in my minds eye, posture stands out, the way they hold their body commands attention and oozes self-belief. When a confident person walks into a room, others take notice and recognise their confidence. Having strong posture is known to make a person more believable than those who slouch or fold their arms when they are talking.

1)    Power pose – a power pose is when we stand with our hands on our hips legs hip width apart, shoulders aligned and backward and head up looking forward. 

This stance when done for just 2 minutes has been found by Amy Cuddy, Social Psychologist of Harvard Business School to increase our testosterone hormone in our bodies. This hormone is associated with males but females possess it too. It boosts self-confidence and helps to make us more believable, especially in times of stress. As well as increasing testosterone levels, the Power Pose has been found to reduce Cortisol levels in the blood stream. This is our stress hormone, so my Power Posing we reduce the levels of stress that we feel. I find that fascinating. I learnt this pose at a 5 day Integrating Sciences course with Dr David Hamilton, author and speaker with Hay House. I now use a 2 minute power pose prior to going into stressful situations, such as presenting information to work colleagues, taking part in meetings and have used it in interview settings also. So I hope it helps you as well.

2)    Fake it until you make it – this is when we act out the way we want to come across prior to the event that is causing us to feel nervous.

Using the dress rehearsal to help us during an event that we know is likely to cause nervousness gives us more power than if we just go in cold. This way you are able to draw from your experience during the dress rehearsal and the more your practice something the better you become at it. This might seem a bit false but the most successful people in life have used the “fake it until you make it” technique. You may even want to write a script, look on the mirror, alter what you say until it becomes 2^nd nature and you feel your slick enough to make it during the real deal.

3)    3C vision/peripheral vision – this is when we use our vision to cultivate the feeling of relaxation when we are in the stressful situation. This can be done by looking at a point on a wall above eye level, focus on that point and then notice what you can see around that point to 360 degrees. Notice the colours, shadows and objects that you can see at the furthest possible point in all directions, from where you are focussing on.

It is absolutely impossible to feel anything other than relaxed when you are in the peripheral part of your vision. This is because we are designed to go into tunnel vision when in fight/flight mode…i.e. when we are stressed. If we bypass this by altering our vision into the periphery, we intercept the stress response and become instantly more relaxed, thus cultivating a “confidence buzz”.

You can use these 3 tips to induce A “confidence buzz” in any situation that you know will cause you stress or to feel nervous. It’s amazing the effects of confidence on your life circumstances. Once you have confidence in your own ability and can convince others of these abilities, you will be amazed at how your life can change. If you feel yourself becoming stressed or nervous in a situation, use the 3C Vision to bring you back to your confident and relaxed state.

I believe our natural state is one of confidence. I also believe that our busy and modern way of life can challenge our natural way of being. Modern life almost conditions us to compare ourselves to others. So confidence is “natural” and comparing is “normal”.

Why not BEE the star of your own show and astonish yourself….Good luck.

                                       

'Let It Bee...'

So last month’s blog was all about BEEing happiness as opposed to doing happiness and I gave you 3 simple techniques in order to move towards BEEing happy. These were; Breathing, Gratitude and Smiling. I hope you all had fun with implementing these techniques and they brought more happiness into your awareness...I'm buzzing to hear some of your comments...

This month I'll be demonstrating how life is easier when we 'Let It Bee....'

Do you ever find yourself resisting life? Pushing against it, causing a knot in your tummy and unpleasant emotions? This month I've been reminded of the importance of letting things BEE and the wonderful opportunity that this opens up for us when we do this. In a very real sense we give ourselves permission to fly above our circumstances, so that life carries us. Rather than getting caught up in the current and whisked down the river.

You see when we resist what is happening, it causes us dis-ease in our bodies. That can play out as stress, physical pain, lowering in our mood, expression of anger, issues in our relationships and this impacts our experience of life in a negative way. By resisting, we lose the ability to respond to situations as they arise in an intelligent and human way. We revert back to child-like behaviour which is based on feelings and not fact and which leads to more pain than if we just 'Let It Bee'.

I believe every one of us is given opportunities to 'Let It Bee', on a daily basis and when we do this magic begins to happen...

I'll give you an example; last Friday I set off for my flight for a weekend in London at 5.45am. There was a massive queue when I arrived at the airport, so I decided to go to the ladies room and put some make-up on whilst the queue was going down. When I came out the queue was gone and I had missed the check-in by less than 5 minutes. The airline would not let me check in and I had to pay for 2 extra flights, one to Manchester and another one to from Manchester to London, this was not cheap and caused a lot of upheaval to both mine and my Mum's day. Anyway, after the initial shock and emotional response I relaxed and got into the experience.

When I arrived in Manchester and had checked in and gone through to departures, where I was awaiting my gate number to show up on the screen. I sat down with my iced coffee and an elderly gentleman commented that my drink looked tasty. We got into a conversation that lasted over 30 mins and I will never forget Arthur, the 90 year old ex-paratrooper and Commander. He was off to see his lover and told me his life story. I was completely enlightened by him and his approach to life. He told me that his late wife had passed 20 years previous and he had been with his current partner for 15 years. She was a linguist and lived in Europe, they had a long distance relationship which worked for them and saw each other at least once a month. Arthur told me that he had asked his partner how long they would be together 5 years ago on their 10th anniversary. She had told him 8 years. I was taken aback by this, as 8 is my favourite number. It signifies infinity and by saying this, his partner had meant they would be together forever, no matter what. Arthur confirmed the meaning to me and I was just so delighted to meet a man who had such love in his life at 90 and also spoke with such truth to me, a stranger he had met in the airport. I left by shaking his hand and letting him know what a positive impact meeting him had, had on my day. People surrounding us were smiling at our connection and it really was a beautiful moment after a stressful start to the day.

So here are my tips on how to 'Let It Bee' when life gets stressful:

1) Take a step back...

When things happen that cause you stress and pain, try to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Rather than running with the stress of the situation and thinking about all the negative aspects of it and ultimately resisting the situation, try looking at it from a different perspective. For example ask yourself these questions; 'How can I grow and evolve through this situation?', 'Maybe this is happening to help me become greater than I was yesterday...', 'What can I learn from this and bring forth to create more positivity in my life?', 'How can I use this experience to help me connect with others?'.

2) Share your vulnerability...

Vulnerability is beautiful...by this I don't mean default into an emotional wreck and cry on a passerby's shoulder, however tempting this may be....I mean share your experience with others, you loved ones especially. Talk about how it made you feel and what impact it had on you. Chances are they will show compassion. By Arthur connecting with me, I was able to share my morning's experience with him and I was able to thank him for lifting me up. By showing your vulnerability you give others the opportunity to lift you up, for an authentic connection to be created and ultimately for you to heal from the upheaval of the experience. Vulnerability leads to healing. I find this fascinating because I used to believe I had to be strong in order to get through life's challenges. In actual fact having the courage to be vulnerable shows more strength and offers more healing. This is because rather than resisting the experience and the impact that the experience has had on you, you are allowing your emotions to flow and you are able to 'Let it bee'. Letting it bee, means that there is a flow within you, rather than a knot, which leads me to the next tip...

3) Acceptance

Acceptance is an amazing thing. When we truly accept our life's circumstances we can bee joyful. We are no longer a prisoner or a victim. Life is no longer something that happens to us. Life becomes something we respond to humanly to and intelligently to. Something which enriches us, through the challenges it offers us on a daily basis. By accepting the challenges we have to endure, we offer something to the world. We can share from a place of wisdom the journey of our challenges and by doing so we give others the permission to accept theirs. I have felt a tremendous amount of freedom from accepting my challenges. It's helped me to fly and soar above my circumstances, so that I use my challenges as a sort of spring board to propel me forward in life.

So after I left Arthur I reflected, I was meant to miss my flight, even though it caused challenges...I had a purpose to meet Arthur, he has enriched my life and I will remember the love he shared with me and the meaning of meeting him at the airport was so I could share with you, practical ways on how to 'Let It Bee...' You can apply the 'Let It Bee' approach to enable you to cope in a more effective way to any of life's challenges. From your 'typical bad day' to, family arguments/relationship difficulties, dealing with bereavement, work stress, the list goes on...

Article 1 - BEE-ing happiness instead of doing happiness…

Do you ever find yourself in the pursuit of happiness? This happens when happiness becomes a thought process. It’s like, “Once I am with those people, wearing those clothes, doing that thing, in that place, THEN I’ll be happy!!”

The problem with doing happiness that way, is that happiness is always something that is out of reach or in the future. Unfortunately society can condition us to think that in order to find happiness; we need to have things that are outside of ourselves. I don’t know about you, but from about the age of 16 when I was at school and teachers told me to start deciding what we wanted to do with my life, happiness was something that was obtained from things outside of myself. These were choices such as: the choice of academic subjects, achieving grades to get into the right university, choosing a career to pay a certain salary, that would enable you to wear those clothes, drive that car, live in that neighbourhood, impress those people…etc, etc, etc.

I call that doing happiness. What if I told you that BEE-ing happiness was much more of a buzz (pardon the pun) and a lot less hassle than any of that stuff above? WHAT IF I TOLD YOU, you could BEE happy right now without any of that stuff?  What if I told you, happiness is all about what’s on the inside, and less about any of these external factors? I remember thinking back when I was 16, “What if I don’t want to go to University? What if I just want to BEE happy and help other people to BEE happy?”

Happiness comes from BEE-ing present. When we start looking and noticing what is around us and appreciating it, happiness and contentment follows. Rather than getting caught up in the unruly chatter of the mind that can wander aimlessly from topic to topic and create judgements, you can intercept this process and create a happier state of BEE-ing by using just 3 simple techniques…

Breathing

The simplicity of the breath!  It’s truly beautiful. Just by taking 3 deep breathes in through the nose, down to the diaphragm, into the tummy and out through the mouth. This is the way we breathe naturally when we are babies. Our tummies are meant to pop out a little when we inhale and then settle back to normal when we exhale. If this is done consistently when stressed it changes our brain chemistry and brings about relaxation. This is because when we are stressed or unhappy, we tend to breathe in a shallow quite quick rate. By changing the respiratory rate to a slower and deeper level, our brains get a signal that everything is okay and we can relax. Our heart-rate will settle to a normal rate and we will begin to feel better. Every time something causes you to become unsettled, anxious or stressed, close your eyes and take 3 deep breathes, done in the way described above, open your eyes and feel the difference. You will find you feel a lot calmer and more relaxed. The beauty of this, is it can be done pretty much anywhere and if you can’t close your eyes because you’re driving or in a social setting, then just do it with your eyes open and feel the benefits. I love the simplicity of this exercise and it is open to everyone who can BREATHE, so literally includes all human BEE-ings. How cool is that?

Gratitude

Isn’t gratitude a wonderful thing? Showing gratitude to things we already have in life sends out the message of abundance. It changes your mind-set from I am lacking, to I am enough. Quite a lot of people live life from a perspective of, “I am not enough, I do not have enough...” Showing gratitude for things and people in your life opens up the opportunity for more of whatever we are grateful for, to enter our lives. An effective exercise that can improve focus to the things that we are grateful for is a Gratitude List. Every night write down 5 things that you are grateful for, that has happened that day. This could be anything.

For example:

I am grateful for:

1. The sun shining
2. A smile from a passer by
3. Someone at work saying thank you for my efforts
4. The meal I had for lunch
5. Knowing that deep breathes cause changes in brain chemistry and bring about relaxation ;)

Another way to enhance this is to add a visual element to it. Before you go to sleep at night, visualise the 5 things from your gratitude list infront of you as beautiful, sparkling golden stars. Then imagine reaching out and clasping each star one by one in your hand and then put them into your heart. To me, this represents the things you are grateful for, becoming an internal part of you, rather than something that is outside of yourself. The benefits of the gratitude list can be enhanced by adding the visual element. BEE-ing happiness is an inside job; it’s not about external factors. The side effect of getting the inside right, is that the outside falls into place too. Woohoo!

Smiling

When we smile for long enough, we stimulate the feel-good emotion in our bodies. Even if it is a fake smile! This is fascinating. Fake it until you make it – IT WORKS! Smiling helps us to connect with others, which increases the feel-good factor for us and in the person we are smiling at. Even if people don’t appear to be smiling back, they actually are. Take comfort from the fact that their Mirror Neuron System (MNS) has been activated and their big muscles on either side of their lips (Zygomaticus Major) and the muscles beside the eyes (Orbicularis Oculi) have flexed subconsciously. So they have just done a really fast, unnoticeable smile in response to yours. I challenge you to smile as much as you can, to as many people as you can. If there is an emotional connection between you and the other person, be sure to know that the Love hormone has been released. This is called Oxytocin, this hormone attaches to the outsides of the blood vessels, causing the release of Nitric Oxide, the blood vessels then dilate and blood-pressure reduces. It is known as a cardio-protective hormone – meaning that it helps heart health.

So for the next month, implement these 3 EASY steps and move towards BEE-ing happy. Happiness need not be dependant on your life circumstances; it can be influenced by YOUR behaviour despite your life circumstances. I BEE-lieve in you, you can BEE happiness!

Stay tuned for next month’s blog – where I’ll be giving you more tips on how to move towards BEE-ing happy! J

Author – Aimee Stewart Bsc – 26 – Inverness, Scotland