10 Tips to Feeling Peaceful and Happy

I have become much more aware of how to feel peaceful and how to feel happy since as I age, it seems that life’s challenges make it more and more difficult! These are my top 10 tips on feeling peaceful and happy.

1. Clean up your house before you go to bed each night – I read this book recently, and the main point that stuck with me is that a habit is choice that we make ONCE. Just once! This totally simplified this principle for me. We no longer debate about whether we should wait until the morning to clean up because the decision has been made and that’s just what we do. The power of habit, in looking at habits as this one-time decision and then living in that decision that I only had to make once, has been absolutely life-changing for me. It’s not up for debate each day, the choice has been made and that’s what I do. Having a clean house feels fresh, calm and peaceful. Having a clean house to wake up to, instead of waking up to chaos and having to clean it is such a great feeling. I can then choose to feel my morning with positive experiences before the kids wake up. When I’m in a clean house, I can then take a moment for myself, sip some tea, and bring myself to the present moment.
2. Get enough sleep – I am legitimately a horrible person if I don’t get enough sleep. It sounds funny, but it’s true! Sleep is literally my number one priority because it the foundation. If my brain is well-rested and functioning properly, I can be a good mother, a good wife, a good friend, a good daughter, feel happy, and I have a chance to be great at pretty much anything I set my mind to. If I don’t get enough sleep, I’m slugglish, pessimistic and feel horrible. Life sucks. It’s hilarious writing this, but I can’t stress to you the importance of this for me! If you don’t believe how important sleep is, read this book. It is a game changer!! It is one of the most interesting and important books I have ever read. Sleep comes before exercise, before food, before anything else for me.
3. Exercise – I exercise every day except Sundays. My mood and attitude when I am done working out vs. before is always lifted, brighter and more positive. The endorphins that go to my brain are my brain’s best friend and I never regret working out. I always feel more happy when I am done. I’m actually amazed at what a big change it makes in my brain! A good exercise routine can be hard to get into, but once you have started, you start to crave it because your realize how good it makes your mind and your body feel. I really love to try new workouts, too. I love barre fitness, cycling outside, spin classes, HIGH fitness….pretty much anything. Except running! ???? My knees can’t hack that!
4. Change your thoughts about your challenges and trials – I realize that every single person in this entire big world has challenges and problems. I have been asked several times if I was jealous of other people that had children when we were struggling with infertility, and the answer is always a sincere “no.” There is a big difference between wanting something that is good and that someone else has and those awful feelings of jealously. The reason I wasn’t jealous is because I realized that the people who had children were surely dealing some other big trial that I knew nothing about. We each have trials that will help us develop and grow and they are what we each individually need. Also looking at our trials as not something to get around to get on with our life, but looking at them as they are which is that they are our life, is a really healthy, happy mindset.
5. Eat healthy – I enjoy eating healthy and fueling my mind and body with foods that are both delicious and good for me. I will admit that I love sugar like fish love water, but I also am really good at moderation and I try to eat 3 servings of veggies each day.  My body feels better when I’m healthy, and therefore my mind feels better. That being said, enjoy little treats and don’t feel guilty about them! I like to end my day with something sweet, like a handful of candy corn. Yes, you read that right. It’s the nectar of life, people. It makes my soul happy. It’s all about balance!
6. Make your bed every morning – It’s a sign that you are ready to face the day and that you are up and awake. I always, always feel better when my bed is made because I feel more calm and peaceful when my house is organized. It always makes me happy when I walk by and see my nice, tidy bed. Seriously!
7. Never be jealous of ANYONE. Ever. – The skills that I choose to spend my time on will grow. The skills that I don’t spend any time on will not. It’s simple. The social media world that we live in now has given each of us large windows into our lives that others can see into which I think this has opened the doors for a lot of positivity, like being able to easily connect and uplift one another. I also think this has opened a large area for jealousy like never before we constantly see what everyone else is good at. It comes down to choices. If I want to be able to keep up with the fitness instructor at my gym class, then I can choose to dedicate more of my 24 hours to working on my fitness. How am going to be better at it if I don’t choose to dedicate more of my time to it? I don’t think there is any room in our world for jealousy because if someone is better at something than me, it just means that they have chosen to dedicate more time to it than I have. I can choose that too, if I want! It’s all just so simple when you look at it like this. If you prioritize your life with your top priorities first, and develop habits (read this!) that will guide you toward attaining your top priorities, you will gain a confidence in knowing that you are living your best life.
8. Plug in your phone away from your bed at night – I plug in my phone on my kitchen island every night and leave it out of my bedroom. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have heard me talking about what a difference in my life this has been!! This has given me SO much for freedom because it has allowed me to be able to stay focused on getting ready for bed so I can get enough sleep. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I’m not tempted to check my email, which gets my mind going so I’m not able to fall back asleep easily.
9. Read something positive in the morning instead of looking at your phone – I used to check my email or get on social media first thing in the morning which was essentially giving others the power over what I saw first thing in the morning when I woke up. It could be something happy or exciting, or it could be something sad and overwhelming. I never knew what I was going to get. I was literally giving another source other than myself the power over what I saw, and it was a complete gamble. It was a gamble with my emotions!! I decided that I didn’t want it to be a gamble and I took back control! Plugging my phone into the island downstairs at night was the first step so that I wasn’t tempted to look at my phone first thing in the morning.
10. Remember to BREATHE. I have tried to focus on being mindful lately because I realized that I was getting caught up in my head not living in the present moment. I’ve been thinking about what I needed to accomplish next or what is on my to-do list and I have realized that this has been causing me a lot of unnecessary anxiety. When I’m feeling uptight, I pause and breathe in and out deeply. I have noticed that when I’m feeling like this, I’m taking shallow breaths and not allowing myself to fully inhale like I should. As I start to breathe deeper, I focus on the sensations in my body (feet on the floor, etc) and my surroundings…details like the beautiful sound of my babies’ talking and the joy that they are. I like to sit and be in the moment, and I find that drinking something good helps the moment to feel more luxurious. Taking a moment to sit and enjoy some tea allows me to focus on enjoying the moment and be present in my current surroundings rather than thinking about my endless to-do list. Let’s be honest; it won’t ever end! It’s our job to do what helps us live in the moment
11. BONUS!! And this is a good one. Do yourself a favor and download this free app. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. I’m not kidding. I have had trouble making dinner for my family since I was pregnant with the twins, and these past 2 years have been hard to get a good dinner routine implemented until now. It pulls your recipe boards from Pinterest to keep them organized, and then you create meal plans for the week AND IT CREATES YOUR GROCERY LIST FOR YOU. I then sit on my couch on Sunday nights and add all of the items that I don’t have at home to my online grocery order, pick it up on Monday morning without stepping foot in a grocery store, and then I can easily reference my meal plan for the week. It literally saves hours of my life and makes dinner time a no-stress event. And it’s FREE! No more delicious recipes getting lost in Pinterest-land. I can’t say enough good things about it!

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