Tuesday Truth or Dare: It's a Joy Thing

Truth: Life is meant to be enjoyed. Happiness is a beautiful, creative state of mind. Happiness is strongly linked to PLAY! Just look at children playing, they're laughing, smiling and joyful.  When you sit and watch a group playing any sport or game, they are completely living in the moment.  And Living in the Moment is where you want to be living.

As adults, we have lost touch with play and that's sad.  Our lack of spontaneous laughter, movement and engagement with others has led to increased levels of stress and depression.  

Playing is holistic medicine and it calls for a daily prescription. 

Dare: Add PLAY to your day. Dance. Skip. Be Spontaneous. Swing. Get a group of friends together for a game of good old-fashioned tag or touch football. There are many ways to add Play to your day. 

Yesterday, Charley (my wee dog) and I went to the park and I spontaneously decided to go for a swing.  It was amazing!  I smiled as soon as I started to go higher.  The kids joined in and we laughed and challenged each other. 

For the rest of the day, I felt energized and couldn't help but smile every time I thought about swinging in the fresh air.

7 day Challenge: 

Wake Up and Smile!

Commit to adding Play time 

to your day.

Sing, Move, Play catch at lunch, Sit on the Swings 

 

Plan a "Play Day" at work or with friends and family!

Sign up for a sport you played as a kid.  Get out there and play.

Make it a Great |Day!

How will you add PLAY to your Day?  

Add your ideas to the comments and let's begin to play and have fun and Smile.

Turn Off Your Phone and Be Present Now in the Moment

People want to engage with you and see your smile, listen to your words.

Nature wants to seen and be fully appreciated.  Nature is waiting to be discovered in all its amazing glory.

How can you possibly engage and communicate with real people if you're neck is bent toward the ground and your eyes are focused on your phone?  How can you connect with nature and her magnificence if your eyes are riveted to your phone?

I recently conducted a successful workshop on the topic of "Mindfulness and Connection".  Participants were asked to leave their cell phones at home....period.  I had anxious callers telling me how they couldn't do that because they were expecting a very important phone call from someone.  To each special request I simply replied leave your cell phone at home....period!

All the participants who attended complied and were pleasantly surprised to discover that their stress level was significantly reduced.  They were relaxed and enjoyed the conversation and looked forward to our next group chat.

There was a time not so long ago that your phone was connected to the wall in your house.  If you went out with your friends, family or just for a walk, your phone stayed at home!

You were free to simply enjoy the moment, the activity, and the people.

Action Steps to Live Phone Free 

Leave your phone at home, in the car, or the office for 15 minutes each day.

Meet up with family, friends or take a walk in the park.  Focus on the moment, what's happening right now.  Breath and relax.  Be present in your life.

After 7 days, increase the amount of time you leave your phone behind.

Remember - when the phone was attached to the wall, you survived, business carried on, family crises happened, your kids arrived at their destination, and anyone and everyone was free to leave a message.  You would get back to them at your leisure.

Disconnect and Kick the Phone Habit - you will be a new person in a very short time and you will look forward to your "no-phone time".

About Susan Ball

Susan inspires her clients to live the life of their dreams with passion, joy, and love. Susan is an experienced international Life Coach helping people discover and live their ideal life through NLP, Mindfulness, and G.R.A.C.E.

Learn more about Susan by visiting her Online, on Facebook

Celebrate and Embrace Joyous June

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date" - William Shakespeare

The practice of Living in the Moment and experiencing Gratitude, is all about noticing, appreciating, and experiencing the simple joys of life.  Here are a few simple joys that will embellish your Joyous June.  What will you add?

• Lemonade - yummy!  Sit back and enjoy a tall, frosty glass of lemonade.  Homemade lemonade is fantastic.
• Strawberry, Strawberry, Strawberry!  Attend a Strawberry Festival and eat as many of these juicy joys as you please.  Pick your own with friends and family and then create jams, jellies, desserts, pies and plan to host a Strawberry Festival in January! In Ojibwe, the strawberry is called "odemin" and is known as the sacred first medicine. 
• Create a fragrant herb garden.  Plant lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.
• Have a backyard camp-out.  Pitch a tent, bring out the sleeping bags, pack snacks, and pretend the bbq is a bonfire (for those who live within a town or city!)  Tell ghost stories, sing songs and sleep in the fresh air under the stars.
• Host a Midsummer's Eve Party to celebrate the Summer Solstice.  
• Go to the beach!  In the morning, stroll and collect shells and Mermaid's tears while enjoying the fresh morning air.  The beach in the afternoon is perfect for swimming, picnics, kite flying, or just sitting in the sun and enjoying life. 
• On clear summer's night, take time to stargaze.  Stargazing is as easy as grabbing a big blanket, a bottle of wine, friends and family and heading for the backyard.  Find a star to wish upon.
• Get out and experience a sensory journey in nature.  Your natural environment is teeming with sensory stimulation waiting to be discovered.  By simply listening, seeing, touching, and smelling, Mother Nature will nurture your well-being.
• Host a "drive-in" movie night in your backyard, or on the side of a local building.  Invite friends, family, community members and the public to sit outside and take in a classic movie.  Have guests bring a snack for a huge potluck "concession" stand.

Now that you're feeling inspired to have your own Joyous June, I would love to hear about your adventures or how you incorporated mine and had a great time.

Cheers, to a fun and adventurous June!

Live in the Moment

Living in the moment is all about living like there's no tomorrow. It takes practice.  To truly live in the moment you must realize beauty in every moment, and in every day activities. This is your life, embrace it and live it to the fullest!

To understand how to live in the moment you must first realise that this is about participation rather than just observation. Living in the moment is a conscious act and is easily achieved when you commit to making these easy changes to your daily routine.

Spend time in nature.  Spending time in nature will "fill your cup", calm your spirit, quiet your mind, and feed your soul.  Time in nature reconnects you to the natural beauty around you and the inter-connectedness of all things.  Connecting with nature can be a walk in the park, a stroll along the beach, time in your garden, star gazing at night, or watching the changing sky at sunset or sunrise.

Take notice of the world around you. No matter what you're doing, look for and find something beautiful around you. Maybe on your way to work or school, you go over a beautiful bridge, or you get a view of the sunrise behind the city buildings. Realizing these small things can bring life and happiness even to the most boring or routine days. Be thankful for those little things.

Focus on whatever you're doing. Even if you're just walking, or wiping the counter, or shuffling cards - how does it feel? There's probably some kind of commentary spinning through your mind, and it probably has to do with something other than what you're doing. Let those thoughts go and focus on what is (not what was, or what could be). In Buddhism, this is referred to as mindfulness. Pay attention to your senses - touch, sight, smell, sound, and taste. Pretend it's the very last time you'll ever experience whatever you're experiencing. Have you ever been so engrossed in something that it seemed like the rest of the world just disappeared? Living in the moment is about creating that state of mind at any time. Slow down and savour the present. 

Be thankful for what is. When you find yourself wishing for something you don't have, or wishing your life would be different, start your quest for your wish by being thankful for what is already in your life. This will bring you back to the present moment. Make a list of what you are thankful for right now even if all you can think of is that you are alive and can breathe. You don't want to miss the gifts right in front of you, because you are always looking beyond what is in the present moment to what once was or what might be. When you are thankful for what is, you'll be happy to be in the moment instead of some place else. 

Smile, Smile, Smile!  When you wake up, Smile and you will set a positive open tone for your day.  Smile frequently throughout the day.  The more you smile, the easier it becomes and you will find yourself smiling even when life tosses you a curve ball. Smiling sets your tone of appreciation and awareness for the day and opens your mind.  Random acts of smiling are appreciated by everyone!!

Enjoy your day, live in the moment and be grateful for what you have.