Life can be challenging! For although there are beautiful highs, we can be assured of the painful lows. Those low times teach us new behaviours, new belief systems, new lessons, IF we are able to self reflect, listen and have the courage to go forward and make the change learned!
After going through anxiety, depression, codependency, 2 nervous breakdowns, 2 car accidents and 2 divorces, I took note of what the universe was forcing me to see and worked on changing those learned behaviours that were not serving me.
I am grateful for my past experiences, for I have reached a quiet mind, an inner peace and am able to facilitate behavioural change for thousands of others through my work.
Below are my 20 life lessons for increased happiness, success and peace:
1. Forgive the past. Those experiences have been sent to test you and create more strength, more resilience, more empathy and the correct habits to go forward for a more fulfilling future.2. Learn to remove fear. Fear debilitates the mind, body and soul and leads to stagnated experiences. Practice faith, belief and confidence in this moment and in your future.
2. Learn to remove fear. Fear debilitates the mind, body and soul and leads to stagnated experiences. Practice faith, belief and confidence in this moment and in your future.
3. Be excited about your future. It will be full of happiness, plus growth experiences, which create increased strength. So ultimately, the future is full of joy. It is something to get excited about.
4. Forgive your parents. No matter what they have done. You have only one set. Love them, understand them, spend time caring for them.
5. Learn to be happy here and now. The present moment is all we have. Those that lead amazing lives have learnt to grab and dive into the now, with complete abandon.
6. Remove resentment at all costs. Resentment for the past, resentment for yourself, resentment for others. It just creates a sad life and disease. Find a way to replace this with compassion.
7. Learn what makes you tick! How do you think a lot of the time, how do you feel, how are you behaving? Knowledge of your thoughts, emotions and behaviours creates powerful self awareness for change.
8. Practise self love, self forgiveness, self encouragement. The opposite is self hate, so it makes sense to do so. Or you live in the emotions of anger, sadness and guilt. Self love creates peace. It is a practice for life.
9. Learn how to express your emotions. Feel them, cry them out, journal them. Deal with them. Addicts become addicts, because they have not learnt how to deal with their suppressed feelings.
10. Get into relationships for growth. Your most intimate relationships will bring up all your stuff and emotional pain. This is a wonderful place for learning and transition. Learn what your triggers are through relationship and set about healing those behaviours.
11. Compassion for others is essential for non-toxic and connected relationships. Compassion means to have an understanding that the person you are connected to is doing the very best they can with their brain chemistry, past experiences and learned behaviours they have acquired en route.
12. Respectful and loving communication (a.k.a assertiveness) to those around you – your spouse, your kids, your colleagues, your boss, your friends will ensure healthy relationships. Your needs are important and expressing these, in a non-controlling way, will power up your relationships.
13. Don’t try to change others. This is control and codependency and hurts yourself and those around you. Learn 10 and 11 above and true love will be yours for the taking.
14. Live your purpose. Serve the world with your wonderful gift and have amazing fun whilst doing so. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
15. No-one is in charge of your happiness but you. Let others off the hook and learn how to create the thoughts that create happy feelings. Those that are happy practise meditation or self awareness of the mind.
16. Learn to get validation from inside yourself. It is not other people’s job to love you, validate you and give you a pretend self esteem. That is your job. Your validation of yourself is available 24/7. Other people’s compliments only last 2 seconds.
17. Believe in manifestation and miracles. They can and do happen, to those that are willing to believe.
18. Teach your kids the above tools. You will create happy, healthy and functional children and our future generation of inspirational and powerful adults.
19. Learn yoga and meditation. These beautiful spiritual practices can provide you with nirvana, joy and peace.
20. Smile, smile, grin, laugh, laugh and laugh some more. Life is too short to be miserable. Let us have the best fun! We all have so much to be grateful for.