Before I made an intentional decision at the beginning of this year to wake up every day with joy, I thought about 5 mistakes that women make on the road to happiness.
I began to draw a considerable list of no-nos – thinking patterns that produce adverse effects on the unconscious mind and reflect negatively in the conscious mind when trying to identify the mistakes women make on the road to happiness.
I was surprised at how quickly Boomer women and probably men too, create a self-sabotaging intentions that produces depression, lethargy, and negativity that alters brainwaves and take you off the path to happiness.
Happiness can turn on a dime and lead you into the weeds, rendering your neurotransmitters ineffective. Your energy is derived from your neurotransmitters – usually referred to as hormones. It is important to understand that when your hormones are not kicking in, your energy will become negative and take you off the path to happiness.
Know Your Body
The seven most commonly referenced neurotransmitters are epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, GABA, and glutamate. Neurotransmitters affect your happiness quotient.
There are many more neurotransmitters, but the point is this: when all the neurotransmitters are firing off and sending out endorphins, your body is functioning at peak performance and happiness kicks in.
My daughter-in-law analyzed neurotransmitters in women for several years. She indicated that it was common for women to have a low serotonin count. That’s your brain food. A low serotonin count can also be a reason why women experience depression.
Know Your Mind
One of the most common mistakes that Boomer women make after they reach 60 is not taking time to understand how your mind is changing and how perceptions alter. You often take your life for granted – activities, routines, relationships, moods. They will always be there, so why bother to think about them? Yet, you all know that awareness of self is the key to happiness.
Stay Present
What you may not realize is that some of the things you think and do may be promoting negativity and unhappiness, which results in poor health, slow reactions, or lack of ambition.
Being in the now, staying one hundred percent present in the moment, is the most effective way to bring understanding to your being, Meditation is one of the most effective practices for keeping your awareness strong and functioning.
Consider these 5 most common mistakes Women Make on the road to happiness:
1. Giving into Living with Loneliness
It is healthy to acknowledge that you will experience periods of loneliness. Yet over-focusing on loneliness interferes with the healthy idea that life should be lived to the fullest. If you feel the pull of isolation, you might consider reversing your mood with:
- Planning your day completely, including downtime.
- Meditating once a day for 10 minutes.
- Exercising: go to the gym or take a yoga class, sign up for a regular aquatics class, take a walk with a friend or listen to music along the way, ride a bike, and have coffee with your best friend or someone you want to get to know.
- Find a dance studio and dance. You will meet new people, smile more, and engage others with your joyful mood. It’s infectious.
2. Not Staying Positive
Negativity perpetuates negativity – a self-perpetuating cycle of sinking in quicksand. If you feel sluggish, turn upside down for several minutes. This posture stimulates your neurotransmitters. You will discover less resistance in your attitudes and feeling.
Or get on your yoga mat and stretch, thereby opening your body up to positive energy.
3. Not Stretching Your Mind
Spend more time learning about different people, places, and things. Relying on social conversation with the same people who tell the same stories is limiting and does not foster the creation of learning new information or the exchange of exciting topics.
It’s become habit to talk about the past and rehash family relationships. Besides, it makes for boring conversations.
4. Not Giving Gratitude
Give gratitude every time you think about how fortunate you are to be living a good life. It is a mistake to think that you can live a happy life without gratitude. Gratitude is the basis of living well, for kindness, and for the generosity of spirit.
5. Not Staying Curious
I’ve literary worn my eyes out on my computer being curious, writing blogs, novels, screenplays, increasing my vocabulary and my ability to process thought. Inactivity kills the urge to be a life-long learner.
You have so many distractions during the day that take away your ability to experience new thought: online shopping, Netflix binges, messaging, Facebook, Twitter.
Learn something new, go to life-long learning classes at a nearby college, take up a hobby that intrigues you, seek out people or groups that engage your curiosity, and learn something new every day.
Happiness Is in You
Happiness is derived from how you feel about yourself on the inside, not necessarily how you feel about yourself on the outside – the way you look to others. This is called self-love, and it is one of the key element to foster happiness and good healthy life.
I do; therefore, I am; I am; therefore, I do.
It is a sweet feeling when you encounter yourself daily, giving gratitude, providing meaningful activity for your mind, body, and spirit knowing that you are living your life to the fullest on the road to daily happiness. W