Articles Archives ~ Page 48 of 51 ~ Clare Josa

Why Colouring In Can Make You Happy

The simple act of picking up a set of colouring pens or pencils can make you feel happier.
Sounds too good to be true?

The fact is that when we’re feeling low, it’s often because our logical left brain is hard at work, over-analysing and worrying about things.

Getting even mildly creative, with colour and patterns, helps you switch to your right brain thinking, which is often better at solving problems and will help you let go of thinking too much.

So you’ll feel better.

You don’t even have to get as creative as drawing or painting to achieve this. Colouring in someone else’s pictures can have the same effect – with less stress and embarrassment, if you believe what my art teacher told me about my inability to draw “even a cat”, back in my school days!

Looking for inspiration?

Try colouring in mandalas. They’re geometric patterns that lend themselves beautifully to completely letting go of rational thought and relax, which will help you switch off and feel happier. It’s highly therapeutic! Here are some great “grown up colouring books”:

Examples of mandala colouring books

Have you tried this one out? What do you think? Please do share via the comments box!
Thanks,
Clare

Which Book Holds The Key To Feeling Happier?

Inspirational Messages

We’ve been doing a straw poll, here on the How To Feel Happier sofa, to find out which book holds the key to helping us feel happier.

And the results have been interesting.

What's your favourite happiness book? — Which books make you feel happier?

They’re not all self-help books, which was a surprise. Some of them were novels and some of them were comedies.

But before we share our answers with you, we’d much rather hear what your favourite books are, when you want to feel inspired to be happier.

Which book do you reach for? And why does it do it for you?

And perhaps you’d like to join in with our virtual book club, as part of the Soul-Sized Living forum?
Membership is free – how about getting started today?
Join Soul-Sized Living

We can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Want To Be Miserable? Compare Yourself To Others!

Inspirational Messages

Think about it: why do we compare ourselves with others?

Maybe it’s because it’s what we were taught to do at school, if we grew up with tests and class rankings?

Maybe it’s something we learned at home, by being compared with siblings?

Maybe it’s something we learned at work, with competition for the best jobs and pay rises?

Whatever the reason, comparing ourselves with others only leads to unhappiness because there are only two possible results:

You’ll feel superior – which means you’re saying the other person isn’t as good as you, which isn’t exactly a great basis for a relationsip. And it invites others to compare themselves to and criticise you.
You’ll feel inferior – and we all know what that does to our confidence and self-esteem… If you’re lucky, you might use the comparison as motivation to improve the person you are, but most of us would use it to beat ourselves up…

Comparing ourselves to others is something we all do, but it’s just the ego’s way of creating our identity from the things which are OUTSIDE of us. We can’t change any of those. And we don’t really know what’s going on for the other person at a deeper level.

All we see is the version of reality which is filtered by our ego. Sure, they might have a bigger house, car or pay cheque, but they might feel miserable and unfulfilled inside.

The soul creates its identity from the things which are INSIDE of us, which ultimately leads to a higher level of happiness. You are who you are. Accepting and loving yourself for who you are, right now, is a path to inner peace and happiness.

So my invitation to you today is…

…whenever you notice you’re comparing yourself to someone else, just stop, take a deep breath in and out, and send them love and gratitude, instead.

Just notice how quickly that makes you feel happier!

Want To Start A Happiness Epidemic?

Inspirational Messages

Why bother?
Why bother spreading happiness? Why put in the effort to inspire others to feel happy?

It’s simple, really. To give something away, you have to first believe you have it. So one of the best ways to feel happy is to help others feel happy.

It started with a smile…

It can start with a smile. You don’t even have to go the whole hog with a toothy grin. You can just smile with your eyes, if that feels more comfortable. Not sure how that works? Practise in front of the mirror. Make it real.

Aside: ever wondered why some celebrity photos just look “wrong”? It’s often because they’re smiling with their faces, but not their eyes, so we subconsciously spot the “fake smile”. It’s like we have a built-in “phoney smile radar”. There’s your random fact for the day!

Gandhi knew what he was talking about…

One of my all-time favourite quotes is from Gandhi. I see it so often on people’s profiles on Facebook that I know it’s one that rings true for many of us. Here it is:

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

I apologise to the legend if I have misquoted him, but that’s the way I remember his words.

What does it mean?

If you want to see peace in the world, start with yourself. Rather than waiting for everyone else – the politicians, the corporations, the armies – to sort out peace, just be peace yourself and watch it spread.

So if you want the world to be a happy place, just be happy yourself. That will instantly start to affect those around you and will subtly lift your moods. If we all did this, well. You can work that one out, I’m sure!
<!– Read more on being the change you wish to see in the world. –>

Tell A Friend

If you know of any great happiness resources, tell a friend about them. You might know a great book, a great film or something else that has helped you feel happier. Share it with people.

Don’t do it in a way that leaves them feeling obliged and potentially embarassed, if they don’t feel the same way about it as you. That’ll just lead to them avoiding you…

Instead pass on the information out of love and let go of the outcome.

After all, it’s up to them to choose whether or not they want to feel happy. There’s nothing you could ever do to force or persuade them.

What are 3 things you could do to spread happiness today?

How about sharing them, via the comments box?

And if you’d like to connect with other happiness experimenters, how about ‘liking’ the Soul-Sized Living Facebook Page? And you could join in on the Soul-Sized Living forum. See you there! 🙂

10 Ways To Feel Less Stressed In Under 10 Minutes

How To Change Your Life

These days feeling stressed seems to be a way of life. Yet regular stress is playing havoc with our health, careers and even our closest relationships.

If you don’t want to end up just another super-stressed statistic, then the good news is that you can do something about it.

Discover the top 10 secrets to feeling less stressed – in under 10 minutes.