Peace & Happiness, A Muscle (Copy)
Peace & Happiness, A Muscle
If the fabric of America is demonstrated through hard work, then the African American community defines the lining in which this textile is fixated. There’s no need to re-hash the countless efforts of resiliency, relentlessness, and endurance aligned to the success, injustices and survival of the Black American. BE TOUGH, has a different definition when it’s your only option. This notion of building up your physical and mental strength as a precursor in order to be equal has led to a hallucinating effect of stress.
There’s no badge of honor in denying yourself love, but with greater opportunity we have found it an obstacle to do so.
This is Black shouldn’t mean, this is stressful! But nonetheless, achieving while being stressed has become highlighted and admired. The more rigorous the story, the more relatable to the masses. In the Black community, this has resulted in a lack of development in life’s most important muscle: Peace and Happiness or P&H. As with any muscle, it must be exercised with a certain level of repetition and focus in order to grow. P&H, a mental muscle, requires an increased level of effort due to its purpose of supporting the fulfilment of life. The culture has led many in the Black community to believe that you must achieve a certain level of success in order to flex your P&H muscle. It’s the contrary.
By manifesting your P&H, you are creating positive energy and motivation as guard rales and alignment to attracting success. In other words, why carry the extra mental weight when you could simply workout your P&H.
Stress is always an under current whenever you read a health report including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Any guesses on which race leads the way with the aforementioned health concerns!
Here are 3 tips, or how I like to say, GO DO’s to increase your Peace and Happiness workout. Remaining disciplined to this workout for at least 60 days will rejuvenate your energy, add clarity to your goals, and inspire your mindset to greater levels.
3 GO DO’s to increase your Peace & Happiness
GO DO #1-Stay in the Zone
How much time during your day are you speaking happy, thoughtful encouraging words vs. time spent fussing, complaining and calling out everything negative. This is defined as the “talk zone.”
Are your words and actions more in the positive talk zone or negative talk zone?Even if your thoughts don’t align automatically, challenge yourself to increase the time spent in the positive talk zone.
This will naturally impact your internal energy which is infectious to those you are communicating with. You will also adjust your default setting to responding to life in amore glass half full point of view.
GO DO #2–Just Do It
It’s amazing how life can make us feel guilty when we want to do something for ourselves. For many people, you have this agenda to please everyone and complete every task before you can give yourself any attention. When is the last time you did something that just makes you happy?Whether it’s reading a book, listening to music, or trying a new recipe, everyday you deserve to
do something that makes you happy, smile and feel free. The key to success with this GO DO is that it must be scheduled. Leaving it up to, “whenever I have time,” is a footprint to failure. The result of this exercise is that it alleviates the edge of seriousness towards life. Chill out, relax and stop being so hard on yourself. It’s ok to have fun!Many of our stressors are self-inflicted, but all of our happiness can be a choice.
GO DO #3–Be a GOAL Digger
Nothing breeds happiness like progress and progress is the life support for achieving goals. You should be able to answer the question, what are your goals, without any hesitation. If you don’t have a defined goal in your life, set one or two today! Having a clear objective on what you are trying to achieve is inspiring, provides self-accountability and creates an atmosphere of hope.
All three descriptors are interwoven with Peace and Happiness.Dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain acts as a motivator, creating a sensation of pleasure when the brain is stimulated by achievement. Dopamine plays a key role in keeping us focused on our goals and motivating us to attain them, rewarding our attention and achievement by elevating our mood.
That is, we feel good when we work towards our goals. Create a process where you can ultimately dedicate time towards your goal every day. Start with bite size pieces of 15-20 minutes today and organically watch that time increase. You deserve to be happy and at peace. Take ownership over your P&H muscle! Imagine the before and after picture when you decide to replace the excess weight of stress with joy!
“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday, and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly, live” –Dalai Lama
