Achieving Happiness Inside and Out

Achieving Happiness Inside and Out

There are two completely different polarities of thought on the importance of our appearance. One tells us that the outside is not important. It’s the inside that counts. Don’t judge a book by its cover is a popular phrase that speaks unimportance to anything aesthetic or outwardly. Then there is the school of thought that our internal world influences our outward appearance. We are what we eat, that true happiness will shine through, are phrases often repeated in this world of thought. Which side is true, and where should we put our self-worthiness when it comes to appearance? Perhaps the answer lies in reconciling both reasonings.

For some, outward appearance is debilitating and for others, it is the expression of their true self. In today’s culture of inclusion and celebrating all skin and body types, it can be freeing or excessively complicated to hone in on our own sense of aesthetic, contentment and happiness. We sometimes can see this in others who appear to be glowing. It doesn’t matter whether we find their outward appearance attractive, they have a healthy relationship with their internal and external worlds and that has them beaming.

If we solely focus on our outward appearance, we can curate exactly an image that we wish to portray. Being good at design, fashion, styling, hair, and makeup can be extremely useful in playing and finding the look that best suits us and makes us feel good. Sculpting our bodies with exercise, alterations, and filters can also produce any appearance of our choosing. Whether this blooms true happiness is another question.

A woman might feel the calling to motherhood her whole life, but is also very worried about the effects it will have on her body. This fear prevents her from accepting that having a child would truly make her happy. Once she realizes there are options to address her changing body after birth, she no longer has the fear shielding her true desire. The aesthetic services at Chicago Weight Loss and Wellness Clinic have a balanced list of practices and procedures that address many issues aesthetically and holistically.

Pruning our internal world, self-exploration, introspection, and focusing on embodiment are the other known paths to happiness. If we are experiencing low self-confidence because of extra weight or bad skin, the pathway inward can reveal the root cause of these outward appearances. This path is very effective but there are no short cuts. Often, walking the path of self-knowing we find a lot about our appearance we are not happy with. If we stop there and only address the outward discontents, something still gnaws at us from the inside. We can appear happy with ourselves, but the inner compass knows better.

Inner work is to reveal what truly doesn’t make us feel good and put it to light. This at first does not make us feel better because we are confronted with some uncomfortable ideas which might also show up through acne or bad digestion. Once we reveal what doesn’t make us feel good we can then address these issues holistically. The trap with this type of wellness work is that we can get trapped in the weeds of all of our perceived problems. Becoming clear with our internal world and using that as a platform to build our outer appearance often builds a strong sense of self and confidence in playing and having fun with how we wish to express that to the world.

In a world where we are sold happiness in products and marketing, it is hard to know what contributes to happiness any more. It becomes a more and more important question whose answer gets buried amongst what others tell us. The illusiveness of happiness perhaps lies in between the lines; we often assume that if we’re happy we cannot feel discontent and vice versa.

Happiness is a feeling and feelings can rarely be calibrated into compartments. If we have accomplished everything we set out to do in our lives, but feel our outside body doesn’t match that inner balance, it can forever affect how we view ourselves and our accomplishments. Giving yourself the freedom to work on both, and realizing that our mutable bodies are living breathing creatures that are not meant to stay stagnant or fixed through a lifetime. We have the internal freedom to change and shift whenever we choose. Now we also have the ability to change our outer appearance as well.

Things You Can do to Make Yourself Happy

Things You Can do to Make Yourself Happy

These days we often either put our happiness on the back burner, or in the hands of others and as a result we rarely end up being happy. The truth is that in order to be happy, we have to take control of our means for happiness. The great news is that there are things that we can do on our own to make ourselves happy. Here is a list of some of those things:

Buy Something You Love

The reason people like shopping is because shopping releases chemicals in the brain that cause us to be happy. In fact, even the thought of purchasing something we really love is enough to get these juices flowing. So to make yourself happy consider making a purchase of something you adore. Your purchase can be big or small but it needs to be meaningful to bring your real happiness. You might consider a ticket to your favorite show, a trip to an exotic island, or purchasing a new Suzuki Swift automobile; what matters is that it stirs the passion and makes you feel like you have received something you really want.

Get Yourself a Pet

Relationships these days are more and more difficult to enter and sustain. Everyone wants to ensure that they are not taken advantage of, and that the person to whom they are giving their friendship or heart, is truly someone they can trust. As uncertain as all of this can be, there is no uncertainty when you consider getting a pet. Most pet owners will tell you that owning one is not only worth it, it is the highlight of their life.

The reason for this is that pets never betray or disappoint. They are always there for you and never judge or put you down. Pets provide a consistency that can lead to better self-image and self-worth, and their unconditional love can lift you out of nearly any bad mood. In other words, they are a constant source of happiness.

Change Jobs

For many, the biggest source of unhappiness in their lives is their place of work. The work environment may be toxic or the work itself may be unfulfilling or in the worst case scenario, both are true. Due to the fact that you will likely spend a major part of your life at your work, if it is a downer, you will spend a lot of time being unhappy. Getting away from a job can be difficult though, because you may have been there a long time, like the pay, or are afraid that if you leave you may not find another one.

But for the sake of your own happiness, you need to take the step and move on to something new and more fulfilling. Just imagine what it would be like to actually enjoy getting up every day and going to work. This is possible for you, if you take the steps to finding something that is right for you. When you search for something new, be discerning. Do not settle for a job that fits some of the requirements like good pay, but falls far short on other important ones like happiness. Happiness is a primary reason to take a job and when you are happy at work you will wonder how you allowed yourself to be unhappy in the first place. So get yourself a job that adds to rather than detracts from your happiness.

Take a Class

Humans have a tendency to get into routines and stick with them for long periods of time, and often only change those routines when they are forced to do so. They lose a job, someone dies or they get fired from a job. Other than something dramatic happening most don’t go outside of the regimen they have established. Although having a routine is productive and creates comfort, it can also create stagnation, boredom and unhappiness.

A great way to break out of your mundane routine is to take a class in something completely out of your comfort zone. How about a cooking class, or one for public speaking? How about studying a new language, painting, or learning about how to garden? By introducing new subjects into your life, you stimulate your brain, acquire new and interesting information and open the chance to meet new an interesting people. The combination of the three is sure to bring you happiness.

Happiness is in your hands, take control of it and enjoy your life all the time.

What Does a Successful Life Mean To You

What Does a Successful Life Mean To You

I was talking to a group of students recently about careers and what kind of thing they were looking at doing. The idea of the talk was to identify what kind path the students would have to take in order to gain the career they were after but during our talk, something kept occurring which interested me far more. It seemed that each student that I spoke to had a different idea of what a successful life looked like and it made me think about how much importance, if any, most people placed on this idea when electing a career.

Power

Many of the students were looking for a job which meant that they could yield power on a daily basis. The most popular jobs that cam up within this field was positions such as CEO like the successful Lloyd Claycomb II or Bill Gates, others looked at varying managerial positions in a wide variety of industries when I asked them to define what kind of jobs they considered to boast the most amount of power.

Money

Almost all of the students answered that money to them was a direct link to success in their careers although when asked if they would value this above their own happiness at work, many of the students were not convinced that they would. Professions such as doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs were the most popular jobs that were mentioned when we got to talking about high wage earners in society.

Happiness

This was the idea of success that really split the group as everyone has different ideas as to what happiness is to them. For many, it was the money and the power which they said would bring them happiness. Many other students cited a peaceful life, free from stress with lots of spare time to spend with the family and kids as their definition of happiness. Those who opted for the latter however, were hesitant to say whether they would take a job that was boring, in order to gain their idea of a happy life.

Fame

Interestingly, when the topic of fame came up, many of the students were very clear that they had absolutely no desire whatsoever to pursue a career in sports or entertainment for reasons of fame. There were some in the group who wanted to be sports stars but none of them said that fame was a driving factor behind this and that instead they simply wanted to reach the pinnacle of their careers and seek to win whatever they could.

What does success mean to you? Have you spent the time to look at your life in reverse and begin with the life which you want to create for yourself and then tracked it back to see what kind of career could give you that life? If not then perhaps now is the time to do it, in order to make sure that you go after a career which can reward you in the way that you want to be rewarded.