How to be happier

As a burnout recovery coach, I have often wondered what the opposite of burnout is?

Is it contentment? Success? Happiness? Peace? All of the above?

Gretchen Rubin explains in her podcast Happier how a very normal moment in which she realised she was at a greater risk for losing her sight, inspired her to focus on her senses. It basically inspired an incredible method of incorporating mindfulness into our everyday lives using our 5 main Senses and I loved it. Check out her book here.

She uses (what she calls the basic kindergarten senses) Seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling and smelling. (there have been so many other senses discovered over the years).

Focusing on these senses can help us live in the moment and appreciate things that we may not even notice.

Using Gretchen’s method I recently created a 5 senses portrait for my grandmother that passed away. From body surfing at the Strand beach in Cape Town to fresh scones with clotted cream on a misty, rainy day in Nyanga, Zimbabwe. It unlocked these incredibly special memories.

Gretchen has also put together a quiz to figure out which of our senses is more neglected sense than the others. My neglected sense was actually sight. I have really been focusing on this sense over the last couple of weeks and it has been such an insightful experience.

Mindfulness also teaches us the value of time.

I remember my days of being in the beauty and wellness industry. The hours were tough, and I felt like I was constantly missing out on special events/occasions. I felt like I was always working when everyone else was off. This left me feeling resentful and frustrated! This taught me such a valuable lesson in my values and what was important to me.

I was listening to the podcast the other day she (a brilliant author) was talking about writing another book that she had an idea for. Someone asked her what the opportunity cost was of NOT writing the book. What was she giving up? Moments of joy? Time with loved ones? It really made me pause and think through the decisions I was making.

 We live in such a hustle culture society, one where we need to EARN our rest and at what cost? Is productivity really the most important value?  

Does being busy equals success?

Nope!!!!!

You don’t need to earn your rest. There is no award for doing it all yourself and burning out. We don’t need to reach breaking point before making the changes we need to make. Life is short, let’s live it.

So how do we get started? Check out my podcast. We dive deep into topics like how to recover from people-pleasing? How to set boundaries and even how to figure out what your values are and even your non-negotiables.

You don’t need to do this alone. Join our tribe here

M x