Here you go… the recipe for happiness!
If only it were that easy! Aristotle already concluded it 2300 years ago: people want nothing more than to seek happiness. Is it love? Money? Good luck? All together? What is happiness to you? In the 1st century AD, the Stoics found out where you can find the true measure of success. How can you deal with your feelings?
There is extensive research into Happiness in this digital age. Maslov's pyramid has now been completely inverted. In our Western World, looking for food is no longer our priority. We can have it delivered to our kitchen. Officially we can sleep if we make the time for it, Tinder and all dating apps provide us with other needs. What we are looking for at the moment is acceptance, approval and, above all, a lot of Likes. This social need is the only element left of our Reptilian brain that is not directly delivered to us.
Our oldest brain, the reptilian brain, ensures our survival. It takes care of the quick actions you take when you are in danger (such as jumping away from a car heading your way), breathing, eating and sleeping. In addition, it creates the image you have of being accepted by other people. When we still lived together in groups in the caves, we were more than happy if one of your buddies had found a fruit tree or hunted a mammoth. Because if you were accepted, you could enjoy the food yourself. This image may be expressed rather graphically, but you get the picture.
This currently results in people who are busy pleasing. Do as much as possible for others and forget about yourself. Fear of breaking off toxic relationships. If the other person is nourished by you and does not have to put in any effort, just be kind... Is that a good relationship to maintain?
Choose yourself! That takes energy, but wouldn't you rather be of value than to be seen as an object? You can take this further. What is happiness for you?
Happiness actually starts with the first task of simplifying everything: What are external factors, what do you have no influence on and what choices do you influence? Then be resolute in the choices you make. Stand behind it and put yourself into action. Because if you really want something, it will happen. The Stoics believed in fate. At Enforce we believe in a fit and powerful body with the right mindset, the necessary actions to achieve your goal and the elimination of all disturbing elements.
The researcher of the “happiness study” concluded this: To become happy, you will have to start with a fit and powerful body. Your brain becomes more creative, you recover better from mental and emotional setbacks and build up a longer breath. You do this by starting to eat well, exercise, drink water, and sleep well.
Then you work on your emotional capacity. There are two methods to improve the quality of your life. The first is to find the external conditions that suit your goals. The second is to change what we think about those conditions. Would a child in a slum in Rio actually be unhappy?
Then you work on your mental capacity. Keep going when the going gets tough, or when you get sucked back into your comfort zone.
Finally, you look for a great motivation for yourself to achieve your goal. For one person this motivation can be found in belief in God, for another it is belief in themselves.
You can make all these steps your own. This takes time, perseverance and above all: rituals. If motivation and discipline disappear, then it must be in your system. You exercise, you eat well, you take the required actions, you make an impact on the lives of the people you love.
We don't sell happiness in a jar. We coach you on creating your happiness. That starts with the basics. Enforce yourself!
Petra Kerkhove
Enforce Franchisee & Master Trainer
petra@enforce.nl
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