1. Hum a happy tune as you rise and shine
Put your frame of mind into a good mood as you wake up. This sets the tone of your day in the most effective way. It activates your face muscles into a wide smile and brings happy thoughts into your mind. You can be spontaneous in the tune you choose or you can sing a song that means a lot to you. Avoid choosing sad goodbye-type songs and instead go for joyous tunes, rousing marches or even patriotic melodies.
For years after I returned from studying at the Harvard Business School where I spent two of my happiest years, I would sing AMERICA the beautiful, simply because I just so loved this song; not because I loved America but because I loved the sentiments the song invoked in me, the way the song made me think of my own homeland and caused me to love my own country so much. Funny how melodies touch the inner soul. So let a powerful melody bring you a beautiful start to your day.
2. Start the day with the triple infinity hand sign
And as you walk through your front door to go out into the big world out there, walking confidently to your car to go to work, use your right hand to create the triple infinity sign. Extend your right hand into the air on the right and then bring it to create the figure of 8 which is also the infinity sign. Repeat this three times. Oh my, how powerful a ritual this is! Do this daily until it becomes a habit, and you will discover that the energy that surrounds you will instantly improve. The world and everyone you meet will dance to the same tune as you, and will operate at the same frequency as you. This is one of the most powerful secret rituals of living that I have made my own for a very long time, and to everyone I have shared this with, this triple infinity hand ritual has brought resolution to so much stress. Try it!
3. Say hello to your car
Greet your car with some small praise – gee, you smell good this morning, brush your hands over the dashboard and give it a pat as if to acknowledge just how much you appreciate the car serving you, taking you safely to work and back each day. Treat the spirit of the car with genuine warmth and caring, and each time you clean and wash it, generate these same thoughts in your mind. And if you are one of those who sings to the morning radio, imagine the car singing happily along with you. Not many people realize how much their cars will love them back, if only you will consciously love your car.
4. Smile to the first person you see
This is such an easy thing to do. Putting a smile on your face is a powerful way of relaxing your facial muscles, and automatically making your whole body lose whatever tension that may be knotting up your insides. As you go through the motions of walking into your office, smile at every stranger and make the smile even wider when you encounter a familiar face. The warmth of a smiling face spreads amazing goodwill – just try it as soon as you can. Precede every request with a smile, and you will see just how nice people will be to you. Nothing really makes for a greater happiness ritual than actually smiling at the world. It brings enormously good feng shui!
5. Eat a light lunch, but tuck in if you skipped breakfast
It really is advisable to keep your lunch light. There have been so many research studies that advise against taking too heavy a lunch – it makes you drowsy and causes you to feel lethargic. Instead, keep your lunch intake light unless for some reason you happened to have skipped breakfast that day. Otherwise, avoid getting bloated in the middle of the day. Keep your thoughts happy and lighthearted, and try to avoid working lunches. This time of the day is not conducive to getting stressed out working, strategizing or making the mind get over-activated.
6. Find time for a 5 minute walking meditation in the afternoon
It is such a great habit taking a five minute walking meditation as you make your way back to office after lunch, or if you do not work, to find a quiet corner to quiet the mind in a five-minute meditation. Do not sit, but instead walk slowly. Even in a confined space, it is so good to stay upright and mobile.
Take very deep breaths, as this is simply so good to strengthen the body muscles and to bring new oxygen into your stomach. Inhale in as deeply as you can through the nose and exhale as slowly as you can through the mouth. As you breathe in, stretch your torso slightly, and as you breathe out, come back to normal. This daily breathing meditation is a reminder for your mind and body to stay balanced and relaxed. It really is a great habit this taking three deep breaths each day and letting the mind wander – it is the best form of spontaneous meditation.
7. Say three nice things through the day
Make it a habit to think up nice things to say to people you interact and work with through the day. Few things are as empowering as thinking positive thoughts about the people around you and when you actually give voice to these thoughts, it increasingly enhances the power of your daily speech. This is a happiness ritual the most successful people in the world engage in; praising others by saying something nice about them that you notice at any moment in time is such a powerful spontaneous gesture I wonder why not more people do it. This just creates such an enormous difference in the quality of the energy around two people like bringing in sunshine rays onto a dark gloomy day. So just imagine how much you can cheer up someone thinking unhappy thoughts?
8. Share a happy anecdote…
An even more powerful thing to do is to share a joke, a happy anecdote or a joyous event. I love watching comedy, all kinds, and even the silly slapstick kind gets me. I want any excuse to laugh out loud, as I know just how much oxygen I take in each time I have a good laugh. I also love listening to someone tell me about something funny, weird, strange, even gossipy that happened to them. Sharing a story or an event that makes you happy usually makes others happy too. It is in the sharing that makes life so meaningful and joyous. Get into the habit of making happy conversation this way, at least once each day, and let this interaction with someone make your day for you and for that other person too!
9. Write down your thoughts once a day
This is one of the best ways to become self-empowered. It is far, far more effective than taking a selfie, simply because when you write down your thoughts, you are outputting the way you think, how you see the world, your reactions to everything around you. Writing down your impressions and recording words you heard that touched you in some way will make sure you never forget them, and by the end of a month, a year or more, you would have created a written record of the world as YOU see it. This way you learn so much about yourself, things that are sure to expand your awareness of how you react to people and how they respond to you. These days, you can even add COLOUR into your life, as we see now the incredible rise in popularity of colouring books. It is simply so therapeutic to write and to colour. Start making these activities a part of your daily ritual.
