It is easy for any of us to get caught up in the day-to-day stress of everyday life: deadlines to meet, schedules to keep, unexpected expenses, conflicts to resolve, illness of loved ones, to name a few. Amidst all this, it is easy to for me to lose sight of why I do what I do – my purpose for being. I discovered my passion and my purpose over seven years ago. It was the catalyst for starting my business, The Center for Balanced Living in 1996. It is what led me to my purpose which is to empower you to live out your dreams with ease and abundance. Sometimes I get caught up in the external factors and forget to focus on what is really important. It is then that I must remind myself why I am here. It is a grounding place for me.
I teach my clients to look to their life for their passions and purpose. That is certainly where mine came from and I have found it to be true for many others. A lot of different threads weave through my story, but the most obvious and first I can remember centered around my life while I was growing up, and most specifically my dad. I’d like to share that story with you now.
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Category: Happiness · Spirit & Soul
This time of year always shifts my focus. At the end of the year, I tend to become introspective, assessing all the blessings I have, all the people in my life for which I’m grateful, and where I want to focus my energy and attention in the upcoming year.
This is a time to look inside, to take stock of my blessings, and move forward into new and exciting things to come. One of the biggest shifts in my life in the last several years has been that I now do this assessment in a different way.
Like a lot of my clients, I used to focus on my disappointments. I used to take stock of what I hadn’t achieved, what went wrong, and where I had failed. I took inventory of all the people who had let me down, all those friends I hadn’t heard from, and all the things that made my relationships disappointing.
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Category: Happiness · Spirit & Soul
I used to think that there was a Road to Happiness, and if you could get on that road, you’d end up someplace pretty wonderful, as if Happiness were the destination. I’ve been on a lot of roads, and although some of them lead to some beautiful places, I’ve yet to find the road that brings me to that wonderful feeling state called Happiness.
People often think that if they can find the right combination of external factors, they can find happiness. They buy lots of shiny new things; travel to interesting places; eat; drink; use drugs; or search for “the perfect someone” who they believe will make them happy. Mostly they are looking to change their emotional state with external objects or actions.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. When you look for happiness outside of yourself, it ends up being temporary. You may be happy initially with your new car, but eventually the newness wears off, the car needs repairs, and you end up turning to something else.
Eating too much, drinking or using drugs all lead to negative consequences in the end. Although people continue to try to find the magic combination of externals, they end up disappointed.
Happiness isn’t a place, and there isn’t a magic way to find it. It is an emotion, and comes from within. This means that we create our own happiness. It doesn’t come from external things.
Happiness really comes from how we view our lives. How we think definitely affects how we feel. When we approach situations with a positive attitude, we usually feel better. Sometimes that feeling is happiness.
Like most emotions, we don’t feel happy all the time. Sometimes we feel it; sometimes we don’t. We all have ups and downs. This means that there isn’t a happily ever after. Sorry, Cinderella.
Nevertheless, happiness is worth pursuing. I believe that happiness is the emotion we get when we are in tune with ourselves. It is what we experience when we are living the life we are meant to live, achieving things we want to achieve, and, most of all, enjoying the process.
All this involves paying attention to ourselves, and what we want our life to be–physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It also involves paying attention to the world outside of ourselves–appreciating other people and nature.
If you are working to become the best person you can be, and setting and achieving the goals that are appropriate to your values, you are on the Road to Happiness. It’s a road you create by how you live your life. Happiness isn’t the endpoint of the trip; it is part of the wonderful process of living! It isn’t the road you take to get there, but the trip itself that matters.
© 2008 Linda S. Pucci, Ph.D., Inner Resource Center, LLC
Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach, trainer and owner of Inner Resource Center, LLC in Maryville, TN. She has 30 years of experience helping people overcome obstacles and self-sabotage by using her solution focused approach. She is dedicated to helping people find the resources they need to live happy, meaningful lives. For more information and free resources, go to http://www.InnerResourceCenter.com .
Category: Happiness · Spirit & Soul
Most of us are familiar with physical clutter. Physical clutter consists of all those things we hang onto which we no longer need, no longer want, and which lead to confusion or disorder in our physical environment.
I use the term “emotional clutter” (or sometimes “mental clutter”) to refer to those emotions, memories and remnants that we hang on to from our past experiences; those things that end up getting in our way and causing disorder in our lives. Just as physical clutter gets in the way of our ability to get things done in our home or office, emotional clutter gets in the way of our being able to achieve our goals, have satisfying relationship, and be happy.
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Category: Happiness · Spirit & Soul
Years ago, I first heard SARK, an inspirational artist, urge people to “live juicy.” I’ve
always remembered that, and “juicy” has become a watchword for me. Why not? It
seems to me that living a passionate life, full of excitement, commitment and intense
drive for a cause, a goal or lifestyle is what it is all about.
We’d all like to live with passion. Passion gives us energy and motivation. It drives us
forward with a purpose.
If you have been struggling to find your passion, follow these action steps to identify it.
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Category: Happiness · Spirit & Soul
