Do You Have Harmony in your Life?

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Photo by Horia Varlan

   In life, we have many theme songs. Some days the theme song is harmonious, vibrant and upbeat and other days, not so much. Life itself in many ways is like a piece of music. Often it begins with an intense introduction, each verse builds upon the next until we find ourselves at the "glory years" of our song a.k.a. the chorus. We then continue, winding down toward the conclusion perhaps crossing a beautiful bridge along the way. When we reach the end of our piece, often parts of our past journey echo back to us as we gradually fade away.

  Just as in music, we must strive to maintain harmonious balance in our lives. In music when there is disharmony it produces a harsh, often annoying sound and we can immediately tell that something just isn't right. When we have disharmony in our lives it's basically the same - things are harsh, conflicting, we are faced with strife and can absolutely sense that something is off. It's difficult to maintain harmonic balance but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Before we can experience harmony in our interactions with the world, we first must achieve a level of personal harmony. All that we do in the realm of self-help is bringing us to that state of personal balance. The more we are able to take control of our thoughts, suppress the negative and engage in more positive thinking, the sooner harmony will replace discord and we will find our happy balance.

What helps you achieve harmony in your life?

4 Ways to Be Happier and Live Better

     With all the problems in the world sometimes it's really difficult to focus on happiness. When you turn on the news or read it online there's almost always some horrible tragedy, crime, violence, or otherwise unpleasant story being reported. Yes, I know that's life and in the real world things get ugly, messy and life isn't all sunshine and rainbows but seriously, I often feel the need to just disconnect and get away from all of the drama. Some people may say that I'm not being realistic and I just need to learn to "deal" but I can't stay focused on positivity when I'm surrounded by such negativity. Surely I'm not the only person who feels this way so I want to share a few things that I do to escape from harsh reality being shoved down my throat.  

1. Take a walk. Getting out into the fresh air and just being alone helps. It's even better if you can spend time in a more secluded area as opposed to a city. There's something about getting back to nature that offers a calming feeling.

2. Stop watching television for a few days. Don't watch the news. Also, make sure your Internet homepage isn't a news site. Don't listen to the radio either unless it's a station that doesn't ever report ugly news. I understand this is difficult and many people would have trouble not staying up to date on current events but when those current events cause me a lot of stress and anxiety, I'd prefer to just ditch it altogether. If it makes you feel better you can ask a friend or family member to alert you if something you really NEED to know occurs - school closing, severe weather, economic collapse, zombie apocalypse... you get the idea.

3. Take a shower. Cry while you're in there if you have to. If something I've just heard has seriously upset me, sometimes I just feel the need to entirely cleanse myself of the whole thing. I couldn't possibly be the only person who does this. There are times when I just can't hold back the tears and besides, I've always felt much better after a good cry anyway.

4. Seek out inspirational messages and look for the good news. There are a couple websites that I like and they report nothing but uplifting, good news. A little time reading The Good News Network and Happy News can make a huge difference in the way I feel about the world. 

   Most importantly, we need to understand that no matter how horrible things seem we need to avoid letting ourselves get so absorbed into it. While it's impossible (and impractical) to entirely separate ourselves from the world we live in, sometimes a little break from reality is exactly what we need to remain optimistic, stay focused on living a happy life, and restore our faith in humanity.

Remember those commercials where the stressed lady cries out "Calgon, take me away!"? What's your "Calgon"? What do you do when you need a break from reality?

Create Your Perfect Life Map Using a Vision Board

Creating Your Perfect Lifestyle 

Photo by Nanette Saylor

  Most of us have in our minds the image of our perfect lifestyle. For some that might mean living in the middle of nowhere on a farm and being completely self-sufficient and for others it might mean being a big shot executive with a multimillion dollar home, lots of power, and money to burn. I often ask myself “What’s one thing that you can do today that will bring you one step closer to your perfect lifestyle?” I’m a believer in the law of attraction, although I do think that a little work and planning never hurt anyone. One of the best tools I’ve ever used has been a vision board. If you’re not familiar with vision boards they are basically collages that you create of things you want and need.  You then take these collages and put them in places where you will see them every day. 

Recently, I read an article by Martha Beck that explains 7 steps to getting the lifestyle you want. This article explains how you can map out your perfect lifestyle. It involves using vision boards but there’s a twist because you’re also going to create a board for the lifestyle you currently have and step by step go through the process of enhancing different areas of your life and doing research to figure out how to eliminate the negative aspects in your current lifestyle.  Of course, this isn’t meant to get you where you need to be in order to have that lifestyle but once you’ve finished you’ll have a pretty clear picture of what you want in life and a better idea of how to get there. With anything worth having there’s going to have to be some effort put forth so don’t expect instant gratification and be willing to work for what you want. I know it’s cliché but where there’s a will there’s a way. Hey, I’m a poet and didn’t know it. =)

Martha Beck Explains How to Live the Life You Want