Happiness Tool : Balance

Happiness Tool : Balance

Another aspect that enables happiness is

balance. It’s hard to be sustainably happy

when you’re neglecting any of the three key

areas of your life: health, relationships, and

purpose. Try to do something toward each of

these every day, even if it’s small.36

Health

We hear tons of messages all the time telling

us to eat more fruit and vegetables, and less

fat and refined carbohydrates. Yet most of us

don’t do it. Fatty, sugary, salty, chemical-filled

processed food is abundant and effortless in

the short term, but it really does make you feel

worse. I think another factor contributing to

this problem is that factory-farmed food is so

bland and tasteless, so if you can convince

yourself to eat unprocessed chicken or veggies,

you’re rewarded with a flavorless, bland meal

of blah that makes it all the easier to get the

McNuggets next time.

If you really want to feel better, I urge you to

try eating locally grown fresh food. If you eat

meat, get pasture-raised chickens and beef.37

Get your eggs from pasture-raised chickens.

Look for milk that hasn’t been ultrapasteurized

or homogenized. Then cook your

own meals from these natural foods. It’s

amazing how much better they taste than the

grocery store equivalents. (Even the ones in

the grocery store that say “free range” or

“organic” are almost certainly factory farmed

and will not have as much flavor or nutrition).

Go to the farmer’s market or deal directly with

local farmers for as much of your food as you

can. You’ll be improving your own life as far as

nutrition and taste, and you’ll also be

improving the farmers’ lives and the animals’

lives.38 A lot of people try to buy the cheapest

food, but what you eat makes a huge

difference in how much energy you have. It’s

worth investing in yourself—get the best.

We also need to move. Even at a cellular level,

movement stimulates growth and renewal; a

sedentary life causes decay.39 Exercise also

releases happy chemicals in the brain, which

makes it a great mood lifter when you’re blue

for no reason. For optimal mood improvement,

aim for 30-45 minutes of exercise a day. More

than an hour or less than half an hour is not as

good for mood.Exercise also increases blood

flow to your brain and helps you think and

remember things better. In particular, studies

have shown that getting outside and being in

nature improves positivity and broadens the

mind.42A nice walk in the woods is a great way

to combine the benefits of nature with the

benefits of exercise, plus it’s a good

opportunity to gather your thoughts.

Another thing we often neglect in our busy

modern lives is sleep. It is almost impossible to

be happy when you’re sleep deprived!

Everything seems so much bigger, more

dramatic, and more insurmountable. Studies

have shown that sleep deprived people are

considerably impaired in their functioning, and

after only a few days of missing a few hours’

sleep, our bodies stop being able to process

sugar properly and become insulin-resistant.

That leads to cravings, spikes and crashes in

blood sugar, and storing a lot of fat in the belly,

right where we don’t want it.

If you want to enjoy your life, you must get

enough sleep. Make it a priority. For anyone

who doesn’t have trouble falling asleep, get to

bed by 10. Marci Shimoff calls this “catching

the 10:00 angel train,” and it’s made a huge

difference in my life. For people who just toss

and turn if they go to bed early, I recommend

reading The Power of Rest: Why Sleep Alone Is

Not Enough. A 30-Day Plan to Reset Your Body

by gaurav-pawar.