6 ways to keep your eyes sparkling with holiday happiness!
Happy eyes provide excitement and fond memories!
Making your eyes happy is all about creating happy memories. A holiday is coming up that we will experience differently because of the current situation. But these changes should not limit us but make us reinvent ourselves. Discovering new skills, developing new behaviours makes us feel better, happier, more fulfilled.
I invite you on a 5-stop journey to discover how you can be happier this holiday season.
Keep it simple, there’s no room for holiday complications
We often overindulge at times when we should be simple. At the holidays we seek out impossible gifts, out of a desire to show our gratitude or perhaps to satisfy gaps left over from the past year. The Christmas table looks like the tree in the corner of your room. The gifts you open once, the food you enjoy for a short time. But there are still plenty of moments to spend with loved ones. Those moments require no preparation, no running around and in the end that’s all that matters, because remembering the relaxing, joyful moments will make your eyes sparkle with happiness.
It’s okay to say no – but do it gently
Yes, yes it’s hard. Gathering with family, full meals, visiting all the relatives, and your wishes look different. Happiness is only built through activities, moments you want in your life. If those moments differ from everyone else’s have the courage to tell them these things. Choose just the right words for that moment. Remember any goal you want to achieve requires a plan of action with at least three realistic choices.
Let go of childhood memories
Memories of the holidays with the flavors of cupcakes, roast beef stir you up every year. What’s different NOW? You! Because you’re not grandma, you’re not mom, maybe all around you aren’t the same people anymore. It’s your time NOW! Create your own memories through personal holiday customs. Those habits that you remember with equal pleasure and that make your eyes sparkle with happiness.
Be true to yourself – even if it hurts
Where are we going for Christmas dinner this year? To my parents…to your parents? But you just want to stay home. Every year you had to make a choice, and every time there was a gap somewhere that you struggled to fill. Maybe it’s time to see what it’s like to stay at home, eating dinner by simple candlelight, next to the beautifully decorated tree that is abandoned at Christmas every year. Feel Christmas through all your pores, making your eyes happy with the atmosphere in your own home.
Focus on what you have right now, let go of the desires you can’t reach.
Wishes are part of the realm of the near or distant future. We create illusions based on what we want, but we don’t have to want it. You’ve noticed the two verbs: to want and to desire. Wanting may be possible, but not obligatory – you can dispense with it. But what you want is possible, and it makes you want to move.
What do you want to make your eyes sparkle with happiness after the holidays?
I invite you to keep a journal – the Gratitude Journal – in which you write down everything that makes you happy NOW. Over time we tend to forget what makes us happy. Think of this journal as a photo album that you go through whenever you want to enjoy the wonderful moments you had at a particular time. The thrill of happiness is only felt when you see with your own eyes that you have experienced happiness.
Make a habit of keeping this journal, which you will complete just 5 days a week for 53 weeks.
Monday – Write down what you are grateful for today!
There are a lot of things that happen that we can be thankful for. We usually pass them by without seeing them, experiencing them because we don’t recognize them. Their moment of awareness comes with the moment you see them. If you notice them, you will have the opportunity to go back and see them. Write down at least 3 moments you are grateful for today. If you multiply them by the number of weeks in a year, you will be very rich in happiness.
Tuesday – Remember!
Remember at least one moment when you were happy. Maybe you listened to a song, maybe you saw something, maybe you enjoyed the taste of a dish, maybe you saw a loved one, read a book, saw a movie, etc. Happiness can have many faces. Recognise them so that you are able to see and experience them!
Wednesday – Imagine your future!
Spend a few minutes writing about your future. A future full of happiness can be had when you plan for it and take action NOW AND HERE. Be realistic with what you set out to do, only rely on what you are capable of doing. Remember that any capability can be improved if you act on it.
Thursday – Write to someone!
There are certainly important people in your life. Write to that person and tell them how important they are in your life. Tell them how they have contributed to who you are now. Keep it simple, it can be anyone in your life. As they say: every person in your life has a role to play in relation to you.
Friday – Analyze your week!
Look at all your personal and professional activity over the past week. Write down 3 things that went well in the last week, they can be simple things, maybe trivial at first glance. But their outcome matters and counts towards your well-being. Write down what YOU did to make that thing happen. Write down how you feel today, looking back over the week!
Next holiday year you’ll have 53 times as many moments of happiness as there are weeks in a year. You’ll certainly be much richer, and your eyes will sparkle with happiness.
Happiness is built!
You may have noticed that I’ve written NOW in capital letters. Yes for in coaching it is about NOW and HERE. NOW is the only time we can act, the past we cannot change, the future we cannot control.
Act in the present to have eyes that twinkle with happiness!
Happy eyes give emotions and happy memories!
Coca Staicu,
coach certificat ACC
www.coachedtobehappy.com