I have started new (and probably biggest yet) challenge on my Instagram! 🤩 It’s about following dreams! I’m one of those people who always encourage you to dream big and follow those dreams! I’ll be always rooting for you to work hard on reaching your goal 💪.
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BUT!
Setting goals and dreaming big is amazing and I am all for it but you need to learn to be happy during the process of following dreams, to be happy on your path, not only at the finish line ☺️.
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You can’t get stuck on „I’ll be happy when…” syndrome.
➡️ „I’ll be happy when I finally manage to get a new job and quit current one.”
➡️ „I’ll be happy when I finally move to a bigger house.”
➡️ „I’ll be happy when I succeed and when my company gets 1000 clients.”
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Do you see what’s wrong with those sentences? You’re blocking your own happiness! 😔 Thinking that you’ll be happy when you succeed you subconsciously tell yourself to be unhappy now 😬. What if it takes several years for you to achieve your goal? And what if it doesn’t work out and you won’t reach that particular goal (sometimes it just doesn’t happen, sometimes you miss your opportunity, run out of time etc)? Will you never be happy then? 😔
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Appreciate all the steps inbetween! There’s so many more steps to be happy about rather than just the final one 🏁. E.g. if your goal is to get 1000 clients you still get a milestone when you get the 1st one! 🤩 That’s a huge thing to celebrate! Somebody liked and bought your product/service! And when you get to 100 clients – woah, that’s a lot of people, you should be happy! 🤗 If your goal is to lose 15kg you should be happy about every single kilogram lots, you should be happy about yourself taking care of yourself, you should be happy now! 😊
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Remember, when setting your goal and following your dreams, make sure you’re happy all the way through the process!
Tag: happiness
How to boost happiness!
Want to boost happiness but don’t know how? 🤔 You’ve tried many methods, new things but still don’t know exactly what to do to be happier? 🤷🏼♀️ You’d like less abstract tips and more scientific facts and useful tips on happiness? Look no further! 😀
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As you may know there are 4 basic hormones that impact our mood and feeling of happiness:
🔅dopamine
🔅endorphins
🔅oxytocin
🔅serotonin
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Now how to make them work and make you happy? Easy! Just try out the activities that boost those hormones! ☺
For dopamine, the reward chemical, try:
➡️ eating yummy food (this is why I can’t get through any diet, eating gives me too much joy! 😅)
➡️ achieving a goal
➡️ completing a task (with last two remember to set small goals and small tasks – this way you’ll get a dose of dopamine)
➡️ self-care activities (check out self-care challenge we did in February – you’ll find it in my Stories Highlights)
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For endorphin, the pain killer you’ll need:
➡️ exercising 💪
➡️ listening to music 🎶
➡️ watching a movie 🎬 (I think you know by know where and when to look for Positive Movies Recommendations! If you don’t – I post them here every Sunday)
➡️ laughter 😂
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To boost oxytocin, known as the love hormone, those activities will work:
➡️ socializing
➡️ physical touch
➡️ petting animals 🐶🐈
➡️ helping others
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And last but not least – serotonin, the mood stabilizers:
➡️ Sun exposure 🌞
➡️ mindfullness (see Chill Sessions in my Stories Highlights) 🙏
➡️ be with nature (spring is here, enjoy it!)
➡️ meditation 🧘🏼♀️
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As you can see, with Smiley Society I try to boost all those hormones for you! 🤗 We have self-care Thursdays 🧖♀️ and plenty healthy recipes 🥑 for dopamine, positive movie recommendations 🎬 on Sundays to boost endorphins, Smiley talks 💬 and e.g. Fun challenge we did in May for oxytocin (there will be definitely a challenge about helping others soon) and I post videos for mindfullness 🙏 and meditation 🧘🏼♀️ from time to time too for serotonin!
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Let me know what else can I do and how can I help to make you happy! 🤗
Smiley Future – Step 56
I hope that last week’s step nr 55 about gratitude got you interested and ready to practice it! 🤗 You’re ready? Let’s get to today’s task straight away! 🤩
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For the next couple of days (until our next step in a week) every night when you’re laying in bed already think of 3 things that you are grateful for in that exact moment 🙏. Notice how you feel before that excercise and how you feel afterwards. Does something change? 🤔 Does it get easier with time to find reasons to be grateful? 😊
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So as not to forget about this excercise stick a note next to your bed with a reminder 📌.
How do you like that excercise? Maybe you’ll practice it every night from now on? 🤗
Write down your reflections 📝
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Today I am grateful for my friends, for the support I get from my husband and for our financial situation 😊🙏
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Next week: Gratitude towards other people
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s new book “90 days – design your tomorrow”
Happy hormones and where to find them 🤔/how to boost them 💪
„You are what you eat” is so true! 🙂 Did you know that by eating specific products you can boost your happy hormones? 🤩
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🔶️ 1. Dopamine 💥
This happy hormone is a neurotransmitter that drives your brain’s reward system 🏆
➡️ To boost it eat lots of protein 🥚, less saturated fat, consume probiotics, excercise 💪, listen to music 🎶, get enough sunlight 🌞
➡️ What to eat: dairy foods such as milk 🥛, cheese 🧀 and yogurt, unprocessed meats such as beef 🥩, chicken and turkey, Omega-3 rich fish 🐟 such as salmon and mackerel, eggs 🥚, bananas 🍌, almonds, walnuts 🌰, dark chocolate 🍫
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🔶️ 2. Serotonin 💥
It is a compound that is made of an amino acid called tryptophan.
➡️ Tryptophan works best alongside carbs such as groats, wholemeal flour, rye bread 🍞 or fruit 🍇
➡️ Remember about vitamine B – you’ll find it in green leafy vegetables 🌱 (such as spinach, parsley or kale), wholemeal products 🍞, nuts 🥜, meat 🥩, eggs 🥚
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🔶️ 3. Oxytocin 💥
Both a neurotransmitter and a happy hormone, oxytocin is often called “the love hormone.” 😉❤
➡️ Your body produces oxytocin naturally, but if you want to feel the love, so to speak 🙂, try these natural ways to increase it: yoga 🧘🏼♀️, listen to music 🎶, get a massage 😍, spend time with friends 👥, meditate, have sex ♀️♂️, cuddle, hug ❤
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🔶️ 4. Estrogen (female hormone) 💥
This happy hormone helps form serotonin and protects you from irrita�bility and anxiety, keeping your mood steady 😇
➡️ Estrogen boosting food: tofu, sesame seeds, hummus, garlic, dried fruit, wholegrain bread 🍞
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🔶️ 5. Progesterone (female hormone) 💥
This helps you to sleep well and prevents anxiety, irritability and mood swings 🙃
➡️ While food doesn’t contain progesterone, some foods may help stimulate the body’s production of it 🤗, like: beans, broccoli 🥦, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, nuts 🥜, pumpkin 🎃, spinach 🍃
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So in another words – you can definitely eat to be happy! 😉🤩
P.S. I am doing 28 day Self-Love challenge at my Instagram – come join us!
How does excercise improve happiness? 💪⬆️😁
Do you regularly workout? 🤔 Working out is good not only to your body but to your mind too! 🧠
Tired of feeling down? 😴
Move! 😁
Stressed about work? 🤯
Move! 😁
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„Simply moving your body, has immediate, long-lasting and protective benefits for your brain”
– Wendy Suzuki, profesor of Natural Science and Psychology 😎
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Excercise will have both a positive chemical effect on your brain 🧠 reducing stress and improving mood as well as resulting in lasting positive benefits for the brain and body!
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It is scientifically proven that working out improves your mood and decreases feelings of depression, anxiety and stress 🤗.
After a good workout session your body starts producing lots of endorphines – happy hormones 🤩
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You feel proud and satisfied that you’ve worked out and managed to make your muscles work = your mood is better 😊
Your heart is beating fast so brings lots of blood and oxygen to your body and to your brain = your mind and memory works better 🤓
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Working out regularly makes your body chage, you lose weight, your body gets firm and looks better, your have more endorphines in your body, your mind works better = you’re happier 🤗
This is so simple!
Excercise does really improve happiness! 😉
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You should workout 20-40 min 3-4 times a week. I know you don’t feel like it, I know it’s hard to start 😉. Believe me it is so hard for me to get up from a couch or desk and workout, I almost never feel like it and need to force myself to do it but I ALWAYS feel soooo good afterwards ☺
So, have you worked out today? 😉
I’ll be happy when…
„I’ll be happy when…”
Is that thought stuck with you? 😏 Do you keep thinking that you’ll be happy when something happens? 😬 Or when you’ll accomplish something? 🤔
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I used to think that way. I kept saying to myself „I’ll be happy when I lose weight” 💪, „I’ll be happy when I publish my book” 📕, „I’ll be happy when I get married 👰”.
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And you know what? It doesn’t work that way 🤷🏼♀️
Happiness isn’t some kind of a prize 🏆 that comes when you do what you have to do 🙄. You can lose weight, get married and reach all your dreams and still won’t be happy 😞. It’s about your mindset ⚠️
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If you keep thinking „I’ll be happy when…” this happiness will always be somewhere in the future ➡️, it will be always ahead of you and you’ll never catch up 😧.
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You need to find a way to be happy NOW ⚠️. Even when you haven’t achieved your goal, even if you’re e.g. losing weight and got still some kgs to lose 😅, be happy on your way to success 🔜.
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What if you’ll never get what you want (sorry to break it to you but it might happen)? 🤔 What if you keep saying to yourself „I’ll be happy when…” and the ‘when’ never comes and you’ll just lose weeks, months or years waiting for that happiness 😱?
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It’s not something that will come to you. It’s not like you’ll wake up one day after reaching your goal and think „wow, I’m happy now” 😉. You need to change your mindset ⚠️
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Start thinking and focusing on HERE & NOW ⬇️. Start seeing, like actually seeing 👀, what you have, what you’ve done ☺.
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Start being happy about the little things 😉. Instead of thinking „I’ll be happy when I reach my goal” be happy that you’ve started working on that goal 🤗, be happy with every step you take to reach it, be happy about every little obstacle you’ve defeated 💪.
Be happy NOW ⚠️
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Tell me, are you happy? 🤗
Unhappy to choose
I feel like nowadays people are unhappy because…there’s too much to choose from! Yes, exactly, because there are too many options 🤷🏼♀️
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Subconsciously we want to have EVERYTHING so once we have to choose 1 thing out of 30 we become stressed, anxious about the decision and then in the end unhappy about the choice we made 🤯.
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Daniel Levitin tells a story in „The Organized Mind” about one of his students years ago who came to USA from Romania (Soviet at the time). He recalls how he met this girl in a store in front of a shelf full of different pens almost crying. She wasn’t able to pick one. Back in Romania they had only 3 types of pen and that’s it. “Which one do I need for my biology class? Which one for poetry? Do I want felt tip, ink, gel, cartrifge, erasable? Ballpoint, razor point, roller ball?” ✒🖋🖊.
Then once she chooses she’ll be worried if she got the right one. She’ll go back home and will want the other one, the one she didn’t buy.
Sounds familiar?
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It may sound as a simple and quite basic example but if you think about it you choose a product every day 🤷🏼♀️. You do grocery shopping and you choose one milk before the other, you choose one jumper instead of another one, you choose one smartphone instead of a different brand. We make hundreds decisions everyday and once we decide we keep wanting the thing we didn’t get! Mind will always want something that is out of reach, something that we are missing 🤷🏼♀️.
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We are all forced to make plenty decisions every day and this can easily make one unhappy 😬😰.
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BUT!
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Instead of thinking what you DIDN’T get think of what you DID get!
Appreciate that smartphone, smile at this new jumper, appreciate that pen! 🤗
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Do you know why people in Africa or South America are happier than us? (I trully believe they are). Because they don’t have that ‘problem’! They simply appreciate what they have. They don’t have dozens brands of milk to choose from and wonder if that’s the right choice. They are simply happy because they got milk.
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Minimalism and gratitude.
That’s the answer to it. Learn to choose 1 thing, to be happy about it and to forget about the ones you didn’t choose! 🙏
Remember to check other pages too! There are other parts of the blog added here daily!
Check out new positive quotes, psychological facts, positive movies recommendations and inspirational stories!
Free happiness!
Some people say you can’t be happy without money 💰.
Don’t get me wrong, money are much needed and useful obviously BUT don’t forget about happy things you can get FOR FREE!
1. Beautiful sunsets – it won’t cost you anything yet sometimes it can take your breath away! 🌅
2. Hug / kiss – hugging or kissing your friend / partner definitely won’t cost you anything yet it will make you feel loved, needed and happy 💏
3. Smile – smile at others! Even at the strangers. It will also go a long way and will make anyone’s mood better ☺
4. Long walk in the mountains or forest – long walks are very useful as you will clear your mind, relax and get new ideas 🏞
5. Appreciate the blue sky. Is it a pretty day? If so, head outside and enjoy the pretty blue sky. Allow yourself to give thanks for the beautiful day 🌝
6. Volunteer Your Time. Volunteering your time is a great way to help others and get enjoyment at the same time. Whether it’s a soup kitchen or an animal shelter, there are many places that could benefit from a helping hand 🤝
7. Meditate. Take some time to rest, relax, and center your mind to find happiness 🧘🏼♀️
8. Make A Grateful List. Writing down the things that you are grateful for can instantly make you happy ✒
See?
And there’s so much more of free things/activities that can make you happy!
You don’t need money to be happy, believe me! 😊
Remember to check other pages too! There are other parts of the blog added here daily!
Check out new positive quotes, psychological facts, positive movies recommendations and inspirational stories!
Purchase memories
⚠️ Purchase memories, not things. ⚠️
Happiness is usually abstract things – health, family, love. Focus on that. 🤗
Don’t pay attention to material goods, those are just things 👑💄💎. New phone or new pair of expensive shoes might make you happy for a moment but it won’t give you happiness and memories in long term. Instead of that try to go on an adventure, „buy” memories – book yourself a short trip on the weekend (it doesn’t have to be far) 🏕, go to a concert 🎙, go to a festival 🎭, jump out of the plane ✈…you may think that those are experiences couple minutes/days long, nothing permament, but the memories are for life! ⭐ They may not last long physically but you can talk about it with your family or friends for ages!
Remember – in the end people usually regret not having done something, no not having bought something. We regret experiences and chances we didn’t take, not missing a sale in a boutique.
This is a photo taken on our journey to Dominican Republic last year. It cost us quite a lot of money and we could’ve bought a sofa to our guest room that we are still missing (we moved into a new apartment last year) but I wouldn’t have had it the other way. We saw beautiful places, learned some new things and gained plenty amazing memories!
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This month try to do something you haven’t done before. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive, it doesn’t even have to be anything you pay for – if you live by the sea or lake try winter swimming 🏊♀️ (go into the water only for couple minutes though), go to a dog shelter and take dogs for a walk and spend whole day with them 🐶 (or maybe even take one home? 😊), volunteer at some city event 🎪 or just try eating something you haven’t eaten before 🍲🍤 (ok, this one you’ll have to buy but it’s a small thing to do). Literally anything! Just try to get out of the rut and get yourself some new memories! 😊😊😊
How to be HAPPY 