Ingrid Lindberg - The 21 Day Happiness Challenge: Learn How to Love Your Life and Become a Happier Person in Just 21 Days

Learn how to love your life and become a happierperson in just 21 days

Copyright 2018 by Ingrid Lindberg

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Day 1: Happiness is...

Day 2: Allowing yourself to be happy

Day 3: The science of happiness

Day 4: Do you know yourself?

Day 5: The corrosive effects of complaining

Day 6: The power of gratitude

Day 7: The first love of your life

Day 8: Reflection

Day 9: Why you shouldn't take anythingpersonally

Day 10: Your external environment

Day 11: Practicing forgiveness

Day 12: Play!

Day 13: Inviting stillness in your life

Day 14: Give what you want to receive

Day 15: More reflection

Day 16: Self-acceptance

Day 17: Comfort zones

Day 18: Learning to reframe

Day 19: The present moment

Day 20: Negative thoughts & beliefs

Day 21: Happiness is letting go

Conclusion

Other 21-Day Challenges you may enjoy!

What is happiness?

Clearly, happiness doesnt have much to dowith money, with achievement or with possessions, because plenty ofpeople have all three and are still not happy. In this guide, wellapproach happiness not as something you have, but something youactively do, each and every day.

Happiness is mysterious, hard to define. Ayou know it when you see it kind of thing. But in many ways, itsalso quite simple and straightforward.

Happiness is a habit.

Happiness is daily action.

Happiness is a state of mind.

Happiness is a choice.

Happiness is a lifestyle.

True happiness is an inside job. Look at ahappy persons life and you dont see any magic or unicorns.Theres nothing in them that isnt also in you. Though externalrealities can certainly play a role, happiness doesnt spring fromwhat you have, what happens to you, the situation you are in, whereyou are, or anything else.

In fact, if it was easy to be happy, thisbook would be a very short one. I could say decide to be happyand then you would decide to be happy and that would be the end ofit. The irony is that even though we all want happiness quitebadly, we lack the skill, consistency and dedication to makehappiness a reality not one day, but today, and every day.

We look for grand miracles, overnight magicthat will take all our problems away, a knight in shining armor oran angel to come and redeem us and give us permission to be contentwith life. We wait for happiness to be given to us. We resenthaving to work hard at it.

This may not be the most popular of opinions,but happiness isnt to be found in miracles, or love story happyendings, or winning the lottery, or God himself waving his wand andmaking everything OK. It comes from you and nobody else, and ithappens now, not in the past and not in the future.

For some reason, its easier to answer thequestion, are you happy? than it is to try and define whathappiness is in the first place.

Unfortunately, many of us merely substitutein whatevers fashionable at the time - happiness means what ourpeer group says it does, or our church, or celebrities, or thepolitics of our particular country in our particular era, or themillions of corporations around us that want to convince us thatthey too know what happiness is ...and can sell it to you for aprice.

Happiness can be the feeling that youredoing right, that your body is strong and healthy, that you havenew experiences and sensations, that you succeed at the goals youset for yourself, that you have the things you want or it cansimply mean that you are not unhappy.

Well explore this a little more in Day Four,where youll start to explore what specifically makes you happy.But today, take a little time to think about happiness itself.Philosophers have wrangled this question for centuries, so youprobably wont come to any grand conclusions in just a day. But askanyway. To get you started, here are some statements about whatpeople over the ages have considered to be happiness. Whichresonate with you right now?

Happiness is

# Success. Working hard and being good at what youdo

# Living according to a destiny and life purpose

# Cant be explained - only experienced

# Being healthy in body and mind

# A cognitive habit - and something to learn and workat with discipline

# Love

# Challenging yourself, embracing fears and doubtsand overcoming obstacles

# Sensations, bliss, transcendent ecstasy - thinkintoxication, lovemaking, music

# Unique for each person

# Ease, luxury, the refined things in life

# Living a moral and ethical life

# The joy of creating

# A social thing to share with others

# Self expression

# Something you never really reach, only strivefor

# Laughing at the absurdity of life

# Overrated

# Being content, at peace and filled withacceptance

# Fitness to purpose and doing your best giving yourlimits

Todays exercise: what is happiness accordingto you?

Perhaps youre a bit like me. You love theidea of committing to being happier, youre ready to do what ittakes, and youre going to give it your best just as soon as youget past this busy week at work. Just as soon as you lose a kilo ortwo, then youll be happy. Then everything will be fine. You justneed to get to the end of the month / move / get rid of your cold /get that raise, then youll be able to be happy.

Postponing your own happiness can be a badhabit, and what makes it tricky is that you might not even noticeyourself doing it. You can imagine yourself happier, more contentand with greater well-being but that point always seems to besomewhere in the future. In between you and that glorious end goal?All of lifes little niggles. All those things you need to clearaway. So you see your happiness, sitting just there over thehorizon. The funny thing is, the moment you remove those littleobstacles, more pop up.

You may get frustrated and point to theobstacle. You may say, If only the kids would just move out, thenI could devote more attention to being happy or just as soon as Iget my bonus then things will be better or when I meet someonespecial I can really start living life again.

But you deserve to be happy now. Yes, rightnow.

You dont need to wait until youre prettier/ richer / more successful to be happy. Because those goalposts arealways moving. Youll end up on your deathbed, thinking, just assoon as I get into heaven, then everything will be OK.

Right now you inhabit a moment that has thepotential to be perfect. For some of us, that prospect is prettyfrightening. We may not admit it to ourselves, but puttinghappiness just out of reach is a way of self-sabotage, a way toavoid making the commitment to your own happiness. Its so mucheasier to just say, yes, yes, happiness sounds great later.

If you recognize yourself in this, it can beincredibly sobering to admit it to yourself. Look out for sentencesthat begin with if only or just as soon as. These are cluesthat you are unconsciously putting the prospect of happiness out ofyour reach.