6 Proven Methods to Feel 10% Happier: Juicing, Healthy Eating, Mindfulness, Meditation, Exercise, and Balance
We all want to be happier. If you’re tired of being a grumpy ass here are 6 proven methods to get you feeling at the very least 10% happier.
Juicing
Hands down, the best investment I have ever made was purchasing a juicer. Why should you do this? Well first off it’s much easier to get your daily doses of veggies per day by juicing than eating them raw. The only thing missing from juicing that you don’t get from eating your veggies raw is fiber. When juicing the fiber becomes the pulp in your juice container instead of the juice in the glass you drink from. According to livinggreensjuice.com “95% of the vitamins and enzymes our bodies need are found in the juice of raw fruits and vegetables. We would need to eat 2 lbs of carrots, 10-12 apples, or 8 lbs of spinach to get the same amount of nutrients you receive in one 16 oz juice. When you drink juice, highly concentrated vitamins, minerals and enzymes rapidly enter the bloodstream absorbing all of the nutritional benefits of the fruits and vegetables and giving your digestive organs a much-needed rest. Juicing helps you lose weight, increase your energy, strengthened immunity, strong bones and a creating a glowing complexion. It also may help reduce your chances of the most common causes of death. Inside these delicious fruits and veggies are vitamins, enzymes, essential minerals, antioxidants, and natural antibiotics.” All these things go straight to your system without having to be broken down and gives your body more of a rest from breaking things down. Wait an hour before juicing and make sure you have an empty stomach. “In one study, adults who drank at least eight ounces of vegetable juice as part of a diet lost four pounds over 12 weeks, while those who followed the same diet but did not drink the juice lost only one pound. The vegetable juice drinkers also significantly increased their intake of vitamin C and potassium, while decreasing their overall carbohydrate intake.” (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/19/juicing-benefits.aspx)
From my own experience if I am feeling like a 6 on a scale from 1 to 10, juicing will automatically put me at a level 7. Something else that helps me with that are vitamins. That’s a 10% happier increase right there.
Eating Healthy
There is nothing much to say besides that every time I eat healthier it feels like the energy in my body is smiling back at me. A little after your meal it will feel like your body is buzzing and your mind feels less cloudy. You are able to think clearer and you won’t feel bogged down. The complete opposite of this would be the mucky feeling you get after inhaling McDonalds.
Mindfulness
In mindfulness you want to latch onto what’s in front of you on purpose with complete focus disregarding any disruptive thoughts and staying with our experience nonjudgmentally. It feels like what you are focusing on has a slightly higher charge than if you were looking in another direction and this charge pulls you into stillness. The hard part is not so much the focus, but to do this nonjudgmentally, keep your mind from wandering, and fully “accepting the moment as if you chosen it”, as Eckhart Tolle says. This especially true when having a conversation with one or more people. If you were talking with someone and you find yourself judging them try to gently clear your mind and bring back your focus towards the bull’s-eye charge of the moment. Get sucked into this zone of intentional awareness.
When you successfully are able to converse with someone with little judgment they will feel more comfortable and at ease in the conversation. If you are sensitive enough you can feel the discomfort of this negativity in the air and the conversational experience doesn’t feel as smooth and relaxed. On the contrast you know from hanging out with your best friend how relaxed and little tension there is because you both accept each other. I believe this level of comfort consists of the people that were meant to come into your life.
Meditate
I’ve been meditating almost everyday for over two years now. Nothing I have done has ever improved my life so drastically. The hardest part is getting yourself to do it because it feels like you are completing nothing, when in fact you are completing so much.
Buddha was asked,
“What have you gained from meditation?” He replied, “Nothing!” “However, Buddha said, let me tell you what I lost: anger, anxiety depression, insecurity, fear of old age, and death.”
The other mental benefits of meditation is fighting PTSD, improving academic performance, helps regulate emotions, fights depression, fights anxiety, and fights memory loss.
As someone who struggled coping with ADD, meditation really taught me to focus. It also helped me with terrible anxiety and insecurity problems I suffered from growing up. It even prevented me from getting depressed when life was testing me the most.
Right now I meditate for 20 minutes a day, but I am working up to meditating 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night. This is the suggested amount by many experts. When you start though you don’t have to meditate for this long. Start with baby steps only meditating for 5 to 10 minutes. You will begin to see and feel the results after 4-6 weeks.
Exercise
As a professional squash instructor I have noticed that most people quit their workout goals when they push themselves too hard or get bored of doing the same routine. The trick with working out is to find balance between having fun and pushing just past your comfort zone. My favorite thing to do when I enter a gym is to do what I feel like. I don’t prescribe to a certain exercise workout routine, because routines can get as boring as sitting in traffic listening to an audiotape about screws. Some days you just don’t feel like doing squats and there are plenty of other leg exercises out there to supplant. Do what you feel is the best thing for you. Your body will tell you what exercise you need. I will say, the more workouts you research and are exposed to, the larger arsenal you will have at your disposal to choose from. To access this creativity you need to stay centered and present to the moment so we don’t get swept away with what’s happening around us. When it comes to your workout it doesn’t matter what stage your at, as long as you push yourself just past comfort. Read this:
“What happens when you tune your instrument too tightly?” the Buddha asked.
“The strings break,” the musician replied.
“And what happens when you string it too loosely?”
“When it’s too loose, no sound comes out,” the musician answered. “The string that produces a tuneful sound is not too tight and not too loose.”
“That,” said the Buddha, “is how to practice: not too tight and not too loose.”
Or this one:
Bruce Lee once said,
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
Taking small steps in the right direction will eventually help us get to big results.
“If you focus too much on winning or try too hard to be spectacular-which is something most people tend to do-you actually take yourself away from doing the things you need to do to get the results you want, and that includes experiencing flow.”
This was said in the Mindful Athlete by George Mumford.
Being Grateful
I’ve noticed that when I focus on the good I see the good. When I focus on the bad I see the bad. You will be surprised how many things you can be grateful for if you make a concentrated effort. Every time something good happens get in the habit of acknowledging it. Just tell yourself how thankful you are for this happening. As you start to build a habit you will start to notice the little things and life’s beauty will bloom in front of your eyes. When a negative event happens you will have an inventory of positive experiences that will outweigh the bad and tilt the balance of your emotions in a positive direction.
“Happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you.”
Now it’s time to action by following some of these 6 steps and become at least 10% happier.
Juicing
Hands down, the best investment I have ever made was purchasing a juicer. Why should you do this? Well first off it’s much easier to get your daily doses of veggies per day by juicing than eating them raw. The only thing missing from juicing that you don’t get from eating your veggies raw is fiber. When juicing the fiber becomes the pulp in your juice container instead of the juice in the glass you drink from. According to livinggreensjuice.com “95% of the vitamins and enzymes our bodies need are found in the juice of raw fruits and vegetables. We would need to eat 2 lbs of carrots, 10-12 apples, or 8 lbs of spinach to get the same amount of nutrients you receive in one 16 oz juice. When you drink juice, highly concentrated vitamins, minerals and enzymes rapidly enter the bloodstream absorbing all of the nutritional benefits of the fruits and vegetables and giving your digestive organs a much-needed rest. Juicing helps you lose weight, increase your energy, strengthened immunity, strong bones and a creating a glowing complexion. It also may help reduce your chances of the most common causes of death. Inside these delicious fruits and veggies are vitamins, enzymes, essential minerals, antioxidants, and natural antibiotics.” All these things go straight to your system without having to be broken down and gives your body more of a rest from breaking things down. Wait an hour before juicing and make sure you have an empty stomach. “In one study, adults who drank at least eight ounces of vegetable juice as part of a diet lost four pounds over 12 weeks, while those who followed the same diet but did not drink the juice lost only one pound. The vegetable juice drinkers also significantly increased their intake of vitamin C and potassium, while decreasing their overall carbohydrate intake.” (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/19/juicing-benefits.aspx)
From my own experience if I am feeling like a 6 on a scale from 1 to 10, juicing will automatically put me at a level 7. Something else that helps me with that are vitamins. That’s a 10% happier increase right there.
Eating Healthy
There is nothing much to say besides that every time I eat healthier it feels like the energy in my body is smiling back at me. A little after your meal it will feel like your body is buzzing and your mind feels less cloudy. You are able to think clearer and you won’t feel bogged down. The complete opposite of this would be the mucky feeling you get after inhaling McDonalds.
Mindfulness
In mindfulness you want to latch onto what’s in front of you on purpose with complete focus disregarding any disruptive thoughts and staying with our experience nonjudgmentally. It feels like what you are focusing on has a slightly higher charge than if you were looking in another direction and this charge pulls you into stillness. The hard part is not so much the focus, but to do this nonjudgmentally, keep your mind from wandering, and fully “accepting the moment as if you chosen it”, as Eckhart Tolle says. This especially true when having a conversation with one or more people. If you were talking with someone and you find yourself judging them try to gently clear your mind and bring back your focus towards the bull’s-eye charge of the moment. Get sucked into this zone of intentional awareness.
When you successfully are able to converse with someone with little judgment they will feel more comfortable and at ease in the conversation. If you are sensitive enough you can feel the discomfort of this negativity in the air and the conversational experience doesn’t feel as smooth and relaxed. On the contrast you know from hanging out with your best friend how relaxed and little tension there is because you both accept each other. I believe this level of comfort consists of the people that were meant to come into your life.
Meditate
I’ve been meditating almost everyday for over two years now. Nothing I have done has ever improved my life so drastically. The hardest part is getting yourself to do it because it feels like you are completing nothing, when in fact you are completing so much.
Buddha was asked,
“What have you gained from meditation?” He replied, “Nothing!” “However, Buddha said, let me tell you what I lost: anger, anxiety depression, insecurity, fear of old age, and death.”
The other mental benefits of meditation is fighting PTSD, improving academic performance, helps regulate emotions, fights depression, fights anxiety, and fights memory loss.
As someone who struggled coping with ADD, meditation really taught me to focus. It also helped me with terrible anxiety and insecurity problems I suffered from growing up. It even prevented me from getting depressed when life was testing me the most.
Right now I meditate for 20 minutes a day, but I am working up to meditating 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night. This is the suggested amount by many experts. When you start though you don’t have to meditate for this long. Start with baby steps only meditating for 5 to 10 minutes. You will begin to see and feel the results after 4-6 weeks.
Exercise
As a professional squash instructor I have noticed that most people quit their workout goals when they push themselves too hard or get bored of doing the same routine. The trick with working out is to find balance between having fun and pushing just past your comfort zone. My favorite thing to do when I enter a gym is to do what I feel like. I don’t prescribe to a certain exercise workout routine, because routines can get as boring as sitting in traffic listening to an audiotape about screws. Some days you just don’t feel like doing squats and there are plenty of other leg exercises out there to supplant. Do what you feel is the best thing for you. Your body will tell you what exercise you need. I will say, the more workouts you research and are exposed to, the larger arsenal you will have at your disposal to choose from. To access this creativity you need to stay centered and present to the moment so we don’t get swept away with what’s happening around us. When it comes to your workout it doesn’t matter what stage your at, as long as you push yourself just past comfort. Read this:
“What happens when you tune your instrument too tightly?” the Buddha asked.
“The strings break,” the musician replied.
“And what happens when you string it too loosely?”
“When it’s too loose, no sound comes out,” the musician answered. “The string that produces a tuneful sound is not too tight and not too loose.”
“That,” said the Buddha, “is how to practice: not too tight and not too loose.”
Or this one:
Bruce Lee once said,
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
Taking small steps in the right direction will eventually help us get to big results.
“If you focus too much on winning or try too hard to be spectacular-which is something most people tend to do-you actually take yourself away from doing the things you need to do to get the results you want, and that includes experiencing flow.”
This was said in the Mindful Athlete by George Mumford.
Being Grateful
I’ve noticed that when I focus on the good I see the good. When I focus on the bad I see the bad. You will be surprised how many things you can be grateful for if you make a concentrated effort. Every time something good happens get in the habit of acknowledging it. Just tell yourself how thankful you are for this happening. As you start to build a habit you will start to notice the little things and life’s beauty will bloom in front of your eyes. When a negative event happens you will have an inventory of positive experiences that will outweigh the bad and tilt the balance of your emotions in a positive direction.
“Happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you.”
Now it’s time to action by following some of these 6 steps and become at least 10% happier.
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