Even in the most idyllic life, suffering happens. It is an inevitable part of being human. But day to day living doesn’t have to be laced with stress and torment , even though it might seem that way nowadays.

To stop the epidemic of overwhelm in this chaotic world, I believe that a paradigm shift in the way we see life is required.  It’s a simple step, and once that shift is made, you can quickly come to see that much of the suffering that we habitually experience is unnecessary.

With the new perspective in place, and the deliberate intention to live with ease, things improve surprisingly quickly.

Interestingly, some people still don’t believe that living with ease is a real option for them, or else they resist it as not being ‘OK’. I believe that this is because of a string of misconceptions, which include the following.

7 Myths about Living with Ease

Many people think that intentionally living with ease means:

1. Expecting nothing ‘bad’ or unwanted to happen
2. Not doing much / never working hard / being unproductive
3. Being hedonistic
4. Not benefitting others / not pulling your weight
5. Always expecting to feel good
6. Not facing reality / not being responsible
7. Being selfish

None of these are correct. On the contrary, when we learn to intentionally live with ease we free up our bandwidth.

With greater a bandwidth we have infinitely more space in our lives and any feeling of overwhelm disappears.

We not only feel better in ourselves, we have far more to offer to our families, people around us and the rest of the world. As parents, we can emulate the way in which we wish our children to live also.

Through intentionally living with ease:

• You are powerfully positioned to create circumstances of your choosing, without effort.
• You are no longer creating more challenge in your life than is already presented to you.
• You cut most potential challenges off at the pass, without force or struggle.
• When challenges do occur, you know how to dissolve most of them quickly and easily.
• When life situations occur that you really can’t change, you know how to deal with them with true calm, acceptance and equipoise.

This all leads to your life loosening up and flowing smoothly, as a matter of course, giving you the space to move, to think and to just be. You are no longer hamstrung by fear, doubt and “shoulds”, or caught up in the struggle to make things happen, so you become more productive, which in turn creates more space. From there the feeling of inspiration can re-enter and you have confidence to move forward in the way you really want to.

Could you be living with more ease?

You can do a quick self-check by asking yourself these questions. Am I:

1. Resigned to life being hectic, stressed or less than happy?
2. Struggling to create space in my mind or life, by giving up things or pushing things away?
3. Stressfully trying to protect myself from things, people and unwanted circumstances?
4. Persistently trying to “make lemonade out of the lemons”?
5. Struggling, pushing and striving to be or have what I want?
6. Giving up on my dreams?
7. Lowering my expectations to avoid disappointment?

These are just some of the signs that we are not engaging our full power and thereby making life difficult.

If you’d like to make things easier for yourself you can start the process now by applying for a free discovery session

There are 3 videos below that have the capacity to change your life. So even if you normally skip reading due to the ADD tendency that is growing in most of us, I urge you to watch the videos about the power of your thoughts.

So, where are you when it comes to harnessing the power of your thoughts?

Science proves what the spiritual traditions have been saying for thousands of years; our thoughts have a profound effect on the world around us. Yet the majority of people in our society are still not coming anywhere close to fully utilising this power that we all have available to us. I believe that two of the main reasons for this are

1. Lack of knowledge, understanding or awareness
2. Lack of trust

Therefore, the aim of this post is to bring insight to those who are new to this concept, and to also build trust in those who are already familiar with the idea. From there, taking inspired action towards positive change can be done with ease.

Why is this so important right now?

I believe that this is not only the key to being able to live with inner peace in this hectic Western world; you can take it much further. It is the first step in learning to create genuine space for enjoying life the way you want to, instead of merely existing the way you feel you have to.

From there, it can be possible for each individual to begin affecting positive change on a much larger scale. We can do this when we truly recognise the part that each of us plays in the collective consciousness that changes worlds.

Why watch the videos?

One of the main keys to building awareness and trust in the power of your thoughts, is to frequently consume material from recognised leaders in the area, be they scientific or spiritual. My advice is to contemplate and compare material from both arenas.

Below, you will find three videos from the world of science. Two of them by world renowned scientists and authors, Bruce Lipton and Gregg Braden. The third is by Lynne McTaggart, the investigative journalist and author whose main body of work springs from many years working closely with cutting edge quantum physicists. The videos explain themselves.

Wherever you are on the path of learning to harness the power of thought, I believe that these three videos (selected from hundreds that I could recommend) are powerful reminders to stop operating in the old paradigm, one of struggling to make things happen. Instead, come at things the smart way, the easier way, starting with your thoughts and intentions.

Please leave your comments below.

If you would like to apply for a complimentary discovery session to learn how you can take specific steps to apply this knowledge in practical ways to improve your life, go to www.happinesshq.com/discovery

It is common, scientifically proven knowledge that a regular practice of meditation provides a long list of physical, emotional and practical benefits. From reducing stress, to increasing productivity, to helping prevent heart disease, the list of reasons to meditate is extensive.

Not surprisingly, meditation has been adopted more and more in recent years by individuals, work places and schools, as the benefits become more well known.

What is surprising however, is that the main reason, the ultimate benefit of meditation, is often not known, or is glossed over.

The real reason for meditation goes so much deeper than the list of physical ‘positive side effects’ as I’ve heard them referred to. When we meditate we come to know our own minds.

We learn to connect to who and what we really are.

So instead of paddling along through life using all the will and might you can muster from your five senses alone; most likely exhausting yourself in the process, you can learn to make things easier for yourself. You can tap into a much bigger power source – the real you, which is infinite consciousness.

Here is a video that I recommend, which explains more about the real benefit of meditation. I hope that this inspires you to give yourself the greatest gift of learning to meditate.

If you would like to have personal or group meditation instruction brought to you in your home, school or workplace, contact HappinessHQ to find out more. There are many different ways of practicing meditation and some methods will suit you more than others. I can help you to demystify it and come up with a routine that fits with you, your lifestyle and your requirements. I’ll also show you that meditation doesn’t have to be complicated, arduous or time-consuming in order to provide huge positive changes in your life.

So don’t hesitate to get in touch to find out more and to get started as soon as possible.

Most of were brought up being told to be kind to others by not judging them.

We know that somehow, judging is the wrong thing to do. However, that doesn’t stop most of us from doing it anyway.

Of course, there are degrees of judging, like anything else. Some people judge others incessantly, and it is only by doing so that they can feel somewhat better about themselves. Others, who have a reasonable sense of self-worth, don’t feel the need to judge much at all.

However, in my opinion, anyone who says that they never judge probably hasn’t examined their mind much lately. (Or else maybe they are an enlightened being!)

For most of us mere mortals, dropping judgement completely is a work in progress.

I know that this is true for myself. Having been brought up in a family where a very definite opinion about everything and everyone was almost mandatory, the concept of non-judgement, at first, felt almost foreign to me. I also experienced the common misperception that giving up judgement means giving up discernment.

It was only when I was in my thirties, when I was listening to a Buddhist teaching, that something about not judging struck a chord with me. I remember having a surprising sense of relief and peace that came over me when I listened to the teacher repeating over and over,

“Don’t judge, don’t judge, don’t judge, don’t judge.”

At the time, I didn’t fully understand the reasoning behind this, other than it was the ‘right’ thing to do. I nonetheless felt as if some burden had been lifted from me when I set my intention to let go of judgement. “Phew! I don’t have to judge!”, I thought to myself.

I finally came to see the true benefits that non-judgement brings while learning about energy flow and how it is integral to our life experience.

In a nutshell, judgement blocks your flow of energy.

It is only when we learn to manage our flow of energy that we can really take control, and learn to make things easier for ourselves. I discuss this further in other articles and courses, and in my free video training.

At this point, I would like to share a passage from Sanaya Roman’s book, “Living with Joy” that gives examples of how the block of energy flow through judgement can manifest in our lives. I like the way that she writes about the drawbacks of judgement, and provides compelling reasoning for giving it up.

Judgment Sabotages You

“Judgement stands as an obstacle to self-love. Every time you judge, you separate. When you form opinions about another person, saying for instance ‘This person is lazy, or a failure, or has terrible clothes’, you send a message to your subconscious that the world is a place where you had better act in certain ways if you want to be accepted. By rejecting other people through your judgements, you inform your own subconscious that you are only going to accept yourself under certain conditions. This leads to an inner dialogue of self-criticism. It can also attract many negative images from the outer world, for once you send out these pictures, you create a pathway for them to come back.

Look at the messages you put out to other people…If you accept them, even just in your own mind, you will find other people accepting you more lovingly also. This dynamic can happen in subtle ways:

If you think people do not accept you as you are, and that you must try hard to please them, then you will draw those kinds of people into your life.”

Here is the same Law of Attraction premise related to judgement being expressed by Jo Dunning.

If we are judging, we don’t have compassion around that situation, and it is telling the universe we need to experience it or similar, so we can develop compassion. Don’t judge.

Judgment vs discernment

It is clearly smart not to judge, but this doesn’t mean letting go of discernment. It doesn’t mean that what others are doing must always be tolerated, and that you shouldn’t do anything about it.

However, by first dropping judgement, and thereby freeing your own energy flow, you will be in the best possible position to take effective action, and be able to effectively discern whether or not it is necessary in the first place.

While this short article may have begun to answer the question of why you should stop judging others, the main answer is going to come from your own experience. My hope therefore, is that it has inspired you to begin letting go of judgement more and more, and in doing so test it out for yourself.

Remember! The critical point is to drop judgement of yourself as well as others.

Simple Reminders for Daily Life

1. Try to be mindful and aware of how much and how often you judge yourself. (You may well be surprised when you begin to look more carefully.)
2. Try to see if you can catch yourself each time you notice judgement of others sneaking in. Then simply drop it. (Even better, see if you can turn it into compassion; but if you can’t, don’t worry!)
3. Don’t be tempted to judge and criticise yourself for having had judgements!
4. If you’re having trouble letting go of your judgements of yourself or others, read my post about letting go without struggle.
5. Begin to take note when things seem to flow more easily for you when you judge less.

If you would like to find out more about how to free the flow in your life to make it easier, apply for a complimentary discovery session. I’d love to hear from you.

You’ve probably noticed a relentless push to get rid of negative feelings. Either it is coming from within yourself, because you naturally don’t like experiencing them, or else the drive seems to be coming from the well-meaning advice around us.

We hear again and again that to make our lives better we need to let go of those negative feelings. We hear it in spiritual teachings, health advice, positive psychology, law of attraction coaching and the list goes on. And it’s true.

“You need to learn to let go”

But how?

That is one of the most common questions I get, and is something I struggled with personally for many years. So, I want to make it easy for you by giving you two powerful descriptions of how to deliberately, skilfully and authentically let go.

The very real danger is that when we haven’t been taught such skills, we can end up merely supressing negative feelings. It is easy to think that we’ve dealt with them well, only to have them rearing their heads again and again, or have them manifesting in some other negative way, such as in disease or as a reflection in our outer circumstances.

The following excerpts are from two of my favourite people and spiritual teachers; Eckhart Tolle and David Hawkins. They give similar, yet complimentary advice on how to let go. From personal experience as well as helping others, I can vouch for these techniques as being positively life-changing.

My suggestion is the next time you feel negativity that can’t quickly and easily be shaken off, allow yourself about fifteen minutes to sit and simply try one of these out for yourself.

How to let go as described by Eckhart Tolle in “The Power of Now”

Make sure there are no external distractions….sit on a chair but don’t lean back. Keep the spine erect…. alternatively choose your own favourite position. Make sure the body is relaxed, close your eyes, take a few deep breathes, feel yourself breathing into the lower abdomen as it were. Observe how it expands and contracts slightly with each in and out breath.

Then become aware of the entire inner energy field of the body. Don’t think about it, feel it. By doing this you reclaim consciousness from the mind…. When you can feel the inner body clearly, as single field of energy, let go if possible of any visual image and focus exclusively on the feeling. If you can, also drop any mental image you may have of the physical body.

All that is left then is an all-encompassing sense of presence or beingness, and the inner body is felt to be without a boundary. Then take your attention even more deeply into that feeling. Become one with it. Merge with the energy field so there is no longer a perceived duality of the observer and the observed; of you and your body. The distinction between inner and outer also dissolves now so there is no inner body anymore.

By going deeply into the body, you have transcended the body. Stay in this realm of pure being for as long as feels comfortable. Then become aware again of the physical body, your breathing and physical senses and open your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few mins in a meditative way that is without labelling them mentally and continue to feel the inner body as you do so.

How to let go as described by David Hawkins in “Letting Go”

When we relinquish or let go of a feeling we are freeing ourselves from all of the associated thoughts. The great value of knowing how to surrender is that all feelings can be let go of at any time and any place …. and it can be done continuously and effortlessly.

Letting go involves being aware of a feeling, letting it come up, staying with it and letting it run its course without wanting to make it different or do anything about it. It means simply to let the feeling be there and to focus on letting out the energy behind it.

The first step is to allow yourself to have the feeling without resisting it, venting it, fearing it condemning it or moralising about it. It means to drop judgement and to see that it is just a feeling. The technique is to be with the feeling and surrender all efforts to modify it in any way. Let go of wanting to resist the feeling.

It is resistance that keeps the feeling going. When you give up resisting or trying to modify the feeling it will shift to the next feeling and be accompanied by a lighter sensation. A feeling that is not resisted will disappear as the energy behind it dissipates. As you begin the process you will notice that you have fear and guilt over having feelings. There will be resistance to having feelings in general.

To let feelings come up, it is easier to let go of the reaction to having the feelings in the first place.  A fear of fear itself is a prime example of this. Let go of the fear or the guilt that you have about the feeling first, and then get into the feeling itself. When letting go, ignore all thoughts. Focus on the feeling itself, not on the thoughts. Thoughts are endless and self-reinforcing and they only breed more thoughts.

I hope that these give you a breath of fresh air and relief when it comes to dealing with the negative feelings that we all experience at some point. I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below – either about how you found these techniques or else sharing one of your own.

If you would like to be guided through the exact steps for bringing ease and flow to your specific life circumstances,  feel free to apply for a complimentary 30-minute Discovery call with me, I would love to hear from you.

If you’re like so many people feeling time-poor nowadays, you’re probably looking at the year ahead wishing and hoping to find a way of freeing things up a bit. It’s easy to be optimistic in January when things are a bit ‘go slow’.

But what can you do to protect yourself from the same old overwhelm when that express train takes off again in a few weeks, and when your days start to become jam-packed again? What I want you to know is that forcibly trying to cut things out is not the answer.

Have you ever tried to cut back on things, trying to carve out more time for yourself, only to find that it causes more stress than its worth?

When you try to change things but it doesn’t work, and more stress is the outcome, it most likely means you’re coming at the problem at the wrong level.

The solution is to make a paradigm shift in the way you come at things.

I talk more about this in my free video training, but for now, the key is to approach time in terms of space, instead of the same old linear way that we are used to.

As we know from Einstein, time and space are linked, which can be a difficult one to get the head wrapped around, but we don’t need to. All you need to know to move to a new level with the time issue is:

To create more time in your life you need to create space first.

If this is a new concept to you, then what I suggest is that you just test it out for yourself. Here’s how:

3 Essential keys for creating space in your life

To start creating space in your life there are three places you need to start. The good thing is that you can do this on the go, without needing to find more time to do them!

1. Create space between you and your thoughts

A few times each day, try to imagine that you’re in a movie theatre, watching your life play out on the screen. Imagine that you’re sitting back in the projector room. Look at what is happening and most importantly look at the thoughts that are playing out on the screen, around those circumstances. Try to sense some space between you, the watcher, and the ‘movie’ that is playing. Trust that it really is separate from the real you, even if it doesn’t feel like it!

2. Create space between your feelings and your actions

The next time you have a negative feeling, especially if it is a strong one, stop for a moment, or for as long you can. Just try to sit with the feeling without thinking, speaking or acting on it. If this is very hard, promise yourself that you’ll let yourself act on it a little later. For now, just create the space by noticing the feeling in your body as a physical sensation.

3. Create space between events and your reaction to them

The way to do this is to stop the automatic tendency of blaming and judging. A little like the movie screen tactic above, just try to see the event, whether you feel it as good, bad or otherwise, without labelling it.

The trick is to banish the words “should” and “shouldn’t” from your vocabulary.

This doesn’t mean that you become undiscerning or a passive pushover. Once you have created the space you will be in a much better position to respond to an event with more ease and grace, which in turn will attract more of the same.

One of my favourite quotes to remember when you believe that something should or shouldn’t have happened the way it did, is this one by Byron Katie:

How do you know that it was supposed to happen? Because it did.

Try these keys for creating space out and see what happens. If you are new to this, it may seem all a little abstract and you might be wondering “how does this relate to my overscheduled life?” That’s normal, because our minds like to complicate things, and simple but powerful solutions often get dismissed. So, for now I invite you to just adopt a willingness to trust, and begin building your own evidence.

If you’d like to find out more about making the paradigm shift to living with ease, download my free video training “How to get relief from feeling stressed, pressured and time-poor”.

Please leave your comments below, they’re always valued and appreciated!