Super Happy: How to Overcome Worry, Anxiety and Stress and Reclaim Your Joy and Inner Peace.

In this short article, I propose a model of higher consciousness that will guide you to a happier life. The model outlines four personal attributes that should be developed or enhanced and four behaviours that should become a part of your life. It’s your thinking that guides the motivation and process of enhancing or developing these attributes and behaviours. Your mind is the ‘engine’ that motivates and guides you through the process of change. These eight aspects, plus using your mind resourcefully, are important for attaining a happy life. The good news is that an improvement in one can show positive results and will impact the others.

In each chapter, I discuss one aspect of the model and describe methods for you to enhance it. You certainly don’t need to master each one to see, feel, and experience positive results. It’s worth repeating that these aspects are interconnected and improving one will affect the others. Some of you will want to go deeper into particular aspects and there are many resources to do this. I provide a variety of resources for your further development in my book.

The model that I use in the book is outlined below.

Running your mind

This guides the process of enhancing the personal attributes and behaviors.

Personal attributes Behaviors

Self-acceptance: Be here now

Self-awareness

Social engagement

Emotional intelligence

Meditation

Resilience

Making Changes

Development of higher consciousness

Increase in happiness

These are the outcomes of applying the model.

Description of the Model

I’ll briefly explain each element of the model here and then expand on each in the book.

Running Your Mind

Your thoughts are based on beliefs that represent your perception of reality. There are no right or wrong beliefs. There are only those that will either enhance or diminish your life and lead you away from higher consciousness to unhappiness. Enhancing your ability to choose your thoughts will have a great impact on your life.

Personal attributes

Self-acceptance. When you're self-accepting, you're able to embrace all facets of yourself—not just those you judge positively. Self-acceptance is unconditional and is free of any qualification. You can recognize your weaknesses or limitations, but this awareness in no way interferes with your ability to fully accept yourself.

Self-awareness. Most of the time we aren’t paying attention to what’s going on inside or around us. We’re operating on automatic pilot and are unconscious of what we’re doing or how we feel, as our mind wanders to somewhere else other than the here and now.

Emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. It consists of at least three skills. These are emotional awareness, harnessing those emotions (to apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving), and managing emotions,

Behaviors

Be here now. Being in the present moment, or the “here and now” means that we’re mindful of what’s happening at this very moment. We’re not distracted by replaying the past or worrying about the future, but we’re focused on the here and now. All our attention is focused on this present moment

Social engagement. Social engagement refers to how people come together and interact. When you connect with friends and family through fun and engaging activities, you’re helping to maintain your sense of well-being. There are two aspects to social engagement: quantity and quality and these are discussed in the book.

Meditation. Meditation is a wonderful practice that has been shown to have many benefits. Research has shown that it’s good for your health, emotional well-being, and performance. It reduces stress and anxiety, improves your mood and your sleep. The key benefit is greater clarity and peace of mind.

Making changes. Making changes in your life is not always easy and requires you to change the old habits that got you where you are now. Fortunately, there are techniques that can help you do this and that will increase the probability you will be successful.

That’s an overview of the model that forms the basis of my book. Each of the aspects described above is discussed in one chapter of my book, Super Happy. Watch for it on Amazon. I wish you an enjoyable and successful journey to higher consciousness and greater happiness.