Happiness Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

How to Soul Search Life Secrets

How to soul search is something I know a lot about as I’ve been doing it all my adult life with the core question in the back of my mind: what is this life really about?

Because on a deeper level, it’s not about our jobs, relationships or families.

They may consume parts and most of the time in our lives.

But we (you and me) are the most important part of our lives.

Because we’re the only ones we’re responsible for in the end.

And our best life is about our growth journey… and who we become.

A decade from now you won’t care as much about what you did this year compared to who you’ve become 10 years later.

As we grow older, we’ve acquired more earthly proof in our experiences that nothing stays the same and experience impact fades… and we have chances to make big differences with change today and in the years we have left.

For our sake and our planet’s sake.

It’s individually up to us to crack the code of how to optimize this life and find meaning.

And I believe it’s through how to soul search in our lives.

…Because the deeper life answers are here and the mysteries of life are discovered there.

We don’t have to travel anywhere to discover what we need, so each of us has the same opportunity (that has no cost).

The universal core truths of why we’re here have stayed the same, while everything on earth changes.

Today, you’ve figured that out or like every person in every generation that gets to sooner, later, or not if you so choose.

Ultimately it matters because it’s not all up to you or me on how things turn out.

….It’s also not up to our bosses, parents, or anyone else that makes influence in your life even if they’re the loudest in our thoughts.

Then who is it up to?

Figuring out this life’s meaning I argue is the best way… choosing to agree with this life’s terms vs. fighting against it is the happier path of aligned purposed living without regrets along the way.

I was lucky to have discovered these life secrets on my journey and happy to share my how to soul search discoveries with you.

…That mind you, came after making many re-routes I took that helped me form my thoughts.

Because I had none of the answers taught to me growing up or in my 20s getting my feet off the ground, so I had to follow my blind instincts.

And that led me to unchartered wilderness places that would eventually land me into bigger and better places.

All those experiences helped me out and I know the Universe guided me along. I found my spirit before I found how to soul search.

My gut instincts came from an invisible hand giving me the blessed upper-hand in my situations where I was meant to go.

And that’s what’s daily playing out for most of us if we’re paying attention and open to the idea of miracle possibilities and forces greater than ourselves.

But when I was younger, I didn’t know all this.

…I just knew I couldn’t wait to grow up and be on my own.

I relied on the hopes of a better future and if it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

I didn’t have role models other than distant ones in magazines.

I lived on the surface. I never delved deep in my soul.

Then living as a young adult, I discovered everything in my life was wrong…

I had problems in every wheel of balance area of life… from my difficult work struggles, unhealthy and rocky relationships, and financial woes looming over my life that eventually caught up with me.

Those were the buckets that mattered most at that age in my life that I was juggling.

My life was completely off from the happy life I wanted. I was far from knowing how to soul search.

It wasn’t what I would have hoped for life would turn out to be dreaming of freedom as an adult.

…And if any of this hits a chord with you or problems are what you’re going through now, believe that your struggles will make you better and stronger on the other side.

You’ll be better off in your future because of your problems, (after you’ve processed what you went through). You’ll learn about deeper parts of you and how to search the soul.

And if you lean into your wiser soul better-half guide inside you (also guiding your heart), you’ll get your higher calling answers in your life… the better and deeper answers that are not the same ones you started off with or initially fear about daily from the “rational” brain.

Or irrational mind… that not going to help with how to soul search.

Wise soul plans are subtle in thought and can take years in the making to manifest.

When older people tell you that life gets better it’s because they’ve found the better ways of life through life.

And leaning on their confidence, you can gain wisdom and get there sooner rather than later.

I’m grateful my life has turned out that way.

…I felt like I was once a crawling caterpillar that grew into a butterfly. 🦋

But before I got to the life gets better part, my idea of a happy life had to go awry so that I could struggle, survive, and get out of the chrysalis to thrive.

Looking back, I had to go through the process of those messy and tough seasons for my own good and growth to come out another way.

But those early years, I was crushed.

And every year I was sad and hit with the winter blues.

Nothing changed quick enough.

I had no idea what I wanted to do after I graduated college with a business degree (because I liked businesses).

…Even though I was so sure of my marketing major I chose.

But there was a disconnect of real life from the college life bubble of learning theories of economics and how to market goods and run a business.

So like most people, I did the next best thing: I got a job.

And starting with my first career, I had problems at work that I had never heard of before from my friends and peers.

I was isolated because I didn’t know others who worked in the hospitality world (other than the ones that were in the same workplace I was).

In my bubble, a few months after starting I knew there was something wrong when I learned women in my office were harassed.

Made sense why they were all attractive with a Barbie dress code to match.

Then I realized that was me too.

This was decades before #metoo.

It wasn’t too long before I moved on into greener pastures.

I felt like I had made it as a catering manager with a better title and my own office… but it wasn’t long before my dream job landed turned into another work nightmare.

Your work life is only as happy as your relationship with direct bosses. That’s where I ran into troubles.

Those couple of years sitting next to the hotel brand’s bag of signature chocolate chip cookies only made me tougher.

I became a tough cookie even though I stayed soft and chewy outside. 🍪

Shaken by a sudden panic attack one day in my office taught me valuable lessons.

For one, I am not in control of this life.

…And I didn’t have it all together despite what my ego told me.

It took many more years of work experiences to make impressions on my soul, one traumatic event after another…

…from anger management bosses to micromanager and bullying managers.

Working in different toxic corporate management situations, I now know the root cause.

…and it’s the same one at the root of all human problems.

The ego is at the core of all relationship issues, arguments, misperceptions, and people acting out.

Same problem.

Different responses.

Humans aren’t looking eye-to-eye in their mind. It’s like the Tower of Babel where people are suddenly speaking different languages.

But back when I was in the work situations, I didn’t know any better.

I took what came at me at face value to survive and hold the job.

And for decades working in corporate office places, I wore rosy glasses thinking and hoping there were better places out there.

But job after job, I was disappointed.

Good people are there, but the egos show up and dominate.

Some places were downright miserable and the best ones didn’t last.

Everything changed eventually…

And I realized a forever dream job is a myth.

You can stay to retirement and be miserable and luckily I never got that opportunity. I got pivots instead.

Gaining this clarity from many work experiences helped shape my soul and I learned how to soul search from that standpoint.

And leaving the corporate world was my launching pad.

First off, I learned what the soul is…

The soul as witness to life is the part of you and me that is not on the surface.

But it’s not that deep below the surface either.

When you bare your soul, you’re sharing your authentic feelings and thoughts based on our opinions, personality, and interpretations.

Our soul are our deeper thoughts from our mind, will, and emotions that often gets confused with our spirit.

…Or our Spirit.

Our Spirit is a separate ethereal being inside us (and around us inside other people).

Spirit-thoughts are not our generated thoughts, but become our thoughts.

If you’re Christian, you’re familiar with hearing about the Spirit or Holy Spirit… even if you don’t know how that plays a part in your daily life today.

And that’s how it was for me before my spiritual intervention.

…I have enough to say about it now that I could write a book on the topic as someone living a faith-filled life. 😊

But I didn’t start out that way.

I was not born a Christian.

And I didn’t grow up in church.

How To Soul Search From Situations In Your Life

I became God seeking when opportunity arose and problems grew.

That started in those hotel working days in my 20s when I looked down at my body and everything was there.

But inside I knew something was missing…

Years later, I discovered the spirit first that was one way into finding my deeper soul.

Another way that supporting this was never feeling permanently satisfied in life.

So many moves and moons later, I gradually found my soul…

Along with my purpose and daily happiness that came as side gifts. 🎁

They were daily motivational keys 🔑 that unlocked deeper understanding of my soul.

Living a more emotionally and healthy balanced daily life created the growth foundation.

For me, that included lots of healthy sweet food inspiration (like the healthy baking recipes I share on this blog 🍥).

That was around the time my purpose started to shape up.

One day, I dedicated myself to the craft of writing: something I never dreamed of or sought to do before.

And I never stopped.

Balance and purpose were the keys that gave the most satisfaction and clarity to my life.

And those could be for you too…

Trying different things will help you to discover your purpose(s) and maybe some hidden talents along the way.

If you use your today gifts and talents to develop a craft that becomes your practice and purpose, you also develop more useful skills.

All that helps you to align to find your deeper purposes and eventual destiny.

I’m still in the deeper purposes part of life and I look forward to destiny when it’s time. I know it’s there.

And if you don’t know where to start, start with a passion and look at where you spent time in the past you enjoyed or were curious about.

Example: I worked with food as a passion that never died, so it’s no shock that I create and share daily healthy recipes today even though I had no idea I would. That came years later.

Because I didn’t know I would do anything with food outside of the hotels and restaurant life I worked in for a decade.

Purpose and Soul Searching

That’s how purpose works…

You remove the outer self wrapped in pride (a form of ego) and you’re left with purpose.

Purpose is deep and daily happiness allows you to keep productively going and growing.

Then you’re left with a deep satisfied feeling that you often don’t get with life living on other people’s terms.

You’re emotionally freed up and have the headspace to be creative and innovative. Not the busy and anxious go-go-go ego environments of Corporate America.

Then being calm, creative, and satisfied-minded, you can minimize yourself and your needs and wonder more about possibilities.

You get and naturally want to explore more of who you are as a creator and spiritual being.

Feeling more inspired, you can more easily grow your deeper soul and parts inside you that you never knew existed (where there are beyond and abundant possibilities).

…That’s where dreams can manifest into real life.

Plus, more cool stuff in your life.

And remember, that can all start from life problems turned into blessings.

Gut Health For a Happier Life

Gut health is something that rules our happy life. This article is about reminders and what you can do about keeping the gut happy.

…And fermented foods is one way that makes for your healthier and happier life! 😊

Easy steps to make sourdough for gut health. 👣

Like, baking sourdough is one way to take healthy measures to get a happy gut. And a great new year initiative. 🎉

For one, making sourdough is an immersive experience to learn about what fermented foods are.

In the process, you see how easily bacteria in the air (that we often avoid) is created and grows, and these become baked-in prebiotic foods to support our healthy gut bacteria.

I learned about these sides researching and writing articles for health and wellness publications… and going through the baking experience myself like so many during the pandemic.

Sourdough was a trend and maybe still is with you. 🥖

…If you’ve never tried making sourdough, it’s much easier to make (and regular bread too) than it sounds.

Actually… it’s sooo easy in steps, that it fits on the small square infographic image above that I created. ⬆️

…And that’s just one way to promote gut health.

A healthy gut is a happy life connection.

…Where remember, over 90% of the happy hormones (serotonin) is made in the gut.

So if you have a less-than-balanced gut, then the happy moods can subtly run off… but often can be mood restored with TLC (self-care) and Ayurvedic restoration if it’s not caused by a health issue.

…If you don’t know why you have a sudden chip on your shoulder or are more emotionally lately, gut health could be one reason.

So it’s good to ask yourself: what have I been eating lately? And what in my life and lifestyle could have brought this temporary mood on?

The mind-body connection is as real as the happy gut health connection.

And if it’s lifestyle or mood-related, you can get your healthy and happy gut back on with some tweaks…

Eating more fiber from mostly veggies and fruits for morning starters is a good move! 🥕🥦

The fiber ones that are non-digestible are prebiotic. There’s a subset of plant-based foods or produce out there that qualify. 🍏 🍌

Prebiotic foods such as asparagus are abundant in spring. And garlic and onions peak… (see these ones peeking out here 🧅).

Along with probiotic healthy bacteria (like that found in Greek yogurt), prebiotic foods will encourage more good bacteria.

And so, mixing your banana (prebiotic) and Greek yogurt (probiotic) is a good idea. And when you add nuts or seeds and whole fruits, that makes a gut smile even more.

Starting your morning habits after a tall glass of water or ginger water sets you and your body on the right foot.

You can prevent leaky gut, dysbiosis, SIBO, and IBS caused by food habits.

Encouraging good gut bacteria growth in the body is similar to supporting positive, loving thoughts in the mind where you want to crowd out the negative, bad ones.

✋ Avoid Reminders:

Antibiotics destroy the gut microbiome and changing gut health flora. Take antibiotics when absolutely necessary.

Such as, most people wouldn’t take antibiotics for a common cold virus (as it wouldn’t help and is not necessary).

But it’s common to take antibiotics prescribed by a doctor as precaution for a growing bacterial infection. And supplementing with probiotics (including yogurt) help to support the gut damage.

If you think of a healthy gut like a well-run garden (vs. an unbalanced jungle that can turn into weeds ), then you have a good mental picture of healthy balance vs. dysbiosis (gut imbalance).

…And you’re the gardener. 🧑‍🌾

Avoid the skin on foods that are non-organic.

Skin has nutrients but a lot of the modern healthy foods we eat today are sprayed with toxins in the process that negate the benefits and damage the gut.

So eating skin on certified organic foods or ones you personally plant and care for is the only real way to be safer in protecting your gut microbiome.

Stress is a killer. Our bodies naturally clean and detox during sleep, but stress puts wear and tear on our body’s natural defenses and adds a strain on its healthy housekeeping.

Avoiding stress at all costs is the best way.

With stressful seasons and situations that you experience, take daily deep breaths.

It’s amazing how the world looks different after a few deep breathing exercises like: Ujjayi, Lion’s Breath, or 4-7-8.

My favorite way is getting on my yoga mat to let the world and stress melt away. 🧘🏻‍♀️

It’s cathartic.

You can also take relaxing nature walks and experience tears of joy through Ayurvedic living.

The story of your stress is displayed in your gut, starting from cravings and what you eat… down to how food is digested and how it determines your bathroom life relative to other days and seasons.

The moods you think you’re feeling may not be the one your body is actually experiencing.

Remember, you are not your body or mind, but they are part of you.

You can tell signs by what you’re drawn or repelled to in foods, scents, and activities. That’s one way Ayurveda is useful to daily, modern life so you can make changes.

And that’s why I was hooked after I learned about the science …as we’re not prisoners to our situations and moods that are served up… we’re empowered to restore to our healthy and happy, best life and season.

…And we’re better off for it in daily joyful living and living healthy longer.

You can restore your moods and gut in one-fell swoop effort with your healthy moves when you know what to do (and then do it).

Mood foods are a good way to start and most fall in the anti-inflammatory food diet categories that’s catching on.

Anti-inflammatory foods are the ones I focus on, as I found on my healthy living journey that they matter most.

They help to restore gut balance and bigger picture… they’re known to prevent certain common chronic diseases like heart diseases, Diabetes, cognitive decline, and certain cancers.

You can find anti-inflammatory profiles in many beverages, spices, and colorful polyphenol-filled rainbow foods when you look around. 🌈

…Like this butterfly blue tea drink filled with quercetin and other antioxidants that I made from bags of tea I purchased.

Keeping a daily happy gut with anti-inflammatory plant-based foods and creative healthy beverages, you live comfortably, have more energy, and get to fulfill more each day.

…Now that’s something to look forward to! ✨

One gut health pairing idea: a pear granola crumble (substitutable with apple) that’s tasty happy pair-enhanced with cinnamon. Use Ceylon cinnamon for additional anti-inflammatory benefits. 🧡 😋

Pear Granola Crumble

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

dry oats
pear
honey
cinnamon to liking
light EVOO

Instructions

Add your layer of oats. And drizzle honey ontop and a drizzle of light olive oil so you get the toasty granola effect.
Add your cut pear slices. Add cinnamon as a divine flavor pairing.
Add another layer of oats and more cinnamon to liking.
Bake until toasted.
For healthy Vata balancing, add orange slices or zest and additional Ceylon cinnamon.

Circadian Rhythm Is Affecting Your Happiness

Circadian rhythm is our internal body clock that’s a part of nature and Ayurveda (the study of life). It affects how birds migrate and the happiness of our house plants. 🪴 These things affect us.

And circadian rhythm indirectly affects our mind-body and how tired or happy we are. 😊

Circadian rhythm quietly affects our sleep, feelings of energy or zapped energy and our cognitive ability or disability.

It’s an underrated important factor in our happy daily lives.

In this article, you can learn all about circadian rhythm from changes in our daily environment and easy tweaks you can make, so you can impact your happiness.

Circadian rhythms are deep and affect our spiritual lives deep within us.

It has a ripple effect from the outside…

So we want to make healthy tweaks to our lifestyles to keep the circadian rhythm balance humming along nicely.

One powerful way we can control our circadian rhythm is with the light and dark influences in our lives.

That’s as natural as the first verse and creation chapter of the Bible..

In modern terms, if you work night shifts and sleep in the day, your circadian rhythm changes.

Work shift shifts create mood swings. Try saying that 10 times fast.

We need natural visible blue light in the day that’s naturally strong from sun light.

…And yes daylight is the same blue light we’re warned about that comes from computers, but 100,000 times stronger. 🌞

💡And that’s the first easiest impact we can make.

My first understanding about circadian rhythm was not from light vs dark lessons, but in an Ayurveda class discussion about sounds.

From the experience we each received a unique, natural primordial sound that was happening at our time of our birth. It starts with “Om.”

As a miracle, those sounds are as natural and spiritual as birth.

These are part of the first earth sounds we heard in our echo chamber sound booth coming out of the womb. We could probably feel the sound energy happening then because we’re spiritual beings tied to an energy bigger than ourselves.

So I learned that circadian rhythm was part of light and sounds… and as part of our sight and hearing, it closely affect our minds.

Our minds are wired to our affected wakefulness, alertness, memory, mood, and slow (or quick) cognitive function that end up impacting our daily happiness and mindfulness with relationships.

And if our happy mood is down for a season, then we can feel dark or void inside.

As a visual, all you have to do is shut your usual window blinds for a week and that throws your circadian rhythm off.

And sliding down that slippery slope, you’d feel off. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sensitive person or not… all that matters is you’re human.

…Like when we change our clocks for daylight savings and we’re off of our rhythm for a day or two.

And this rhythm is tied to our sleep and how tired we feel.

When you sleep closer to 9 hours and still feel tired, you can rationalize the tiredness with working more hours, clock time changes, stress, season changes, or even getting too much sleep.

But more sleep isn’t the answer.

When you’re cranky and it feels like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and maybe carry around the bad moods, they creep into lower quality or less productive work. It takes more energy to get the same bare minimum things done.

And that can lead to our loving sides affected and our relationships taking a back seat.

This can become crippling if you shut out love and let in the negative and fearful spiritual tendencies that become the surrounding air breathed.

This can happen as easily as when you’re too preoccupied busy to notice your surroundings, or you let your ego take over your thoughts and play thought tapes over and over again.

It’s subtle to you as you pay less attention.

E.g.o. (edging God out) clouds over and those behaviors hurt productivity and happiness.

Letting in more light wind (spirit) is going to sway you in the right direction out. Instead of south, you head north in the opposite direction.

You can naturally find your way out when you know from experiences which way is up (as your natural wisdom helps you).

Knowing can come from tapping into your quiet space and spiritual self that often comes from gut instincts (not logic).

Sometimes answers pop right in… and sometimes you have to mull on the peaceful thoughts longer.

Because light and dark is a spiritual battle not based on reason…

Some of the battles can be avoided.

How? Patching a simple early fix like more blue light in the waking hours already mentioned, so you have more energy ⚡️ in the day that circadian rhythm regulates… and this helps you get to bed at normal times.

Blue light is a good answer, but it often gets a bad rap because of warnings to shut off digital devices late at night… which is good to do.

But in the same light, it’s not emphasized enough how much natural blue light you need in the day.

Tip: Be just be sure to wear UV-protected sunglasses and sunscreen in sunlight.

Because UV and blue light aren’t the same for your health, but often gets confused in today’s world. UV is harmful.

With enough blue light, then you can get the normal sleeping patterns that can reset the lower spectrum or first few hours of deep sleep (Delta sleep) when the body mostly resets and repairs.

That’s why you hear of people who only need 4-5 hours of sleep… and it’s enough.

Often they have a strong purpose (or busy season) and what they will do in life, like getting up for the New York Marathon race, voting, or taking in a new travel adventure.

Then sleeping at the bare minimum for the daily body repair is enough because excitement carries over or their Pitta drive drives them.

But if the minimum sleep isn’t achieved, then no amount of coffee, 80’s music, or a jolting pine eucalyptus candle is going to revive.

Sleep is irreplaceable.

In summary, these are a few healthy reminders:

-Get back to your light-dark/day-night schedule and normal sleep times.

What unnaturally took you off your circadian rhythm can be restored with natural healthy moves, such as:

-Listen to nature sounds like birds chirping by the river, or the pitter patter of rain. Those were part of nature when you were born and can revive you. Today, you can use technology to get those effects and drown out manmade construction and technology sounds.

-Add sleep-inducing foods with melatonin and B6 to help your sleep like eggs, bananas, nuts, yogurt, and avocado.

Those sound like breakfast food 💭 and if you’re having a hard time sleeping, like warm milk, these types of foods are helpful.

-Create a 3-day rule for yourself in self-discipline. If you don’t get better in 3 days or after the weekend has ended, then commit to fixing it in other ways like changing your routine that isn’t working for you now and in your quiet spiritual space.

-Breathe in words of inspiration like that from the Bible to get back to nature and your loving roots.

The Book of Psalms is one love letter full of natural wisdom and blessings of peace, love, and hope.

The timeless words are in weddings and funerals because those are the biggest pouring out-of-love events.

And those loving feelings and words can help turn your off-balance circadian rhythm feelings into happy good.

Turn on the light and naturally get a ‘lil happy today. You’ll be glad you did! 😎

The Great British Bake Off + Happy Battenberg

The Great British Bake Off season means baking time, so that’s what this light-hearted foodie is sharing about today to lean into the happy! 😋

…And as a show fan, I get giddy like a school girl. I’ve even got my hair put up in a high up side ponytail like a teen to match my feelings. 🤸🏻

Oh, but don’t worry… this will probably be my only giddy post on the show if you’re not a fan (yet). I’ll be back on the healthy earth channel 🌱 next week… so stay tuned. 📺

…And tuning this week into The GBBO also known as the Great British Baking Show 🇬🇧 is the alarm for me (and us home bakers) that it’s time to fall B-E-ake!

But before we bake, can you guess what this is?

It’s NOT butter. And it’s not fondant even though it makes a good food illusion 💭… but neither are good to eat on its own so that rules those out.

…Well, hang on to your hat (for that finished thought), and keep reading as it will make more sense when I spill the butt-ah…

Btw… in the States, we like our good sense, scents, and cents, as we’re multi-faceted and have many preferences to show.

We’re similar to our neighbors across the pond where we have adopted some nifty baking ways. Isn’t that right, Rahul (our beloved Great British Bake Off friend)? 😊… and we love that! 🇺🇸

I also love that we get to idea mingle with our UK friends that unite the kingdoms through our grams (Instagram and convertable baking gram measurements). 🇬🇧

…and isn’t it about worldly T-I-M-E!?

Cheers! 🎉 (as in thank you in Brit-English and cheers 🥂).

Oh, and did I mention we’re getting mini-Brit speaking lessons from the show’s entertainment side? 🐿️

One lesson note-to-self: I’ll now know to bring more pants than trousers and trackies to the U.K. next time. 😉

But all-in-all, we have a lot and even more in common… both countries speaking some English-variety. We’re also closest in time zones when you consider the other Old World countries.

…And GBBO o‘clock 🕰️ helps us bridge the ocean divide. 🥧

But I will add… it’s a little weird seeing the show baked creations before the episode airs on Netflix.

…Ah, but a few seasons in… like most watchers from the States, I’ve gotten used to the spilled (butt-ah 🧈) beans. 🫘

Plus I grew up in the simpler dialup era so no complaints (not my style).

Which btw, I think I saw one of those ☎️ this week and a green sewing machine that brought me back to my youth where we had one of those in the house.

…Plus I learned a new mini checkerboard technique a.k.a Battenbergs that I heard about from the show. 🏁

And that’s what I was baking up this week in my no-pressure tent? 🎪 Well.. sorta, but not exactly!

…I get excited about sugar talk that goes straight to my head 💭… I forget for a brief moment that I’m a low-sugar baker in the comforts of my kitchen.

So swept back to reality, a MINI Battenberg marzipan dessert is fitting. Because a mini one has very little sugar.

…And this one is reaallly small! …Good for maybe a big Barbie food table.

But too small to bake a cake in unless you’re Barbie baking for Ken and then it’s never too small. 💖

But for the rest o us, an all easy marzipan sweet bite can be made in minutes. It’s like playing with Play-dough.

…So that’s what I turned my butter illusion into. And making a fancy pattern marzipan is still less time than baking.

But I couldn’t leave my oven cold.

Because butter talk inspires baking. Especially on The Great British Bake Off.

…So I made a healthy delicious bake, but instead of butter (or butt-ah) I used an ingredient you may or may not have heard of… MCT oil.

It sounds like a pharmacy prescribed oil, but it’s OTC… and healthy! Now we’re back on track. 🌱

The healthy fat food supports weight loss, helping the body make ketones for energy that then gives us more energy.

It’s a form of coconut oil that most or all of us know. 🥥

And so I thought only fitting to make a healthy chocolate donut.🍩

That was made coconut tasty with organic unsweetened coconut chips that also make delicious snacks on their own!

Healthy coconut flour was used to lean into the tastes of chococonut (say that 10 times). The gluten-free flour makes a denser no-rise bake that’s great for pancakes or ONE donut here…

…that’s btw how us baking peeps fit into our fave jeans so we can better thrive in our mind-bodies 😊 where we’re all slightly different tuned that’s good to celebrate in our turning world.

Speaking of jeans👖…my baking genes wouldn’t fit in The Great British Bake Off fiery baking tent. 🎪

The show competitors got that competitive gene.🙌👏🏽

…And it looks like all of them this season were very blessed.

For the rest of us, we’re watching The Great British Bake Off and doing our stress-free baking. And on that note, you can enjoy with a best melted chocolate dessert.

Peach Profiteroles Recipe (Crushing Life’s Bruised Pride)

Peach profiteroles are a way to crush life’s bruising blows. And sometimes that can be our own pride that’s crushed.

my healthy profiterole sweet joy to crush pride daily — Tasty party plate of healthy profiteroles with Greek yogurt, chocolate, and strawberries for daily joy 😋

Along with happy peach profiteroles, below I share some encouragement so you can use daily joy like peaches to crush pride feelings and life’s negative situations.

Life doesn’t have to be peachy. But can be filled with divine peaches.

First off, we all remember how tough things got when we were starting out.

We didn’t know what joy meant. A joy ride had a different meaning than today’s joy in life’s ride. And we didn’t know the power magnitude in pride’s grip (…and maybe that’s something we need to learn about).

Especially if it feels heavy today.

…Like the world is against us and we’re pushed up against a wall sometimes. But, that’s part of the process in our growing, and gaining wisdom in our individual life journeys…

Wisdom that’s deeper in us and that starts in our minds, and then permeates into our bodies in the mind-body connection.

Wisdom is a choice and its growth is fed one choice at a time.

In wisdom, we know we’re empowered and have much more of a say in what happens to us than our circumstances. And we can speed up our growth by removing the inner rocks and blocks that stand in our way.

With time and more experiences, we often forget former trials that we’ve passed. But we want to bring them back to remembrance for today’s joy and to acknowledge how far we’ve come.

Today, smoother sailing and small pebbles in those same areas can become our new normal if we allow in the better perspectives, attitudes, and higher thinking ways, and make them our new habits.

It’s a daily journey because in any moment our subconscious minds can send us a trigger that sends a message wave of we’re not happy where we’re at, and if we let that permeate, then that’s our reality.

Often it’s ourselves we’re upset with, but our ego pride protects us from believing that we could be holding ourselves back.

That’s when we can refer back to allowing in higher thinking ways.

We can outsmart our ancestral wiring that was built during non-modern B.C. times (before Christ). 😊

And robots today don’t have this ego feature, but they do have other malfunctions. And in both ego and robot interactions we have, we want to apply our higher thinking wisdom for better outcomes.

Peach Profiteroles 🍑

Print Recipe

Peach Profiteroles

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 cup flour (combine bread and all purpose flour recommended)
1 tbsp butter (a small amount will do you for the lighter effect)
1/4 cup milk or nut milk
1-2 eggs (thick, smooth, and pipeable batter)
1 ripe peach
thick plain yogurt or Greek yogurt

Instructions

Cook flour, butter, and milk.
Let cool and add egg. If the batter isn't thick enough then add an additional egg.
Bake on 350°F for about 30-35 minutes.
Optional: brush a whisked egg (egg wash) for additional shine before baking.
Fill with yogurt and decorate with peach bits.

The culprit is our pride (that healthy peach profiteroles can remind you to be self-aware). And pride can be from high Pitta that peach profiteroles will help to you cool off).

Pride is the boulder we need to grow out of to remove. And most of the time all we need to do is the opposite and be humble, overriding what our helmet-protected heads tell us to do.

We can use kindness and healthy as a north star guide to help pull us up and out.

In metro city area culture, often these are countercultural moves and secondary priorities. I grew up in the most powerful city in the nation that’s always on the news. And being prideful is heightened, and appears as an invisible status symbol in the air…

I grew up believing that being perfect was an advantage in every way, and then over time re-learned that perfection got in the way of progress. Because perfection puffs up pride to get everything perfect when nothing is perfect.

I saw the damage toll in others who didn’t have the awareness to make changes.

And in my own wisdom and awareness, I saw striving for perfection as destruction in prioritizing results over relationships, health and personal growth. It robbed me of joy, peace, and progress.

And maybe for you it’s the same, or it’s some other pride-driven belief you were fed.

In modern society, we hail getting ahead which is good when it’s healthy, but when it’s sabotaging yourself or hurting others, that’s when it’s no longer working.

At the least, ego pride protects us from being vulnerable and crushed by the elements around us.

We defend by sticking up to rights and our feeling right. The problem is this divides us from others. And we rob ourselves of an opportunity for happiness and compassion for others.

Instead, we want to use humility and joy to crush pride.

The better news is we can witness our patterns and beliefs, and change them. For the previous few weeks, I shared my night, morning, and pool meditation ways that helped me in my journey, and they were all awake meditation moments allowing thoughts in (feeling the thoughts out).

…And I’m sure it was in those silent meditation moments that allowed for my breakthroughs leaving behind old, retired patterns that no longer served me. They were replaced by the loving thoughts.

And we all can do this throughout our day, one thought and action at a time.

Over time, we learn to react and say less like we did in our immature years. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.

We walk away so we don’t energize negative thoughts. We change our thoughts, so that our feelings stay loving and calm. We gain joy to crush pride. And we can stay aware of our joyful thoughts that make us feel good in the moment and/or we look forward to in the future.

This helps us stay at peace, calm, and without unnecessary stress that we know causes health deterioration. We can use joy to crush pride, stress, and anxiety in one fell-swoop.

In peace, we see other people’s perspectives other than our own. We stay open, and remove any stubbornness that puts a rock between our happiness.

And when we do this at the start of the day as our daily attitude and habit, our life improves and we’re no longer stuck in those areas we want to grow that may seem non-related.

But everything is related…

When we remove the boulders we don’t need to carry inside, our life and situations gets better!

Crush Pride Morning Prescription

We expect days when we wake up on the wrong side of the bed or everything goes off. We have a few go-to places ready to change our sails into better seas and into a good mood.

And the best ways are in our minds, so we get to a place of joy to crush pride.

Part of pride is our ego fooling us into believing that we need to make our lives complicated and bigger because we’re not feeling happy or we’re not enough, when we have everything that is enough.

So to combat, we don’t accumulate more than we need (that can be coming from a Kapha imbalance).

We decide to shut off those unhappy beliefs, and wake up to simple encouraging messages, inspirations, and passions where we feel gratitude and appreciation for having life today.

We wipe off our clinging unhealthy ego pride that wants to get the better of us by staying aware.

We don’t let our moods and what others say or do change our joyful tune.

Joy is a medicine. And it’s naturally infectious. 🎉

Have a great week and hope you find a few minutes to enjoy peach profiteroles you make.

…Oh, and in the upcoming weeks, I share an update with you about one healthy habit I’ve adopted this year that maybe you’re interested in or thinking of starting.

And I have a super cool Ayurvedic series that will help us all starting off with some relief for the Vata autumn season. You can signup at the top of the site to receive notifications to my weekly blog articles when they come fresh off the press. 😊