Joy Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Joy Spiritual Meaning vs Daily Joy

Joy is used and experienced in many ways in life. And spiritual joy is one of life’s mysteries that doesn’t have to stay a secret to you, to help your life now.

Seeing a painted sky through a window can be a joyful experience that brings us closer to spiritual joy. 🌄

“Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy.” – Eckhart Tolle

But in our lives, most of the daily joy is not lasting as we get bored or the scenery changes, such as the season we’re in or a pretty sunset. 🌅

Daily joy is a common calm feeling we can have when we sip on a nice comfort tea… or get reminded of something that puts a smile on our face… or have a good outlook about the future days ahead.

I had one of these joyful days yesterday with a cinnamon chocolat-y flavored rooibos tea… that’s good anytime for Ayurvedic balance, and especially great in season and life transitions that’s life now and always for all of us. 🌿

I can always tell my daily balance state by my tea and spice desires.

Feeling calm is joyful. And feeling warm and fuzzy inside is where joy and happy feelings meet…

Joy is the new happiness.

Joy is used more often in trending media channels associated to describing general things in specific life seasons like: “I felt a sense of joy for…”

These descriptions are usually external triggers that are situation-based.

…Something in our surroundings prompted the joy.

These common joy ways are acceptable and often more surface fleeting feelings (if a deeper purpose or meaning context isn’t added).

“Joy” in daily word usage can often get tossed around like word salad and is not the same as the deeper joy that’s spiritual rooted, where the deeper meaning is often missed… and this article is about the spiritual joy you tap into.

But it’s good to know that daily joy can help you more easily get into spiritual joy.

It can be the primer or vehicle to get you there.

By contrast, someone or something at any moment can ruin your fleeting daily joy, peace, and pleasant feeling with a piece of sad or irritating news as quickly as the joyful feelings arrived.

“Stopping to smell the roses” 🌹is a good self-care practice that initiates or resets daily joy that’s good for calming and mental health.

…In a more relaxed headspace like out in calm nature, this can help prep you to look deeper for your spiritual joy that’s within and anywhere you go.

…Or you can miss the spiritual joy messages.

Spiritual joy is the kind of joy you don’t experience unless you’re intentional to tuning in.

The spiritual joy source is the higher world channel that’s inside you (spirit).

You can look up to the sky or Universe if you need a visual reminder.

Or it’s where you search inside you for ad hoc bright ideas and higher possibility inspiration. 🎨

In this spirit acknowledging realm, you are internally connected to the Universe.

You can do this in prayer, or just simple quiet acknowledgement that you are not alone.

With your spirit, you’re never alone because the spirit is another energy source inside you.

Acknowledgement helps you to unleash spiritual joy that gives a deeper satisfied feeling about understanding this Universe and that you matter to more than just the people you know.

It’s a higher way of thinking or a knowing like a gut instinct.

An example is when you feel goosebumps when seeing a solar eclipse in-person that has deeper profound meaning that makes us wonder about our existence, who we actually are inside, and why we’re here on earth.

It’s heartfelt, and we feel the outer ripple effect as sensations on the body and skin.

How to experience spiritual joy (or more of this deeper feeling):

Tap into your quiet spiritual inner being channel.

One way is you do mindful active listening for the quiet whispers inside you.

It’s not woo woo if you don’t make it about that as our lives zoomed out are big woo-woo miracles from the start 🎉🎉… and so you make your spirit about higher purpose living and your personal growth… while keeping level-headed and your feet on the ground for most your waking hours.

This can become your everyday healthy life as it is for me, as much as daily cooking and reaching out in community. 🌱

You can do this out walking in nature or sitting in a quiet spot indoors.

And to go back to your daily living, you shut out the spirit whispers that is subtle like daily wind.

You get back to your busy headspaces and to-do lists, listening to your thoughts and the noises of the external world… or simply get back to the work in front of you.

That’s the frequency most of us are on during our awake hours, unless we’re intentional to carve out time for something else higher.

If you’re in a loud restaurant or sports arena with friends, it’s unlikely you’ll hear your spiritual joy calling there.

But, spiritual joy can happen even if you’re not purposefully trying…

Maybe a wave of emotion strikes you in the air, or you blurt out impromptu somethings that feel right at the moment as the spirit inside you tries to help lead you to your better purposes in this life.

But at the time that happens, you don’t know why you did or acted out that way that was harmless, but curious to you.

Your spirit inside you knows better because it’s prophetic.

And you can be in ordinary circumstances like a concert or conference and a speaker that comes on discussing a topic or mission in the world that you’re aligned and passionate about that strikes your spiritual joy… or you meet The One (your person) at a grocery store and you feel instant chemistry without saying a word in the smoothie drink aisle.

The alive-in-you spirit can show up at any time without invitation to give you clues to help you.

This is the essence of the joy of the spirit.

There are also times when some people get spiritual awakenings for longer than moments or a day.

Those are not as common, but it’s the same spirit source creating spiritual joy.

Many wonder if they have a spirit inside them…

There’s a spirit in each of us that’s gentle and quiet if we listen.

To be clear, this is the same as the Holy Spirit living in us as defined by the Bible for Christians who understand what that means.

The Holy Spirit (or Spirit) is a heavenly being living daily and inside you ready to do life with you when you choose to invite this being into your life.

Believe me, a decade ago I didn’t know this.

…And like former-me, everyone is not aware of this spirit presence, but everyone still has a spirit inside them.

Depending on actions and how they choose to live their life, the spirit can be the good and effective influence in their life.

How you choose to live is your personal willpower choice.

You can purposefully invite in your good spirit.

It’s 24-7 operating inside you like a quiet and invisible angel… ready to help you (and other lives around you that you encounter) if you’re willing to be helped.

Helping includes suggesting with higher thoughts and sudden reminders, and guiding you to make the next best steps that you can choose to listen to (like a passing gut instinct), or ignore and listen to your louder thoughts.

Unlike people, our good spirits don’t hurt people. Only we or other people have the ability to do that as we have an ego in us.

The good spirit can’t create any harmful situations because it comes from the heavenly perfect good realm that isn’t earth bound.

It’s easier to explain this to anyone as the Universe looking out for you.

And now you know better how unleashing spiritual joy works inside you if you didn’t before.

This can be a part of your daily way when alone or finding quiet time.

You can give praise and gratitude for the daily favors and blessings you experience to re-center, get back to calm and daily joy, and remind yourself of the spirit in you.

With more favor comes joy (like the common happy-joy kind) because you deeper know you’re cared for.

You also naturally get better answers in life that are higher truths if you tune in regularly.

You’re less likely to make a wrong turn when you keep your steps close to tuning in consistently (and not taking a busy season off that can easily happen in our cultures).

This is where you gain wisdom and get better aligned perspectives.

You can get epiphany that it’s not about the things you do or acquire, but who you are and are becoming that matters most.

People, things, and situations are an integral part of our lives and they help move us along for our purpose discovery, and so we can help the world we’re in.

With the help of your spirit and developing more faith, you can trust the future and believe in what you don’t see in your life but believe all will work out for good (that fear and ego can shut out).

And if you’re new to spiritual joy and finding faith, one of the biggest challenges is tuning into the quiet frequency in a noisy world, and deliberately tapping into your spirit for answers vs. culture’s comments.

These ideas can be intriguing to a curious beginner (that was also once me)…

But like anything else new, it takes intention and practice.

The first habit step can be to set an intention or goal if that works better for you, to invite in your spirit in your life. A goal example could be you measure the number of days you do this.

You can achieve this in meditation, yoga, or in any quiet time.

Learning to relax and repress the mind’s loud ego thoughts also work to quiet the noise that internally competes and drowns out how the spirit softly communicates (that’s as different in us as each of us is).

Even if we’re listening to relaxing instrumental music, that can crowd out our spirit if we’re day dreaming on something else or focus-thinking about the music itself.

There’s a time and place for that if we’ve had a long day or just wanting to relax.

But remember, coming back at least once a day to your higher channel helps us in so many life aligning productive ways! 🌅

Without our spirit’s quietly working in us, our planet would be a hopeless, chaotic mess.

But our world is not this way… it’s organized under the hood with the help of our spirit working in us.

It’s not perfect or perfectly good and never will be, but there’s more quiet good than bad.

…Just look at all the productive and buzzing actions going on in nature daily. 🌱

And when you unleash your spirit outward (that’s the only one you’re responsible for), then you feel a sense of deeper joy and positive outlook living on this planet.

It’s life changing and life-giving as connection.

You’re never alone.

…And you’re fully loved.

And when you go out in the world doing your daily rounds and business, you can keep your head up and appreciate the kind people and the favor their spirits are greeting you with.

It’s a positive energy, and if we send our joyful spirit out, then that’s usually what we get back. And if we don’t get that, we still celebrate how we showed up.

With new insight about yourself and your spirit that’s with you always (and always has been even before you knew), you’re a better person.

You keep growing in ways you couldn’t have imagined before, and the way you started isn’t where you end up!

Finding out what that is, is everyone’s bread crumb journey. It’s a life adventure that’s exciting (and not boring).

Having lived both sides fully, starting out in my 20s thinking I had to make everything happen on my own and then evolving into relying on my spirit to guide me decades later, I would never go back to the old ways. 100% never.

With accumulated wisdom and new insights, comes purpose and meaning in a transformed life that optimizes the one life we live.

We get transformed inside and that brings joy and higher self-perspectives as veils are lifted. That’s the opposite of self-suffering that when you look back was survival existence.

You no longer have to deal with past self-hangups in phases of life created by former beliefs and perspectives.

You wisely let go and grow out of former patterns and Imposter Syndrome.

Your spirit of joy helps to grow and transform your healthy mindset, attitude, and insecurities. That’s something to celebrate. 🎂

I celebrate with food like a balanced delightful bowl. How do you celebrate?

Music Inspiration Daily For Slow Waiting Seasons

Music inspiration can be a saxophone that calms and is bright and cheery. — Music inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes!

Music inspiration can be therapy to your mind-body, like it is for mine. This article is all about building in some audio inspiration to your life, to get your mojo back or make it through your slow waiting seasons.

And a healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie 🍪 that can be prepared in 5 minutes (ready in 30) with 40 chocolate chips, a 4 oz. applesauce container (that is a good pantry stocking item to have on hand and you can buy in a 6-pack in the dried fruits and nuts grocery food aisle).

[Someone already took a bite out of this one 😊…]

healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.

Because getting yourself daily happy is going to help you in tough seasons…

Where life can be unexciting and underwhelming and you wish would speed up and you could fast forward.

If you were to add up those days and years in your life, they would be most of life if you have lofty goals.

And they can feel heavy, like a hangover.

Those are the times when routines and ruts can run our lives. We can feel like we’re not growing as much because we’re not learning as much. Or we’re not running around feeling as light and bouncy.

And all that can show up as a mood funk and stress in the mind-body.

Bringing the calm and loving thoughts back in the moment helps bring our mind-body balance back despite life’s chaos.

We want to feel healthy good, and without this balance, we feel off and that slows down our productivity jam, creativity flow, and daily rhythm.

And, music inspiration is an easy way to snap our minds out of unrest, and gradually move us out of seasonal rut feelings day by day, and get our bodies to dance around a little.

I was feeling one of those weeks that felt imbalanced in moods.

There were storms outside that didn’t help to bring out the sunny feelings. And my body was off sleep schedule. I usually naturally wake up at the same time every morning within minutes.

Now I found myself setting the alarm again, that I hadn’t done as a routine since I worked for an employer.

Was it post-holiday blues?

That’s what I chalked it up to.

But I was determined to not let that settle into another day or the weekend.

So instead of my weekly routine, I did one easy test move. I turned on the television.

And this time of year is when ice skating competition shows are aired. I hadn’t seen one this year, so it took me into a new loop as I watched the triple toe loops manifest in front of my eyes. From the 20 minutes or so of watching, I had a new verve again.

I was inspired again. My mind had those happy hormones that felt like they kicked back into drive.

And all it took was a few minutes.

What just happened?

My mind went somewhere else. I saw something different, and it was exciting to my mind that drives the bus and matters most in changing moods.

And the subtle backdrop instrumental music put me in a new place mood.

Music is therapy and that’s why it’s called music therapy.

Changing our daily rhythm sounds is what we often need for simple imbalance changes based on our lifestyle choices (like food and drink, sleep patterns, etc.)… and doesn’t take that much effort to help change our moods.

You just turn it on and there it is.

And if you’re trying, that can be the slight switch you make in your day today that gives you a new pep in your step.

…as you’re counting on every new step that can turn your season around for change.

Finding the right daily music inspiration is an important part of having daily joy.

…Even if we woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Or we were rattled with sad news. Or we’re in a nothing new season… music will help snap us out into a better mood because the effect it has on the mind.

And if that’s what you’re facing today, then know you’re one baby step away from making a change in your day… if you choose the right tunes to help change the mood tide.

The right music for the mind aren’t the same yummy bubble gum music or jams we hear daily on our stations, but ones that have moody sounds like snares and percussion instruments…you know, those odd looking small instruments like fun triangles and xylophones you had or probably played with in an elementary school music class.

I’ll never forget a Music Appreciation course I took in college where “Black Magic Woman” was one oldie song we analyzed.

Whether you listen to the Santana or Fleetwood Mac versions, you’re gonna hear some drama from the music…

You’ll notice when there’s a dramatic movie scene about to come on, they play suspenseful music to rope you in to add to the effects.

And the effects go straight to your head where your mind is. So in that small instant, you’re put in a different mood.

And if you can create your own momentary drama with music inspiration and musical instruments, that may dramatically wake up your dull mind up if that’s what you need. It’s the healthy way without creating real life drama, if ya know what I mean 🎭

And here are a few artists and songs to turn on for daily inspiration:

Al Green

B.B. King (or any Blues music)

And a few modern songs:

Magic (Coldplay)

Latch (Disclosure with Sam Smith)

Or have a home Christmas concert in July or anytime of year.

Seasonal Music Inspiration

Then there are times when you feel uninspired in general over a season. That’s when yo find new music 🎶 to gain your pep in your step.

And realize that’s an opportunity to recognize the need to welcome in a Life transition. Something great is going to come in. It could be a fresh start over.

Instead of adopting a why me attitude, turn on the why not me? And the why not me is about being chosen for your life mission and great activities ahead.

So recognize that seasonal blaise is meant to be a bridge or a transition.

Those seasonal feelings can overlap with the daily need for doses of inspiration. But they are not the same.

With those seasonal feelings, I know in my life that means it’s time to shift in another direction or do something different. It’s the Universe giving a clue to look up and out, instead of simply looking at what was.

And that can be how you approach your seasonal moods!

In growth preparation, finding inspiration (that can start with music inspiration) can get the wheels turning in the new direction.

And if music isn’t enough…

While listening to nostalgic music or getting music therapy, take a break and look at those daily photos, sports coverage, skating… or whatever gives you that temporary joy that snaps you outta your funk.

Try to find more appreciation or contentment to help your way through.

Transitioning is our life’s theme.

And of course, life never tells you or gives you a road map of where to transition shift to (…that would be waaayy too easy!). But if you listen to your inner guides, you have a better chance to figure out the next best step.

So it’s not always as much work as it sounds and if you cooperate with yourself.

Because in those tough moments, you know (or can believe!) that where you are will produce something GREAT on the other side.

And that’s how you can better embrace challenges and changes.

A belief, that’s fully in your control, improves your outlook and attitude.

And when we re-adjust those to help us get through and grow, then we’ve set ourselves up to more smoothly enter a new season with our good intentions.

And when you look back out next time, you’ll be in a different place because the moment has passed.

So what are you waiting for… turn on some good tune vibes 🎶 and ask yourself: what are you inspired about today?

And while you’re needing a sweet break, you can enjoy a healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with exactly 40 chip morsels in case you need to give someone a small job. This is an easy recipe that you or your young ones can make.

heathy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie in one bowl

Simple Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

4 oz applesauce (easy grocery plastic container size)
2/3 cup oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp maple sugar, honey, or molasses
2 tbsp chocolate chips (or 40 chip morsels)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup almond milk or milk of choice

Instructions

Combine ingredients and pour onto baking pan forming a roundish shape.
Bake on 350°F for about 20-25 minutes until well baked.

5 Best Vata Season Tips to Love This Autumn

Almond Whoopie Pies

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

2 Egg whites
1/4 cup fine almond flour
Pandan
Pistachios (optional)
monkfruit sugar or white sugar
Greek yogurt (for filling)

Instructions

Whip up meringues with egg whites and add monkfruit sugar or sugar, almond flour, and Pandan.
Bake on 300°F for 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Tip: flip tops over to bottom if edges begin to brown and use top shelf of oven.
Let cool. Make top and bottom sandwiches with Greek yogurt and decorate with pistachios (optional).

transitioning into vata season with pandan yogurt cakey whoopie pies. — These healthy frog green Pandan Whoopie Pies are decadent sandwiched with Greek yogurt, white chocolate, almond flour and pistachios and in celebration of Cake Week of The Great British Baking Show. I’ve added a healthy (but tasty) vertical cake to my list of baking projects! 🍥 Proof that pandan has grown into the modern, Western baking world. 😊

And below, I have some tips on how you can evolve and make the most of your Vata season with autumn mind-body balance tips.

We know we’ve hit a naturally changing season when daylight savings time hits and we fall back in time (and then give back an hour in spring forward).

But before these time clock changes, our healthy bodies naturally start to transition into the upcoming season. And our daily preferences change much sooner. Mostly because the stores and media around us have started their promotions on the first weekend before the new season starts.

And when we are ready, we get ourselves ready for a new season…

We change up our home candles, spices, and teas. And we opt for warm drinks over cold drinks. We also like burnt, spicier shades of browns, reds, and oranges compared to the bright whites and colors of summer.

We subtly shift from light caramel lattes to pumpkin spices. And we feel it in the sea air in the last days of summer.

And for Vata bodies (maybe that’s your dominant dosha), the mind-body can feel most balanced during the Vata season. And for any of us we want to lean into this season. And there are easy changes to help our Vata balance.

Vata Season – Surroundings Change

We lean into Vata season with a change in home décor that can cost nothing like bringing in pine cones or adding a splash of color inspired by the changing of the trees and leaves outside.

I like to pull out different cornucopia color coffee table books or magazines (…remember those?) that have the colors I’m looking for.

So it doesn’t have to cost much of anything except bringing out your creativity and the resources around you. That can help you get closer to your inner child when in those days that’s how everyday was when you wanted to do more.

And maybe that includes rearranging books and decor on bookshelves, and creating new table centerpieces. Some people like to change up their bedroom or wall colors too.

And maybe you have a second getaway place you call home like a cabin retreat, that can be very nourishing as you move away from the summer beachy vibes.

You can look at your new surroundings and inspiration, and feel warm and cozy inside, like you get from a crackling lit fireplace, but it’s still too warm outside for that!

5 Vata Season Body Shifts

1. Warm

In Vata season, we start preferring the warm drinks, but not the hot ones. We prefer warm drinks to start the day, and that gives our soul a small boost to enter the day with optimism.

In the shower, we may feel very relaxed with the therapeutic water pitter patter comfort of warmer water drops, but your skin could still be screaming for cooler jet streams because it’s still hot outside (and you’re part Pitta!).

2.Dry

Vata bodies also shift into their natural dry, wind-like features. Maybe your lips, lizard dry feet, or another part of your body feels the transitioning effects. Even though you may have felt the dry effects during the heated summer that’s another cause.

And Vata season, all around us we see proof as nature is withering into the season.

3. Tastes and smells

And we have certain flavors that we go to that give us seasonal joy. A good reminder for us is when we already know our preferences in food, tea, drinks, and spices. Because we can reach for those with little extra decision effort and maybe they’re on hand already.

But for a Vata who prefers variety and the preferences change daily, cinnamon and ginger does not. And those are good to lean into during Vata season.

Also, orange scented candles as in orange fruits, but could be orange color too. There are so many options in candles these days that I have to specify. 😊 Because pure orange citrus calms the nerves and that helps with Vatas who are feeling naturally anxious in their body when triggered, unlike Pittas and Kaphas who don’t understand.

4. Colors

The changing fall leaves help to inspire fall colors. Out in California where I have family and friends, to me it never feels like fall because the lack of deciduous trees with shedding leaves.

And I always feel “off” like something inside is missing even if I’m only there for a short visit and seeing the lovely evergreen palm trees and coastal vibes.

And my body calls for the changing landscapes of parks and cooler temperature vineyards.

5. Activities

Fall is a great transitional period to start a physical routine again like hiking, pickleball, or YOGA. That’s my favorite.

I’m back in classes and I’m gonna share with you my lessons old and new in the coming few weeks! It’s an anniversary for me as I started going to Hatha yoga classes regularly in the Vata season after I had my Ayurvedic epiphany. 🧘🏻‍♀️

And even if you’ve just left the happy-go-lucky and vacation summer days, and headed back to busy fall, find time to get your alone time in yoga or meditation wherever suits you best.

That will help you ease into the season, and ground and round out the rest of the year. And gear up for holiday time and a new year that’s getting closer.

And finally…

Get An Vata Season Empowered Reset

The change in season gives us a reason to reset.

We don’t really need a reason because every day is a new start, but a new season like Vata season is a good reminder.

So we can a start new project, have new goals, and a way to remember the same season last year.

Our body cells don’t forget. I learned this experientially in a yoga class when years ago I took a break and my muscles remembered.

And you can consciously activate your brain cells by going down memory lane.

What were you doing this same time last year? I’m sure there are areas that were 180 degrees in another direction when you check.

Maybe you moved or something in your work or relationship changed. You’ve made great strides, so you should pat yourself on the back for all your soft and recognized accomplishments.

You empower yourself with healthy thoughts.

Photos, journal entries, and other personal external things can conjure up happy memories and thoughts that bring nostalgia and joy as you go through the transition of the season.

Make some new routines. Maybe some end-of-year goals. Now is a good time so you can make impact on this year’s progress. Just a thought. 💭

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. 😊

Uncertainty Turned To Joy With Good Habits

Uncertainty can be made certain when you cook dishes you can’t mess up like shakshuka that always tastes great.

A food dish like Shakshuka helps with uncertainty because you're certain it will turn out no matter what it looks like. — Start your day with a healthy morning breakfast like this Shakshuka egg-tomato dish 🍳 And balancing Ayurvedic spices that you can use to help restore your imbalance. Recipe below. ⬇️

Most of life is uncertain. Some days we have some certainty over planned future events and in yesterday’s events.

But we have uncertainty about tomorrow and sometimes what will happen today.

And uncertainty can come with all sorts of flavors and emotions.

Some uncertain days are filled with excitement, so those are double bonus… and are often few and far between over routine days. But that gives us a buffer so we feel the good effects compared to the previous nothing-special happening days.

And on uneventful days, it’s good to be grateful for our own contentment good.

That will get rattled up eventually with the sudden news that changes the direction of our day and possible season.

The way to best handle every situation is to find your joy. And if there is none that a sad or stressful situation can bring, then shed the cleansing tears and find peace. No matter what.

…Because the situation will happen regardless of your misery or staying calm and happy. So why not lean into the healthy positive expressing feelings that your body will reward you for?

Plus, you make more sound decisions that way.

A decision can be as simple as whether to react or not react. Because whatever our actions are, especially when others are involved, there are consequences.

And my best advice for you in uncertainty is if you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything you could regret until you know what to do.

Then bringing this to your awareness, an answer follows at some point. It’s not an automatic response like a knowing that comes with practice and habits and then builds confidence the next time.

Trained professionals know what to do in their specialties, and you know what to do in yours, but not necessarily in theirs.

And when you take an action or make a reaction from a place of peace of wanting to give, then you know you’ve done your best.

So often we take action because someone else has projected the situation onto us and put the burden on our shoulders. It’s our modern protective job (since we’re not running from tigers) to evaluate objectively.

And not always jump on what is asked if the hoops are the wrong ones where we don’t set boundaries. And we end up resentful or bitter about what could have been handled differently.

Give yourself first the chance to think: What are the facts? What do you know about the entire situation that may have a history?

And if we can sleep on the idea over a night or two, then we see how we feel after we think or pray about the idea in peace and meditation which can be starkly different than the knee-jerk reaction. Time and rest allow for wisdom to enter instead of our worry-fear actions.

…Which BTW, this is a great life skill habit to learn and practice.

We’ve all had examples and some practice over the past few years. Our worlds were shaken by the disruptions of the global crises we all experienced on our planet from climate to pandemic.

This led to the greatest uncertainty that may end up being the most in our lifetime.

The toughest unique situations we each had to individually go through may still feel like open wounds. And those are maybe ones we don’t want to think about since we just went through them and are still processing.

BUT, the healthiest thing we can do is to not delay and think about the effects on us this year. We each had trauma of sorts and we want to prevent post-trauma effects that our mind-bodies will cling onto.

The trauma could have been the change in jobs, relationships, losses, lifestyle habits, and where you live, or all of the above. Or that you’re still in those situations. And the bottom line is: there was and is uncertainty.

Positive thoughts and vibes help with trauma and tough seasons.

And on top, there could be fresh wounds mounding on top of older ones.

All of that is part of the adult life. And when you’re super tested during difficult times to take on additional stressors, you can choose to feel like throwing in the towel… or you can look at the upside!

Your tough trials, situations, and setbacks get you ready for what’s on the other side. 🌈

So in the mud, find the hope vision. That could be as simple as recalling the thoughts that when you’re down, there’s nowhere to go but up.

And when you’re feeling Kapha tired, you plow through anyway… not because you feel like doing the work or task, but because you know you’ll feel better after you do. And you’re looking for that victorious after-burn feeling! 😎

It always gets better… and that’s not cliche if you’ve already lived to mid-life.

In the down, you become the resilient person that is needed to appreciate the pot of gold if you fight for your own victory that’s inevitable in your beliefs and if you don’t give up.

So today and every day, find a ray of hope and glimmer. ✨Borrow from nature that hums and runs 24-7 without pause on any part of the globe.

Where I was the year before the pandemic started, was working in close-knit quarters. I was at large-scale annual events where as many as 100,000 global members were invited. And I traveled internationally more frequently than non-existently.

Working in my local offices, I recall appreciating the time I had working remote for years prior in my early 30s. That also made adapting to 2020 life easier.

…Similarly, leaning into your positives in your situations can be your saving grace. Recalling your past that helped you in the tough times and today can make you feel that all will be well. And it will!

…It’s that same knowing from experience, that if you have a bad day, the next ones will be great.

Focus on those optimistic thoughts and look forward to your next steps.

Find your blessings amid uncertainty. Staying in joy is going to help you not lose precious years of productivity.

Maybe look at life as a learning opportunity?

Each year comes with different situations and dreams. And you want to keep your head high and ride the cloud through the stormy and silver linings as though every opportunity is a joy to learn something.

And when you look down, you notice that the ground below you offers a chance to jump on a new landed opportunity and experience.

Make this year a triumph in how you see life and learning… and maybe someone you know needed to hear this that you can pass this on to, especially since we just passed Mental Health Awareness month that’s now part of our every month.

You’re never alone. And life is on your side. 🎉

And one thing you can control is keeping your joy and restoring your balance preferences with your spices.

Shakshuka

You can restore your Vata, Pitta, and Kapha balance with Shakshuka

Course Breakfast

Cuisine lebanese

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

eggs
tomato sauce
coriander or cumin (cooling)- Pitta restoring
red pepper (heating) - Kapha restoring
oregano and tarragon - Vata restoring
olive oil

Instructions

Add your tomato sauce and EVOO and leave 3 dips to add your eggs. Cook until sauce is thickened about 10 minutes. Add the spices you want using your nose as to which you want to add. Your preferences will change because your nose knows to balance your Ayurvedic dosha that needs balancing related to your moods (e.g. tired, anger, anxious).
Bake dish at 350°F/180° C with spices about another 10 minutes.
Add spinach that will wilt.