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Happy Gut For a Happier Life

Happy gut is something that makes for your healthier and happy life!

Sourdough is one way to get a happy gut and this is how you make can make it so easily at home.

Sourdough is one way to take measures to get a happy gut. And making sourdough is a great experience to learn about fermented foods. In the process, you see how easily bacteria is created.

If you’ve never tried making sourdough, it’s much easier than it sounds. Actually… it’s so easy in steps, that it fits on the small infographic I created (here on my blog).

A happy gut= happy life. There’s a gut – life connection. Over 90% of the happy hormone (serotonin) is made  in the gut. So if you have a less-than-balanced gut, then the happy balance in moods and how you feel can run off (or need some restoration).

Our bodies are fascinating and even more interesting is all the nutrition and body science accumulated knowledge. It changes as fast as tech I know, having worked in both fields for years.

We’ll never know everything about our evolving bodies and as our bodies change with the society we’re living in. And those changes get passed down. Like newly prescribed antibodies that some of us are getting.

And in this article, you’ll learn some encouragement to evolve your healthy and happy gut with a few tweaks…

For one, if you want to calm your gut, try fermented foods like the sourdough mentioned, or sauerkraut.

And fermented beverages like kombucha.

Fermenting is an add-on new-old process that makes life smooth. We already established a happy gut is a happy life. 😊

And prebiotic fibers will feed the good bacteria. Foods such as asparagus are abundant in spring. And garlic and onions peak… (see these ones peeking out here 🧅).

Probiotic healthy bacteria will encourage more good bacteria. You can prevent leaky gut, dysbiosis, SIBO, and IBS that you hear more about in young and older people.

Good bacteria are kinda like the positive, loving thoughts we want to crowd out the negative, sour ones in our minds.

That’s the deeper gut-mind connection.

Anything can invade our bodies at any time. We live in a modern petri dish society. And if you ever take a round of antibiotics that most of us in this life have, probiotic supplements plus spoonfuls of low-sugar yogurts with bacteria strains are always recommended. 💊

Because antibiotics destroy the gut microbiome, changing the happy gut flora.

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 when we need to restore the healthy flora especially until things clear up.

When things go back to normal (and a new normal as our bodies are changing daily), then maintaining a regular gut tuneup lifestyle habit helps.

…And especially since most of us don’t just eat organic foods.  A lot of the modern healthy foods we eat today are sprayed with toxins in the process.

Prebiotic and probiotic foods like sourdough help with preventative tune-ups.

You may notice your gut doesn’t feel the same as usual. And the sign is that you feel a sore spot or dull ache discomfort. That’s stress on you and to the body.

Our bodies naturally clean and detox during sleep, but sometimes our stress and wear and tear outweigh our body’s defenses.

What you eat and what you don’t eat matters, and can change everything in healing the gut.

In my own healthy lifestyle journey, I found anti-inflammatory foods matter. They help to restore balance and they’re known to prevent certain common chronic diseases. You can find them in many beverages, spices, and foods when you look around. Many of them are eat from the rainbow foods with colorful polyphenols.

Staying sensitive to sensations in the body is a healthy choice.

…I found the best way to do this is to document or write down what you’re feeling with a dated entry. And that way, you can refer back to factually what has happened, and not just what you think happened.

Another effective way is to take photos to document what has happened in the process. You can show the medical practitioner (if needed) what your situation looked like besides the patient snapshot they see in front of them.

Like this antioxidant-full butterfly 🦋 tea drink… that gradually changes even though it’s still the same drink.

If you keep a daily happy gut, you live comfortably and enjoy and fulfill more each day. That’s something to look forward to! ✨

You can also start your day with a happy prebiotic oat meal with a pear granola crumble you can substitute with apples that’s a divine pairing with cinnamon. Use Ceylon cinnamon for additional anti-inflammatory benefits. 🧡

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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.

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New Spring Manifestations, Goals, and Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe

New spring seasons are a time to celebrate growth. It’s when we see the birthing nature buds. 🌱 It’s also a new spring reminder of our year… a time of personal growth renewal, another chance to decide on goals, and a possible new direction change from a less active winter or Kapha season.

New spring means new growth, recipes, and a good opportunity to bake a carrot cake.
Gluten-free, moist carrot cake with natural sweetness is the perfect anti-inflammatory dessert for Easter that spring revolves around. Recipe below 🥕

…And maybe that’s why spring is so often associated with spring cleaning or a spring makeover…And a fresh coat of green.

And with a new spring, there’s usually a lot of unpredictable, plus an up-and-down roller coaster winter weather season. Some things haven’t yet bloomed in our lives.

But one thing is for certain… we’re one season more mature by nature’s design. We get to be a year wiser. We don’t have to look out the same lens as last year. And that can make all the difference.

This welcomed change is especially great if, well… a year ago wasn’t so great.

And looking back 3 years, frozen in time we came together as a world when we started a new normal.

In my own reflection, the wheels underneath me were turning where I left positions that no longer served me. And that springboarded completely different seasons with new work, some that I still do today.

The fresh starts kept me productive. That’s where growth is and was highest, when I was most sensitive to new surroundings, new people, and there’s a steep climb learning curve.

You step out of your comfort zone. There’s excitement and nervousness with new beginnings. It’s the butterfly coming out of the chrysalis. 🦋

And in exchange for uncertainty, each day is an opportunity for bright possibilities and step-up manifestations.

…One day can pivot into a new direction. And each step brings more clarity and moves us closer to what our life’s purpose is about even if we can’t see it in the process or even today.

If nothing else, we all did and saw life differently just a few years ago.

And today, by focusing on learnings (and not dwelling on what didn’t work), you set yourself up for success. A winning mindset sees the positive and flips the script to help propel forward.

You may be embarking on, inching toward, or considering starting something new in your life. That’ll help you move one step closer to where you’ll be next.

When I left my corporate work in 2019 I didn’t know what the next steps would be. I had no plans in place. But the writing on the wall was clear.

And it wasn’t having a writing career.😊

I just knew I had no business being in the space I was occupying anymore. And after-hours one day, I heard a distinct whisper in my corner of the office that stuck with me: “you will not get this time back.”

My first reaction was, “oh no, not again” as I was just starting to get used to the new people, systems, and work projects I was around. And the hoopla of all-hands-on-deck Convention Center events.

The constant wouldn’t be those temporary experiences, but the life I had outside… The life I built and the friends I’d known forever are still my friends. 

When we connect, we just pick up where we left off. It’s like a comfy pair of shoes that always fits and you still love ‘em.

That’s probably how it is for you in your life.

And then the new friends made were about shared similar interests. Being worlds apart made for interesting connections. Just a couple decades ago, that wouldn’t have been easily possible.

So we’re growing one way or another. We’re mixing the new with the old as we’re blending in-person with digital. And that helps us evolve. And it helps us bridge the life and identity transitions.

In my own transition, I was a mentor in the corporate space when my daily work in the corporate trenches had ended.

And that’s when new work took up residence and writing became the daily …every day I showed up to the keyboard and started typing. I didn’t realize how much I had to say and all the lessons I had accumulated to share with those who may want some answers in the same areas.

I was making a cup of tea when I burned my finger on the tea kettle and that became my first published article. How random!

Random finger blister burn that started my writing practice. 🫖

And that’s how life miracles and blessings are. You can start something big in your life just from a simple occurrence in your day. And then you work in and manifest what happens next.

And today since I’m sharing about this particular new spring season, it’s a great time if you need a nudge or poke 😊, to find a new purposeful feeling in your life.

Maybe that’s from taking a hike,yoga classes, trips abroad. Or time off to journal. The world is at our fingertips.

And when you can get relaxed and find space to explore a new side of you that you never did before, that creates new openings.

..And you discover you actually are creative (as nature intended)! If you want to know how to create consistently daily, I wrote an article about that just for your encouragement.

…My daily writing and creativity would’ve never started, had I stayed in my corporate career. 

So if today you’re feeling a bit stuck… take some time to see what you’d be interested in doing that makes you feel alive… that’s not a one-and-done experience. It’s something you can build on.

Get mind-body space to take it in. Maybe a ‘lil yoga? 

Another example I had was in 2020, when I started baking that spring in lockdown. It started with simple scones baking like this  orange scone recipe.

orange scone

… And then my baking never stopped. Baking was never on my list of want-to-do weekly projects.

It seemed like work that went against my healthy values. But I found ways to look at it differently and do things my way.

So that’s how your amazing crafts can be. You put your stamp on how and what you do. And yes, they can be found in this new spring season!

Start by carving out a ‘lil time to explore. Get a new spring in your step. And let that lead you into a new spring. Maybe this carrot cake will inspire your creativity and help balance your Ayurvedic Vata-Kapha transitions. 
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Healthy Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Recipe

This recipe is for an individual carrot cake, but for a one pan/layer cake multiply by 3, and for a two layer cake, multiply by 6.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • syrup for glaze

Instructions

  • Mix dry and wet ingredients. The coconut flour will absorb the milk more than a gluten flour. You will end up with a batter that looks like creamy mashed potatoes (instead of a more liquid batter).
  • Bake at 350°F/180°C for at least 45 minutes depending on size of your baking vessel and amount of liquid. This recipe could be baked in a variety of baking pans: e.g. deep dish glass pan, oven-safe ceramic pan, or a bundt pan. When a toothpick comes out clean, then the cake is done.
  • Add a glaze. Zhugh with nuts and mandarin oranges (optional).

 

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Here’s Why Your Healthy Smile Matters

 

Homemade cold brew with plant-based milks for a healthy coffee smile 🦷

When you have a healthy smile, you gain confidence. I didn’t realize how much of an effect it has on a person until the first time I got my teeth whitened.

The next day others around me scratched their heads noticing something different about the way I looked, but couldn’t pinpoint what changed. That’s what healthy looking teeth can do, AND then you want to keep it up!

Looking back, one thing I’m grateful for is I have stayed relatively consistent looking over the years. For me, I KNOW how you look on the outside is not as important as the inside.

But what’s on the outside often reflects what’s going on inside… similar to the mind-body connection, in its bi-directional healthy signaling that radiates in and through our Beings.

And in my being and doing life’s journey, I’ve done a lot of blogging on blogs (like this one)… typing enough published words to cover the country if miles were measured in words 😉

One interesting place I blogged at was at a dentist’s office. It was meant to be. Personally, I would rather visit a dentist over the hospital any day, but that’s diff’rent for each person.

And in those health research days sitting in an office just a few feet away from dental chairs, I was constantly reminded that preventative dental care is how to keep your teeth healthy plus save a ton of money. And especially if going to the dentist does not bring up good memories or at least a neutral feeling.

Plus, when we pay the dental bills, we know that any reparative dental work can be off-the-charts, breaking any smart budget planning. Dipping into rainy-day funds can be harder than a consistent daily maintenance alternative.

…And an encouraging reminder like this can be a new wake-up call to healthy teeth habits again.

Especially if any have slid off the radar or you picked up a new food or beverage habit that you didn’t think twice about… where even a healthy addition like apple cider vinegar for food-as-medicine does daily damage to teeth enamel… esp. if teeth care is second fiddle in our healthy body thoughts.

Being mindful of a healthy smile makes you feel good. When I was at the dentist working and as an inquisitive patient, I learned that healthy choppers go hand-in-hand with healthy nutrition. It’s not just about avoiding cavities that I learned as a child.

Today we know there’s a teeth-gut connection. Foods impact us from the moment they enter our mouths. Like our bones, our porcelain teeth thrive off calcium and Vit-D.

It’s smart to keep a lot of healthy foods containing minerals and probiotics like teeth superfood, Greek yogurt.

Here are some other examples 😊

Wild salmon rich in Omega-3s, Vitamin D, and fiber-rich anti-inflammatory asparagus and anti-bacterial onion (alliums) are good for our health, gut, and teeth.

Anti-inflammatory foods are good for teeth and your healthy smile. They stave off bacteria that can bleed into gums.

And gum infections are body inflammations similar to other chronic inflammations that can lead to chronic diseases. That’s why flossing daily can add years to your life, and is probably more impactful than even adding weekly calcium/Vitamin-D-rich longevity beans and lentils. 🫘

And, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is good for our body and applies to our teeth because apples help clean teeth, especially when a toothbrush isn’t convenient. Apple pectin is an anti-bacterial fiber that helps flush out toxins starting in the mouth.

And so if it’s a “bad” food that’s not helping your body out, it’s probably hurting your teeth too. Sugar is a perfect example.

In my younger days, I was a bad example being a kid loving the candy shop.  You get a grace period before your baby teeth fall out. But then good habits save you no matter what age. And this is for most of us.

…I mean, couldn’t Halloween just be a fun costume day without the candy?

Anyway…

We have a say in the matter and a chance to change those ways as we grow up.

Even as a Vata, I grew up knowing I had a natural sweet tooth. And I realized not all of us do. It’s definitely a choice though, and when you change your ways and your reasons WHY you change, you can get back to the healthy ways that nature intended.

As someone who bakes weekly today, cutting out all sweets could be robbing joy and celebration good for mind health. So the sweet spot for me and maybe others like me, is sweet moderation and mostly sweet natural sources.

…As with everything else healthy and happy in life, it always comes back to the balance. ⚖️

Consider a ball attached to an elastic string that you wrap around a finger that comes back every time enjoyably and effortlessly. That’s the optimal balance effect.

…Compare that to a yo-yo ball that takes practice to master… or else it just leaves a trail of string that takes work to wrap back into the yo-yo.

Finding your right ball and rhythm and letting healthy balance be easy and fun is a life game-changer. 🧶

So you can get it done by building easy habits and habit stacking.

Because once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to continue doing the better way… until something better comes along.

And in awareness, you have a chance to think twice about going back to old ways.

We especially want a healthy inside to reflect on the outside so we stay sensitive to changes in us and outside of us.

Our healthy bodies are good at signaling to us. But when something gets off-balance, it’s to our benefit and our healthy job to stay aware using good judgment. Even when our cues or how we feel is off.

Often our hormones can drive the bus in our behaviors, but we don’t have to accept that as the only way or the new normal. No way!

…Just like we don’t have to accept anything but a healthy smile, no matter what our genes provided. Taking care of your teeth is something to smile about. 😃

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Balance Yoga Poses For Longevity and Core

Balance is at the core of ballet and impressive yoga poses. And we all need balance in our core.

Because when we grow older, our muscles and bones weaken and the more core stability we have, the less likely we’ll fall and the stronger we are.

When I was in my early 30s, I sprained my ankle on one foot and that led me to get a bone scan. I learned my ankle was healing but my bones were aging (and that happens to all of us).

Before then, I didn’t catch onto the thinning bones effect, especially common with natural Vatas. And none of us know what we don’t know… and back then, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

So from that point on, I started taking more calcium. I added back the plant-based milk sources and selective dairy choices to my diet.

Just so you know what decade that was, soy was the up-and-comer. And seeds weren’t popular add-ons back then, but Chia-pet plants were 😉

Chia seeds today are everywhere and also are a good calcium source.

And you can make your own chia seed jam if you’re looking for easy (but effective) creative food inspo…  especially if Overnight Oats is not your favorite jam and you want to find other ways to add in your chia.

Most commercial or grocery store jams have added sugar when natural fruit juices are all you need to enjoy:

And since most of us don’t eat off the foraging land like our ancestors did, it’s a smart move to continue to look at packaged ingredient lists regularly as formulas change (and even when the carton or outside appears to be the same as the one you ordered last time).

…Next time could be slightly different and missing the nutrients your body especially needs. Or the reason why you added those foods to your list.

So taking those extra seconds to glance at the nutritional profile is smart.

Our bodies thrive on nutrient balance and synergy. Examples: calcium complements magnesium…  or all the B-vitamins work together.

…Pretty amazing how our bodies run if you think about it. We often don’t when it’s running optimally. So lifestyle prevention and protection are easy compared to the alternatives.

And living balanced is moving in the right direction.

When you start a balance (in everything) practice early on in your life that your body sings to in harmony, then your body adopts to those healthy habits.

One day can creep up on you, so you want to be protected to some degree. Plus, yoga balance is such a good metaphor for finding purposeful balance in our lives where our joy is.

One easy move you can practice is getting up from the floor in one fell swoop. In Japan’s Blue Zones (with the longest living people on the planet), they do this proudly as Centenarians.

…You could start with something as simple as that. We started as children sitting Indian-style in our classrooms, and we can use our youth as inspiration.

Also, an easier, no-struggle way if you can’t do it without hands is to take your closed fists and knuckles faced down to the floor, and push straight up. Using other parts of your body as tools does a body good!

And then when you’ve peeled yourself off the floor, then you can work on your balance yoga poses.

Four great ones that are top of mind are: Tree, Dancer, Warrior 3, and Bird of Paradise. They all are standing poses and have balancing on one foot in common so they help improve your balance. You can add a centering meditation move in between if you try them all.

You can hurt yourself in yoga just like with exercises so be careful. In yoga, your body weight are your weights for your balance exercises.

Tree pose is the easiest to start with and if you want to be a bit more advanced, add prayer hands behind your back and bend backward a little like a swaying palm. This helps your equilibrium from your core..

We spend most of our day hunched forward in some way reaching for things or typing on the computer. It does your body good when you reverse your posture from inner to outer, and from down to up.

One balance trick to work on is developing your leg and quad muscle strength (that are part of your largest muscle groups). You can do that pretty quickly in a regular Chair pose. Not in your chair but with the invisible chair where you are the chair. If that’s too hard to do, you can use a wall to rest back on.

So then when you think you have Tree pose down (and up!), Dancer pose is another great balance practice. With Dancer, you may find one side is stronger or less wobbly than the other.

…When you fully tilt forward into your Dancer pose, you get a good head-to-toe stretch. And if that doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will. 😊

For me, Dancer is a joy pose (…and maybe you too). A good day outlook could be the metaphor and mantra to strive for if you’re trying to make healthy changes in areas of your life.

From Dancer, you can easily flow into Warrior 3 (or you can go through the traditional Warrior 1, 2, 3 yoga pose sequence). I included this in my 100 Best Yoga Poses that I can’t believe I wrote around Easter a year ago!

Most things in this Life change, but gratefully yoga stays constant!

In Warrior 3, your neck is aligned with your back, so you’re looking slightly down and both arms are aimed parallel straight ahead, like you’re on a mission forward. …maybe you are? 

Warrior 3 can represent a determined, protective strength pose that can be a good metaphor for warding off unproductive moods that don’t serve you.

And finally, if you really want to get your better balance practice-on, Bird of Paradise (B.O.P.) is a fun bird pose. Getting into the pose is like playing a game… and you’re the object.

If you’ve never tried (or it has been a while), I recommend B.O.P. in an open space as it’s a ‘lil more involved than some of the other poses. You want to feel free (to fly, lol).

When you’re standing up and your shoulder is underneath the same side leg, then clasp your hands together. From there, you have better control on your placements and can get into your showy Bird of Paradise that you fancy.

You can also use Bird of Paradise 🦩as a fun assessment of what areas of your beloved body need a ‘lil more TLC handle 😘 …but not love handles.

Or sometimes you can stumble on your imbalances and what life is trying to show you (like my sprained ankle that served as the canary in the coal mine).

Sometimes you can feel your joints and maybe hear a few snaps the first few times. Those will smooth out and you can stretch even more.

Yoga is I think the BEST and easiest way to open up the tightness and bring us back to balance (that again we need especially as we age).

So glad our modern, Western world has caught on… and in looking up and out, keep on keepin’ on! 🌱

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Silver Linings Joy + Sourdough Brioche

Silver linings is where you can find your joy. This blog article is all about that.  You may remember the Silver Linings Playbook movie that came out after Julie and Julia that not only happened around my first blog and inspired this blog and this cranberry sourdough recipe. Sourdough and tart cranberries are a divine pairing.

Dreamy tart sourdough brioche inspired dessert is the new pound cake. The sour tart fermented cranberry taste is good for Vatas! 🧘🏻‍♀️

And nothing better than cake bread (aka brioche) that gives you the best of both worlds. This one is inspired by a Baking with Julia cookbook. Sourdough can be added to breads, pancakes, and any bakes. It can be sweet and not just sour.

 

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sourdough cranberry brioche.
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Sourdough Cranberry Brioche (Bread or Cake)

Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • Sourdough starter
  • Frozen or fresh cranberries
  • Baking powder and baking soda for cake

Instructions

  • For bread, you can use the proofed starter as the leavening agent. For cake add baking powder and baking soda (or an acid like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar). These are for easy weekend bread cake that you can enjoy.
  • Add sourdough starter to flour of choice (all purpose flour works best but for healthy you can use gluten-free flour, almond flour, and/or a mix of flours).
  • Add fresh or drained frozen cranberries.
  • Add additional flavors such as nuts, bananas, chocolate chip swirl if you desire. Think of the flavors you like to add to pancakes. Blueberries would be healthy divine too!
  • Bake as you would for golden brown cakey-bread.

And if your current situation or circumstances aren’t ideal, or you’re not at a point in your life to feel happy (or may apply to someone you know), you can still confidently get daily joy that is better than happiness…

Because joy is constant and reliable. Happiness is not. It’s black and white.

Joy is guaranteed when you know what lens to look out from. It’s about YOU and your self-development.

And relying on joy can help you wean away from happiness that we learned at a young age to strive for. Back then, even all the board games like Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and the Game of Life were setups for winning as happiness. When someone wins, another loses.

Those myths hurt the development of our lives. I know before I had work-life balance I could not find the joy.

 The problem with continuing to believe happiness is dependent on outcomes and situations is that when there is a let-down disappointment, our ego is crushed. And that can create sadness and a roller coaster of emotions.

That’s where joy and happiness can be at extreme odds…

They’re not interchangeable emotions. They have completely different meanings. And for children, joy is not yet a concept that can be grasped.

Having experienced both sides of the coin, I know Happiness is fickle. It’s a feeling that’s as reliable as the wind. The ego in any of us can trick and spin the truth to make us believe what we think we want that’s not the best for us.

The problem isn’t the once-in-a-while ego meter going up, it’s the person who’s drowning in egoism who never looked in the mirror to see who they became. And that hurts them the most.

They’re lonely and sad under the hood, and bitter about certain topics because they didn’t take the effort to self-develop and be self-aware. They don’t see what the world sees about them that hurts relationships. It’s an individual choice to live an abundant life or a limiting one.

And when the ego is running healthy, it keeps us fully living, productive and protects us a little from getting hurt in the world.

Getting your what-is-true barometer on is healthy.

And as part of being true, that’s how I learned happiness feelings never last. It’s always temporary…

Yesterday’s memories fade. Tomorrow always has some uncertainty for all of us. So then what’s left is today.

What we do today is all that matters. If we focus on the past, that builds up our unhealthy ego where the pain is.  A book I always recommend on this is The Power of Now (by Eckart Tolle).

Staying past or future-focused can egg on our unhealthy ego especially if it lands in our selfish behaviors that end up hurting other people.

So when you look at the flip side and the good easter egg side of things of today, then you’re on the better JOY track. The feelings of Easter celebration can be lived out daily, year-round! 🐣

Sometimes it takes external happenings and stimuli… to light up any one of our 5 senses… to get the internal sommersault mind-body feelings… to then turn the salty tide in our day or weekend… but that’s all healthy compared to the alternative.

Then when you’re back to your healthy self, you have the opportunity to catch on in observation and awareness to how joy works for you…

Another way is to mindfully focus on the silver linings of your situation. A positive outlook can get you through quicker. And through is the fastest way.

Letting go of how things will shake out is letting go of the ego that wants to be in control of everything good and bad. I know from experience because that was one of the lessons that took me the longest to learn. And I’m glad I went through.

I did so with time. Gradually, I could see why what I wanted initially for some things got re-routed and turned out better in the end and on the other side of the process.

You don’t usually see it right away, but give it enough time, years, and decades, and it’ll become apparent. 🌈

That’s where wisdom is that outwits ego and what looks good on the outside.

In wisdom, if you’ve ever been shielded from a situation only to learn that had you been part of it, your life would have been impacted and lessened, then those gratitude moments in the silver linings can help you to see that life is on your side… and has been all along.

Believe that doors shut are silver linings for a better future you can’t see today. It’s easier if you believe that what happens is meant to be. And find out how you can use your current situations (and not the someday dreams) to be healthy, improve yourself, and do good in the world.

Not dwelling on self-pity avoids letting the ego have a field day with negative thoughts. It works the same with gossip…

Gossip is the optimized ego doing the negative talking. So if you want to practice quieting the ego, step out of those partisan conversations to quiet the mind.

And if you practice more daily joy and gratitude instead, then you can better discover the healthy ways. Sounds pretty easy, but most people (…maybe besides you and me 😊), don’t try to help themselves and their day because it requires change.

…But for anyone who’s trying and wanting to know how to (and maybe desperately) get more joy, they could start with asking: what brings simple joy to me, like a simple but effective cup of tea or a nature walk? That’s easy stuff.

And then in joy overflow (or tea in hand 🍵) gradually move towards reflecting on what their (or your) life is becoming as a subtle reflection of who they (or you) are becoming.

It takes seeing how the fruit in their life is growing today (and not living off the memories of the past).

The daily fruits are ones we can measure and witness. And we can help grow these from the internal fruits of the spirit or fruits of growing character that we’ve gathered.

“Character is power.” -Booker T. Washington

And anytime someone feels stuck, they can always open up to the miraculous Universe that’s always ready to listen, unlike our human being species. And reaching higher out can help build internal fruit to produce more external fruit. 🪐

Know What Brings You Joy and Calm

So when you know how to activate the skill of daily joy feelings without fail, that’s something you can pull out of your back pocket anytime you need to for instant day improvement.

When I have joy I know because I sing along with songs playing 🎶or else I listen to certain songs to create the joy. Or I’m in Dancer yoga pose.

Which btw, if you’re feeling joy, you’re also feeling calm.

Calm lets you be present enough to find joy.

The opposite is worry or anxiety, anger, or even excited nervousness.

Calming down first and not being preoccupied with emotional turbulence allows you to tap into your joy which takes mindfulness and active present state participation.

Hearing the sweet sounds of your surroundings, such as birds chirping, palm trees swaying, and soft ocean breezes could be indicators of your present state (and part of the silver linings in earthly living).

For someone who doesn’t have calm and inner peace, the external sounds of constant dogs barking, babies crying, or motorcycles roaring, can be disturbing and perceived as extra loud. For someone who’s in a state of peace, those sounds represent life and are less affected. Just something to consider. And when you have your calm that can help produce more joy.

…And that’s what I had to share this week. But I didn’t want to leave you on a sour note♩…  I baked sweet pancakes with tart cranberries 😊.

Btw, if you want to see more of my healthy food photos and created daily inspirational images, you can always follow me on my Pinterest channel.

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