Klaudia Mitura
Hello Happiness Seekers
My name is Klaudia and you are listening to The Happiness Challenge.
This episode is part of the Happiness Reset Campaign where I bring you 25 bitesize episodes to inspire you to refocus on your happiness and fulfilment.
In each short episode I bring you one practical hack to create more happiness at work, in relationships and in your own skin.
Follow me on Linkedin and join my newsletter to share what hacks you are finding useful and to get free tickets to a webinar on the science of happiness that I will be hosting in February.
This happiness hack is all about setting an intention in the morning of you how you want to feel.
This hack comes from shift therapy; which shows that we can influence our mood and emotions by taking a pause to imagine emotions and sensations that we want to feel.
So what do we know about our emotions?
We know that any strong emotion causing physiological reactions in your body lasts approximately 90 seconds in its original intensity. Taking a breath is so effective because it allows you to pause, pay attention to your experience and let the emotion pass.
This creates a space between your emotions and the next action you are going to take.
Now shift therapy says that once you have mindfully created that pause, shifting encourages you to imagine emotions that you want to feel instead.
And even more, by setting an intention in the morning of how we want to feel throughout the day, we create an anchor, a reminder for our brain to come back to.
This practice of pausing, noticing and shifting our emotions, lower our stress levels and so improves our overall health and wellbeing.
So how can you apply this happiness hack?
In the morning before getting out of bed, spend a couple of minutes setting an intention of how you want to feel during the day.
The first step is to engage in a mindful break during which you take a pause and bring your mind to the present moment by concentrating on your breath, sensations in your body or sounds around you.
Then you engage in shifting by visualising the emotion you would like to experience. This could be achieved by recalling a situation in which you have felt the desirable emotion or imagining how this emotion tends to feel in your body and mind.
I hope that this two minute morning pause of shifting will help you to start your day on happiness.
Thank you for listening to the Happiness Reset Campaign, I hope this happiness hack is useful and impactful. If you would like to learn more from an expert about shift therapy, listen to episode 66: Shift your mood on demand with Dr. Sean Sullivan
I would love you to share this episode with others and subscribe to my podcast and newsletter so you don't miss out on any future hacks. Thank you again for listening and I dare you to be happy. Bye
