What is the key to being happy?

This Friday, 20th March, is the third International Day of Happiness! The International Day of Happiness was originally created by the United Nations, with the intention of recognising the relevance of happiness and wellbeing as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world, and highlighting their importance within public policy objectives. I truly love that happiness and wellbeing is being recognised so broadly, and that how we feel is being taken into account, alongside what we do and have. 

To celebrate this week in the run up to the International day of Happiness, I created a free 5 Day Happiness Plan which we have been sharing through optimallyou. Today is Day 2, and we are focusing on move! I suggested that everybody take just ten minutes out of their day today to get moving, and to share with us what they had been getting up to. I wanted to share my move with you too! 

This morning I went to boxing, which I am absolutely loving. This is one of my new years resolutions - to learn a new skill - and it is still going strong! I am loving seeing myself make progress and have really noticed how much my reactions have improved across the past few months. My technique is much better now and it is such a good workout! Boxing is really different from my usual workouts and I definitely notice the difference in mentality compared with my running. When I run my mind is open and I my thoughts can run wild - I have some of my best ideas when running and sometimes have to stop to make a note of them in my phone. There is no way that would happen when I'm boxing! Boxing requires so much focus and concentration. Focus but not thinking at the same time. As soon as my mind wanders I get knocked out. Not really, but the potential is there! 

I ran tonight too, so it was interesting to notice the comparisons in the same day. I ran with Tyne Bridge Harriers and one of my personal training clients, Sophie, and we did a pyramid training system which involved a mile of jogging to warm up, followed by 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 minutes of running, each with half the time ran as recovery, and then a mile of jogging to cool down. This was so much fun! I have ran for a lot of years and have never ran like this. I really enjoyed it, and it was great to run in a group. 

Everyone at Tyne Bridge is lovely, and there were a few familiar faces from parkrun. I think it is always nice to get out and train with other people, as it helps to motivate you, and you experience so much positivity from the social interaction as well. This is an actual fact, and when I researched running as a positive intervention, it was the combination of the physical activity and social interaction that created such a powerful impact on wellbeing and flourishing. Working out makes you happy! 

I hope that you can all incorporate some move into this week and that you enjoy getting on board with the positive focus on leading a happy life that the International Day of Happiness has helped to create. I will be offering more happiness tips in Day 3 of your happiness plan, and the optimallyou vlog tomorrow. 

If you would like a copy of your 5 Day Happiness Plan then just get in touch, or leave your email on our website at www.optimallyou.com

Have a fab week! 

With Gratitude, 

Niyc xx

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Letting Go To Feel Good!

Letting go is often something that can be thought of as being painful to experience. It can be associated with loss, and with hurt and with anguish, and can be perceived as being negative, and of leaving a gap in your life. 

Letting go might resonate with you in many different ways - letting go of a loved one that you have lost, letting go of a relationship that is no longer healthy, letting go of a friendship that is past its best, or letting go of a pet that you can no longer give the best home to. It might be letting go of your favourite clothes or pair of shoes that you have been clinging on to but never wear, letting go of a business idea that just doesn't seem to work, or letting go of a home, or a job, that you have grown to love. 

What if we think of letting go from a different perspective? 

What if letting go is actually a good thing - something that allows us to let go, in fact, of the pain we feel, instead of leading us to feel pain as the end result. 

What if we look at letting go as a positive process that is releasing us from things that no longer serve our best path and highest self?

I like to think of letting go, as prone to sadness or resistance as it may sometimes be, as something that is making way for better things. 

In every life experience there is a lesson for us to learn, a lesson that can provide purpose, direction, and motivation, for us to continue on and do great things. 

What can you choose to let go of this week to allow more positive things to enter your life?

Are you holding on to any stresses or worries that you will do well to release yourself from?

"Worrying pretends to be necessary, but serves no useful purpose."

You may be presented with situation where you decide to let go on a small scale, or on a larger scale, and your mindset and perspective when working through this can determine the impact and outcome of what you learn and feel. 

Letting go of things can actually be incredibly empowering, as we release our attachments to a particular outcome or object, and allow ourselves to become open to the possibilities and opportunities that surround us. 

By letting go - and sometimes by being forced to let go - I notice that I have experienced increased connection and development of new relationships and solidifying of existing ones, more freedom and a sense of inspiration and motivation for the future, and a sense of alignment with what is meant to be, and what is best for me. 

Think about the lesson in what you have experienced. Look for the positives that can come out of a negative situation. Notice the opportunities that lie ahead. 

Letting go might simply mean that you stop worrying about something and let go of the outcome, leaving you to feel light and free. 

Sometimes it is our negative mindset, thoughts, and perspective that we are in need of letting go of, and sometimes this key element can be the hardest to crack. 

Ill be talking more about negative thoughts and how to release yourself and let go, in my new video blog which will be coming up tomorrow. Keep an eye on the optimallyou YouTube channel where this vlog will be released, and subscribe to the channel to be the first to see :) 

In the meantime have a wonderful week!

With Gratitude, 

Niyc 

xx

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Remember Your Why

I went out to dinner with the girls this evening, for an early meal after everybody finished work, at 6:30pm. I figured I would be home by 8pm, so that I could write a blog post here, and then get an early night before my usual 5am start tomorrow. Our food took over an hour to arrive though, and one of the girls almost didn't get her meal at all, and so I arrived home at 9:15pm. I found myself moaning to the girls at the end of our evening, telling them that I have an hour of work to do when I get home, and that I have a 5am start tomorrow. The car journey home involved me weighing up the relative benefits of writing this blog post versus not writing it. Will I feel better if I just don't write, and I go to bed instead? Possibly. But what about my commitment to write something every day, and to blog every week?

This made me think. Who did I make that commitment to? Myself. Who am I letting down if I don't write? Myself. Who creates the pressure in the first place? Who makes the rules? Me. It made me think about why it matters if I do, or don't do something that I set out to do, if the only person that has created the standard and the pressure is myself. Then I realised that I needed to stop looking at WHAT I had to do, and instead think about the WHY. 

Why do I blog every week? Why is it important to show up and do what I say I am going to do? I guess that showing up and following through with my commitments are part of my values, something that is important to me. I also choose to remind myself that I love to write, and that writing is a creative expression of my ideas, thoughts, and feelings, even if it does end up as a late night post on a different topic to the one that I initially planned. 

I do what I do because I love it. Because it makes me happy, and hopefully somewhere along the line it makes some other people happy too. I'm going to wind up my night tonight thinking about some of the great things that I have done in the past week - things that I've done because I've wanted to do them. I've worked with fourteen personal training clients, and almost the same amount of coaching clients. I have delivered a corporate health and wellness talk, done a course walk around for the new Rising Sun parkrun event I am creating, and ran a successful Power Hour event, as well as leading two bootcamps, and recording the new optimallyou vlog. All of these things I have enjoyed so much, and have allowed me to make progress with my mission to serve others and spread happiness, by living my passion, and showing up for what I love. 

I always like to look for the lesson in a situation. Tonight I felt resistance, and that prompted me to explore and process what I was really feeling. Looking for the lesson made me remember my why. I mentioned the power of remembering your why in a previous blog post about exercise motivation, and I found myself shouting it at one of my bootcamps last week too - "remember why you're here, remember why you showed up, why you exercise, why it is important to you". Tonight it deserved an entire blog post. 

For the week ahead I intend to remember my why. I'll be looking forward to another Power Hour event this week, in Alnwick, and will be collaborating on our new Thrive Live event which is coming up in a few weeks time too. I'll be enjoying what I do, and resisting the urge to feel pressure attached to doing it. I will remember that in working for myself and pursuing my chosen path, that I always have a choice. I am choosing to do the work that I love and can be grateful to be afforded the opportunity to do so. 

Take the pressure off yourself this week, and choose to remember your why too. 

With Gratitude, 

Niyc xx

Facebook optimallyou
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