Live Happy

"Make yourself so happy that when others look at you they become happy too. "  

--Unknown, from a YogiTea tea bag

I just found a great website called Tiny Buddha. It's tagline is "simple wisdom for complex lives" and it is chock full of short articles on how to make your life just a little bit better.

One of my favorites so far is 10 Simple Tips to Live Happy Wild and Free. 

Some of the tips are great: "Talk less and when you do talk, have a noble conversation." I'm gonna try that! "Turn off the TV." Yes! 

Others are not for me: "Take a cold shower." NO. THANK. YOU.

But it got me thinking about how to live happy, wild and free and that's what I love about this site - it got me thinking....

Not every suggestion or every article is going to resonate, but in every one there may be a nugget of gold that you can take and incorporate into your own "10 Ways to Live Happy Wild and Free" list. 

Here are some of mine:

1) Get at least 8 hours of sleep - preferably starting before 10:00 pm - I just do better, look better, feel better and love better when I am well rested. For some reason sleep that starts before 10:00 pm is deeper, dreamier and more delicious than sleep that starts after that.

2) Forgo Alcohol - I am in the midst of another "year without alcohol" experiment and once again I am finding that I LOVE it. I am just happier, healthier and more grounded when I am not drinking. Alcohol lowers my vibration and gets in the way of my ability to be present and patient for my family. 

3) Eat mostly raw - A smoothie for breakfast, a salad for lunch and a small nutritious dinner with "raw bar" snacks in between feed my body the best. Anything else feels heavy and weighs me down. 

4) Exercise regularly - I realized a few years ago that I sleep better, and thus feel better, when I am getting plenty of exercise. Running has always been my exercise of choice, but as I have grown older, I have realized that I need to expand my repertoire to include exercises for flexibility and strength. (The yoga - for flexibility - I LOVE. The push ups and dips for strength I LOATHE, but I do them anyway. Well, most of the time....)

5) Meditate - I would be nowhere without my daily meditation practice. It waxes and wanes as far as time spent and seriousness (sometimes I focus on my breathing for a few minutes before drifting off to sleep at night; other times I get up at the crack of dawn and sit for a full hour doing nothing - THESE are the days!), but I do something almost every day. (One of my staples is a grounding and cleansing meditation called the Violet Flame. If you are interested in learning more about this meditation, get in touch with me and I will send you the version of the Violet Flame that I use.)

It's not a comprehensive list, but I would say these are my "top 5." I hope you find at least one that you can add to your list.  I'd love to know - What are YOURS?