Happiness Archives - Nirvana Diet

Live a Happier Healthier Life

June 27, 2015 by admin 1 Comment

Many people overeat and can’t break free from their bad habits because the habits are serving a purpose.These habits keeps you from dealing with what is underlying it… What we really want- to be happier and find more meaning and purpose in our lives.

Research shows that we are not that good at figuring out what makes us happy. There are a lot of myths about happiness. So if you think that just by losing weight or fulfilling any one “goal” you will be happy, you may be surprised.

The real power lies in why you want to lose weight, to find a bigger meaning to what you want and focus on that; such as improving your health, or having more energy to do fun things with your loved ones. Most of the myths you will see are around the fact that we seem to misinterpret pleasure for happiness.

Re-Defining Real Happiness:

1. Happiness is a final destination…you aren’t suddenly happy one day. Taking care of yourself and your “happiness” factor requires a daily commitment and certain habits you were not necessarily born knowing.

2. Being happy depends on how your day is going. When you understand nothing is bad or good, it’s all how you see it you’ll understand how happiness is an inside job.

3. I’ll feel good about myself after…having a daily spiritual practice like sitting in meditation and or journaling will help you feel a deep sense that things are unfolding “perfectly”…as they are without feeling tossed about by the “ups and downs” of life.

4. Eating and pleasure is happiness. The fleeting happiness that is pleasure based will never satisfy you in the long run.

5. Denying your feelings make you feel better. Your feelings serve an important function, to serve as an internal guidance system. If you make a habit of listening to your feelings, they will give you clues as to what you need to do to get back on track.

6. You’re really okay with the way things are and don’t like change. Why have a life that is just ok? If deep within you sense there is something more…it never too late to get on the right destination that will help you fill what is missing.

7. You either are happy or you are not, it’s a character trait. There are actually skills, and ideas you can learn that can help you turn lemon in lemonade, enrich yourself by learning from your life, and feed what your soul is really hungry for…and it’s not what gets talked about on TV or in the media.

So what is it that makes us happy? Finding meaning in our lives and doing things that bring meaning to our lives. If you figure out how to do this, you will find it becomes easier to lose weight, and to change any unwanted habit that is really a cheap substitute for what you really want. Let me know what you think makes you happy.

What is Depth Psychology?

December 21, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

I like to look at the root meaning or words to understand the true meaning. Lets take psychology which is a combination of psyche and logos. Psyche is more than the conscious mind, it has been defined as soul or spirit. Logos is the word or meaning. Psychology then originally meant the study of the meaning or word or the soul. Depth implies illumination of that which is not visible. You could say the unconscious is not visible but the more it is made conscious, the more we are operating from a place of self-knowledge which I believe is the point of life…to understand and make sense or meaning of our life. It is unfortunate that today psychology is dominated by behavioral stud, pharmacology, canned diagnoses that attempt to medicate symptoms.

While Depth Psychology was rediscovered in the late 1800’s with Eugene Bleuler a Swiss psychiatrist and Freud’s contemporary, it is Freudian psychology that one associates with therapy. Freud had a very narrow model for the understanding of neurosis based on his understanding and relating to the story of the Oedipus myth. His theories touch what is called the personal unconscious. It was posited by Carl Jung who broke off from Freud and theorized the existence of an objective unconscious, sometimes called psyche that is in common to all.

The study of Depth Psychology goes back to the time of the Greeks in particular Heraclitus who wrote in “your bearing is your fate.” Bearing is often translated to mean character. This is the reason I study Depth Psychology because it is empowering, deep and brings the soul back into the meaning. Modern Depth Psychology is not limited to just sentient beings. Psyche is in all living things or sometimes it is better said all living things are in psyche.

Depth Psychology is not reductive but brings together, philosophy, spirituality, science and art.

Whenever I share topics we study with others, I find there is a hunger to know more.

What is your calling?

December 11, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

One of the questions I believe we are all longing to know and understand is what is my calling? Some people misunderstand this to be their vocation or work. I prefer to call it your life work… the work you need to do to evolve as a person.

I found valuable answers to this question by my study of Western astrology. To get insight into one’s calling; you take a look at the placement of what is called the North Node.[1] Opposite to that is the South Node which identifies the life area’s with which you feel most comfortable, the experiences and qualities that come naturally to us, that are over-developed, and that we tend to fall back on.

For balanced self-development, to feel fulfilled and happy we need to focus on and develop aspects of ourselves represented by the North Node. Consciously working on these “life lessons” can bring us to increased happiness and fulfillment. Not moving beyond the qualities of our South Node, especially at the expense of developing our North Node, could be a source of unhappiness.

I was surprised to learn that my North Node is in my fifth house in the sign of Aquarius, The fifth house is the signifcator for children, having fun, pleasure, and, most importantly, creativity through writing. This threw me for a loop, as it was the polar opposite to how I had lived my life.

Yes, I have always liked my share of pleasure and fun, but the pursuit of creativity seemed like something I had left behind years ago and came second to work. In fact the dream of a more creative-based career was snuffed out long ago when I was 18 and told by my practical and truly remarkable mother that I had better like waiting tables if I planned to continue wanting to be an actress. Yes being an actress and reading books were my first love. Although I was an English literature major undergraduate, and have always wanted to write, I felt I had developed a kind of mental block about my capacity to be creative, or to write. This is all changing now.

Accessing this knowledge has helped me to make sense of decisions I made in the past and guide me towards decisions I might make in the future. If you would like to learn about the placement and meaning of your North Node, contact me directly for a life coaching session atto help you shed light on your calling skyler@skylermadison.com.

[1]. All astrology is based on the exact geometry between the placements of the planets, starting at the moment of one’s birth. The nodes are calculated by where the ellipses of the orbits of the Sun and Moon cross one another. In the horoscope, the North and South Nodes are exactly opposite each other.

Are you an optimist and why is optimism so important?

May 30, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

In a recent article in The New York Times Jane Brody discussed the merits of being an optimist. Seeing the glass as being half full as opposed to half empty is very much a function of how you see it. An important distinction was made between being an optimist and two other character traits that complement optimism: persistence and what is called motivation (not giving up).

This was found in a research study by Dr. Segerstrom and others to be the gift of optimism because when you combine optimism with persistence it leads to being able to creative solutions. All great moments of creativity began with a problem. Frustration and not giving up on finding a solution to a problem is the genesis of creativity. Pessimism derails creativity which often requires one to keep on keeping.

Insights come when we least expect yet when we are still waiting expectantly for an answer. In order to do this, a problem has to be turned around into a question and not viewed just as a problem. That takes character.

The other gift in optimism is the capacity to see a set back into a learning. Once again this is a function of how you view it and how a negative once again gets spun into a positive. These gifts appear to have some basis in genetics specifically one’s that affect neurotransmitters in to the brain such as dopamine that affect goal focused behavior.

The question then becomes if you were not born with the optimism gene can you acquire it? According to Dr. Segerstrom and other researchers the answer is yes. Perhaps we should focus more attention on optimism than happiness? Her advice is to “fake it until you make it” which is another way of saying how taking actions have the capacity to rewire the brain. I think a key to this is to reawaken the creativity within which then leads to the qualities that help turn problems into solutions. Creativity is a state of mind and a way of seeing. If you think you can, the likelihood that you will is much greater.

Losing weight is really the same dynamic. If you think you can, you will, but you must think of yourself first as a thinner person, from there you have the ability to make changes that become your way of living. Another way to approach this is to take up meditation. Meditation has the capacity to increase the cells in the brain that register optimism. Download Meditation Made Easy and get started now on thinking like a more optimistic person.

Want change? Embrace change without needing anything to change

May 17, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

We live in a culture that is full of advertisements that encourage us to seek pleasure and avoid pain. We all want to change or strive to keep things the way they area. What you may be wondering is wrong with that? The messages are subtle: a mother who sits down on a park bench to take a well-deserved break eats a Nutrigrain bar. If you pay attention, most food advertising is selling and linking pleasure and reward with food. No wonder so many people associate food with a reward. This is one of the main reasons people find it difficult to lose weight. Successfully losing weight requires re-wiring the brain. To find out more download my free EBook The Key to Successful Weight Loss.

The wisdom traditions have been suggesting the root of suffering is the constant striving for pleasure along with the desire to avoid pain and displeasure. We are very conditioned to think there is something outside of ourselves whether it is a pill or an Almond Joy that can give us pleasure and the happiness we are longing for.

The sad thing is that all these things do is to lull is deeper into a lifeless sleep. I feel very grateful that I am aware of how this conditioning negatively affects us and try as best I can to help other people to awaken and start making decisions based on their self-interest as opposed to mindlessly pursuing short term fixes in the form of candy bars and other distractions. I think my meditation practice has helped me to do this. That is why I created Meditation Made Easy. Try it you might like it or leave a comment to let me know how this resonates with you.