What Makes Me Happy Right Now - Morning kisses, multinational music, & Jersey tomatoes.

Want to destroy that nasty, nagging ego of yours?  I sure do want to squash mine!  The best way is to celebrate feelings of gratitude each and every chance you get.  Our egos unfortunately will never cease, but we can at least calm or shush them.  Here's my trying today.

Today I'm ever-so-grateful for:

1.  Netflix.  Well, technically my brother's Netflix.  Teehee.  Because of it, I'm able to catch up on all of the documentaries I can dream of while on the treadmill.  So I'm doing two things at once - working out  and doing my body good while feeding my mind with information that helps make me a better health coach.

2.  The yummy peppermint tea that my boyfriend bought for me in the wee hours of the morning today.  We have a very similar commute and sometimes when we time it just right, we meet at the Sunoco Chock Full O' Nuts in Fort Lee for a quick kiss.  The hot peppermint tea that he hands me is always a sweet treat - but a big hug and kiss from him is even sweeter!  I sip this tea all day long here at the office, as you can see.

3.  Adanowsky - Amador.  He's a multinational, multilingual pop singer and actor who was taught how to play the guitar by George Harrison and taught how to dance by James Brown.  Pretty lucky.  This album features tracks in Spanish, French and English.  It's sweet, folky, soft and playful all at the same time.  Amador has been on my iTunes, looping for days now.

4.  This inspiring thought:  Summer Jersey tomatoes = the universe's way of reminding us that good-for-you food tends to be delicious!  I love dicing an organic, garden fresh cucumber, mincing fresh basil from my herb garden, then coring and thinly slicing fresh Jersey tomatoes into a bowl.  I grind fresh pepper, sprinkle sea salt and toss with some extra virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar).  A garden fresh salad with tons of Italian flavor for your taste buds, tummy and soul!

5.  My pedometer!  I invested in a more expensive pedometer last month ($40, Brookstone) and it was the best thing I could have done.  The pedometer accurately tracks my steps each day keeping me energized to move around as much as possible each day.  My daily goal is for at least 6,000 steps.  Yesterday I went all out and it was a 10k+ day!  It's 9am and after being up since 5 and working out, I'm already up to 5,500.  I highly recommend purchasing one for the fun (and health) of it!


Take THAT, Ego!  What are you grateful for today?


Back in March of 2012 I decided to do these posts because it's really easy to be suckered into negative thoughts when we're surrounded by stressful media, unhappy people and whining Facebook status updates. My guru, Swami Vishnudevananda says that for every negative thought you have, replace it with 2-3 positive ones. I love this concept and practice it regularly. I usually find the most effective way of climbing out of a negative attitude is to think about something that I'm grateful for. Feelings of gratitude really lift you up. In honor of this concept, I'm starting a post with this same theme and will blog it regularly. I'll list a few things that make me happy, lift me up and keep me smiling! Let's face it, world peace is something that will never happen. However, I can create my own little world of peace and happiness in my mind through my thoughts! Please give it a try as well and share how it affects you.