Happiness in Motion

Focus: Connection

This week you will be practicing one of the single most important habits for sustainable happiness, Social Connection. 

The upshot of over 80 years of happiness research is that we know that the quantity and quality of a person’s social connections – friendships, relationships with family members, closeness to neighbors, etc. are so closely related to wellbeing and personal happiness that the two are practically equated. 

People with many friendships are less likely to experience sadness, loneliness, low self-esteem, and problems eating and sleeping. Social Connection helps foster feelings of belonging, self-worth, and security.  

A social network is about the number of people you interact with. You count your social media friends into this group. But a social network is not the same as social support. Social support has more to do with the quality of your friends.

If we want to be happy, building stronger ties must be our priority. We need to cultivate relationships that go deeper than a simple, “Hi” and “Hello”.

The focus of this week’s challenges is to grow your connection with people in different ways. You are encouraged to seek ways that we are more alike than different by being intentional in connecting with people in a more authentic way. Make sure to capture your observations in your journal this week. 

Grow your Connection through movement. This week you are encouraged to find ways to include other people in your fitness. That can be having someone join you or by making it a point to include another person in celebrating what you accomplish on your own this week. 

Day 1- Challenge 1: 
Smile Challenge

Day 2- Challenge 2: 
Make A New Connection

Day 3- Challenge 3: 
Avoiding The Four Horseman

Day 4- Challenge 4:
Questions For Closeness

Day 5- Challenge 5: 
9 Steps To Forgiveness

Additional Challenges:

1. MEDITATION – Listen to (1) CONNECTION Meditation daily in any order.

2. MOVEMENT – Continue movement daily (15 minutes minimum).

 Putting it all together – This week’s Happiness Challenges:

1. Print out your “Daily Success List” and place it in a visible place. 
2. Connection Meditation – Daily.
3. Movement – Daily. 
4. Complete your (5) days of connection challenges.

1. Reminder – How will you remember to do your movement and challenges? Post-it note, alarm on your phone, how can you create accountability for this?
2. Routine – This is your new behavior.  Be specific. Keep it as simple and convenient as possible. It is best to try and plan it for the same time each day if possible. 
3. Reward – Celebrate!! You absolutely MUST celebrate yourself each time you complete your new behavior. This tells your brain that what you are doing is good and should be repeated.