It won’t have escaped your notice that modern life is full-on. Look around and you’ll see hordes of people fuelled up on caffeine and sugar, having what we call a near life experience.
Shine
Our shine gets dimmed. So we need to learn to fight back, sometimes against the odds. Here are our top 10 tips to regain your SHINE.
Plot Twist
Your life is a story and you’re the author. You might not be able to change the events that have happened, but you can re-cast yourself as the hero. That changes how you view the past and, spookily, will affect how you approach the future.
Change your language. In the same way that in the 1980s ‘problems’ became ‘challenges’ we’d like you to start saying ‘plot twist!’
So when something doesn’t go according to plan, it’s not a nightmare, crisis, challenge or problem, it’s merely a plot twist.
Shout it out. rejoice!
Live a Full-ass Life
Whatever you do, don’t half-ass anything, always use your full ass.
Let it Go
We’ve all been wronged, treated unfairly, dissed, dismissed, abused and upset. As someone once said to me, ‘I haven’t got time for any new wounds – my old wounds are still healing.’
It’s time to let it all go and move on because, guess what, the world has finished with your past if you have.
Shine-tinted Specs
Everyone knows and understands déjà vu, that feeling of familiarity, an experience that has happened to you before. Very few know the opposite, vujà dé, which is when we see a familiar situation through new eyes.
Rose-tinted spectacles are sooooo last millennium. We’re offering you an upgrade to ‘shine-tinted’. Not only will they help with your vujà dé, they also allow you to illuminate wonderful experiences that most people miss.
Celebrate Bad Stuff That Didn’t Happen
The accident you didn’t have, the headache you didn’t suffer, the supermarket queue that wasn’t there, the lack of red traffic lights on the way home, the train that wasn’t delayed… have a go, it’s fabulous fun.
Scratch Your Itch
We all need that something special, a reason to get out of bed in the morning. It’s the cape. What’s your cape? Think of the cape as your purpose, your why. You can survive without it, but with it you fly. The Japanese call it your Ikigai. Pronounced ‘itchy-guy’, we want you to scratch that itch. Your itchy-guy is your drive, the reason you get up in the morning.
Upgrade your knickers
Too many people reserve their happiness for special occasion. Ditto their best knickers. Throw away your rubbish pants and upgrade to super-sexy underwear. Wear awesome pants, even on a Monday. Quit waiting.
Plenty of the F-word
Failure. Dirty, rotten, foulmouthed, despicable failure. The truth is simple; if we’re unwilling to fail, we’re unwilling to succeed.
Get Snuggly
The secret to happiness seems to be in embracing the snuggles. here’s a raft of new words for you; we think you’ll notice a theme:
Mysa. [Swedish] to be engaged in a pleasant or comfortable activity; to be content or comfortable; to get cosy; to snuggle up.
Peiskos. [Norwegian] Lit. Fireplace coziness, sitting in front of a crackling fireplace enjoying the warmth.
Hygge. [Danish] enjoying life’s simple pleasures. Coziness. Snuggliness.
We Worry 4U™
For absolutely no fee whatsoever, we will take on your worry. Yep, the whole burden. All you need to do is email us at [email protected] with a couple of lines about the stuff you’d like us to worry about. You can be certain that we’ll then worry about it for you, leaving you free to skip along, unburdened and fret-free.
SHINE rediscovering your energy, happiness and purpose by Dr Andy Cope and Gavin Oattes is out 30 March 2018, published by Capstone and available on Amazon £10.99