While I was thinking about what to write about this month, Stefan suggested the subject of Happiness.  He was re-reading a book that our friend Jonathon James had written and then entrusted me with editing it.  The book is titled: ‘Happiness’ the Ultimate Goal and although Jonathon didn’t actually see the finished book before he died he knew it was finished and he did contribute to the cover design.
In his introduction Jonathon said “The desire for happiness is a driving force that is greater than the will to survive and underlies all the actions of human beings, rational or otherwise.”  He concluded that happiness is being in love with life.
What’s your definition of happiness?
Many people identify happiness as being dependent upon income or housing, or job or car – basically about money.  How then is it that many of the poorest people in the world can be happy.  But it would seem that they are. 
There’s a whole world of advertising that suggests happiness depends on having this or that and a number of massive world-wide industries that depict happiness as dependent upon another person, which leaves that person with a whole lot of power and control over our lives. 
So if happiness is not about money or possessions or position or other people what is it about.
The Dalai Lama said “For a happy life, physical well-being is important, but true wellness must include a happy mind. ”  According to him, to attain happiness, one must be able to say, “My life is something meaningful, something useful.”  This, in turn, requires an understanding of our common purpose: “the taking care of each other,” which is our “human nature.”
There’s plenty written about happiness and how to achieve it, but I’m all for simplicity and taking charge of our own lives.  Therefore, I rather like the 10 scientifically proven suggestions from the Dry July Foundation.

1. Do exercise you like with music you like.  If the gym in not your thing, but you like gardening, do that instead. Or dance around the room every morning – our bodies know the difference between doing something we enjoy and something we don’t and it reacts accordingly.
2. I talk about this a lot – have a daily Gratitude Practice is vital to a sense of well-being.  It’s too easy to run a list in our head of what’s wrong with our lives. It’s been shown that people who record five things a day that they are grateful for not only have a happier state of mine, but they also have fewer physical problems.
3. Drink enough water.  This might seem to be a funny one, but really important.  Keeping sufficiently hydrated has been shown to affect our mood, ability to concentrate and fatigue.
4. Wake up early each day.  The University of Toronto found early risers feel more awake, alert, happier and motivated to tackle the day over night owls.  It might not be easy for us all to wake early, but having the time to breathe, focus on the day, write a few gratitudes and eat a healthy breakfast before beginning the work day does seem like a good start to any day.  It’s a lot better than rushing.
5. Waking early gives us some quiet time – perhaps a moment to just breathe and connect with ourselves (mabye even meditate).  A study from the University of Sydney revealed those who meditated regularly for at least two years are healthier and happier than non-meditators. Meditation decreases stress, blood pressure and fatigue and increases focus, concentration and productivity and improves the immune system
6. Integrate some weight lifting.  A Journal of Strength and Conditioning report found that a bit of weight training helps build lean muscle, which strengthens and protects our body.
7. Shop consciously.­  According to a Knox College study, when people buy sustainably they not only receive better nutrition, but it feels good to eat food that has been grown naturally – it gives us a greater sense of wellbeing, helps the environment around us as well as within our bodies (less chemicals).
8. Organize your week.  A Princeton University study says our brain can’t handle clutter – the more we have around us the harder it is to function, the more fatigue we feel with the result that we no longer function at our best and fatigue and stop functioning at full capacity.  Getting our week organized before it starts is a really clever thing to do.  And you can do it in the garden or at your favourite coffee shop.  As well as work and domestic matters, it’s an excellent idea to include planning for relaxation and reward too.
9. Smell the roses.  Interestingly, a study from Rutgers University found that people asked to write about life events used three times as many happy words who spent time in a florally scented room compared to being surrounded by fragrances like Chanel No. 5 and baby powder. And it doesn’t need to be flowers there are other scents that lift the mood: apparently lemon, vanilla, licorice, lavender and (wonder of wonders) even sweat will have the same effect for some people.
10. Let the music in.  Music is all around us – not all to our taste but put on something upbeat that you like and you’ll get a good dose of dopamine (feel good neurotransmitter) to your brain.  Music can uplift, inspire, soothe or settle or give us a sense of strength.  It’s a good idea to create own playlist that will give you access to your happy place.

 
We’d love to hear how you create happiness for yourself.  After all, it’s in your hands. It's Your Life.

According to Biological Anthropologist, Helen Fisher, relationships can be hard work and it is both people’s responsibility to make the effort.
After all, we can’t maintain a beautiful and thriving garden if we don’t take out the weeds and keep managing the bugs and pests.
Ms Fisher’s research has found that “the three most important traits that were found to be present in happy, long-lasting marriages were:
1) The couple’s ability to feel empathy for one another.
2) Each person’s ability to control their own emotions and feelings during times of great stress.
3) And the introduction of positive illusions.” That means developing the ability to overlook what you don’t like about someone and remember the good things about them: focus on them instead.
And our experience, both personal and professional, tells us that keeping the lines of communication open is vital to the ongoing health of any relationship. Honesty is the best policy, but that begins with honesty with ourselves and 
taking responsibility for what we are or are not doing first. 
Then, when we do have a quiet chat (not an angry outburst after we’ve been sitting on an issue for some time) then it can be more easily heard by the other person if we begin with positives: one positive, one negative (with an “I” 
statement:”I feel…”first) then one positive. It’s called “a feedback sandwich”. 
Try it, it’s much more easily digested than a straight out complaint. 
Remember, too, to catch people doing something right: for example, “darling, I really like it when you hang up the towel, it makes the bathroom feel more relaxed.”
A good relationship is well worth looking after.
Best wishes
​Libby

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Research, the Medical Community and Alternate Health Professionals all support that stress plays a major role in incidence of disease.
Libby Stone during a radio interview asked a Doctor “to what extent did he think that stress is involved in the manifestation of disease “ and the answer was a staggering –“Maybe up to about 99.5%!”
There is lots of research correlating types of stress and the likely incidence of various types of diseases.
In the initial stages unresolved stress” firstly manifests in many behaviours.  We complain of being unable to cope, of just being stressed out.
Stefan Galamaga Your Life Clinic founder, comments “and how do we try to cope? “
“Usually with habits – with the ones we don’t want such as smoking, alcohol abuse, comfort eating; drugs and substance abuse.”
None of these work, they all make the situation worse.  And we haven’t even got to  living our lives with anxiety and suppressing emotions such as Anger, Sadness, Fear, Hurt, and Guilt, Depression Phobias and often ultimately diseases and, even death.”
Neuro Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy have a number of proven, powerful tools designed to release stress.  The techniques help change unwanted thinking, behaviours, emotions and habits quickly.  For those consciously wishing to change their thinking and behaviour can be helped quickly.  Hypnosis is very relaxing and effective in helping change lives; add NLP, learn and use some self-healing techniques and you have a powerful and unique set of tools to embark on the life you want.
Your Life Clinic offers help with issues like stress release, weight control, phobias, management of emotions as well as counselling and our quit smoking session that offers a life-time guarantee”.
 ​

Would you swap holidays for smoking?
You know many smokers do just that.
Imagine you going on fantastic holidays every year plus with
spending money and feeling happier, healthier and in control all whilst regaining years of your life.
Well smokers can by becoming non-smokers easily, safely and permanently, without craving themselves crazy using will power or nicotine replacement therapies.
With an average 95.6% success in just one session would you be prepared to show some commitment, follow instructions, relax and invest just one months worth of smokes?

Contact Your Life Clinic Today

​The serious adverse effects of smoking and alcohol during pregnancy are well known.   The effects of smoking psychologically and physically to children born to smoking parents or living with smokers are profound.  They are at risk of serious health problems because their bodies, lungs and brains are still developing.  Second-hand smoke means children are exposed to many more carcinogens than if they smoked themselves.  This is a serious health hazard for children with greatly increased risk of asthma, respiratory illnesses, ear, nose and throat problems and SIDS.  They are likely to suffer brain development damage and become smokers too.
More than 90% of smokers that come to the Clinic had one or more parents that smoked.
The average life expectancy of a smoker is 14 years less than a non-smoker.  A one pack a day smoker lights up over a Lifetime about 500,000 cigarettes, this equates to about $300,000 – up in smoke!
That means, every smoke costs about 15 minutes of life and even worse is likely to condemn your children to a similar fate.
To quit smoking, there are many methods, few of which actually work!  Sadly the most promoted; Nicotine replacement therapies are expensive and do not address the actual smoking habit, and long term are only 8-14% successful.
Hypnosis –is about 30% effective long term for a single session; success increases with good technique and multiple appointments.  Often early good results fade and they resume smoking if the underlying cause  is not addressed.
At Your Life Clinic; we combine integrated. Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Advanced Hypnosis.
This method is proven effective for over the past 11 years helping more than 40,000 across Australia to become non-smokers.  Just one session has proven to be 95.6 % permanent.  The few remaining requiring additional help are backed by our Guarantee.
Your session is tailored, to your needs, is enjoyable, with no pain, drugs, or needles.
Save thousands of your dollars every year .
Save your health and life.
Even better, save your child’s health and  save 14 years of life.

​Research says that babies in-utero absorb their environment, learning about the world around them and as newborns, they rapidly accumulate knowledge and begin developing their Model Of the World (MOW).  The Model develops quickly; without questioning truth or validity. By the time we reach 6-7 years, essentially our character, and our Model is fundamentally in place.
From there on, our MOW can still develop and change but it is still essentially unquestioned.  It’s only when our frontal lobes (the parts of the brain that assesses events and adjusts behaviours) develop that we now evaluate or filter information and decide whether to allow or disallow incorporation into our unique MOW.  Simply put, we are no longer as impressionable. Logically the older, more experienced and wiser we get, the more our information filters grow stronger.  But by then our MOW has, more than likely, grown stronger by filtering billions of bits of information and selecting those that support the MOW and we are reluctant to change it.
But what if the information stored in our MOW no longer serves us, or is faulty in some way? Similar to a computer; where there are programming errors there are problems.  For us, this manifests as stress, self-defeating behaviors and ultimately disease.”
According to Your Life Clinic founder Stefan Galamaga, “unresolved emotional issues manifest in many behaviours, habits and often ultimately diseases and even death.  Neuro Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy techniques are proven, powerful tools to help change unwanted behaviours emotions and habits – fast.”
Co – founder Libby Stone says “clients that consciously wish to change behavior can be helped very quickly with a variety of advanced NLP and Hypnotherapy techniques that enable us to by- pass our MOW filters and communicate directly with our sub-conscious mind. It’s a little bit like a software update, to clean up bugs and errors in our Model.  Once the Conscious and Sub-conscious mind work together we can become focused and powerful in our lives; will power has a helper.
Hypnosis is very relaxing and effective in helping change lives; add NLP and you have a powerful and unique set of tools to embark on the life you want.