Fix the Niggling Things and Be Happier

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In this Navigating Nourishment Podcast, Debbie and Wendy titled: Fix the Niggling Things and Be Happier, they discuss how little things in our lives can be fixed pretty easily and help us be happier in the moment. They also share a few ideas that they are working on themselves.

TRANSLATION

Edited for readability

Debbie 0:00

I have on my refrigerator this drawn chart, and at the top it says, ARE YOU HAPPY? And then it has arrows, one going to the word YES, and one going to the word NO. And then there’s arrows under each of those words. And it says, ARE YOU HAPPY? If No. It says: DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY? And then you can say yes or no, and if you say no, you don’t want to be happy, KEEP DOING WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING. If you want to be happy and say yes, the arrow points to CHANGE SOMETHING.

Wendy 0:29

Yes. I love the simplicity of this, and I think we need to ask this question more often. Yeah, we go about our days so mindlessly sometimes and without intention, and we get hooked into things, and we have more power and more agency than we think we do. Yes, very true. Because we don’t literally ask ourselves, Am I happy right now? And that doesn’t mean are you happy in your life, it means right now in this moment, are you happy? And if you’re not, then what’s keeping you from being happy?

HAPPINESS IN THE MOMENT

Debbie 1:17

What’s inspiring us to talk about this is that it’s usually these little niggling things that we can simply resolve most of the time. It often is so simple. So that’s what we want to talk about today on Navigating Nourishment. Welcome.

Wendy 1:48

Many years ago, I read an essay titled something like Just Sew on the Button. In your every day life, how often do you have a sweater or a jacket that you really want to wear because you love it, but there’s either a missing button or a button that’s coming off, and it frustrates you every single time. How much time does it take to sew on a button? Maybe a couple minutes, right?

Debbie

We’re not trying to make life seem so simple that you can just sew on a button and solve all your problems. We’re really talking about things that you can solve. Because, of course, a lot of us have bigger problems but you can make your life a little bit happier to get rid of these little silly things that just aggravate us. If you can make less aggravation throughout the day, you will literally be happier.

THE NIGGLING LIST

I want to retitle the ‘to do list’ and relabel it ‘niggling list.’ Because if I just do them, and most of them take 30 seconds or a minute or less, I’d feel so much better. You know, it’s writing that check that I meant to write for three days. Or it’sjust picking up this pile of paper and going through it and recycling most of it, or it’s throwing out the leftovers in my refrigerator that have been there for three weeks.

Wendy 3:17

We just did that this morning. It felt so good.

Debbie 3:20

It does feel good. Deleting a bunch of emails feels really good.

Wendy 3:25

Or organizing your photos on your phone because you’re running out of space and you don’t want to pay more money.

Debbie 3:30

That’s right, and that’s something you can do while you’re waiting for things. I do that at the doctor’s office waiting, or wherever, when you’re in a waiting place where you have nothing to do and you have your phone, that’s a really great thing to do.

AN EXERISE TO TRY

Wendy 3:50

Here is one idea about niggling lists that I really liked when you and I talked with our clients about this recently. I took a good look around the room I was in and asked, what has energy that’s vibrating negatively? What is taking away from my happiness in the room that I’m in right now that I can control, that I can do something about? And it was so motivating to me, because I looked around, I was like, just get rid of it, because it’s got some energy about it that is bringing me down.

Or, on the positive side, I have a diffuser and these wonderful essential oils in my office, and if I would just invest less than 30 seconds in filling it with water and putting some essential oils and hitting the on button, it would literally raise my vibration.

Debbie 5:03

So hopefully these examples give you some ideas about little niggling things that we just kind of walk by or ignore, because you just don’t feel like doing that small thing. Putting a tiny bit of energy and 30 seconds or a minute into doing it, and you will feel so much better. It’s worth the feeling that you get having done it. And I think we were originally inspired by a book that you have called the Five Second Rule. Isn’t that true?

RECOMMENDED BOOK

Wendy 5:30

Yes, Mel Robbins has a book called The Five Second Rule. You can check out her book and get more inspiration on how it can really be impactful for making decisions. Just make a decision, 5-4-3-2-1.

Debbie 5:55

And do it, you’ll be happier. So true and it’s worth it.

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