The Jerry Banfield Show

Hear how I discovered the power of getting out of bed with my wife every morning in producing a happy mood immediately that morning. Twelve months after seeing that my life was consistently happier if I went to bed with my wife, I finally have noticed that if I get out of bed right away and help with my daughter in the morning, my day almost always starts off on a happy note.

The amazing lesson I share today is the power of small decisions on happiness. I see being happy today as the product of making the right choices in life not on major things but on very minor things like when to get out of bed, what to say, when to eat, and when to go to sleep. Being conscious of the impact of these decisions allows me to act in a way that produces a consistent good feeling about life and to see that if I choose in the opposite way, I am knowingly choosing to suffer. Now when my wife gets out of bed, I realize my choices are to get up with her right away or to have a bad mood that morning. Seeing that clearly motivates me to get up right way.

Today instead of a prayer at the end, I am trying a new format by offering an exercise for the day. Would you try to spot one of these small decisions in your life as I do in mine? After seeing the power of making a simple choice to get out of bed promptly in the morning, now I want to find one more choice I have like that each day to discover another opportunity to be even happier.

Thank you for reading this today and I hope you enjoy the episode!

Sincerely,

Jerry Banfield

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Listen to how I enjoy a day being sick and am free from the suffering of wishing I felt better. Hear the habits and ways of thinking today that allow me to accept the cold or flu I have while seeing the benefits to feeling this way like more opportunities to rest and an easier time being mindful.

For most of my adult life, I felt like a victim of the world when I was sick and always was in a hurry to feel better. My basic thinking was that not feeling good was simply annoying and better to minimize the pain while fighting against it to get better. Today I take a loving approach by looking at how I feel and adjusting what I do to match how I feel. This allows me to spend much less time being sick overall and also is a part of eliminating activities like drinking that I used to do which make me more sick than any flu or cold ever did.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoy listening to this episode of my Happier People podcast!

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Hear how I am slowing down my life today to enjoy each moment. Listen to stories of what happens when being in a hurry is the default state of life and the consequences that are completely avoided by moving through the day with a little patience. I am sure the advice I would give myself 10 years from now is to slow down. Where am I trying to go each day? In my business online, what difference does doing one more video make at the cost of being in a hurry the entire day to produce it? When I am driving, I gratefully have learned after being stopped by police at least ten times to drive the speed limit no matter what. Now when I see another person speeding and driving recklessly, I know where they are in a hurry to get to. They want to arrive in the future and they will never get there. I still speed through simple activities like going to the bathroom and have even noticed I have been trying to hurry through writing this description. Begin conscious of my habit of hurrying through parts of my day is the first step to changing my behavior. Thank you for reading this and I hope it is useful for you!

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As my throat starts feeling sore this morning, listen to how I think about the benefits of getting sick and look at the fear that comes up of experiencing the illness. I hope hearing my thoughts as I potentially am about to come down with a cold will be helpful for you next time you are feeling the same way. Hear how I find it unnecessary to take any additional supplements because my daily eating is already designed to do the very best I know how to do to fight illness and simply continuing that is enough. While I used to be quick to take cold medicine at the first discomfort of being sick, hear how now I want to fully feel how sick I am to help my body heal by making sure I do not do more than my body wants to during the sickness. In the past I often would try and work through being sick using cold medicine to numb the pain only to end up getting sicker and staying sick for longer.

Even if you are feeling great today, I hope listening to this episode of my happier people podcast will be helpful for you to remember the next time you are thinking you might be coming down with a cold. Thank you for reading this today and I hope you have a great day!

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Hear how I limit activities like watching TV, listening to music, and reading fictional books to approximately an hour a day because I want to stay focused on living in reality. Listen to stories of how I used to spend my entire life in one fantasy or another. Explore the problems that I faced with getting lost in thought when I wanted to be participating in my life. Try driving today without listening to any music and without thinking about something the entire time. What I try to avoid completely today is fictional thinking especially as far as my life's story. My day is spent focused on what I need to do, why I am doing it, and how I can do it most effectively. Each day used to be spent mostly thinking about how nice life might be if ... or how awful life might be if ... When I share about how devastating fantasy thinking is for relationships especially with a partner, I hope you have the chance to identify any areas you would like to improve in your life today and behaviors you are doing that are positive which you would like to keep!

Thank you for listening to this Happier People podcast episode which focuses on mindfulness, the ideas presented in the power of now, and having a healthier intimate relationships.

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Listen to how I recenter my thinking today after becoming sick last night and this morning with racing thoughts about my business. When I start feeling afraid, I remember to consider the facts about my life including that this body will pass away someday. This helps my workflow to focus on doing the most good I can for the most people today instead of trying to impress you.

I started getting sick with shame which then produces racing thoughts to avoid the spotlight when listening to a free class about negotiating and suddenly becoming afraid that I was doing my business all wrong. Am I undervaluing my time? Is what I am doing limiting me to working a job forever? Why am I not charging more for what I do?

The problem with thoughts like this is only my resistance to them. Remembering the big reset button this morning helped me to recenter spiritually and to go on doing work that I hope will be useful for you today and go beyond trying to impress you by offering some real value.

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Listen to how I learned to both live today like it is my last day and to understand that what I do today is part of an eternal world where I am creating the future. Hear the story of how I moved from feeling like I could not truly live today like it was my last day into now where I do today what I would do if I was certain I had no days left. You might find this useful in your life if you are feeling like it is impossible to live today like your last day because of your past or feature. If you keep asking when will things get better and if you keep finding it impossible to mix living today like it is your last with understanding that there is a future, I hope this will be helpful for you as learning what it took to make this podcast episode and practice it today is helpful for me. My hope is to remember during my day today that if it was my last, I would choose to live without fear of what is next.

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Listen to a new idea that helps me test whether I have an open mind today as I process a new idea that the moon may be a space station or artificial creation! Hear the benefits of having an open mind especially as an alcoholic or addict for recovery.

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Listen to the stories of how my willingness to tell my parents anything saved my life and how today as a parent I try first to listen to my daughter so she feels safe sharing anything with me.

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Listen to this episode of Happier People podcast to hear healthy asking behaviors and see how powerful feeling safe to say yes or no in any situation is!

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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jerrybanfield/support