3 Sweet Secrets to a Happy Life : Episode 2

This podcast began because helping humans live their best life and become the best version of themselves is what Desireé’s life is all about. It is her desire to use her trips around the sun to throw encouragement around like confetti!

In Episode #2, we join Desireé as she uncovers 3 sweet secrets to a happy life and backs these healthy ways of living with solid rational.

Topics include:

• How I became masterful at joy-filled living (1:30)
• Tip #1 to a Happy Life : Truth (2:34) 
• Tip #2 to a Happy Life : Grace (5:04)
• Tip #3 to a Happy Life : Gratitude (9:02)

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Transcript

Desire Melfi Bozzo: 0:06

Ciao and welcome to Life Out Loud. I am your host Desiree Melfi Bozzo. We are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting, unshakable, unwavering and unmessavble-with joy and gratitude. We're going to be throwing around encouragement, a little bit like confetti and giving you support to live your very best life. Ciao friends, and welcome back. I am so glad you tuned in today. The topic of today's podcast is really discovering this sweet secrets of a happy life. And there are three of them. It doesn't take too many trips around the sun to realize that life can be pretty hard. Some days we find it crazy and insane. And other days, let's be honest, it's just completely weird. I don't even want to begin to mention, but I will the devastation and the loss that hits us out of nowhere. Being Human isn't easy, but I've learned that it's possible to face really hard things and still carry joy in our hearts. So in my trips around the sun, I've learned a few things about how to live a life with joy. Regardless of circumstances. I know that this sounds too good to be true. But friends, it's not. Now please hear me when I say that this hasn't always been an easy path, right? I have only been masterful at joyfilled living by going through some of the hardest and most devastating moments. They're kind of moments that are literally powerful enough to break you as a human. And going through these really terrible parts have been the catalyst to opening up a path to a joyful life. I truly believe because I've lived it that hard times offer us a choice. We can be bitter, or we can be better. And it's not just a cute quote that you find on Pinterest or something right? Well, bitterness is the path of least resistance and I promise you will always be the easier path becoming better leads us to this life of unmessable-with unshakable joy. In this podcast, I've actually put together three foundational things that you can practice to live a joy filled, well rounded, delightfully uplifted life. So let's hop-in. The first foundational thing that I really believe that you have to master is to seek truth. There are so many lies that we believe in that we buy into in this world, right? Sometimes, these lies are told to us by others. But it's worse than that. Sometimes these are lies that we believe and we actually tell ourselves, things like you aren't good enough, you aren't smart enough that grass over there is greener on the other side. Other lies are once you get that next promotion, you're going to have this life that you've been dreaming of. If only my kids were better, my life would be more peaceful. If I just had this or that, or oh my gosh, if I just had those, then I would be happy. I think if I went on and on with this list, I'd probably had a lie or two that you tell yourself because friends we all have them. Instead of believing the lies we hear that we tell ourselves I think it's really essential that we seek out truth, a truth that is unwavering. A truth that is a guiding light, a truth that is unshakable something that is a true north where we navigate our days by. We need to seek out what this is for us. And I'll tell you mine comes in the form of my Bible. In those pages, I find blueprints that I build my life on. Don't get me wrong. Most days I fall oh so very short. But I strive to be a truth teller because friends for a long, long time longer than I care to admit I lived a life where those words weren't the blueprints of my life and 97% of the time. What happened was I was miserable. Because I wasn't walking in lockstep with the truth. We are empowered to live happier lives by telling the truth over our lives. And I encourage you to fervently seek out what truth means for you. Sweet friends, don't stop until you have your own blueprint of truth. This is so foundational to where your life is going and what your life is about. And at the end of the day. When you look in the mirror, it's foundational to who you are. The next practice for a joy filled life is to give grace. You might be asking, what is that even mean? I don't even know these words, you're saying to me right now having no fear, I will explain them. Grace is this kindness and this care and this consideration that you offer someone who here's the kicker, here's where the hard part comes in, who doesn't actually deserve it at all? Please hear me when I say grace is not not NOT, all capital, underlined and bolded, not excusing bad behavior or wrongdoing. It's realizing that we're humans, who live in a very, very broken world. And on our very best day, with our very best effort, still fall short. In the gut of my soul, friends, I love the gift of grace. I've also found that my ego, not so much. I think it's mostly because our egos are kind of jerky. And they like to be right about basically everything. My ego doesn't give a lot of grace and chances are yours doesn't either. In the moments that I need to show the most grace, I also find that those are the moments that I need to take my ego by the hand and go like bench her for a timeout seriously probably for a whole quarter. When I first heard the concept of grace, you guys, I dug my heels in it was a hard pass like a firm No. Giving grace to me meant excusing horrible behavior and that forgiving the unforgivable, and frankly, the inexcusable. When I learned more, and I dug in more back to the truth, right? What is the truth saying here? I took a step back. And I really started to deconstruct my notions about grace. When I put down my need to be so right about the way I thought and felt, I really began to see the truth. Friends, we are a bunch of broken humans just trying to walk each other home. None of us have ever been through this journey of life before. Yes, we might be at different points. Yes, we might have different knowledge bases. And of course, hindsight is always 20/20. At the end of the day, though, I have to believe that we're all doing the best with the lives we've been given. I'm willing to bet that if you've been human for any amount of time, there's probably people who have showed you grace along the way. I'm sure that there have been people who have been nice to you when you were less than stellar. People who forgave the terrible and the unforgivable in you, people who have showed kindness when you definitely probably didn't deserve it. All of these are examples of grace. Something happens when we freely offer grace to others, we actually stop being right about things and we start living happier lives. Grace just feels good. Grace helps us to look past judgments and flaws and differences. And look at the heart of other people. And when we do this, chances are that we might see we're all a lot more alike than we are different. So here's to a fresh helping of grace every day, forever and ever and ever. The last foundational practice that I want to talk about is being grateful. Being grateful is one of the most profound keys to a happy life. There is a ton of research out there, I may or may not have gone down a rabbit hole in my research. But research has shown that the more grateful we are the more content happy and hopeful Our lives are. I may or may not have gone down a rabbit hole or two as I was doing this research. But the things that were constant that I kept pulling out is that gratitude has been shown to improve our sleep, strengthen our psychological well being, increase energy levels, which also this is amazing increases the likelihood of physical activity. I don't know about you, but for me, those are some pretty great benefits. Friends, what we focus on, we find, we are really good at that. When you walk around focusing on negative on what you didn't get on what isn't good enough, all you're going to get is evidence to prove that. When you walk around with a grateful heart, focusing on things that are good and grateful, we're going to find more things to be grateful for. Gratefulness actually breeds more gratefulness on our terrible days, and our bad moments, regardless of circumstance, there is an opportunity to practice being grateful. It might feel really weird at first, even a little bit, fake it till you make it ish. But I really promise that eventually it will click and gratefulness will flow when you don't even necessarily feel it. The struggle is cut short when gratitude begins. And so I encourage you to make a choice and have a really grateful heart, Friends. Life is crazy and insane and completely weird. But I've learned that with these three things, it can also be incredible, euphoric and amazing. living a happy life doesn't have to be rocket science. It can be built on intentionality. Tell the truth. Give grace and be grateful. I would actually challenge you. I want to challenge you to start this today. Focus on one of these three things every day for a week. I am venturing to say that by the time this week comes to a close, you just might have a better, happier human experience. Because of it. Leave me a note in the comments. I would love to know what you think about all this. I want to know which one of these you're going to practice this week. Which ones are you really good at and which ones needs some refining and some work. Friends, come back next time and let's throw more encouragement around like confetti. But be careful. If you get too close. You just might get some on you. Until we meet again. Remember, there is always something to be thankful for. I promise. Ciao! Thank you for joining me Desiree Melfi Bozzo for this episode of life out loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment. Tell me what topics you want to talk about and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text, a friend the link share it on social media. Or if you're interested in becoming a supporter, be-bop over to my web page life out loud at me and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time sweet listeners.