Say no to procrastination. Postponing life for later means postponing your luck, your great mood, the love of the dear ones and the joy of watching your dreams and goals coming true. If you are to manifest your dream, start doing it today.

Take a pen, a piece of paper and write down your dream. Think creatively what it would need for you to manifest it. Break it into hierarchical smaller more realistic and doable goals - stepping stones – and start to brainstorm. Think how to achieve each of these smaller goals and what instruments and skills you would need to develop on the way.

Schedule and do things in a day that make you happy and release dopamine in your brain – for this is the secret to happiness. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in our brain and is a “feel-good” hormone. It does not get produced automatically and has to be earned because there is always a shortage of it. Dopamine is released when we do something important for ourselves: organising our life, setting goals, developing a new skill, growing our resources or when we achieve our goal.

If the goal is perceived as important and achievable by our brain, it will release dopamine that in turn, will allocate all the necessary resources in our body for us to achieve it: energy, motivation and concentration.

When you set a goal to run 5 kilometres for your health and well-being and you reach your target, dopamine will be released in your brain. You will feel good and you want more of that feeling. That is why many sportsmen become addicted to exercises because they feel great after they go to the gym. This is because their brain learned to release dopamine once they accomplish their target in the gym and with time they get addicted to that “feel-good” feeling (release of dopamine). You had a good night sleep – dopamine produced. Learned new and helpful skill and dopamine is rushing into your brain making you feel good and elevated.

It is the achievement of meaningful goals, even small ones, that brings joy and happiness to us because of the release of dopamine. We experience a feel-good injection and our self-esteem and self-respect rise.  

When we feel lazy and fatigue and do not feel like going to the gym having no strength or energy, the only way to get out of that suppressed state and feel great again is to set a goal: for example, to bring yourself to the gym and run. You can set a goal of as little as to run for only 15 minutes and you can even promise yourself that after you run for 15 min you will leave that gym. However, what happens is that once you get to the gym and start running, a small dopamine injection will get released. Once you finish those short 15 minutes your brain will get a signal that you have accomplished a set goal and dopamine will be released into your brain again. You will feel good about yourself: your self-esteem and self-respect raise and your vibes elevate. The result is achieved - not only did you do something good today for yourself and for your tomorrow's health, good physique and longevity, but now your mood is elevated.

The more we set realistic goals per day, the more gratifying it will be for us to achieve them. The more things we do in a day that are good for us helping us to achieve our goals, the more dopamine will be released and the happier we will feel through the day.

Thus, prepare and set up the most rewarding routine for yourself in your day: include only those things that you want to do during the day and those that lead you to achieve your goals and mission in life. Threw away the rest of activities as unnecessary junk that steals your time, focus and life.

To remember to do the good things you want to do, set automatic daily reminders on your phone as mentioned in the previous chapter. For example, if you forget, set a reminder to make your bed in the morning or drink a glass of water with lemon and half a spoon of sodium bicarbonate to alkalize your body in the morning. Accomplishing even such little targets adds to your bigger goal. In reality, we do not even need so much time to do the things we really love or those that make us feel good about ourselves.

If going to the gym, having a swim in the ocean or learning to play a new instrument takes about an hour - just do it for yourself to feel happy. Once you start you will see the wonder: how each of your day will turn brighter and more fulfilling, how your life starts unfolding to unimaginable heights.

Our safety and us feeling secure (both physically and financially) is a foundation on which a feeling of happiness is built. Often the fear of the future prevents us from getting out of bed in the morning. This is our intuition signals us to take some action and stop procrastinating.

There is no need to fear the future or being anxious about it. You just need to include in your today an activity/ies that aim at resolving this issue.

‘How not to fear and not to worry? - Act. The aggravation of anxiety and fear is dissolved by action.’ – Vadim Zeland. We should always do something today that helps us to support our health, our well-being and our safety so we do not have to fear the future but to look forward to it in anticipation. All these different activities will release dopamine and you will no longer have anxiety and fear of tomorrow because you are working on it building your boat today. The best way to conquer your fear is to face it becoming proactive today and do something to resolve it. You must take time in your day to create your own security base for yourself and the loved ones in order to feel good today. Take some action, even if it is setting a goal and writing a plan thinking creatively and brainstorming all your ideas, what you are capable of and a set of new skills that are needed to be developed to help you to increase or generate new income streams.

Although we must control and direct our thoughts thinking positively and hope for the better, yet we absolutely cannot just hope for the favourable winds and not to take action to build our security and safety boat.

When you start being proactive and work on your security, your dopamine level will increase because you are working on accumulation of your resources – one of the activities releasing dopamine levels.

The reality is every day we are faced with a whirlpool of intervening things, institutions and people that take away our time and steal a part of our day. And sometimes it is important to react to the situation straight away in order to kill a starting problem at the route. However, many activities that get on our way are just destructive and unimportant for our goals and for our happiness. We should be mindful to remember that current tasks should not overshadow our goals

If you get carried away and catch yourself doing the things that add little value to your goals, to who you are and not making you feel great, then you should ask yourself if it is worth to continue. It all happens to us from time to time, so if you get distracted – just get back to what is important to you. Your automatic phone reminders will help you to keep your great routine.

Another tip, ask yourself regularly: Would I do what I am doing, and would I spend my day the way I am spending it, if I knew I was left to live 6 months? Would I like to do what I am doing now? It is a strong stimulus that sets our priorities straight, helping us not to waste our life on things that are unimportant to us.

Carve out time in your day to practice gratitude, plan for tomorrow, set your goals and track your results because all these things will release dopamine that will make you not only feel good, but also to ensure a good night sleep because dopamine plays a significant role in the quality of your sleep. And a good night sleep will ensure you are well-rested and in the best shape to enjoy all the wonderful things that you will be experiencing tomorrow.

In the evening, take a list and cross out all the goals you have worked on or achieved during the day. By crossing them out you remind your brain of the accomplishments you have made sending a signal to release more dopamine.

Perhaps, the most important thing that elevates your vibes to the highest is practising gratitude. To elevate them, write in your gratitude journal all the good things you experienced during the day and all the good you have in your life that makes you happy.

The next morning when you wake up, they will serve you as reminders of how much you have and how happy you are, acting as supporting pillars to start your day on a good mood. Apart from dopamine, feeling gratitude also releases serotonin - another neurotransmitter responsible for our good mood and happiness. 

Train your brain to stay in dzen ecstatic state

To stay in dzen ecstatic state[1] you need to practice it. Every time you practice gratitude, consciously notice how you feel in that current moment.

Do not allow negative events or people influence your happiness and steal your joy. If you allow them to steal your happiness, it is your decision and your fault, not theirs, in the same way as it is your choice to choose be happy.

When you practice gratitude for all the good that you have or when you do the activity that you love and feeling super happy (i.e. high amount of dopamine and serotonin release), look inside yourself, concentrate and remember this feeling. Pay attention to how your vibes have elevated raising at a higher level of frequency. Now photograph with your memory that feeling: when you are at the highest state. Keep that slide (that feeling) in your memory. Every time you feel bad slipping down to negative emotions (irritated, angry, annoyed, etc.) or dark thoughts, consciously catch yourself in that moment, acknowledge it and now take control over your thoughts and direct them to that state in your slide when you are happy and emanate good vibes. Consciously move yourself  to the state of happiness by jumping from the state you are now to that highest state - your slide, closing the gap. Experience that feeling of ecstatic state in your slide again. This is how you train your brain to release dopamine and serotonin - by the power of your thought and will. The more you switch from negative state to positive by hitting to that ecstatic state in your slide, the more you train your brain to generate neurotransmitters of happiness for you. Your vibes are high and you emanate great positive energy.

Once you start practicing and do it more often and later all the time, you will train your brain to stay in that ecstatic state permanently. Don’t worry about not getting it right from the outset. Just keep on practicing because practice makes it perfect. Remember, brain is like a muscle, you need to exercise it and it will learn. With every opportunity and every silent moment, go back to your slide and consciously elevate your vibes, thinking about the wonderful things you are lucky to have, or the great things you are doing or experienced today. Once you learn to raise your vibes and start operating at a higher level of frequency and constantly experiencing the feeling of joy and happiness, you will see how your life starts to unfold getting brighter and attracting good positive events.

[1] Here by dzen ecstatic state we mean a state of complete ecstasy when one immerses into feeling himself in full tranquillity and peace, not paying attention to the outside world, and experiencing the joy in his heart and with all of his being.

If you need help on mastering this technique, I provide one-to-one consultation.

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