Wellbeing, The Science Of Happiness, Self Care, Personal Development, Happy Life Habits, Happiness, Habits, Connection
Shaileen Shah
A Thousand Mile Journey Begins With The First ...

Is you life too busy, boring or bland? If yes, read on, focus on self-renewal and energy management making your life beautiful by prioritising how you use your energy, time and attention to engage in activities that help you flourish, thrive, have zest and engagement to feel fully alive.

The year 1994 was a defining year in my life. I was just reflecting and realised that 2024 marks 30 years since I started my personal development and growth journey.

A Thousand Mile Journey Begins With The First Step...
Grief, Wellbeing, Self Care, Relationships, Mental Health, Inspiration, Happiness, Habits, Gratitude
Shaileen Shah
A Christmas Care - Role (Carol) Who Cares? for ...

In the story of Jesus’ birth there are three kings who come bearing gifts. In Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol there are 4 ghosts who visit Ebeneezer Scrooge. His business partner Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

On 11th Dec 2020 our world changed when my father suddenly passed (https://www.happylifehabits.co.uk/news/2020/12/24/live-love-learn-amp-legacy) away within 36 hours. He was the primary carer for my mum. We had the gifts and ghosts of : Old age, Grief, Loneliness, Parkinsons and Dementia. That was part of our inheritance.

Without those gifts and ghosts this article would not be written, published and shared.

As time goes by the probability that someone close to you will be impacted by dementia is increasing. 

“One of the hardest things in life is to know that you can not stop the decline as you witness firsthand the diminishing cognitive capacity of a loved one due to progressive incurable neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s or Dementia. 

To observe them becoming a shadow of themselves day by day; the impact on their physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing. Knowing there is nothing you can do to stop that decline. Experiencing the loss each day as anticipatory grief.” 

Shaileen Shah - Carer, Happy Life Habits Coach, Speaker and Trainer.

This article is about my role as a carer for my mum who is elderly, grieving, lonely and suffering from the progressive and incurable neurological conditions of both Parkinson’s and Dementia. It shares the perspective of the carer, the challenges faced, how best to look after yourself as well as how to look after and interact with someone who has these conditions or someone you are caring for. 

I salute all those who are carers of any type and ask you to support those who you know who are doing a caring role.

A Christmas Care - Role (Carol) Who Cares? for the Carer? Dementia/Parkinson's/Old Age/Grief/Loneliness
Community, Spirituality, Values
Shaileen Shah
LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

The blog was not planned. The fantastic Mel Robbins video The World Needs Your Light prompted a thread connecting various content. The essence is about being the light, shining our light. This is by living and expressing our virtues, qualities and values. The World Values Day and the Book Club help by recognising the values and virtues that are important to us, how we become Heroic in expressing them each day to be our best and contribute to positively serving the world.

For those who have joined the book club or ordered the book from Happy Life Habits watch this video on the Heroic 7 Objectives to get a sense of what the book is about and how we use it to be our Heroic Self.

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE
Happiness, Happy Life Habits, Inspiration, Habits, The Science Of Happiness, Wellbeing
Shaileen Shah
Every Day Happiness

In addition to being a coach, speaker and trainer, I am now also an author of the ebook, “Every Day Happiness”.

‘Every Day Happiness’ provides understanding, tools and habits we can utilise to navigate a world with rising uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. This increase makes more demands on our Physical, Mental, Emotional, Social and Spiritual Wellbeing. Everyday Happiness is a nonfiction book written for professionals, business owners, leaders and managers reminding them to choose to put Happiness and Positive Emotions at the heart of everything they do. Thereby they will have better happiness, mental and emotional wellbeing, productivity and life satisfaction in all areas of their life.

Every Day Happiness
Connection, Gratitude, Happy Life Habits, Happiness, Values, Personal Development, Purpose
Shaileen Shah
Gratitude is my Super Power

Gratitude is my superpower. When I am immersed in the feeling of gratitude I come alive, have hope, optimism, see some many possibilities, am creative and very productive. My whole energy is different - feel very positive, connected and grounded.

  • Gratitude is my Superpower

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Gratitude is my Super Power

habits

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End Of Year Review 2023

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Review 2023

At various points in the year I take a moment to review the preceding time period and what is forthcoming. This is often at the end of the year with the Looking Back, Looking Forward workshop, the middle of the year and sometimes ad hoc too.

Like journaling, writing and sharing the review helps me celebrate the wins, learn from the challenges, see growth and gratefully acknowledge the opportunities.

My chosen highlights for 2023

Here are the themes for my chosen personal and professional highlights for 2023 with a brief example. Details on these continue in the blog article.

Commitments, Learning & Habits-

The projects and roles I have committed to I have delivered on. What has helped is consistency, focus, intention & creativity. I have worked from my strengths, stretched, stepped out of my comfort zone, attempted new ideas, used a growth mindset, been resourceful and drawn upon my various past experiences.

Social Connection and Celebration - Various birthdays and anniversaries are celebrated including milestone ones.

Rest & Renewal - much needed overdue holiday break in Kenya with Masai Mara Balloon Safari, forest walks and relaxation at the beach

Community Service & Volunteering - Mental Health Awareness Week digital support and masterclass on Anxiety

Achievements & Creative Innovation - Becoming a certified Heroic Performance Coach from 300 Day coaching program

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Mental Health Awareness Week: Anxiety Resources

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Mental Health Awareness Week: Anxiety Resources

The Week of Mental Health Awareness is ending. Mental Health is ongoing. We need to put in effort and practice to maintain good Mental Health and Mental Fitness.

Included in this blog article is the recording of the Anxiety Master Class sharing a concept from the Bollywood film The 3 Idiots, suggestions on dealing with exam/test anxiety/stress and actual scientific backed practices to help cope with anxiety. We are also sharing the resources such as videos, articles and pdfs shared during Mental Health Awareness Week.

To live life fully, develop skills and habits for positivity, happiness, resilience and productivity 

Happy Life Habits provides 1 to 1 coaching, group coaching, workshops, training and regular learning sessions and programs such as Master Mind Group, Inner Compass the 30 Day Gratitude & Journal Habit Immersion Training Course. All with science, practices and information to help you go from Theory to Practice to Mastery.

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Back to the Future: Creating memories to Savour

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Back to the Future: Creating memories to Savour

The word savour (savor in American English) is an interesting word, it is a verb. It has at least 2 meanings in the dictionary:

  1. To fully enjoy the taste or smell of something

  2. To fully enjoy a time or experience

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The 7+ Highly Effective Morning Habits of a Happiness Coach

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The 7+ Highly Effective Morning Habits of a Happiness Coach

Recently I had the opportunity to contribute to a feature in the Metro on Tips for better/happier/mentally healthier mornings. I submitted my morning Happy Life Habits and was very pleased that they used a few of them. I hope you find them useful and take action to apply them. We have trained many on Gratitude and Journaling. If you need support you know who to call (Not Ghostbusters but Shaileen at Happy Life Habits!).

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What strategies do you use to keep calm through challenging situations?

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What strategies do you use to keep calm through challenging situations?

On the Happy Life Habits Community Facebook Group we regularly share quotes, reflective / thought provoking questions, articles and events. We recently asked “What strategies do you use to keep calm through challenging situations?” and have a good response to it.

May prove to be useful this month as students get their “A” Level and “GCSE” results.

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Self Care for Blue Monday

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Self Care for Blue Monday

The 3rd Monday in January is known as Blue Monday when many people feel at their lowest, depressed and unhappy.

This is supposedly due to some factors occurring at a similar time which include Christmas being a fading memory, payday still a week away, January bills coming through, rest of the year still to go through, high hoped resolutions broken, cold, gloomy weather, pandemics, working in office/ from home, world crisis’ and such factors.

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LOOKING FORWARD

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LOOKING FORWARD

The 3rd Monday in January is known as Blue Monday, a day when many people feel low or more depressed due to various factors. This year is falls on Monday 18th January 2021. Previously, I wrote about Blue Monday and some ideas to combat it.

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To Be or Not to Be? – That is the question or is it a choice? Be a Caterpillar, Become a Butterfly

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To Be or Not to Be? – That is the question or is it a choice? Be a Caterpillar, Become a Butterfly

This article is about learning, change growth, development and transformation.

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LOCK DOWN LAB: LIFE BY DESIGN - YOU THE ARCHITECT

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LOCK DOWN LAB: LIFE BY DESIGN - YOU THE ARCHITECT

This and the few related articles are about the golden opportunity we have for learning, change growth, development and transformation. Moving from a caterpillar to being in a cocoon to become a butterfly. They blend ideas and snippets on needs, mindsets, zones and actions from Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins, Abraham Maslow, Carol Dweck, Nelson Mandela, Robin Sharma, Forrest Gump and a few others.

This one looks at the idea of a Lockdown Lab and moving from a zone of fear to learning to growth and to contribution.

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MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

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MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

A long time ago, in galaxy far, far away …actually it’s about here and now.

I couldn’t resist using Star Wars one of my favourite films and franchises.I have wanted to write about some of the observations and reflections I have about people’s behaviour during the pandemic. I wasn’t sure what to title it or how to actual phrase some of the ideas as they were forming but I think a thread has developed so here goes.

I am currently reading The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey. It’s a book that I have had for over 15 years (as you know I am a Covey and Habits fan), but had not been able to get traction into this books till now. A quote near of the beginning of the book worth contemplating is:

ALL THAT IS NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS THAT GOOD MEN DO NOTHING - Edmund Burke

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THE UPS & DOWNS OF A HAPPINESS COACH: CRAVING CONNECTION

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THE UPS & DOWNS OF A HAPPINESS COACH: CRAVING CONNECTION

As an experiment, for my own happiness and a way to serve I am going to chronicle as a diary some of my thoughts (ups and downs) and actions during this pandemic. Things that I am doing and finding beneficial to my all round happiness and well being many based on the themes shared in Together in Isolation .

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TOGETHER IN ISOLATION

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TOGETHER IN ISOLATION

Together in Isolation

Finding Certainty in Uncertain Times :

Living during Coronavirus pandemic

Dedicated to every beings happiness on the UNs International Day of Happiness March 20th.

Shaileen Shah - Happiness Coach - Happy Life Habits

I started this blog article as a refreshing relish from the recent weeks of brain fog clouded by confusion, worry, uncertainty, anxiety, fear, helplessness and distraction. Anyone else felt the same?

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Happy New Year! See the year starts with Happy so be happy. I have recently gone through a year end review using a wonderful tool called the year end compass. I wrote about it last year when I first discovered it. This year I was able to spend a bit more time going through it more thoroughly to reflect on last year and to consider themes for this year. I found the process really enjoyable, useful and contemplative. I spread it over a few days as opposed to doing in one sitting. It allowed me to remember and savour the happy moments, absorb and accept the sadder moments, consider the things learnt and really appreciate the opportunities and moments of joy experienced. With that I gratefully thank all who have supported me on this journey; be it words of encouragement, coming to or sharing about workshops, investing in a happiness journal or two and encouraging others to do so also; creating opportunities for me to share at groups, communities and companies or reading this blog . Thank You.

A few questions from the year end compass:

What is the wisest decision I have made…?

The biggest risk I took …?

The biggest surprise of the year…?

The most important thing I did for others…?

Who are the three people who influenced you the most?

What are the the people you influenced the most?

Plus many more.

Then there are sections to look forward to this this year which included:

This year I will no longer procrastinate any more on…

This year I will be bravest when…

This year will be special for me because…

Take a moment to consider your answers to the questions .

I created a worksheet with some of these questions for the class I teach of 14-15 year olds at Veerayatan SCVP Jain School. It is part of work we are doing in sharing life skills with Habits and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers being the focus. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Really enjoying researching, think about and developing the content to share.

The 3rd Monday in January is known as Blue Monday, a day when many people feel low or more depressed due to various factors. Last year I wrote about Blue Monday. Again my friends at the Museum of Happiness are hosting a Winter Happiness Festival on Sunday 19th January 2020 to coincide with Blue Monday. I am volunteering there, I have enjoyed the previous 2 festivals.

Speakers include:

  • Clinical psychologist Dr Shelley Kerr of Balanced Minds, who will share the science of self-compassion and offer practical tools and techniques to give you full permission to be kinder to yourself

  • Best-selling author and behavioural change expert Shahroo Izadi will share how self-kindness is the key to changing unwanted habits, and how to make meaningful sustained changes in any area of your life

  • Former contributing editor of Ethical Performance Magazine Adam Woodhall of Extinction Rebellion will motivate and inspire us on how to be kinder to animals and the planet

  • Founder of I am Circle Nina Bubamara will conclude with a reflective session to connect and reflect more deeply, champion our creative expression and individuality, and set strong intentions to take action for a happier, kinder world.

We’ll close with a loving kindness meditation for the world and some ecstatic dance to shake off what no longer serves you.

This is a fundraiser to help the museum continue to do the fantastic work it does. Details here if you want to get tickets.

On February 14th (Valentines Day) and February 28th, both Fridays I will be sharing workshops on Happier Relationships at Veerayatan SCVP Jain School in NW London. These sessions are free and open to all.

SCVP Happiness Feb 2020.jpg

Resources

Year End Compass

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About the Author

Shaileen Shah is a Happiness Coach, Speaker and Trainer. Previously having been in finance technology for the investment banking arm of RBS during the RBS takeover of Natwest, the RBS takeover of ABN Ambro and the financial crisis he has experienced the challenges brought by uncertainty, change and stress. He is certified in The Science of Happiness and shares through Happy Life Habits. Happy Life Habits Positively Impacts Happiness & Well Being Levels by creatively and uniquely combining Personal Development + The Science of Happiness + Spirituality. A business for Good; supporting the UNs Sustainable Development Goals. For more information see HappyLifeHabits.co.uk.