I was lying in bed the other night, trying to fall asleep. But, as we all know, our brains love to think up some crazy thoughts at odd hours of the night. The wheels kept turning, and it got me thinking about my values, and how those values impacted my overall happiness. There are core themes that I strive to live by that contribute to my idea of success, which is HAPPINESS. It inspired me to share with you 7 Core Themes to Live By for a Happier Life:

Love

Above anything else, I try to approach everything I do from a place of love. Obviously, I fail at times - I'm not a perfect human. I have my share of moody, sassy, rude days, but those days are not super frequent. If we strive to come from a place of love, we will find ourselves in happier, healthier, and more fulfilling relationships. Even when you butt heads with someone, do it from a place of love and hopefully you can come to a more peaceful resolve. Which brings me to my next theme...

Peace

If I'm stressed out or overwhelmed, I remind myself to stop and take a breath. Sometimes I even close my eyes and plug my ears with my thumbs, so I can hear the sound of my own inhales and exhales. It brings me back to my center. To channel my own inner-peace, I acknowledge what is weighing on me, but I tune into my priorities in life, and what truly makes me happy to find a more peaceful state of mind.

Focus

To succeed in anything in life, we must focus. We've become scarily good at multi-tasking, but when you give something or someone your complete, undivided attention, your capacity to love, learn and receive is that much greater. I am guilty of doing a dozen things at once, but lately, I've made a conscious effort to change that in hopes that it will strengthen my productivity and relationships.

Intention

Time is of the essence. We're busy. We work long, hard hours, and there is not a lot of time to spare. So, when you dedicate your time to something, ask yourself what is your intention? And when you nail down your intention, fully commit to it and intend on doing it well.

Intuition

I'm not always great at this, but I really want to be. I have two very intuitive friends (ahem, Natalie & Margo) - they are so in touch with that 'gut feeling', and they are able to act (or not act) upon something based off of that feeling. There have been so many times when I say, "Ah, man... I should have listened to my gut." But at the time, I didn't know what my gut was telling me. Surrounding myself with other intuitives is inspiring me to dig deeper into my own blueprint of emotions, so I can recognize when my instincts are trying to tell me something.

Soul

I'm a very passionate person, and I do everything I love with dedication, soul and great attention to detail. If I do find myself not connecting to something, then the soul aspect is missing and it probably shows. This may ring true to most - your loved ones can tell when something makes your heart light up and when it brings passion to your eyes. This is an incredible feeling, and we all deserve to experience this. Don't ever feel like you're too stuck or too late to do what feeds your soul.

Drive

Several of these themes go hand in hand - LOVE and SOUL overlap with drive. You will have drive if you LOVE what you do, and therefore, you will put your heart and SOUL into it. If you aren't feeling the connection, then find something else! Life is way too short to waste time working on something that isn't bringing the fire into your heart. I know it's not always easy to walk away from something, and it is definitely not always something you can choose to do overnight. But, if you're lacking the drive, make a list of actionable steps you want to take in order to drop what's not serving you and gain what does so you can hit the ground running!

I hope these themes resonated with you! I would love to hear what themes you personally apply to your life. Share in the comments below or feel free to email me, as always.