What is happiness? Sunlight dancing on the surface of the ocean? Clean sheets? Puppies frolicking in the snow? For many of us, it can be any or all of these things and more, but in this crazy, fast-paced, workaday world, how do we find the time to enjoy such simple pleasures?
According to personal development and spiritual growth coach Mariya Swanson, the answer is balance and bliss. Achieving balance between mind, body, and sol, Swanson claims, is the key to tapping into our inner joy. “We are all divine,” writes Swanson on her website, the OmniApproach, “and it is each of our duties to ourselves, as well as to our fellow beings, to vibrate at the frequency of our truest divinity.” The question remains, then, how do we learn to vibrate with divine vitality?
To help you begin, Swanson has created a quick quiz on her website that can provide you with an indicator of the level of balance in your life.
Here’s the link http://www.theomniapproach.com/quiz
As a Libra, I couldn’t resist the temptation. Once you click on the above link, you’ll be directed to a short, 4-question quiz that asks you about your daily activities, how you process emotions, the way you use your brain, and how and when you exercise. Based on the results, you’ll either be declared a bliss guru or, like me (spoiler alert) be told you need to make some balance adjustments in your life. Apparently my idea of balance, which involves holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a chocolate chip cookie in the other while still managing to type this article, isn’t quite what Swanson had in mind.
Given that, according to a 2013 Harris Pole, only 1 in 3 Americans claim to be happy, my results aren’t terribly surprising; this made me feel slightly better. It took me a few minutes to appreciate that having my fellow Americans to keep good miserable company with cheered me up, so in addition to being unbalanced, I’m also apparently irony impaired. (Whatever. One problem at a time.)
Based on the information the quiz gathers from you, you can take a few minutes to reflect on how you might begin to shift the life scales a bit. Play less Trivia Crack, and jog more. Spend less time on Facebook and more time actually sitting opposite your bff at the local Starbucks. Pace your viewing of the latest season of House of Cards instead of binge-watching it in its entirety on a Saturday night. The key thing to keep in mind, however, is moderation. Too much of anything, even a good thing, leaves less room in our lives for other good things. So take the test and become a balance guru!
Featured photo credit: mrhayata via Flickr via flickr.com
