Hal Elrod: Hello, friends. Welcome back to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. I’m your host, Hal Elrod, and I am so excited, in case you couldn’t tell, to talk about today’s topic, how to be happier in 2025. Now that we’re kicking off a brand new year, I want to focus on something that I think, actually I know we all want, and that is happiness and not just fleeting moments of joy, but real, lasting, sustainable happiness that carries us through the highs and the lows of life.

And today, we’re going to explore the science of happiness, drawing on the latest research and studies, while mixing in a few personal stories from my own life and what’s been working for me to be happier. And we’re going to end with actionable steps that you can start taking now to be happier in 2025 and beyond. I’m also going to introduce you to a new concept that I’ve been developing while I write one of my next books. It’s called The Miracle Life. That’s not the concept. That’s the book. The concept, we’re going to dive deep into what I call consciousness conditioning. My goal is to make this episode as practical and inspiring as possible so that you walk away feeling empowered to create your happiest life.

Now, before we dive into the episode, I want to take just a minute or two to thank our sponsors that bring you this show every week. First and foremost is Organifi. Now, if the last couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that stress and anxiety can cause a lot of harm to us, both mentally and physically. Stress can take a perfectly healthy person, and almost overnight they can suddenly be afflicted with poor sleep, weight gain, fatigue, mental fogginess, you name it. So, the question I want to ask and answer is how do we prevent or reverse this?

Well, cortisol, the stress hormone, is supposed to spike when we’re in danger, but the modern world has our cortisol spiking all day long, fear-mongering in the news, clickbait headlines, and endlessly comparing ourselves to others on social media has our stress hormones absolutely flooding our body. The good news is some rare superfood adaptogens have been shown to help reduce cortisol quickly, and that is found in Organifi’s Green Juice, perfectly balanced with ashwagandha, the main active ingredient. It’s been shown in multiple studies to reduce cortisol and stress.

This delicious drink also features ten other superfood ingredients that work synergistically in the body to promote natural detoxing, more energy, and even healthy weight management through reducing cravings. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal. That is spelled O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I, Organifi.com/Hal and get your Green Juice, the flagship product that put Organifi on the map over ten years ago and it will help you lower your stress, manage your weight, feel better, have more energy. That’s Organifi.com/Hal and look for their Green Juice.

And then last but not least, I want to invite you to check out the Miracle Morning app. Whether you use a Google phone, an Android, an iPhone, you can get the Miracle Morning app in the iPhone App Store or the Google Play store. It has a 4.9 out of five-star rating with over 5,000 reviews. People love the app. And here’s the cool part, two new features this year that have never been part of the app. Number one, the Miracle Morning Premium Plus subscription gives you two subscriptions for the price of one. So, you get to invite someone to give them a free 12-month subscription to the app so they can be your accountability buddy, your Miracle Morning partner in crime, whatever you want to call it. But you get to give a second subscription for free to somebody that you love in your life.

And then last but not least, we are doing live events this year. I did our first one a couple of days ago, The Miracle Year Live Event, and we have three more that now come at no additional cost as part of the Miracle Morning app. So, if you want to start every day in an easy way that brings the concepts in the Miracle Morning book to life and helps you put them in practice by simply clicking play, check out the Miracle Morning app today.

All right. Without further ado, let’s dive in, how you can be happier in 2025 and beyond.

[EPISODE]

Hal Elrod: All right. To start, let’s talk about what happiness really is. Researchers often describe it as a combination of two things. Number one, life satisfaction, so how you feel about your life overall, and number two, moment-to-moment emotions like joy, gratitude, and love. And one of the most misunderstood aspects of happiness, the myth, if you will, is we often think that it’s filling up all the time, like filling just high, excited, enthusiastic. And that’s not sustainable. That’s not happiness. Those are elevated emotional states that are often fleeting. But happiness is far more rooted in a state of contentment and peace and well-being.

And it’s interesting, as I say those words and I try to connect with that sustainable state of happiness, I smile like I wasn’t planning on smiling as I said those things, but when I said happiness is a state of contentment, I smile really big when I say that. Peace, I smile really big. So, think about that difference between what we often mistake for happiness, which are these elated, elevated, peak emotional states that are fun, right? They’re fun but that’s not what we’re ultimately after. It’s more these sustainable, peaceful, joyful, grateful states.

Now, one of the most fascinating studies I’ve come across recently is the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has been tracking people for over 80 years. Now, the key finding is that the biggest predictor of happiness isn’t money or fame or even good health. Surprisingly, I thought that would be up there. It’s the quality of our relationships. Think about that for a second. It’s not what you have, but who you have that matters most. And this really hit home for me when I thought about my own relationships. Last year, I made nurturing my relationships with my family my number one priority, specifically with my wife Ursula, my 15-year-old daughter, and my 12-year-old son. It’s my core family. Nurturing my relationship with them was my number one priority.

And I realized that my happiness is directly affected by the quality of my relationships with my wife and with our two children. Now, I also branched out in nurturing relationships with my grandmother, who is 91 years old, my grandma, Sally, with my mom, with my dad, with my sister. These were all also important for me, but they took a second priority to nurturing the relationships with my family. And in fact, I’ll talk more about this in a little bit. We talked about the connection between happiness and purpose. But my purpose in life is to serve my family. Those three people, my wife Ursula, our two kids, serving my family at the highest level is my number one priority, my purpose in life. And everything else in my life, work, everything else revolves around that. Of course, there’s a correlation. Working is serving my family because I am the provider for our family.

So, think about that in your own life. Who are the people closest to you? Picture them now. Who affects your happiness the most and how might you pour into those relationships this year? How might you make one of your goals, if not your most important goal, your mission for the year? How might you identify a purpose that is rooted in optimizing, nurturing, serving your family and your relationships? Or not your family necessarily, the people closest to you. It might be your friends. It might be your boyfriend or girlfriend or fiancée or your children, whoever it is for you. What are the relationships that affect your happiness the most? And based on that Harvard study, remember, the number one predictor of happiness is the quality of our relationships. So, which relationships will you pour into this year?

All right. I want to talk about the science of gratitude. One of the simplest and most effective ways to boost happiness is through gratitude. There’s a correlation, of course. And you think about it, I think gratitude in some ways is like the highest, or you could even say the deepest, depending on how you look at it, form of happiness. It’s the most sustainable. In fact, studies show that regularly practicing gratitude can increase happiness levels by up to 25%. Personally, I disagree. I think it’s by like 80%. I think it’s way more than 25%. But there was a 2003 study by Dr. Robert Emmons and Dr. Michael McCullough found that people who kept a weekly gratitude journal felt better about their lives, were more optimistic about the future, and even exercised more, an interesting finding.

Now, and again, I would disagree a little bit here with the weekly gratitude journal. I personally think daily, like why would I not want to be focusing my consciousness, which we’ll talk a lot more about in a little bit, but focusing my consciousness on the things in my life that I’m grateful for and cultivating those feelings of heartfelt, soulful gratitude? Why would I not want to do that on a daily basis? So, maybe in the study, when they said the weekly gratitude journal, maybe they meant that you’re writing it daily, but you look at it weekly. I’m not exactly sure. They didn’t clarify that. But a gratitude journal is a game changer, putting your thoughts what you’re grateful for, focusing on them, and then solidifying them in writing.

And then when I do it, I look at what I wrote. I put my hand on my heart. This is me personally. I close my eyes. And I take a few deep breaths and I allow that gratitude to wash over me, if you will. A lot of times if I wrote down someone that I’m grateful for or an experience with someone like right now, I’m picturing me and my son throwing the football the other day. He loves jumping on the trampoline. And I don’t for whatever reason. I just don’t enjoy it. I don’t like jumping on the trampoline. He loves it. So, we found this great – but I always want to throw the football. That’s what I like to do but I usually would jump on the trampoline because that’s what he wants to do.

So, the other day, I don’t know whose idea it was or it might’ve happened by accident but he was jumping on the trampoline. I was off the trampoline and we were throwing the football and he loved it and I loved it because I didn’t have to jump on the trampoline. I got to throw the football. Well, he got to do both. So, anyway, my point is that day I wrote that down in my gratitude journal and I then put my hand on my heart and I just closed my eyes and I’m smiling right now as I remember this. But I’m picturing him on the trampoline and I’m seeing him laughing and smiling and I’m seeing me throw the football and I’m seeing it right now. My eyes are closed. And I’m seeing him dive for the football and roll around.

I’m reliving the experience and allowing that gratitude to wash over me. And there’s a big difference between what I call intellectual gratitude, which is checklist gratitude, right? It’s like if someone asked you, “What are you grateful for in your life? Make a list,” and you’re like in your head about it thinking, “My family, check. That I have a roof over my head, check. That I have a job that pays me money, check.” Intellectual gratitude is when you’re up in your head thinking about it. Heartfelt, soulful gratitude is when you’re allowing it to wash over you. When you’re allowing your nervous system to experience gratitude, the kind that makes you smile and maybe even the kind that makes you cry. Right?

Like, the most heartfelt, soulful gratitude is probably going to bring tears to your eyes. But for me, gratitude has been a game changer. It’s part of every Miracle Morning, part of my Miracle Morning routine. I write down the things I’m grateful for. And sometimes the things are, you know, they’re big like my family’s health or God. But other times it’s the little stuff, like a good cup of coffee or a sunrise or throwing the football with my son, which to me, that’s a big, actually, it’s a big thing. But starting the day with gratitude sets the tone for everything else. And then I bookend the day with gratitude. So, as I’m falling asleep at night, I’m praying and thanking God for my life and for my wife and for my kids and for my health and for the bed I’m sleeping in.

And then I’ll run through the things that happened that day. And I’ll thank God for the things that happened that day. And I fall asleep. This is part of my Miracle Evening routine, putting myself in a blissful state for better sleep. And so, that, for me, gratitude, bookending my days where I end the day and begin the day by putting myself in a state of heartfelt, soulful gratitude. So, I encourage you, if you don’t have a gratitude practice everyday, and specifically gratitude journaling as they found in the study that Dr. Emmons and Dr. McCullough performed that will increase your happiness by focusing on the things that you are grateful for.

I want to talk about happiness and purpose. I mentioned earlier we were going to go here. We’re going to shift gears and talk about purpose, which is a big topic. But if you’ve ever felt like your life was missing something, chances are you were missing a sense of meaning or a sense of purpose, right? Those are synonyms for each other. But research by Dr. Martin Seligman, he is one of the pioneers of positive psychology, has shown us that living with purpose is one of the five core elements of well-being. You know, we’re not going to cover the other four right now. We’re going to talk about this one specifically. And, for me, I’ve found purpose in helping others, whether it’s this podcast or the books I’ve written or the speeches I give, or the Miracle Morning app, which for me, reading reviews from the books, the app like that is a reflection that living my purpose is working, it’s meaningful, it’s really helping people.

But here’s the thing. So, my purpose has grown to be elevating the consciousness of humanity. That’s one of my purposes. And, yes, you can have more than one. You don’t have to limit. I’m only allowed one purpose in life. No, I have a purpose to serve my family at the highest level. That is my core purpose. It takes priority over all others. But I have a purpose in my work, to elevate the consciousness of humanity one person at a time, one morning at a time. That purpose is what drives everything that I do in my work because what I’m asking is, does this project help elevate human consciousness? If I partner with this person, are they in alignment with helping elevate human consciousness? Every person on my team on the Miracle Morning team is aligned, or at least they’ve convinced me that they’re aligned with elevating the consciousness of humanity.

So, that purpose drives everything that I do. And then serving my family, going back to that purpose, that drives everything that I do because I won’t say yes to a work project even if it elevates human consciousness if it conflicts with my primary purpose, which is to serve my family at the highest level. So, purpose can be big and change-the-world type stuff, but it doesn’t have to be massive. It can be as simple as showing up for your family or volunteering or pursuing a passion project or it could be that your purpose is to be the happiest person that you can possibly be and then affect others with your happiness. And my purpose has evolved over the last 20 years at one point. And all of these like when I reflect on past purposes, they’re all still part of like, I still live by all of them.

One of them was to fulfill my potential so that I can help others do the same. So, my purpose, that was the first one when I was probably in my early 20s, I think after my car accident, it was like, “Oh, it’s my responsibility to overcome my challenges and fulfill my potential so that I can help other people overcome their challenges and fulfill their potential.” So, when I was 20 years old after my car accident, that was my very first purpose. And it was born, by the way, from me reflecting on, “Why did this happen to me? You know, God, why did I get hit by a drunk driver?” And I’m being told I’m never going to walk again like, “Why did that happen?” And not from a victim questioning, not like, “Why did this happen? Oh, woe is me, poor me.” But like, really genuinely like, “What’s the purpose of this? How can I use this experience for good?”

And it was, “Oh, maybe it’s my responsibility to take this challenge, this car accident head-on.” Pardon the pun, right? Head-on car collision, taking it head-on. That’s my first book, by the way, Taking Life Head-On. So, I definitely utilize that pun. But anyway, yeah, that was the first purpose was, “Oh, I’m committed to fulfilling my potential and overcoming my challenges so that I can hope others do the same.” And by the way, you can borrow any time you hear someone share a purpose, of course. Right? It’s not like they’re trademarked. I mean, I guess you could trademark your purpose, but you might go, “Oh, wow. That resonates with me.”

Maybe it doesn’t, but you might go about. Actually, I can identify with that. I also have been through a lot in my own life and maybe my purpose, and you might not have even realized it. Like, you can retroactively apply your purpose to your past. Meaning, let’s say in the past you went through difficult circumstances in your life, whether it was your childhood or recently, a few years ago or whatever. And at the time, maybe you didn’t have a growth mindset. Maybe it was a victim mindset. And it really destroyed you or it really took a toll on you. And maybe you really felt sorry for yourself and it wasn’t fair and on and on.

Well, now, hearing what you just heard me share, you might go, oh, maybe, even though I wasn’t applying that purpose when this thing happened five years ago or ten years ago or last year, I could apply it now where I could reflect on the adversity that you faced, you could reflect on the adversity you faced. And then you can ask yourself, how can I overcome that challenge? Or how did I overcome that challenge? And maybe it’s in a way where your purpose is to help other people that are going through the same challenge, right?

If you faced domestic abuse and you made it through, and now you’re on the other side of it, you’ve healed emotionally or you’re healing emotionally, maybe it’s not 100% and never will be. I don’t know. But now, you can help other people do the same. So, that was my first purpose. My next purpose, 2005, I was, what, 26 years old, I defined my purpose to selflessly add value to the lives of others. It was inspired by a book I read by Tim Sanders titled Love Is the Killer App, and I started applying it to every aspect of my life.

That’s one thing that I liked about purpose. It’s kind of my criteria is, is the purpose universal in terms of can you backtest every choice that you make against this? Or can you apply it universally to your life? For example, my purpose is to fulfill my potential so that I can help others do the same. And that included overcoming my challenges that I had faced. Well, every single day of my life, I can apply that purpose. Every day of my life, I can strive to fulfill my potential in service of others, so I can strive to fulfill my potential while I’m also trying help other people do the same. That’s every day of my life.

So, a purpose isn’t like this one little niche, specific thing, at least not the way that I embodied or define it. It’s universally applicable to your life. My second purpose, it was the same thing, selflessly add value to the lives of other people. I could do that every single day, every day, in every conversation. I mean, I applied that in my work where I would always try to help my colleagues to achieve their goals. I was selflessly adding value to their lives, whether it wasn’t about me. It wasn’t like, “Well, what’s in it for me if I help person?” It was, “No, this person needs my help. I have the ability to help them. I’m going to selflessly add value to their lives and help them in a way that I can.”

I applied it to my relationships with my… at that time, my wife and I, we had just met. We were dating, but I applied it to her life, applied it to my parents, applied it to my garden, like you name it. I was always trying to add value to every possible person that I could, even strangers at the grocery store, like at the restaurant, right? I was just through spreading joy and asked, like, for example, and I do this to this day and I’m not special, I’m not bragging or anything, but it is cool though, my kids do it now. So, it is actually cool that your kids are paying attention, right? Leading by example.

But I always find out the person’s name of every person that I’m talking to, from at the grocery store, and the guy or gal that’s ringing my groceries. If they have a name tag, I call them by their name. If they don’t have a name tag, I ask their name. Same thing if I’m at a restaurant or at the bank. And I always try to just ask how they’re doing. I try to be positive. I’m striving to add value to their life. Even in a little tiny way that they may remember, it could make their whole day. And I definitely have that happen where someone will tell me like, “Wow, you’re so positive. I really needed that today. I had a hard morning,” right? Like, that’s the trait. So, you’re applying your purpose universally. And now, my purpose is to… they’re all kind of connected. It’s to serve others to the best of my abilities, and that begins with my family. Like I said, my primary purpose is to serve Ursula, my wife, and our two kids. And my life revolves around that purpose and that priority.

All right. So, what might your purpose be if you don’t have a purpose? Well, if you have a purpose that you’ve already defined and written down and, again, you can have more than one, what is it and are you living it? Is it front and center in your life? Is it part of your daily affirmations? Are you reading it every day? And if you’re not, I’m encouraging you to incorporate purpose in your life, incorporate purpose in your life, because again, Martin Seligman, in his research, has proven that one of the five core elements of wellbeing, meaning mental and emotional wellbeing is living a life of purpose, which gives you a sense of meaning.

All right, I want to dive into the last and maybe, the most important part, saving the best for last, of how to be happier in 2025 and beyond. And this is how to be happier for the rest of your life, which is really what today’s episode is about, but it starts in 2025, since that’s the year that we are in the midst of. We’re going to talk about what I call consciousness conditioning. And this is a concept that you are possibly hearing for the first time. It’s something that I have been developing while I’m writing The Miracle Life book. So, the Miracle Life book is my… it’s actually not my next book. My next book is The Miracle Morning After 50. That will come out first later this year for people over the age of 50. We were going to call it The Miracle Morning for Seniors, but we realized that most people don’t identify as seniors until they’re like in their 70s, 80s, 90s. And as we were writing the book, we realized this is really applicable for the second half of life, which we thought 50 was the number to begin.

But anyway, that’s neither here nor there. So, I’ve been writing the book The Miracle Life on the side while I’m editing The Miracle Morning After 50. And consciousness conditioning is the concept that I’ve been developing. And I believe this is the ultimate key to lasting happiness. It’s the intentional practice of training your mind and nurturing your emotional and spiritual wellbeing to elevate your experience of life. I’m going to say that again. So, consciousness conditioning is the intentional practice of training your mind and nurturing your emotional and spiritual wellbeing to elevate your experience of life. Similar to physical conditioning, like weight training, working out, you do it consistently day after day after day in order to elevate your physique, your physical body, your strength. But it’s not something that you can do every once in a while and see meaningful results, right? If you condition your body every once in a while, it’s better than nothing, but you’re not likely to see lasting sustainable results.

So, to talk about this concept of consciousness conditioning, we’ve got to start with defining consciousness. What is consciousness? And this definition, by the way, I mean, you can look up the Merriam-Webster definition. I’ve defined it in different ways, and my definition is always evolving. In fact, it evolved just the other day as I was talking with Jeremy Reisig. Jeremy Reisig aka J Hobbs is the chief growth officer at the Miracle Morning. He’s also the head coach. He’s also been my accountability partner for 20… what are we at, 21 years, or 20 years. And I was sharing with him my definition of conscious conditioning. And then he expanded on it. I’m like, “You’re right. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

So, talking about the definition of consciousness, consciousness is your awareness. In one word, by the way, it’s awareness, right? It’s the you, your soul that’s hearing this right now, that’s seeing through your eyes. So, consciousness is your awareness of yourself, your thoughts, your emotions, and the world around you. I’ll say it again. Consciousness is your awareness of yourself, your thoughts, and the world around you. Think of it as the lens. That’s another… the word lens really for me, helps me envision and visualize, see what’s consciousness. It’s the lens through which you view your life.

And also, something that came up for me recently as I was working on the Miracle Life manuscript is that I thought of it this way. If consciousness is the lens through which you view your life. Beyond that, it’s both the eyes and the heart of your soul. The eyes and the heart of your soul. Here’s what I mean by that. As the eyes of your soul, consciousness determines how you see the world and your place in it. Do you see the world full of fear and scarcity and struggle? That’s one lens that you can view the world. Your awareness, your consciousness could be that of fear, scarcity, struggle, destruction, evil, you name it. Or do you see beauty, an abundance, an opportunity? Because both of those, the fear, scarcity, struggle, the negative, we’ll just call it negative aspect, the negative lens of the world and of your life, and then the positive lens, beauty, abundance, opportunity, love, you see people helping people, both of those lenses are equally realistic, but which one you choose to view the world and your life.

And by the way, this applies to how you view yourself. Do you see yourself based on all your faults and flaws and mistakes? Or do you see yourself based on your heart and your strengths and your accomplishments and the progress you’ve made? Because which lens you choose to condition determines the quality of your life. So, as the eyes of your soul, consciousness determines how you see the world, see yourself, see your life, and see other people. And again, in the simplest way to think of it as either it’s a positive lens or it’s a negative lens, right, one of those two. And for most of us, it’s both, right? We see through both lenses.

But you have to consider, what kind of life do you want to live? Think about that. You only get one life and you get to choose how you experience your life based on your consciousness, based on the lens that you choose to view the world. And the reason I call this consciousness conditioning is because let’s say you are assessing that, you go, “Well, I view the world through a negative lens. I’m really stressed out. I’m really worried. I’m really scared. I’m really afraid of the future. I have a lot of people in my life that I don’t trust that have done things wrong to me.” Like, if your experience of life has been that, then that has conditioned your consciousness and it has essentially informed the lens through which you view your life. So, you have to ask yourself, do you want your life to be like that forever? Do you want to continue to view the world and experience life through this lens of fear and stress and scarcity and anxiety and struggle and seeing other people as a threat or to do harm to you? Do you want to continue that? Or I don’t know about you, but I want to experience, and by the way, I experience all of that, just to be clear. I’m not impervious to fear and scarcity and struggle and anxiety and stress, like no, I experience all of that.

Consciousness conditioning is what helps me to be at peace with the pain in my life and in the world. Not to deny it, not to imagine it’s not there, not to ignore it, but not to dwell on it. Not to dwell on the unchangeable aspects of our lives that we can’t go back in time and change and we can’t change other people. And there’s a lot of things in our lives we can’t change or control. So, we get to choose, what am I going to focus my energy on? And by the way, the gratitude practice that we talked about a little bit ago is one of the keys to conditioning your consciousness every day to see the beauty and the love and the abundance and the opportunity and the generosity that’s all around us all the time. So, again, as the eyes of your soul, consciousness determines how you see the world and yourself and others. And it’s your responsibility to choose the lens through which you view the world.

Now, I mentioned that consciousness is also, you can think of it as the heart of your soul. So, consciousness, as the heart of your soul, determines how you feel about your life. So, are you filled with gratitude and love and hope and joy and optimism? Is that how you’re choosing to feel and experience your life? Or are you consumed by resentment or fear or unhappiness or dissatisfaction? The way that you see and feel about your life, again, the way you see the eyes of your soul, the way you feel the heart of your soul, your level of consciousness directly shapes your experience of happiness. And here’s the most empowering part. You have the ability to condition your consciousness, to elevate it, just like you train your body through exercise.

All right. So, we talked about what consciousness is. I gave you two different ways to think about it in terms of the eyes of your soul, how you see the world, the heart of your soul, how you feel about your life and about other people in your world. So, what is consciousness conditioning? I mentioned it earlier, but we’re going to circle back to it. Consciousness conditioning is the daily practice of intentionally nurturing your mental, emotional, and spiritual states to increase your happiness and your resilience. It is a way of strengthening your inner world so that no matter what happens externally, you can remain grounded at peace, joyful, optimistic. And just as you wouldn’t expect to achieve physical fitness without regular exercise like I talked about earlier, you can’t expect to achieve mental and emotional wellbeing without consistent conditioning.

Now, the good news is it doesn’t have to take hours a day. Small, consistent practices can have a profound impact over time. And the even better news, if you are already a Miracle Morning practitioner, is that you already are doing this. The SAVERS framework that makes up the Miracle Morning is the practice of consciousness conditioning. In fact, what is it? The cart before the horse, chicken before the egg, like I’ve been doing the Miracle Morning for years, and I do it to elevate my consciousness. It was only recently that I realized, oh, what I’m doing is, this SAVERS practice is daily consciousness conditioning, right? I am nurturing my mental, emotional, and spiritual states which enable me to be happier and more resilient.

So, I’m going to break this down step by step, meaning I’m going to go through the SAVERS, which many of you are already familiar with, but I’m going to talk about it from the perspective of consciousness conditioning. So, I just want you to think about this practice that, and maybe you’re new to the podcast and if you’re brand new, this is the Miracle Morning. It’s made up of these six practices known as the SAVERS, right? I’m going to talk about it in the context of consciousness conditioning.

So, silence, the S in SAVERS, meditation, prayer, etc., starting your day with stillness. Whether you’re meditating or you’re praying or you’re engaging in breathwork, it allows you to quiet the noise in your mind and tune into your inner peace. And studies show that even five minutes of meditation a day can reduce stress and improve your overall mood. Same thing with a minute or two or three of contemplative prayer, right? Whatever your method of silence is, you’re quieting your mind. You’re calming your nervous system so that you can be more conscious, be more aware, not be controlled by your thoughts that are bombarding your consciousness based on external forces, but you are now going within during that period of silence.

Now, affirmations, the A in SAVERS, allow you to rewire your thinking by speaking positive affirmations, but not positive affirmations that are phony. You don’t say, I am a millionaire if you’re not a millionaire. You don’t say, I have a perfect physique if you don’t have a perfect physique. Your positive affirmation should be rooted in truth, but it’s about replacing negative self-talk with empowering statement like I am in control of my happiness. You are. That is rooted in truth. Or I am grateful for the abundance in my life. That is rooted in truth. It’s allowing you to focus on, reprogram that negative self-talk with empowering statements. And over time, affirmations literally reprogram your subconscious mind to focus on what’s positive instead of what’s negative, what’s possible instead of what’s lacking. And that, in my opinion, affirmations are the linchpin, the anchor, if you will, for sticking with the A in affirmation to the anchor for consciousness conditioning because it allows you to be extremely precise in your language to program the thoughts that you decide will best serve you.

Now, visualization, I teach this in many different formats, most often mental rehearsal. But in this context, close your eyes. You do this now if you’re not driving. And imagine your happiest, most fulfilled self. What does that version of you look like? How do they act? What are their facial expressions? Visualization is a powerful tool that can activate your brain’s problem-solving abilities and prime you to feel the way that you see yourself feeling and most importantly, to do the things, take the actions that you visualize yourself taking toward your ideal life.

Exercise, we all know this, that moving your body boosts your mood. It doesn’t just strengthen your physical health, it also releases endorphins, the feel-good chemicals we talked about earlier in your brain. Whether it’s a morning walk or yoga or a gym session, movement is a direct path to happiness. And if you are not exercising every day, you are making it far more difficult for you to sustain lasting happiness. Just calling it like it is. You’ve got to integrate exercise into your daily routine. You got to move your body.

Reading, feed your mind with inspiring and uplifting content. Read books, articles, or listen to audiobooks or podcasts like this one that expand your awareness and help you grow. Part of elevating your consciousness is increasing your knowledge because when you… I’d give you an example, right? If you’re right now, let’s say you haven’t been happy lately and you’re focusing in all the things in your life that are wrong, and that is the reality that you are creating internally based on your external reality. Now, there’s infinite things you could focus on in your life that are good, that are abundant, that are positive, that you have be grateful for. But let’s say you’re not doing that, and most of us don’t, when life gets difficult, we allow our external reality to dictate and define and determine our internal reality. So, no judgment there. It’s normal. I do it, too. We all do it. But I’m trying to help all of us rise above that to a higher level of consciousness.

So, when you listen to a podcast like this or you read a book on happiness, you increase your knowledge around what’s possible when it comes to perspectives you can choose, practices you can implement, and you now have more abilities, more awareness. You’ve elevated your consciousness as to how you can be happier, what you need to do. So, when it comes to reading, choose content that fuels your motivation, your happiness, reminds you of what’s possible.

And last but not least, the S in SAVERS, scribing or a fancy word for journaling. Write down your thoughts including the stressful ones that you want to be at peace with. Putting them on paper and getting them out of your head is a powerful tool to create separation between the negative feelings that you have inside of you. When they’re on paper, you can look at them, you can observe them, you can analyze them, you can assess them. You can figure out where they’re coming from. You can figure out what you’re doing or not doing that’s causing those thoughts. You can take action to do it differently. That’s the first part of scribing is put down the negative thoughts, release them. Think of it as releasing them onto the paper. And then write down what you’re grateful for. Maybe three things, your negative thoughts, what you’re grateful for. We talked about earlier the gratitude journaling practice has scientifically proven to make you happier.

And then third, write down your intentions/commitments. The reason I say intentions/commitment is because I know that it can be difficult to start with a commitment when you haven’t even, like if you’re not in a really good empowered place with a lot of momentum, a commitment feels heavy. It feels serious, it feels scary, it feels challenging. And intention is just a desire, something that you want in your life. Start there. Start with the desire. Get clear on what you want. And then when you’re ready, make a commitment to do whatever it takes to make that a reality. And it might take… it might not be in the same journaling session, right? You might journal what you want, and then it might take you a few days or a week reflecting on what you want to get to the place of being ready to fully commit. And I want to give you that space and that grace to not have to go from zero to commitment, but go start, go zero to intention. What do I want? Start there. And journaling helps you process emotions, negative and positive, helps you gain clarity, helps you focus on what truly matters because it solidifies your myriads of tens of thousands of thoughts each day into concrete written words. It’s a simple practice, like writing down these things each day can shift your mindset and elevate your happiness.

And I’m going to close this out, two things. Number one, why consciousness conditioning works? Each of these practices, the SAVERS, builds your mental, emotional, and spiritual, you can call it muscle, right? We’re using the analogy of working out and conditioning your physical body. Consider this your mental, emotional, and spiritual muscle. So, when done consistently, the practices help you cultivate an elevated state of consciousness. And it’s a state where happiness becomes less dependent on external circumstances and more rooted in who you are and how you choose to show up each day. And to be clear, consciousness conditioning isn’t about ignoring challenges or pretending life is perfect. It is about equipping yourself to face life’s inevitable ups and downs with strength, with grace, and with gratitude. And when you elevate your consciousness, you elevate your happiness. And that ripple effect can positively transform not just your life, but the lives of everyone around you.

And I want to close out with action steps. If you haven’t already got a few from this episode, before we wrap up, let’s talk about some simple actionable steps you can take to be happier this year. Number one, strengthen your relationships. Make time for the people who matter most. This has impacted my happiness more than anything. Ursula and I are in the best place we’ve ever been in in our marriage, in our relationship in 20 years. Why? Because, I mean, I’m not taking all the credit for it, but I made it my number one priority. My number one priority was to serve Ursula, to be the husband that she deserves, to make her life amazing. That was my number one priority this last year. And like a close second was my children, but I realized that my relation with my wife affects the relationship with the kids, right? So, make time for the people that matter most to you and nurture those relationships.

And do it in writing, again, this has to be done in writing or doesn’t have to be. But if you’re like me, you’re going to forget. And this is going to be a podcast episode that you listened to, gave you some great ideas and some actionable steps, but you didn’t write them down and then you didn’t implement them and then you forgot about them and then nothing changed in your life, right? So, don’t let that be the case. Write these things down.

Number one, strengthen your relationships. Number two, practice gratitude daily. Start a gratitude journal or at the very least, take a moment each day to reflect on what you’re thankful for. Again, for me, I bookend my days. I do my gratitude journal in the morning and then I do gratitude prayer before I fall asleep at night. Begin and end your day in a state of gratitude.

Number three, find purpose. Identify one way that you can contribute to something bigger than yourself, whether it’s through work, volunteering, personal growth, like whatever it is. And again, my purpose in life initially was to fulfill my potential, which, hey, that benefits me. So, it’s not totally… it’s not selfless. Fulfill my potential so I can help other people fulfill theirs. Then it became selflessly add value for others, which was like I wanted it to be about service, not about me. And then now, it’s just to serve people to the best of my abilities, beginning with my family. So, identify your purpose in life and don’t worry about getting it perfect. It’s just an idea. Write down a purpose, borrow mine, make it up, Google, what are some good purposes in life? Ask ChatGPT, like whatever. Start somewhere, and then you can evolve your purpose over time. But you got to start somewhere.

Number four, take care of your body. Physical health is deeply tied to mental health. Even a 10-minute walk can boost your mood. Research from the American Psychological Association shows that exercise is a natural antidepressant. Again, it releases endorphins. Make sure you exercise. Move your body ideally every single day, at the very least, every other day or four to five days a week.

And last but not least, be present. We didn’t talk about this. But happiness often lives in the present moment. And on the way that I think about life is that the present moment is always perfect. This moment is always perfect. My circumstances might be challenging. There might be aspects of my life right now that I can think about that cause me a lot of stress. But I want you to take a moment to get present to this moment right now. I believe every moment exists as inherent perfection.

In fact, you might have heard me say that I believe every moment is the best moment of our lives if we choose to see it that way, to realize that there’s a difference between your life, which is this moment, always this moment, this present moment inherently perfect, and your life situation, which are your circumstances that are changing. And sometimes, circumstances are great and money is good, and sometimes you lose your job and you get a divorce and someone you love passes away and life’s challenging. But this moment, you can always find the joy and the perfection and the gratitude and the inner peace in the moment that we’re in.

All right, as we wrap up, I want to leave you with this. Happiness isn’t something that happens to us. It is something we create. It is about these small choices that we make every day. It is the mindset that we cultivate. It is the relationships that we nurture. So, let us make 2025 the year that we stop waiting for happiness to come to us. And instead, we create it moment by moment, decision by decision. It’s the time you spend with loved ones, the gratitude you express, the purpose you pursue. No matter what challenges come your way this year, know you have the power to create your experience in every moment, to create joy and love and connection and meaning in your life.

If today’s episode inspired you, I’d love for you to share it with someone who could use a little more happiness in their life. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to the podcast, leave a review. It really helps us to reach more people like you. And thank you for being here. Thank you for making a commitment to grow and elevate your life. And remember, your happiness is a choice. And 2025 can be your happiest year yet if you choose to elevate your consciousness through daily consciousness conditioning and make this the best year of your life.

Until next time. Keep taking small steps towards your goals, keep elevating your consciousness, and keep striving to be the best version of yourself. Thank you for being here. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your journey. Here’s to making 2025 our happiest year yet, and I’ll see you in the next episode.