If you've been around The Adult Chair® for a minute, you've heard me say that happiness is an inside job. We are so prone to believe that joy comes from our external circumstances, which leads us to strive and strive for what we think will finally make us happy and blame others for our unhappiness. But the reality is that nothing outside of us will be able to make us happy if we don't first cultivate a sense of joy and peace within.

My guest today, Monique Rhodes, discovered this truth when she went on her own journey of understanding what makes some people happy in life while others suffer. Though today she works as a happiness strategist and calls herself "annoyingly happy," this wasn't always the case. After a difficult childhood and a number of tragedies, she ended up in the hospital after attempting to take her own life, which led her to explore a wide range of cultures, philosophies and practices to figure out if happiness was something she could actually create in her life. And it turns out, she could! 

In this episode, Monique shares the practical habits she uses every day to cultivate a sense of happiness in her life and why they make such a difference in our mental state. These are all simple, free and fast practices that work by shifting our minds towards the positive and helping us see the good that already exists in our world. 

 

Listen to discover:

• The strategies that helped her go from depression to daily happiness 
• Practical tools to increase happiness 
• What meditation is and what it isn't 
• The cause of suffering
• How taking responsibility for our lives changes everything 
• Building healthy social connections for happiness 
• How to get out of a funk or take steps toward happiness if you're feeling depressed

We've all had that experience where we finally get the job, the house, the relationship, the body or whatever it is we've been wanting only to find that nothing about our lives really changes; we still feel sad, depressed or lonely. This is proof that our mental state is what drives our happiness, not things! 

Using the practices in this episode, you can turn up the positive in your life, which will help you find joy no matter your circumstances and help you be more present with the good things that do happen in your life – the icing on the cake of an already happy and peaceful life.

 

"Where we live is in our mind, and when was the last time that we cleaned out our mind?" - Monique Rhodes

 

"We believe that happiness and suffering comes from our external circumstances. But it doesn't. It comes from that mind that we just do not take care of." - Monique Rhodes

 

"We have emotional reactions that are triggered usually by things that happened in the past." - Monique Rhodes

 

"A meditation practice every day is a game changer." - Monique Rhodes

 

"With meditation, consistency is way more important than intensity." - Monique Rhodes

 

"Commit to something that you're willing to commit to, and if you don't have 10 minutes out of a whole day, you really gotta think about your life." - Michelle Chalfant

 

"I think being happy is our birthright." - Monique Rhodes

 

"You can find gratitude in anything. You just have to look." - Michelle Chalfant 

 

LINKS & RESOURCES 

Monique Rhodes Website

https://moniquerhodes.com/ 

 

The Adult Chair® Membership (April Theme: Emotional Regulation)

https://theadultchair.com/membership/

 

The Adult Chair® Private Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theadultchair/ 

 

MORE ADULT CHAIR

The Adult Chair® Website

https://theadultchair.com  

 

The Adult Chair® Membership

https://theadultchair.com/membership/

 

The Adult Chair® Events

https://theadultchair.com/events/

 

The Adult Chair® Coaching Certification 

https://theadultchair.com/certification

STAY CONNECTED

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelle.chalfant

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMichelleChalfantCo/ 

 

The Adult Chair® Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theadultchair/

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Michellechalfant