After one hundred and four reflections, it might be timely to consider how my smaller cup has changed – what have I learned? 

I was not aware that gratitude and kindness were such essential ingredients to well-being.  Being mindfully grateful at least three times a day and doing three random acts of kindness a week is the best vitamin remedy available.

Consciously re-framing your present moment to have a (more) positive perspective is often self-fulfilling.

Letting go of judgement sure makes your life easier (but letting go is not easy or automatic).

40% of our well-being is determined by our intentions.  We have significant control over our intentions so we can materially improve our sense of wellness.

Meditation, even when done poorly, does help you control your thoughts and emotions.  This improved thought control empowers a lot of intentional well-being behavior and habits.

The ten positive emotions (love, joy, gratitude, pride, serenity, hope, awe, amusement, inspiration, interest).  I like to regularly take an inventory to see which I am neglecting and which are rewarding me.

Money has limited influence on well-being, unless you are in difficult financial circumstances.

Having a smaller cup that grows and is reasonably full gets me through my day.

Pushing your risk taking appetite is empowering, and being too easily frightened runs counter to your well-being.

The peak-end rule.  When we remember an experience (holiday, friendship, diner party, course), it is the best (or worst) moment and the last moment that most influences our re-collection.  Knowing this, plan your upcoming experiences accordingly, especially the end.

Be a human being not a human doing.  This is helpful to your well-being - seek to be in the present moment more, and avoid multi-tasking wherever possible.

Being kind, compassionate and generous to others richly rewards your spirits and wellness.

Pleasure (now, short term) and purpose (later, long term) are opposite ends of the happiness spectrum.  Make sure that you attend to both, as you are likely biased towards one or the other.

The five second rule: count backwards from five and then GO - do whatever you are hesitating or being pensive about.

And, similarly you might wonder how your well-being journey has changed – what have you learned?  Rather than a New Year’s resolution, do a last year’s self-reflection and be grateful for how you have improved your well-being.

And if I might recommend something to read, it would be The Chimp Paradox:  what an amusing, well-being eye-opener it is.

Reflection Source: www.Smallercup.org

Please freely share and widely, there are no copyright concerns.