Monique Rhodes is a Happiness Strategist who teaches students and corporations around the world how to master their lives. She has spent the last 25 years studying the mind and its relationship to happiness and suffering. Over 70 universities and colleges use her program The 10 Minute Mind®. Monique hosts the daily In Your Right Mind podcast, where she discusses how small habits determine our well-being. In 2010 Monique received a nomination for the New Zealander of the Year Award.

Highlights

• Long-term depression and a suicide attempt led Monique to discover why she had such a hard time being happy. She traveled around the world learning what she needed to teach what she does today.
• The ability to shift happiness levels is available to everyone.
• People often have to reach a place where the status quo is so painful they have to make a decision to change.
• How we frame things determines the decision we will make about how to move in a new direction.
• Happiness is a habit.
• Almost everything is a habit and habits often form as a result of our past experiences.
• Our mind is the root of our happiness and suffering.
• For Monique, her superpower for understanding her mind is meditation.
• Meditation practices can change the structure of the brain.
• You make the decision to be either happy or unhappy.
• Happiness means that you can cope with whatever is going on in your life. It is the absence of suffering.
• We are programmed to believe that attaining things will make us happier.

Links

Monique’s website

Take the happiness quiz: www.howhappyami.com (loads slowly)

Monique on Facebook

Monique on Instagram

Tips for Prosperous Living

I’ve spoken to a number of people recently who, despite being stable financially, worry a lot about money and their future. In this episode, I provide some suggestions for letting go of money worries.

Highlights

• When you start worrying about money, ask yourself, “What am I afraid will happen if I run out of money?”
• Worrying about money makes it harder to generate money. I explain why.
• Worrying about your money can have a negative effect on your health.
• You can’t just stop worrying about money, you have to teach your brain a new response to how you usually think about money. I give examples.
• If you are worried about your financial future, you are making up a story that doesn’t exist. Tell a different story.
• You need to develop the skills that are necessary to make more money. This includes financial skills, business skills, and more.
• You can’t fulfill your dreams of a positive future unless you understand the habits that have gotten you where you are.
• Create a superhero in your mind who keeps telling you that you’re doing fine no matter what you’re telling yourself.
• You have the power to change your life if you’re willing to become aware of your habits and change the ones that aren’t serving you.
• Start noticing how you talk to yourself and how you worry about money. When you notice how you are worrying, take a few deep belly breaths and tell yourself something positive about what you’re doing.
• Your brain is wired to see the negative. This was originally a survival technique.
• It’s a matter of teaching your brain how to re-perceive where you are.

Links

Astara

The MetaMind Circle