Creating Happiness Habits with Barbara Ellison

Do you have any happiness habits? On today's episode, Barbara Ellison shares why it's important to take action so you can make happiness a normal part of life. Barbara is a Transformational Life Trainer specializing in teaching how to have the physical, mental & financial fitness to age gracefully. On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast: Barbara shares the challenge she faced after becoming a widow How Barbara determined what to do with her life What to do when you don't know what to do Why Barbara believes happiness should be the norm in life The shocking number of days per year that people wake up grumpy How to start creating more happiness in your life The problem with "positive thinking" The value in forgiving yourself Why complimenting someone is a simple yet powerful practice Barbara explains why it's not selfish to be happy What to do when you wake up feeling "out of whack" Connect with Barbara email: Barbara (at) trendsinmarketingenterprises.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-ellison-midlifementor/ Resources: Cartoon Search Engine: PerfectCartoon.com Quick Links: Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community Intuitive Business Coaching The Live. Love. Engage. Book Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube. TRANSCRIPT Gloria Grace Rand: Namaste. And welcome back to another edition of Live Love Engage. I don't know why I always say that, cuz I know the intro just plays and tells you that this is the name of the show. But, ah, you know, I like to do it anyway. So I wanna, I wanna welcome you all here and I wanna welcome our guest, who is a delightful woman. I know we're gonna have a lot of fun chatting today. No pressure. But anyway, her name is . Her name is Barbara Ellison. So, welcome to Live Love, engage Barbara. Barbara Ellison: Well, hi there, Gloria Grace. How are you doing today? Gloria Grace Rand: I'm doing fabulous. Yes. And yeah, just, just fabulous. Cause I get to do this. I mean, this is like the highlight of my day when I get to talk with people. So Barbara Ellison: Isn't it the truth? That's a for me too. And first of all, thank you so much for having me. I mean the, I remember the first day we, the first day we actually chatted, it was like, ooh, kindred spirit. Gloria Grace Rand: Hmm and absolutely. Barbara Ellison: And always when you find the people that are in alignment with what, with what you're doing, it's like, that's where the magic happens. So thank you so much for having me. Gloria Grace Rand: Absolutely. All right. So I know you're all wondering. Okay, so who is this lady? And you know, what, what has she got to say that that's gonna be useful? So Barbara is a transformational life trainer, specializing in teaching you how to have the physical, mental, and financial fitness to age gracefully, basically to make the rest of your life the best of your life. And she is on a mission to actually make happiness the norm rather than the exception. So yeah, that's definitely what we're all about here. You know, it's live fully, love deeply, engage authentically, and, and, and if you're not, if you're not happy, you're certainly not gonna be able to live fully Exactly. Or, or do any of the other stuff for that matters. So I'd like to usually start off with just asking our guests a little bit about themselves in, in particular, how you wound up becoming this transformational life trainer. Barbara Ellison: You know, I, one of the things for me, and this I, I think, applies to everybody that is in this space, whether they're a speaker or a coach or a consultant or whatever it is, it starts with their own, with their own journey. And my journey started when I lost my husband 10 years ago. And when I woke up from my widow's fog, which is a tangible thing, and I can tell you exactly where I was sitting and what I was doing, it was like, okay, I, and in that minute, I now know that that's when my mourning stopped. And I realized that David had died. I had not, which was a revelation. However, at that moment, I also realized that I had no idea who I was outside of all the labels that I, myself, and society had put on me. You know, I was a daughter and then I was a wife, and then I was a mother, but then I was divorced, so I was a failure, but then I was a success again because I got remarried and then became, uu know, I was a wife again and I became a grandmother and I had a business, but now I'm a widow. Gloria Grace Rand: Hmm. Barbara Ellison: Who was I in all of that? And Gloria Grace, it was absolutely the most scary moment of my life. Gloria Grace Rand: Hmm. Barbara Ellison: Because it was like, now what? I had no idea. I knew what I didn't want, but I had no idea what I did want. And that was the scary part. But I said, you know what, for heaven's sakes, Barbara, you've been brought up that you pick yourself up, you go on and you're gonna figure this out. Well, I did a smart thing. I joined a coaching pro program called The Ultimate Game of Life. Give them a plug. I loved it. It got me going on my journey. But then one day my coach, his name was Phil Black, "Hi Phil," and he shared with me that he also was a coach for another company, and they were going to be having an event in Montreal. Well, I'm from Montreal, and I was going to Montreal to visit my family. He said, well go to the event. Barbara Ellison: And I said, okay. Well, I went thinking I'll just go to the first session, I'll leave, fulfill my duty as my friend has my friend and coach, and then I'm done. Well, I was glued to my seat and by the second day it was like, this is what I wanna do. I wanna become a personal development trainer and learn how to, because I am not the only one that is in this situation. Whether it's through the loss of a loved one, or loss of a job or whatever you're facing retirement. That's a big thing for a lot of men. They're facing retirement and they have no idea who they are outside of the title that they've had for 40 years. Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah. Barbara Ellison: And that was the start of it. And then several years ago I had the privilege of being part of a and it was called the Next Impactor. And after, after it, one of my friends said, well, Barb, what do you wanna do next? What do you, you know, what what do you want? And I said, you know what, I just want people to be happy. And that was like, it came from the bottom of my soul. So everything since then is about, Hey, I want, I'm on a mission to make happiness the norm rather than the exception, you know, because I truly believe that God, that we deserve to live happy, healthy, financially free, abundant lives. So now everything that I do is in that, in that space. And so now I love it. But now I'm 72, so , now I'm working with the people that are got, have gotten older. The baby boomers. Right. The baby boomers make up 30% of the population, and a lot of them are retiring. Mm. A lot of them are hitting middle-aged. They're becoming, women are becoming empty nesters. Yeah. Ooh, Yikes, who am I outside of being a wife and a mother? Gloria Grace Rand: I know. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's scary. And, and, and I know a lot of, I'm, I'm in some empty nester groups ostensibly to do some research really for, for, because I wanna be able to work with those types of, you know, women going through that as well. But it, it's, it's interesting. I mean, I'm an empty nester, and yet Yeah, I went through a little bit of, you know, missing of, of my kids. But some of these women, God bless 'em, they are just so bereft and, and they just, yeah, absolutely. And I, I love that. That's, you know, that again, Barbara Ellison: Here's my . Gloria Grace Rand: You've got a little kitty there wanting to be on camera. I see. Yes. Barbara Ellison: Yep. Anyways, so Sorry, Gloria Grace Rand: , you know, our cats are our babies. It's all good. Exactly. Barbara Ellison: They want attention. They want attention. Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah. For sure. You, you mentioned something, I wanna actually kind of go back to this because I thought this was, this was an interesting point that you made. You said that you, you knew what you didn't want to do, but you didn't know what you did want to do. And how was that for you? Because I, I can, you know, I it is, it seems like it is, it's really easy to start coming up with the things of what? Of, you know, okay, yeah, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that but I know I experienced this after my sister passed because. I was at an, an event and someone wanted us to, you know, imagine this life, you know, this new life. And it was like, I was coming up blank. It was horrible. Barbara Ellison: Exactly. I was blank. Yeah. What do I want? Well, let's start. And that's what I tell my clients, if you have no idea how to move forward because you're just stuck in where you are, okay, let's eliminate, let's go back, let's take a step backwards. Let's sit and breathe with, okay. What do you not like about your life right now? Gloria Grace Rand: Hmm. Barbara Ellison: Oh, hmm. Well, I didn't know, I didn't wanna go back to what I was doing as a, as a business that was, you know, my husband and I had done it together, and I just couldn't, even though, even though we were making income from it and a regular income with it when he passed away, when he got sick, It was kind of fell by the wayside a little bit because I was focusing on taking care of him for two years. Gloria Grace Rand: Sure. Of course. Barbara Ellison: I wasn't focusing on doing a business. So it kind of fell by the wayside a little bit. And then it was like I couldn't pick it back up aga