Finally Effing Happy™ - A podcast for kick-ass women living with chronic illness.

9. Toolbox Talk: The Magic Elixir of Laughter. An Interview with Robert Rivest, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer.

Laughter is the best medicine.  Seriously!  It frees our emotions.  Can shift our perspective.  Reduce overwhelm.  Increases oxygen flow.  Releases neuropeptides that decrease stress. Connects us with others.  Breaks down barriers.  And all while having heap loads of fun!    

In this episode, I interview Robert Rivest, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer.  He shares his journey to peace and stillness through motion and activity.  With 40+ years of experience in the mindfulness field, he shares his wisdom, his experience, and of course, his laughter.  

Takeaways from today’s episode:

1. Take time to share with someone who has contributed goodness to your life how much they mean to you (even if you think they hear it a lot from other people).
2. You can simultaneously feel rooted and grounded yet light and free.
3. There is stillness in movement.  Ease in effort.
4. Laughter Yoga is the quickest delivery system of the mind-body health benefits of laughing.
5. Laughter dissolves all the walls between us.
6. Motion creates emotion.
7. Sitting, standing, walking, smiling and laughter can all be meditation.
8. We can get through heavy things with laughter. 
9. Laughter helps to open the emotional valve, so that emotions that may be stuck can flow through.

How to connect with Robert Rivest, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer
For everything go to >>> https://www.robertrivest.com
Robert’s YouTube Channel >>> https://www.youtube.com/user/robertrivest
Robert’s FaceBook Page >>> https://www.facebook.com/robert.rivest.7/
Robert’s Instagram >>> https://www.instagram.com/robertrivest/

 

The Carol Rivest Foundation
http://www.carolrivestfoundation.org/home.html

The Dynamic Neural Retraining System
https://retrainingthebrain.com

How to connect with Shannon Klenk, Happiness Coach & Self-Care Strategist:
Learn >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com
Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList
1:1 Discovery Session >>> bit.ly/discoverysessionwithshannon

8. Sisterhood Stories: It’s really ok to be pissed - and how to get past it! An interview with Ronda Barney, L.C.S.W., R.D.

It’s really ok to be pissed - and how to get past it!
An eloquent interview with Ronda Barney, L.C.S.W., R.D

Can you do this one moment?  Just this one?  

I introduce you to Ronda Barney, L.C.S.W., R.D.  In this heartfelt interview she shares that despite all her professional experience, she found herself managing illness right after the birth of her first child and needing to implement all the strategies she taught to her clients.  She shares the joys, the moments of surrender, the heart, the grief, and the beauty of living a rich, full, connected, joy-FULL life even with illness.   

This is Episode One in Finally Effing Happy’s Sisterhood Stories, a series of interviews with kick-ass, can-do women who share their journey to joy through chronic illness.  You are not alone!  There is strength in our stories.  And it is an honor to get to share them with you.  Together we are powerful!

Today’s takeaways:

• It’s okay to be pissed at your illness - for a while. 
• The anticipation of having to struggle over and over and over again, keeps us from living in the moment.  Can you do this one moment?  
• Don’t do it alone! 
• You can’t control the future moments, but you can control what you are doing right now.  
• Learning to ask for help can be a gift.  
• The littlest things can be the most powerful.
• Sometimes the thing we are afraid we are going to lose as a result of our illness, is the very thing we are given as the greatest gift of our illness.
• When you deal with the emotional aspects of your illness, your body can heal easier.    
• Your body is a gift.

Here’s where to find Ronda and A Dose of Hope:
Facebook Community >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/adoseofhope/?ref=share
Waitlist for Letters to Susan (Ronda's book) >>> rondabarney.com/waitlist

Here’s where to find Shannon and The Finally Effing Happy Sisterhood:
Learn >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com 
Facebook Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Instagram >>> https://www.instagram.com/finallyeffinghappy/
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList

7. Happiness Hack: 3 Ways to Quickly Shush the Shoulds

Stop should-ing on yourself. Seriously!  Here are three quick & easy hacks to elevate your energy, lighten your mood, and be kind to yourself, even on low energy days.  They are a little goofy, but I promise they work.

Takeaways:

• Make a commitment to NOT 'should on' yourself today.
• Underneath every should is a very valid feeling & need.
• Your needs are divine.
• When you say, “I should,” what you are really saying is, “I/this situation/whatever is not enough.”
• You are enough!
• Regardless of what is going on with your body, you always have a choice where to place your awareness.  And where awareness goes, energy flows.
• Love is the most healing power!

 

Facebook Group >>>   bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Free Discovery Session >>> http://bit.ly/discoverysessionwithshannon 

 

Learn More >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList

6. Happiness Hack: Stay fueled like a firetruck! Be ready for whatever life throws at you.

Happiness Hack:  Putting The 3 E’s to Sustainable Self-Care™ into ACTION!

Does a firefighter wait until they get an emergency call to fill the gas tank of the firetruck?  No.  They stay fueled up.  

And you need to stay fueled up too!  So when life strikes (be it your energy, kids, or work) you are fueled up and ready to go.  But how?    

Join me Sundays at 8PM Eastern, in my free Facebook group at bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup to pick your self-care Essentials for the week ahead and calendar your Extra (but regular).  We’ll write them down and generate some energy and enthusiasm for the week ahead.  It is super simple and super effective.

Self-care is NOT about self-worth.  I once heard someone say if you want self-esteem, you need to take esteemable actions.  And The 3 E’s to Sustainable Self-Care™ are the easiest way to get, and stay, in action.  

Learn >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com
Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList

5. The 3 E's to Sustainable Self-Care! Self-care made simple with this easy system - seriously!

Hey beautiful!  As a woman who lives with chronic illness, I never know when I am going to have an off day (or week for that matter!).

It is CRITICAL that I am fueled up and taken care of so that I am at my best whenever I am needed (and as busy women, we are needed A LOT).

In this episode I share my signature Self-Care System that will fuel YOU and allow you to better serve others.  Even when life with chronic illness feels hard & depleting, it doesn’t have to be.

And it starts with taking care of YOU!  

Takeaways from today’s episode:

1. Consistent baby-steps of self-care create a strong and solid foundation.   
2. The 3 E’s to Sustainable self-care are: Essentials, Extras (but regulars), Extravagants.
3. Pick 2 or 3 (no more) Essentials to focus on each week and the snowball effect will take care of the rest.
4. Extra’s but regulars only count if you put them on your calendar.
5. Intention is the secret sauce of self-care.
6. Imperfect action beats perfect inaction every time.  - Harry Truman 
7. Motivation comes when we can see the purpose and progress of our actions.
8. Use your sisterhood.  Strength does not come from figuring it all out yourself.  Strength comes from asking for support from your sisterhood, even over the littlest of things.

Learn >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com
Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList

4. Self-Care & The Sacred Pause

Hey beautiful!  Sometimes you just need a sacred pause.  I sure did!

In this episode I share tips & tricks on how to listen to your body & spirit when you aren’t getting done all the things you want to get done.  When you aren’t moving as far or as fast as you’d like.  How to take a sacred pause.  (PS.  I just took a four week one!)

Takeaways from today’s episode:

1. Don’t judge your insides by everyone else’s outsides.
2. Keep moving.
3. If you are disappointed a project isn’t moving forward as fast as you would like, pick one thing, just one, to do everyday toward your goal.  
4. Give yourself permission to listen to your body.  
5. Schedule your energy/bandwidth, not your time.  
6. Prioritize what is most important to you and say no to the rest.  

Be well & be kind to you today!  

Learn >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com
Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList

3. Happiness Hack: Finding Happy Even When You Feel Like $#@! How life tried to knock me down this week.

Life tried to knock me on my @$$ this week.  How do you handle it when your chronic illness ‘flares’?  Is your happiness contingent on feeling physically good, on your A-game?    

 

I share what I did this week to find & feel joy, see & enhance the good in my life, even though I was physically feeling awful.  I want happiness even on the days when I feel like crap.  And I want that for you too!  Here are a few key takeaways:

1. If you live with chronic illness, happiness can be found even on the days when you feel like crap or are having a flare-up.
2. Words have power.  The words you use to talk to yourself about your flare-up have power.
3. Wonder Woman's bangles balance her great power with great love (self-love that is).  
4. I may be powerless to stop a wave, but I am NOT helpless or hopeless.  Ride the wave!
5. There are two concurrently moving paths to recovery: one internal, one external.
6. When you are feeling strong, set up self-care systems... so that, on days when your chronic condition flares, you have nourishing self-care at your fingertips.  
7. Don’t do it alone!  

And… be kind to you today!

Learn >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com

2. Take a Stand for Your Happiness! What Science Says About How Happiness Heals.

Take a Stand for Your Happiness!  

What Science Says About How Happiness Heals.

 

There is a lot of science behind why happiness is important to your health.  But first, you have to give yourself permission to be happy.  No, really!  It’s amazing how many incredible women hold themselves back from diving into happiness.  And if you live with chronic illness, happiness can be hard to achieve or maintain or experience, especially on those days when you physically feel crappy.  

 

I hope you take a stand for your happiness and here are few takeaways from today’s episode:

 

1. Give yourself permission to be happy.  Right now.
2. Action is more important than knowledge (I know how to do a sit up, but I do not have six pack abs!).  
3. Outside circumstances contribute only about 10% toward our sense of happiness.  
4. Data shows people who are happy have more energy, are more creative, are faster, more accurate, heal quicker, have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, live longer, and so much more.  
5. Three primary happiness destroyers are comparison-itis, lack of close friendships, and holding onto resentment.  Like you didn’t already know that!
6. People who have faced great adversity actually have higher rates of happiness than those who have not faced great adversity.  
7. “You can either give up, or work for change.”  - Michelle Obama   

Don’t give up on your happiness!

 

Enjoy! 
xoxo 
Shannon 

 

Learn >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup 
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList
Connect with Shannon >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com

1. How I got Finally Effing Happy living with Chronic Illness

Welcome!  To Finally Effing Happy.  A podcast & community for kick-ass women living with chronic illness.  I’m Shannon, Happiness Coach and Self-Care Strategist.  I’ll share my story, happiness hacks, self-care strategies, and amazing fellow warrior women living with chronic illness.

 

Today’s episode introduces my story, my heart, and my journey to joy living with chronic illness.  My illness wasn’t diagnosed until my early 40’s, so I spent much of my life not on my a-game.  Nonetheless, I have found happiness using a combination of internal and external strategies; internal, mindset COMBINED WITH external, self-care strategies.  I have built a self-care superstructure that allows me to consistently ‘practice happiness’ so joy is within reach even when my body is not feeling at it’s best.  And I want that happiness for you too!          

 

Today’s takeaways:

1. Happiness is to be had, even if you live with a chronic condition.  I am not my illness, and neither are you.  
2. There is a balance between acknowledging and honoring the chronic condition, and not letting it be the driver of every day.  
3. Happiness is welcoming all emotions and facing them head on.  Happiness is not denial.  
4. Self-care is both internal mindset and external self-care.  
5. Don’t do it alone!  Challenges are eased when shared and joy is doubled when done together.  

 

Community >>>  bit.ly/finallyeffinghappygroup
Email List >>> https://bit.ly/TheEffingEmailList
Learn More >>> www.finallyeffinghappy.com
Connect >>>  finallyeffinghappy@gmail.com