My Grandfather used to say, “The only constant in life is change.”  How true it is!

Ebbs and flows are a part of life; cycles and seasons don’t only correlate to nature, but are an integral and inevitable part of our existence.  While we all experience tears, joys, setbacks, and victories, it’s the flavor that you add to what you are experiencing (whether good or bad) that impacts your life.

In every moment, (YES! even this one), you add a flavor to your reality. The flavor, not necessarily the circumstance, is determining your taste of life: is it delightful or is it disgusting?

Because the human mind is so intricate, you often don’t realize that it is subconsciously injecting a unique flavor into each and every thought and situation. 

Let’s tap into some flavors to help sweeten up your life:

1. The Sweet Life Flavor: EXPANSION

A perfect start to implementing flavors of the sweet life is expansion (and growth versus stagnation or contraction). Our mind makes every decision based off two emotions:  Love or Fear.  Now sometimes, fear is good – you turn down a dark alley, can’t see clearly and hear some odd noises??  Baby, turn around. Expeditiously. Let’s take the long way... 

But more often than not, fear limits you.  When you see a challenge ahead, do you flavor it up as an opportunity to grow, or does it become a burdensome obstacle, that will ultimately keep you from moving?  In those crossroad moments, ask yourself what’s making you hesitate?  How likely is it to actually happen that way? Now, instead of considering all that could go wrong, consider all that can go right!

When you are faced with an opportunity, do you tend to go towards those that stretch and challenge you, or towards the option that you think will keep you safe, in your comfort zone? Which flavor do you think will serve your highest good, overall?

2. The Sweet Life Flavor: OPTIMISM

Ooo, this is a good one! Optimism is our next flavor. With anything in life, we don’t know how any situation will turn out.

When you get in the shower, do you worry about slipping and falling? For many of us, we just get in the shower and focus on getting clean.  Why not face life with that same optimism? 

For me, I have a very relaxed relationship with time (I actually think ‘time’ as we know it is a fictional concept and rebel against being a slave to the minute/hour, but that’s another conversation of another time).  Unfortunately for me, most people aren’t so relaxed.  I also understand rushing makes me  flustered and really throws my day, or whatever experience I'm rushing to, off.   What I find myself doing is telling myself, “I’m going to get there on time” and “I’ll get there with time to spare”, repeatedly.  Amazingly enough, no matter what time I leave home, I always get to my destination on time, with a bit to spare. 

How delicious would it be if you address major decisions and events with the same calm and optimism?

3. The Sweet Life Flavor: PASSION

Passion is what truly makes life Sweet. Passion is what invigorates you. Your passion makes you excited just thinking about it. Passion is the fire to our life force energy. Embracing and engaging in what you are passionate about could truly change your life.

Oftentimes you may be so caught up in what others are doing or the detailed actions of life, you completely miss or neglect your true passion. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help discover what you are passionate about:

• What is one thing I do that excites, uplifts me, and makes me feel full, prideful, happy, and joyful?
• What’s the one thing I can talk about for hours on hours?
• Is there a single thing that I go to sleep at night and wake up thinking about? What is it?
• If I had no limitations, what would I do?
• If there was one thing I could do for the rest of I life, what would it be?

Once you figure that out, plan it and do it! What’s so great about passion is that it’s a fire that’s already inside of you, you just have to spark it. It doesn’t have to be every day or even weekly, just regularly enough to keep that fire going.

4. The Sweet Life Flavor: GRATITUDE

Gratitude is really an amazing practice and doesn’t just benefit you, but those you interact with as well.  Gratitude allows joy and lightheartedness to infuse moments, days, and your entire life. Gratitude can be such a simple yet beneficial flavor. If you’re not sure how to use it, start simply: 

• Wake up and say "Thank you" .
• Stuck in traffic: "Thank you that I have a car to drive, or money for public transportation".
• Making dinner: "Thank you that I have food to eat and nourishment to my body".
• Going to bed: "Thank you that I am safe".

Gratitude is about removing the focus from what you don’t have or upsets you to what you do have. You have the innate ability to change your thoughts and to season your life with savory flavor of Gratitude.

5. The Sweet Life Flavor: LOVE

The biggest flavor to the sweet life is in the jar labeled LOVE. Unlike traditional seasonings, you can never have too much love. HEAVY on the Love, please!

As we stated with our first flavor, Expansion, every decision is made off Love or Fear.  Similar to ‘muscle memory’ when you exercise your body, your brain retains a sort of ‘muscle memory’ as well. 

The best way to season your life with more love is to be aware of external environments and how they make you feel. This could be social media, music, tv programs (the news! Reality tv!!), and the people we associate with on a regular basis. When you engage with or are around them, do they make you feel sad, unworthy, anxious or scared? If so, decrease the time you spend on and with them and gravitate to those experiences that make you feel more peace, joy, gratitude, acceptance, and grace.  This increases your capacity to naturally operate out of love versus fear. 

When you operate out of love, you invite more love and love-based experiences into your life. You increase your ability to embody these emotional states as your reality. How amazingly sweet that is!

Most of us want a better quality of life, full of happiness, wealth in all its forms, and longevity. However, sometimes you get so caught up in the details of “life” that you forget to really live, and to live sweetly. As you go through today - thinking, speaking, working, doing, take some intentional moments and consider what flavors you are sprinkling on your day. Note how many are sweet and pleasant, and how many are bland and gross. We all experience life, its joys and pains, triumphs, and sorrows. They are indeed part of life’s inevitable journey. As much as I would love for it to be, life isn’t designed to be painless, but it is designed to be lived. So why not live it fully?

Some of the best advice I ever received was “Control the controllables.”   You truly can control the flavors you sprinkle throughout your life to create the reality you desire.  So, my final question is: What kind of a life do you want to create?