_ Do you consider yourself lucky? Or are you the sort of person who can never get the breaks? Listen to this song by (the amazing) Chet Baker and ask yourself – does that sound like me? Do you get the measles and the mumps?

_ What makes some people lucky and some people unlucky? One man, Richard Wiseman, conducted a study to find out. A big part of luck, he argues, is simply catching chance opportunities as a result of being open to them. He recruited volunteers who self-identified as lucky or unlucky and then conducted multiple personality and intelligence tests, which revealed that unlucky people tend to be much more tense than lucky people, and that anxiety disrupts people’s ability to notice the unexpected. Unlucky people tend to miss opportunities because they go to parties, intent to meet their perfect partner (and so miss out on making wonderful friends) or they look through newspapers for a specific job advertisement and miss the other amazing job options. Lucky people tend to be more relaxed and open.  

The good thing about this is that luck is a learned skill that can be acquired! Unlucky people can become lucky, and lucky people can become even luckier. As an experiment, Wiseman created a “luck school” – a month-long series of experiments designed to help students think and behave like a lucky person. Following this experiment, 80% of people were happier, more satisfied with their lives, and luckier.

How do you become luckier? Wiseman lists 3 techniques that lucky people tend to practice and that unlucky people can learn (yay!):

1.     Follow your intuition when making a choice rather than solely focusing on the rational side of the situation.

2.     Step out of your routine. Take a different route to work, talk to different types of people at parties, and introduce variety into your life.

3.     Focus on the positive side of any ill fortune you do encounter.

What connection does this have to your health? Misery loves company! People who consider themselves unlucky tend also to dwell on their bad luck, and this (unfortunately) feeds a vicious loop that attracts even more unhappiness, which can eventually lead to disease. Do yourself a loving favour and practice being lucky! 

(For the original article, click here)

Suppose you go to see a naturopathic doctor and the doctor tells you that you need to do all of the following in order to get well: cut out gluten, cut out dairy, exercise four times per week, take several supplements, quit smoking, start a meditation routine, etc. (By the way, this wouldn’t be uncommon in a visit to the naturopath.) The list gets so overwhelmingly long and requires so much effort that you just throw it in the garbage and don’t make a single one of the changes. But if the doctor were to tell you to change just one thing, say, cut out gluten, you’d be a lot more likely to give it a try, right?

I’ve been thinking a lot about change.  Often, healing can only come about if we are willing to change. The source of our problems (both physical and emotional) could be our eating habits, our exercise habits, the way we handle stress, the environment in which we place ourselves, or other self-destructive behaviors. And most of us know that to be optimally healthy, each of these factors is important. What we don’t realize is that just focusing on changing one thing causes a whole lot of other changes in our lives. Newton’s third law states: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It comes down to science. Can’t argue with that.

In one of my classes a few weeks ago, my instructor told us about a study in which doctors asked their patients to change one thing in their lives, and it could be anything, including what radio station they listen to, or what newspaper they read every day. Change just one thing. So their patients did, and the results were dramatic. By altering even one old habit, people unintentionally invited all kinds of other changes into their lives. Somehow, starting small, people opened themselves up to other changes, whether they planned them or not. These people started exercising and eating better of their own volition, and so the change was sustainable, and their health improved.

Why are we so afraid of change? If we’re unhappy or our bodies are not functioning as well as we might like, why is change still so daunting? Why do we cling to our old habits and routines? Why do we stay in unhappy relationships? I think it’s because many of us would rather stay with what’s familiar than take a risk on what we don’t yet know. A wise friend of mine recently said to me, “decisions are rarely between good and bad – they’re usually between good and better.” And that’s what makes change difficult. We identify our situation as “all right” or “fine.” But what we should be doing is aiming for the ultimate best, most enriching, most joy-inducing situation we could possibly imagine – but it’s a gamble! What if we take the risk and go for it and then it doesn’t work out the way we thought? Then isn’t it better to stay with what was “all right”? I don’t think so. As far as we know for certain, we only get one life, and shouldn’t we be trying to make it as fulfilling as possible?

I think we need to take the risk.

Making a change takes courage and faith – courage to let go of what is just “all right” in order to make room for what is amazing, and faith that what is amazing will find you.

I used to go to a yoga class in which the instructor would often challenge us to let go of the limitations we placed on ourselves. By letting go of our self-imposed expectations, we open ourselves up to the possibility that we could be stronger and more radiant than we ever imagined we could be. 

What if you allow yourself to be more amazing than you ever thought possible? Think about it for a minute. 

How would you feel? What would your life look like? And how do you achieve this? Start small. Change one thing.

I dare you.