Margie Bissinger 0:03

Happiness when it's not, it's not walking around with this plastic smile in your face 24 seven. It's an inner sense of peace and well being, regardless of your circumstances. And I think that's the key.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:19

Welcome to the longevity blueprint podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream health and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life.

Today, you're going to get to hear from Margie Bissinger about one missing ingredient to health that we haven't yet talked about on the show. Want to guess what it is? It's happiness. Happiness affects our overall health and today we're gonna dive into why let's get started and let's get smiling.

Welcome to another episode of the longevity blueprint podcast today I have on guest Margie Bissinger who is a physical therapist, integrated health coach and happiness trainer. Margie has over 25 years of experience helping people with osteoporosis and osteopenia improve their bone health through an integrative comprehensive approach utilizing Whole Foods, exercise supplements, mind body relaxation techniques, and happiness training. Margie is the author of osteoporosis and exercise guide. She oversees all the osteoporosis initiatives of the state of New Jersey as the physical therapy representative to the New Jersey Interagency Council on osteoporosis. Margie created a holistic online six week program happy bones happy life to give people the tools to achieve optimal bone health naturally, and she believes that happiness plays an integral role in our bone and overall health.

She has been teaching her patients happiness habits for over 30 years and has seen the powerful effects happiness has on chronic pain and recovery. Margie teaches the Happy, happy life online program to help people increase their base level of happiness while improving their health. She's lectured to fortune 500 companies and government agencies, hospitals and women's groups throughout the country. She has been featured in The New York Times menopause management OBJ news and contributed to numerous health and fitness books. So welcome to the show. Margie. Oh, thank you so much. I'm really thrilled to be here with you. So you're a physical therapist, and a health coach, right? Yes. So you actually interviewed me as we were discussing before we got started here. on your show a few years back, I was very, very pregnant. And he was such a good sport.

Margie Bissinger 2:32

You were I think you were doing Yay, yes. Yes. margin in charge and ready to deliver.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 2:40

That's a lot of fun. So we talked about the importance of hormones for optimizing bone density and even nutrients. And that link is on my website, your longevity blueprint calm. So listeners, feel free to go back and and listen to that. But you actually also around that time were started creating this happiness course, which I would love to talk about. So I want to get into the overlap. How did you start getting into teaching happiness?

Margie Bissinger 3:04

It's really funny because we have to go way back to really, really appreciate how I got into happiness. So it starts when I was in my early 20s. And I was always a person with a glass was half full. So I sweated was always relatively happy person, even when my circumstances were not happy at all. So in my early 20s, I got married, which should have been the happiest time of my life. But for me, it wasn't because I stands at day two of the honeymoon, that the person I'd married had been seeing someone else the entire. But when we are engaged now, today's day and age that couldn't happen with cell phones and internet, but we live in different parts of the country. He was doing an internship in a different part of Minnesota and I was in Boston. So we were living different areas and you didn't you know, we just didn't you weren't. You didn't have cell phones. It was very, very different.

Anyway, moving forward. After the honeymoon, I moved to Minnesota where I didn't really know anyone. And the story is where it gets worse. But I don't even have to go there. But it didn't work out. So I ended up deciding not to go back to the east coast. I'm from New York, I was living in Boston left like an amazing job. But I said, I just don't want people feeling sorry for me. So I moved to Chicago where I had an aunt and uncle. And I was working at that point in an outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic, seeing really chronic pain, neck pain, back pain. And people would say to me, Oh, my God, you're so happy and my patients were miserable. They were so unhappy. Everyone was complaining about everything. And they said much you're so happy. What is your trip? And I thought if they only knew what I got through because it wasn't, it was very hard. They only knew what I had gone through. They would never be saying that. But at that moment, it hit me that happiness is not based on your external circumstances. It's something internal. And at that time, I said you know what, I really was happy.

And somehow I got through this, and what was it? What was it that gave me the resilience and the strength. And I realized it's what I now call happiness habits. And I said, You know what? Everyone's so miserable. I'm going to just teach them what helped me so much. And so I started and you had a lot of time, as a physical therapist, you're working with people to tell, I started teaching these happiness habits. And I couldn't believe what I saw neck pain, back pain, I did a lot of work with TMJ, things were just getting better, so much faster than when I was just using conventional therapy. And so I said, You know what, this is amazing how people heal. And then you also saw the light, and the joy returning to people, it was incredible. And so since that time, that was, as I said, over 30 years ago, I've been teaching that to all of my patients. And then I've studied a lot. I've studied positive psychology. And I was really lucky to work with a mentor, Marcy shime. Off who really is studied happiness for years and taught it. And, and so then I decided to it was always part of my programs. But then people just started whining that I said, You know what, there are people that don't have issues with their bones. And let me just start a happiness class.

And so, so that's when I started that, I guess, like two years ago, and it's just been the most fulfilling experience. And I just love it so much. Because I realize is that happiness and stress on this is at the root, it's your base level. And there's so many, besides making you feel better, there's so many health consequences as well. So that's how I got into teaching happiness.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 6:33

So what is happiness?

Margie Bissinger 6:34

Of course, I smile, I see you, you're smiling. You have beautiful flowers behind you, right? That brings me joy, makes me smile. Is that happiness? What is what is happiness? You know, it's interesting happiness, when it's not, it's not walking around with this plastered smile on your face. 24 seven. It's an inner sense of peace and well being regardless of your circumstances. And I think that's the key. And the interesting thing is they actually defined what's called your happiness set point, like your base level of happiness. What determines that? And it's not what you think, like, what would you think your circuit most A lot of people think, oh, I'll be happy when, you know, when I get that job, or when I'm in a good relationship, or when I'm in this and when I'm in that? And the reality is, guess how much but percent that your circumstances have to do with your Oh, and they studied this? I mean, this has been researched your overall happiness, what would you say?

Dr. Stephanie Gray 7:30

Well, my instinct is to go low, because I would typically go high, and that's probably wrong.20%, I don't know, very close. 10%.

Margie Bissinger 7:38

That's it. I mean, they they've even found when people win the lottery, they're happier for a certain period of time, or when they become a paraplegic. On the other hand, they're sad. But for the most part, it's sort of like a thermostat. You know, we hover around a certain area. But the good news is, we can turn it up, but let me tell you what the other parts are. So 50% is your genetics. But it's you know, better than anyone with epigenetics, we can even change that we can change the expression of our genes, but 50% genetic, okay, 10% circumstances. So the other 40% is your habits. So that's what's so amazing that we have all this ability, you know, even more because as we said, we can change turn on and off genes. So there's really a huge doesn't matter where you start, even if you're the totally glass half empty person, everybody can raise their happiness level. So it's really exciting.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 8:33

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So why is there so much unhappiness in society today?

Margie Bissinger 9:31

Other than COVID, whichI think there's a lot of reasons. I think also, people don't realize that they shouldn't be happy. You know, people don't realize the importance of happiness. I really think, you know, people I see people they want to know their exercise and they want to make sure they're eating right and, but they don't even think about Am I happy? Or am I enjoying what I'm doing or that joy should play a role in your life or that it's your birthright and

I think everybody deserves to be happy not that your circumstances have to be amazing. That's not the case at all. So I think number one, I think people just don't think about it. So they don't really do anything. You know, we do things so that we are a lot of us do things. I'm sure your patients, do you think so they stay healthy, do things so that they physically are fit, but not to think about are my doing things that can really increase my happiness for the rest of my life. So I think people don't really pay attention to it. Number one. And I think there's numerous reasons I said, the two other top reasons are that people were sort of wired for negativity, and I just think people are overwhelmed with negative thoughts. And the third one is that we're victims, a lot of people live in the victim mentality. Oh, poor me. And that's just going to lead to unhappiness, that's the fastest way to be unhappy.

So I would say I mean, there's many more, but I would say those are probably the top three. Sure. And what do you want to throw in any input to COVID? And how that's impacting our happiness? Yes, you know, what I've seen, it's so so interesting, with COVID my happiness class, we even after people are finished, we meet once a month. And so I've been seeing that people, you know, who you were before, COVID, and most is who you are after, like, the people who are adaptable, and ride with the waves are accommodating. Not that it's good for anyone and my brother, and my husband's a doctor, you know, people have been on the phone lines working. And my son has diabetes. You know, there's lots of things where people are more susceptible, you have to be so careful. And I live. I live in New Jersey, but very close to New York City. So we were really in the thick of it. It was it was very hard for a while, but I've been seeing that people that do have these habits are able to flow with it. And I think the key is the victim. If you're like, Oh, poor me look at the war. I mean, there's so many negatives that you could do. Well, you could wake up in the morning to Oh, my God, life is just awful. Look, we have this virus going around everything that's going on with racial inequities right now. There's so many things that you could just say the world is awful. And you could just go on and on and what you focus on grows.

So I found that you know, the people who were Yes, this is a very tough time. And these are unprecedented times, however. So that's one extreme, but yet, I found that the people can also look at it like, okay, instead of being a victim, Oh, poor me, look what we have to deal with. If they're a victor, and they look at solutions and focus on that instead of the problems. Okay, well, you know, what, I'm home with my family more. What could I do? Like what benefits you know, I always believe there's a silver lining. And that, you know, when when you go through these challenging times, we all grow. And I really feel that that happened with me, I should just tell the end of my story. I moved to Chicago across the street was my now husband, we've been married a very long time. And we have an amazing relationship. So it actually was a wonderful thing. And I've never in a million years, but it moved to Chicago. So life worked out. But anyway, so if you look at that, what's good, instead of focusing on what's not good during COVID, what is good, and I found that people have done a lot of good things, they really connected with family, they've connected with friends they have I know, I did, because it was isolating. I started zooming with my college roommates, and they live in all parts of the country. And we don't meet once a week, but we started meeting more. And I just found also people were doing things and getting involved in causes. And I just think there's a lot of things where people were also we're so busy. And we're so stressed and all of a sudden, there's time.

So I'm finding people trying meditation, they're just trying new things, because they have the time. So I mean, again, a lot of heartache. I'm not saying it's been a very tough, but what I found is that I've just seen such a difference in how people are coping. And I think that made me really happy. Because when I realized that the skills, you know, sometimes you put to the test, Will these happiness habits help. And that's what I saw, I couldn't get over the people in my class, the things they were doing, or they were, they were doing acts of loving kindness, helping others and doing things and it was just really heartwarming to me to see because you can plan to see, but then other people take on and do incredible things with it. And that's what I've been seeing. So I've been seeing that. It's a challenging time, in my heart of hearts. I really believe the world was in a very mean place prior to this, and I really believe and I remember thinking that I really before everything happened with the protests and the racial inequities and everything that happened to George Floyd. Prior to that, I remember thinking the world's gonna be a better place because people were being so kind to each other. Even in the grocery store. You know, everybody, you just felt this appreciation for the person packing groceries and we were all in this together. But then I said to

Dr. Stephanie Gray 15:00

Now what if there were such problems in the world? If we have things that need to be healed as a country, then let's just do that. So I do believe, once we get through this, that it will be a better place. And I think that they'll have learned lessons. But this isn't easy. And say that, but agreed, well set. So what is our happiness set point? What exactly is that? Yeah. So that was our base level. Okay. Okay. That was the base level that we can increase, which is the best news that science has showed us that we can increase this. And that's what's I mean, it should be all over the news. So how do we do this? Tell us now we, how do we increase that? I think I mean, I teach my class on 21 habits, but there's so many areas that you can start with. I mean, there's just so many things that you could do to increase your happiness, I always like to start at the very beginning at the foundation with the victim, and just sort of ask yourself the question, Are you a victim? Or are you a victor, the telltale signs are blame, shame and complaint. And none of us do that, right.

Margie Bissinger 16:09

And sometimes, it's just like, all of a sudden, if you catch yourself in that mode, you know, all of a sudden, you're just going on, and this is bad. And you're complaining about this, and, and especially now, because we're blaming a lot of people for granted, you don't have to agree with what people are saying or doing or what's going on in this country. But all that blame on such a massive level really does make you go into victimhood. And so, you know, that's just the fastest way, as I said before to unhappiness. So what you can do is, first be aware of it, you just be aware of that. And when you instead of complaining, like stop yourself, you know what? How can I be a Victor? And what are solutions and focus on what can I do right now like what is possible instead of what's not possible? That's step one, actually, I'll give you step two to step one, which I think just to sort of realize, and again, you can play with your family even because a lot of us are home or you have a jar and when you complain, put a penny in and put change.

And then you can, you know, you can then do whatever you want with that you can donate it, but just to be aware of it. I remember when I played this, I thought oh, I don't complain play machine. And it was really interesting. And what shame is shame is self blame. And I think a lot of us, unfortunately do that, you know, we're nice to the world. But yet we just are so hard on ourselves. And that doesn't really help anybody. So that's why I'd say it's step one. And then step two, I would say we'd be the negative thoughts. Because guess what percent of our thoughts are negative? A lot? Yeah. 80. I don't got it perfect. Yes. 80% of our thoughts, and we have around 65,000 thoughts, the average person, so 80% of those are negative. And what we focus on grows. So when we focus on while the negatives that's just growing. So how can we rewire for the positive. So I think the first step in that is just starting to look for the good. Notice, you know, like, there was many times where I bike ride, and there's a really beautiful woods where I live. And sometimes if I'm in my head, and I'm just adding and speaking about what I'm gonna do, I miss the beautiful woods.

And so often we can live near beautiful scenery, and we just miss it. So just focus on what's good. You just start to see Well, what's good my life, what's good in the world, you start focusing on things that are working and with and that that really works. And then when something good happens, savor it, savor it for 20 seconds. Because what we often because we're trying to magnify the good, we're just trying to know and then your works. And so when something good you have I give you a compliment. No, this is a great podcast, I love your book, you've just done so many great things. Oftentimes, you may say I was nothing, but instead say, you know, I worked really hard on all of this. And I really wanted to get all this information to the world, savor it, because why not magnify the good. And so and for at least 20 seconds, you know, where you see a sunset, a lot of times people just take a picture, but a picture is good, because you can go back to it, but then just bask in it with as many senses as you can, so that you just enjoy the moments and make so much more of them. Is there science behind those 20 seconds? Yes, yes, they find it's at least 20 seconds or 20 seconds to start new neural pathways. So you can create new neural pathways.

So it's, it's really, that's the exciting thing that this stuff actually works. And when you see people who are really unhappy, that's what I see my patients You know, when they were just so miserable, and then all of a sudden, you know, when people started Just enjoying life and, and focusing on things that are working and more happens, like what you put your attention on grows. So when you're focusing on the good, guess what? You get more good. So it's so powerful and it's not hard. That's the amazing thing. It's just a matter of doing the habits taking them seriously. That's so true. I think I'm good at recognizing others who are acting like the victim, but then I don't recognize when I myself. I'm having those victim like thoughts. Right? So I love that blame shame. What was the third one blame, shame and complain? Right? I sometimes I'll just have people like tap their wrist just to my gosh, you know, just to sort of, because if we can snap out of it, but we can't notice if we don't notice we're doing it. That's just our motive. No, we just sort of get set in our ways. And we live our days. And all of a sudden, until you realize, Oh, my goodness. And it's really quite incredible. In people in the worst circumstances, Holocaust survivors, I mean, different people were victors even when the even dire circumstances.

So that's the good news that you can be a victor, regardless of the circumstances. I love that. I love that. And I love that 20 seconds, I think happened in those 20 seconds. Also, take a deep breath. Yeah, you know, call them your heart rate have that attitude of gratitude, thankful for the scenery, or for whatever, whatever it is, you're celebrating. I I love that because I think we dismiss I mean, very quickly, like you said, you know, receiving compliment or whatnot in a second. Oh, thanks. You know, on to the next No, we need to slow down and receive that it's okay to receive a compliment. Yeah, the other funny thing is, in terms of that, we are wired for negativity, because back in the caveman days, we had to be more aware if there was a saber toothed Tiger lurking, then if someone said something nice to us. So that's how that was how we really are wired for that. So think about that, you get 20 compliments, and one person says something nasty, what do you hold on to and so good, we all do that, right. And so we have to sort of change that.

But they found that the happiest people do the opposite, that they really soak in the good. So it's most of us don't, but it's something that can be trained and learned. above that. And then I would add, maybe reflecting back on that before bed to reflecting back on what that moment was or those 20 seconds, right? Trying to relive that again, though, and celebrate it right? I'm writing Dan wins, whether it be a journal, or somewhere where you write it down, so that we just try to magnify all of the good and celebrate all the good because there is putting all of our lives. And so please focus on that element. It just it just makes such a difference and such a difference to our health. No, because I'm a health person like you. And that's, and as a physical therapist, it was amazing. Because when I would see muscles would relax, you know, all of a sudden, when people change some of their got rid of their negativity, or when they got rid of some of these bad habits, all of a sudden, you would see the physical manifestation of this, it was just amazing. very encouraging. The world needs your message. I'll probably say that several times.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 23:15

So how does increasing this happiness set point and really increasing our happiness impact our overall health?

Margie Bissinger 23:21

They've done lots of studies on this. And they found that immune system is improved, there's 35% reduction in getting sick and people who are happy have a 35% reduced chance of getting sick. People live on an average. And these are all steady nine years longer, happier. Wow. In terms of sleep disorders, which you know how 47% increase in sleep disorders for people who aren't happy. And then cortisol 30. We both know how cortisol the stress hormone impacts every aspect of our health 32% reduction in cortisol. So there's been lots and lots of studies. And even in bone density, there's a relationship between happiness and life satisfaction, happiness, life satisfaction and the density of your bones. It's really an every aspect of our health. So that makes me want to think okay, so why is that? Is that because being so being unhappy or having more stress, I'll say, is that robbing or that? Is that increasing our cortisol robbing us of hormones that are beneficial for bone density? I have so many I want to dive into that study, because

I think it's so many levels. And I think I know you talk about stress so much in your work. And I think with the bones, what they found is that the cortisol reduces the osteoblasts or the bone building cells and increasing the osteo class. So they've actually been physical, you know, manifestations of what's going on, but I think just like the stress, I think that you know, if we're in fight or flight, versus if we're you know, sort of we're tense, then all those hormones and everything that's the whole cascade happens where I think when we're happy a whole other set of, you know, positive emotions, and, and all sorts of noxee, Towson and other things that have the opposite calming effect, work on it.

So I think there's many levels in terms of how it works. Sure. Can you give our audience an example of one of your happiness tips that you always have used? If you have been more wired for happiness since the beginning? What tips Have you found to be very successful for you personally, something that maybe you do every day? Okay, there's so many. So first of all, what's helped me though, like way back with my issue, when marriage and all that I realized probably the biggest thing was forgiveness, was that I forgave him immediately. Why? No, I don't know. I mean, I have to be honest, like, it was. Because I didn't know all this at the time. But I just wanted, you don't forgive because you feel you can don't the behavior, you don't cry. You didn't forget it. Yeah, I didn't condone it at all. But you it's sort of like when you don't forgive. It's like taking poison and expecting the other person to die. by forgiving, I was able to move on with my life. And I didn't hold on to that. And so I think that was one of the biggest lessons for me from that.

And when I taught that to my patients, people and people I work with, people don't forgive, because I could never forgive that person. And when they do that, they hold it in their muscles, they hold it in their gut, they hold it all over. And I really think there's huge physical manifestations of not forgiving. And so when P there was one girl in particular, who took my happiness program, and she lived in another country, and she didn't tell me this till afterwards, and she was doing it at her own time. She wasn't doing it live. And she said, she had to stop in the middle of this after there's a module on loving kindness and forgiveness is one of the things we talked about and give very, a lot of several techniques, what you can do, because there, there's different ways and easy ones that you can forgive somebody, and not without say to their face. And so, and then she later on, like, called me up and said, I have to talk to you. She said I had to stop the program. I just couldn't forgive this person. And then she said, You know what, I decided to do it. And I think she wrote a forgiveness letter, actually, whatever it was, she thanked me. She said, My whole life is different now.

So when you hold on to these things, it's you who suffering and so that you can't move on. And it was interesting, because there's a woman who is a Reverend Deborah Johnson, who I've been working with recently who I've been taking her classes, and she's just really outstanding. She's in California, and she's a diversity trainer. And she's just really been helping people with what's going on and really trying to look at solutions. But anyway, she was talking about forgiveness. And she says, a lot of people are feeling badly for maybe what things they did, and she says, you have to forgive. She said, if you don't it's like having the cooties. Or someone has the cooties, like the person who shot everybody in the church. He is the cooties. Why do I want the Koofi? Like, I liked the way she put it on. So I think forgiveness is one of the you know, just biggest thing and one of the hardest, it's hard. Yes, yes, is hard. But you don't, I mean, you could just write a letter to a person rip it up. You don't have to, you don't have to tell them to the face. You don't have to do anything.

So there's a very a lot of techniques you can do. But so I think that helped me. And then the other nice thing I think that I do on a daily basis, which is just send positive thoughts to other people, I call it h p h, health, prosperity, happiness. You just send positive wishes to others. And it's really interesting, and just try it everybody listening? Because it sounds sort of like what do you mean, but they did a study where you live in Iowa, right? You're in Iowa, did a study at Iowa State University, and they had students walk around the building, and what they're three different groups, and they're supposed to see every person they pass. And so one group, they're just supposed to wish happy thoughts to that person, I wish you happy. I don't remember exact words, but I wish happiness, I wish Happy things to the people. The second group was just to sort of think how they were similar to that person, you know, like what they had in common. And the third group was just to sort of look superficial, like what they were wearing, or just whatever. And then the fourth group was to see how they were better off than that person. And then they measured different happiness levels and different things.

And what they found was the group who wished positive things to others had increased happiness, increase empathy. It was you know, they were by far felt the best the other group who was trying to see how you were connected with others, they had increased empathy and also Reduce the anxiety, they measure the anxiety and stress. The first group who wish others happiness had reduced stress. And the other two groups didn't have anything, you know, the group who were looking superficially in the group who and some people think, oh, if you think how you're better off than other people that will elevate you. Well, that didn't work at all. But anyway, so yeah, so you could just try whatever thoughts you want, I wish happiness to you. And you just, it's easy to do it to people you like, but it's even harder. And also, it's good to do right now, with so many people suffering, it's just nice to send out positive thoughts of healing and other people, the hardest is to send it out to maybe you're not your favorite person. But that's even the most powerful. But anyway, just try, you know, when I'm riding my bike, it's a little harder now in the mask, because you're like not looking, you know, used to want to see everybody right now you're trying not to engage and breathe on people. But in general, you know, you can even do it online and you send these thoughts.

Just try it. It's very, very powerful. I was great that they studied it, you know, and what do you call that again? HP, I made this up myself. This is this is my own thing. My family does it, you know, HTH so health, prosperity and happiness. That's just my words. Wish people peace, which people health, whatever, whatever you want. It's really incredible. I've done this really my whole life, but it just makes you feel so good. And a lot of people in my classes, you know, you hear it, you think, Oh, come on, but it's really powerful. The other person feels it people feel vibes and they catch it. It's the time of year where many of my patients are feeling the motivation to detox, cleanse, reset, whatever you want to call it. After the year we've had in 2020, I think we all could use some renewal in our lives. Of course, one of the most common resolutions at the start of the new year is to focus on exercise and clean eating, but I'm going to be honest, you likely need more than that. If you're looking to truly build optimal health. You likely change the furnace filters in your home regularly and in your car, you probably pay close attention to scheduling oil changes, and both your car and your home this regular maintenance removes gunk that keeps those systems from operating at their best and even breaking down over time. Have you ever thought about the gunk that accumulates in your body? That gunk often takes the form of toxins that accumulate over time?

Can you believe that each year the average person is exposed to 14 pounds of pesticides, herbicides, food additives and preservatives. That's about the equivalent of a bowling ball of toxins. Just like your home and your car. Regular maintenance is required to restore your body's ability to cleanse itself and eliminate these toxins to keep you operating at your best and prevent long term damage. You might know that your liver is responsible for filtering toxins from your system and you can think about this as a glass of water. If you keep on pouring in the water, the glass will eventually get full and overflow. Similarly over your lifetime, your liver may accumulate a large amount of toxins and need assistance clearing them out. When it comes to supporting your liver. Consider a strategically designed research structured liver cleanse program. To help with phase one and phase two detox pathways. You need a program with ingredients like beet, artichoke, dandelion, milk thistle and alpha lipoic acid all of which help your liver and gallbladder purge toxins and then a fiber protein powder to bind the toxins so that you can eliminate them. In my practice, I recommend the core restore program, which I'm dedicating an entire podcast episode to hit March. But you don't have to wait to march to try this.

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Dr. Stephanie Gray 34:14

So I always ask my guests what their top longevity tip is, and maybe yours is to work on their happiness. What would your top longevity to be my top I mean, there's so many but I guess my top longevity is to work on your internal happiness and stress and to enter into practices. I think daily practice is important. So find what you love. You find what lights you up, that keeps you happy and reduces your stress and just make it a habit, a daily habit. And I think that would be huge because so many of us just don't do that we'd go on with our life and we're not really worried if we're happy or we're relaxed. You gave us many tips today. But if listeners want help finding those habits so they can determine which ones they do, like you have a course right you want to talk a little bit about that.

Margie Bissinger 35:00

Share. Yes, I have a course called Happy me happy life. And what it is, it's eight weeks, and each week we work on certain module. And so it starts with the foundation, then we do the pillar of the mind, the pillar of the Heart, Body, you know what we can do for those happiness, chemicals? The soul, which is probably my favorite of all, because there's many different aspects of happiness. So we work on all different ones. And then let's see the soul. And then relationships, relationships. That's actually one of the last ones relationships is the garden Like, who do we surround ourselves with? gardenias? Or do we with or weeds, and then purpose, you know, what is our purpose. And then the last week, we sort of tie it all together. But each week we do meditation, I'm big into Qigong. I love Qigong exercises.

So each week, we'll start with a Qigong exercise. And then there's lots of different things that each week that you practice, but what I found that afterwards, was that people sort of started to lose it after they finished it. Yeah, they were doing the habits. So what we do, then there's, each month, we all get together, and we review principles, add new things. And so so it's really a community. And it's an I think that's what helps cuz you can read all this. And you can hear that, Oh, yes, I'm gonna do gratitude every day. But you need that community. That's what I found. It's the community that keeps all of us going. And we can sort of talk about because we may not talk about this to everybody. And so that's what's been so incredible this community that we just create this great energy, and it's just so much fun. So it's an online virtual through. Yeah, thanks, guys. Yes, it's all virtual.

And it's easy to do. So yeah, everything's just right there. Sounds like fun. So you also have on your website, a link so that we can kind of determine our happiness quotient, sort of. Yes, yes. And you can give it you can give everyone that link. Yes. So there's a quiz. And it's called the happy for no reason quiz. And you just sort of go through it. And you can sort of see where you're starting. You know, that's that that's the inner happiness, not based on external circumstances. And so you can sort of see where you're at in terms of your base level. And the fun would I have everybody do I haven't do before the class and afterwards, and that's the good thing that people increase. So it's, it's, it's exciting. But it's good to know. And not to belittle yourself, if you find that Oh, my gosh, I am, you know, negative Nelly or whatever. Yeah. It's okay. It's okay. Cuz Guess what, you can just get better from there. I love that. And since you keep talking about how important meditation is to you, you also have a link for a free meditation. So I will post the meditation, the quiz and the link to your amazing course, in the show. Great. Great. Thank you so much. Is there anything else you want to share with the listeners? Yeah, I'd say one thing. And that meditation also comes with a journal, like a seven day happiness habits journal that people can write in, and it just gives them some of the habits.

So that's really fun. No, I just want to say, it's really important. Don't be little your own happiness in your own joy, and what makes you feel good, because you have one life to live. And it can be happier, and why not embrace it. And if you find that you're not, you know, if you just sort of think, oh, gosh, I'm just not happy, then sort of evaluate things and see what can be changed and what you can do and what habits you can start, so that you do have joy every day, because it is important. And it's something I think we all want and and then you can spread it to others.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:38

Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of your happiness tips with us, and really just reminding us that we do have one life to live. And so happiness is going to impact that health. So we probably need to work on our setpoint of happiness and raise that and it sounds like you have some amazing tools. So I'll post the links to all of the sites and where listeners can connect with you in the show notes. So thank you for bringing your joy and your happiness to the show. I think listeners are greatly going to appreciate this. So thank you. Oh, thank you so much. It's been so much fun. And it's such a pleasure seeing you and I cannot believe that it's been 17 months since we had the baby. I can't either. I mean, that just went so fast. It just seems like yesterday that it was a winter day and you you were very pregnant. To see you and thank you so much. Thank you for coming on Margie.

I definitely finished that interview smiling. Margie has such a genuine passion for helping others raise their happiness levels. And I agree with her that we are wired for negativity which is why we should be so incredibly thankful for all the habits she shared today to help us rewire our thoughts. Take time to soak in all the good that has happened today. Celebrate and magnify it. And if you want to and need to hear more from Margie, please take her class. This show was a message The world needs to hear but I also know she has so much more to share and you just may need those words.

Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. And if you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck. You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book. Plus for a limited time the course is 50% off, check this offer out at your longevity blueprint.com and click the course.

One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show. And leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I read all of the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics, guests or how you're applying what you've learned on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. The podcast is produced by the team at counterweight creative. As always, thanks so much for listening and remember, wellness is waiting.

The information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai