The next bird, butterfly, cloud, fly, bee, leaf or wasp you see... stop. Look - really look. Use what is presented to you in the here and now to train your mind to focus on the here and now. This is the essence of mindfulness and mindfulness, when allied to purpose, is all you need for an effortlessly happy and successful life.

A client recently mentioned to me that, whilst on holidays, he'd experienced a moment of utter bliss. Sitting watching the water lap gently across clear, bright sand, he was awestruck. "If only you could have moments like that in ordinary everyday life". Of course, the key thing to realize is that the beauty of that moment didn't give him that feeling of bliss - it arose because of his own experience of the wonder of the moment.

Undoubtedly, like any public beach at a holiday destination, there were people on the beach that morning that didn't see the bliss! People with hangovers, people stressed over who had put their towel on who's sunchair. Husbands and wives or friends and lovers in the middle of a row, parents shouting at children, people lying stretched out beneath the golden sun, eyes closed, worrying about their finances!!

I'm not deliberately painting a negative picture for you - psychology confirms that we're very good at doing that for ourselves: we'll always select a negative thought over a positive one by default. I'm not painting holidays as some form of purgatory or hell either - but it can be and often is: the incidence of domestic violence and marriage break-up peaks during the Christmas holiday season and all you have to do is read the many, all too many, Normal Crazy People stories about people who get stressed out trying to enjoy themselves!

I am, however, deliberately drawing your attention to how bliss, happiness, contentment, peace of mind is just that... of mind. The old expression that beauty is in the eye of the beholder goes for everything from stress, anxiety and depression at one end of the spectrum to happiness and bliss at the other. It's all a question of awareness, self-awareness and your own state of mind. And, because that is the case, you can have moments of utter bliss anytime, anywhere, any day of your apparently mundane life.

• Purposefully focus - it doesn't come naturally, we're actually "wired" to not focus
• Set goals in a way that energizes your subconscious into focused effortless action
• Make your very best decisions and solve problems with ease - your brain can do this effortlessly
• Banish stress - we're ordinarily "wired" to be stressed