Being happy isn’t that difficult. We like to make it out to be this unachievable goal, but in reality it’s all about making the right choices and thinking the right thoughts. If you feel like you could use a helping hand when it comes to living a happy life – take a look at these 15 tips. But don’t just read them, scoff and forget, instead try to apply some of these tips to your life for at least a month and you’ll see how much happier you’ll feel.
1. Get Enough Sleep
Lots of people think that in order to feel happier they need to dig deep and do some soul searching, you know, pretend they’re Julia Roberts in ”Eat Pray Love”. But in reality you need to start with the basics like getting at least 8 hours of sleep and going to bed at a reasonable hour every day.
2. Eat Healthy
If you tend to feel sluggish throughout the day, and especially after a meal, you probably aren’t eating the right thing. Try changing up your diet, eat more fresh vegetables and less stodgy foods. Make sure you drink a lot of water too.
3. Move More
Exercise releases happy hormones and makes you feel good. So start exercising at least 3 times a week. You don’t have to immediately go into athlete mode and run a marathon or start lifting heavy weights. Start with something easy, like a morning or evening walk, some yoga or easy at home exercises.
4. Try New Things
One you’ve taken care of the basics above, try new things. So many people are stuck in routines they don’t even enjoy, but trying new things is good for our mental health.
5. Stop Caring About What People Think
Too many of us get weighed down by other people’s opinions and expectations, when in reality quite a few of those aren’t even real. Most people we encounter on the daily are too busy thinking about their own problems and issues to care about us. So, however weird it might sound, no one really cares what you do or what you dressed like today, it’s kind of freeing when you think about it.
6. Spend Times With Loved Ones
Instead of focusing on society in general and your coworkers, acquaintances and random people, try spending more time with the people you love, your family and friends. Those are the people that truly care about you as a person, so they’re more likely to bring you joy.
7. Do What You Love
It’s true that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. If you have the option of changing a career to do something you truly love and enjoy – do it. It’s worth it, even if it pays slightly less than your current job. If you can’t do that – at least make time to enjoy those things you love on the side as a hobby.
8. Be Grateful For What You Have
We often focus on the future, goals we have to achieve, things we want to get, but rarely do we take the time to be thankful for what we already have. So try to take a step back and remind yourself each day what you’re thankful for, be it your health, your family, a roof over your head, a friend who gave you a lift or bought you a coffee.
9. Let Go Of Grudges
There’s really no point in holding onto a grudge. We get nothing but misery and negativity from it. It’s just a constant reminder of a bad situation. Learn to let go of grudges, just forgive and forget and move on with your life. Why would you want to spend your time on something so useless when you could use if for fun things and new experiences.
10. Stop Multitasking
Somehow “multitasking” became a new trend in the last couple of years and suddenly it’s all everyone’s talking and bragging about. In reality very few people actually can multitask, but a lot of people just keep trying and all it does is majorly stress them out. When most people shift their attention from the main task to do some little side-task, all it does is distract that and in the end it takes them twice as long to finish their work. Stop doing this to yourself. Just do one thing at a time.
11. Travel
Traveling is a great way to see how other people live, learn about new cultures, explore new places, get away from your daily routine and give yourself a break. It makes us more cultured and open minded. Traveling can have a great effect on happiness, so definitely give it a try. Also, remember that you don’t have to spend a fortune travelling overseas, you can always just go to a different part of the country you’ve never been to before, or just a new city. It’s all about a change of your surroundings.
12. Live In The Moment
A lot of the time people tend to worry about things they have no control over, be it mulling over the mistakes of the past or worrying about the future and what that might bring. There’s no use in that, all it does is makes us worried all the time. It’s much better to live in the moment and enjoy it as much as you can.
13. Don’t Be Hard On Yourself
Our inner critic is our worst enemy. We’re often too hard on ourselves, we criticize our every move and chastise ourselves for every mistake. We talk to ourselves in a way that we would never talk to other people and all it does is bring us down. Instead it’s better to view every mistake of wrongdoing as a learning opportunity and encourage ourselves to try again. Talk to yourself the way you would to your best friend. You’re the only person you have to be around forever, so be nice to yourself.
14. Make Other People Happy
It’s amazing how helping out other people and making them happy can make you happier too. Happiness is always shared, so by making someone’s day a bit better, bringing a smile to another person’s face, or just having a meaningful conversation with a friend when they’re in need of one can do wonders about your own levels of happiness.
15. Fake It Till You Make It
It’s an old saying, but there’s a truth to it. You can trick your brain into feeling happy. Just smile more and you’ll find yourself feeling happier, act jolly when you’re sad and you’ll soon stop feeling sad. Same works for confidence, if that’s something you struggle with. Just pretend you’re confident, and act that way, people won’t know the difference. It sounds crazy, but it works.
