Sometimes it feels that achieving happiness takes a lifetime but it can be yours sooner than you think. A radical BAUCE, Garla Darling, said, “Every morning before we start our day we should all ask ourselves what we can do for ourselves to be happy today.” Asking yourself how you can be happy everyday will develop mindfulness around your happiness not to mention set a ritual in motion that will change the way you live. Here are nine easy ways to create and maintain happiness in your life.
Honor Yourself
Honor everything about yourself — this includes your time, your space and even your beliefs. Honoring yourself will increase your self-worth, which will result in an elevation in your happiness. One great way of getting there is through positive affirmation. Positive affirmation involves repeating a positive thought about yourself, such as: “Everything is always working out for my greater good” or “I love and approve of myself”. Honoring yourself will make you feel unstoppable physically and mentally; if you can master this, most things in your life will fall into place.
Feeling Gratitude
Feeling gratitude for what you have or your past conquests will remind you of how far you have come. Gratitude will also make you feel that anything you choose to pursue is possible. Try reflecting on the things that have gone well for you lately or in your lifetime. You’ll see that when you have gratitude when you are feeling critical of yourself that your mood will improve quickly.
Find Your Purpose and Make a Living Out of It
Find what truly makes you excited about life and try to make a living out of it. If making money from what you love is difficult, find the time and energy to incorporate it into your life anyway. Often enough there will be a business side to whatever it is you’re pursuing, so it may be possible to make a living that way.
Finding your purpose will give your life so much more meaning and will be really beneficial to your overall happiness. If you can’t quite get to this point, at least not to start with, then it is a good idea to think about a long-term plan to be able to change what you are doing to have a job that you love. Starting each morning with affirmations, life quotes, or manifesting, can work for some people, and is what they need to keep themselves motivated and ready for change. You might be more of a planner, and a person who likes to plan everything out. This can still help you to get to where you want to be eventually; doing what you love for your job.
Get Physical
We all know the benefits of exercise but the problem for most of us is trying to find a workout plan that we can actually stick to. An easy way around this is to sign up for workshops or programs that last longer than a month. Extensive workouts that last for more than 21 days will help you form a habit of engaging in healthy behavior. Try enlisting in a marathon and then challenge yourself to run every day to prepare you for the end goal. Instead of going to a yoga class, sign up for a 30-day yoga workshop — you’ll be more inclined to go if you know you have paid for a month-long pass. Signing up for workshops will also push you past the early stages of wanting to quit. Turn exercise into a personal test and set new goals for yourself with every step. This will also be your ally when you need to tune out any stress or anxiety in your life.
Your Body is Your Temple
General health care begins with eating right. Adding more plant-based foods to your diet will boost your energy and have an incredible impact on the way you feel. You can start by substituting greens for any side dish you may normally get or start including vegetable juices to your diet. Juicing is also a great way of getting your vegetable intake for the day. Eating better may be hard at first but knowing your happiness is dependent on it will make it a little easier.
Choosing Your Battles
This one is a little more difficult to grasp but once you do, you will gain instant happiness and add years to your life. You don’t always have to prove you’re right, have the last word or stand up for what you believe in. It is great to exercise your opinion most of the time but don’t waste your energy on people who do not want to hear what you have to say. Sometimes an argument can ruin your day, week or month. Be a smart BAUCE and choose your battles. Walk away if a conversation gets too heated or starts to upset you.
Spend Your Time with Positive People
Spending time with people that are positive and optimistic has enormous benefits. It is OK to be challenged in friendships from time to time but anyone who you feel is negative or makes you feel bad in their company are hazardous to your health. We carry the energy of the people we surround ourselves with so try to be around positive people that lift your spirits and are supportive of you. If you are feeling negative about your life try being around more upbeat people for a while and see how you feel.
Living in the Moment
Lao Tzu said, “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” This quote couldn’t be truer — just observe your thoughts when bad feelings arise and you will get your confirmation. Of course this quote will fall short once in a while, but not often. Try to leave any negative feelings in the past and try not to worry too much over the outcome of things you can’t control.
Find Ways to Laugh More
A couple of ways to achieve this is by watching or reading comedies. Watching the entire season of Friends and reading David Sedaris cured me from a painful breakup once. Imagine what this will do on a regular basis, yes, sustain your levels of happiness. Doing what makes you laugh is so effortless yet so rewarding. You should dedicate a day to laughter at least once a month or once a week for better results. Delve into the parody of someone else’s much funnier escapades. This also tricks you into getting adequate rest for your mind, body and soul.
