We all want to be happy. We make bucket lists and write goal after goal, but ultimately, our number one goal in life is to achieve that blissful thing known as happiness. But what actually is happiness? If you came to this post in search of an answer, I’m sorry but I can’t give you one. There is no one answer. It all depends on us. It depends on our needs, what we value the most in our life, and how we choose to spend our time.
For me, I enjoy running. It’s what I do in my spare time, and it makes me genuinley happy, but for other people, they can’t think of anything worse than running. To them its a form of mild torture. So, you can see from even this one example, how what brings one person happiness might not bring another person that same warm feeling. And in my opinion, this is a good thing. If we all did the same things and had the same opinion on everything, life would get very boring. The only thing we should all have the same opinion on is dogs. Dogs are life. No arguments.
Now lets get to the point of this post. As I said in the first paragraph, I can’t reveal the secret to happiness (sorry if you feel that the title misled you 😉 ), but what I can do, and what I am striving to do today, is to give you some general tips that will guide you on your path to achieving happiness. I can only guide you so far, the real work has to come from you. By setting time aside to discover what truly brings you joy in life, whether that be knitting or jitter-bugging, you will be well on your way to being able to live the life you have always wanted to live- one that is filled with smiles and laughter, the product of happiness!
So, here are my tips on how to be happy (make sure you read them with a smile 🙂 )
- Like I just said, SMILE! Not only will this make you happy, because believe it or not our brains will send out impulses that make us feel happier, you will also be spreading happiness onto other people. A smile costs nothing, so why not do it?
- Instead of practicing self-care in your ‘spare time’, make it a habit that you do as you would do a job. By commiting to engaging in at least one form of self-care a day, your body will thank you by bringing a smile to your face 🙂 (examples of self-care includes but is not limited to; relaxing in a warm bath with a bath bomb, moisturising, reading..)
- When you notice negative thoughts taking over your brain, try to think of something positive, something that makes you forget about the negatives, even if its just for a minute or two.
- Write a daily (or weekly if your as forgetful as me) gratitude list. Listing what you are thankful for helps to put your life into perspective and see how fortunate you really are.
- Each morning when you wake up, take a minute or 2 to think about the day ahead. Think about how lucky you are to be alive on this beautiful morning. Start your day by developing a positive mindset, and you will be more likely to have a better day than you would have if you got out of bed in a sudden rush, stressing over the busy day you have planned.
- Instead of saying ‘I have to’, say ‘I get to.’ You don’t ‘have to’ walk your dog, you get to. You are healthy enough to be able to walk. You have a dog. You are so lucky and you should never forget that, even though it can be hard in todays ever demanding world.
- NEVER underestimate your worth. You are unique and beautiful and you deserve to be happy (and you will be, I promise.) It’s so important to remember that just because you might not have felt happy today, it doesn’t mean you won’t find your happiness tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that. Keep hope in your heart, stay strong and your day will come when you can finally tick the number one goal off your bucket list.
I hope this post has proven to be helpful for some of you.
Take care of yourselves,
Lisa
x
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