How To Live Happier

Life can sometimes seem tough, and we let what happens in the outside world affect our inside world. Our emotions, health, and happiness are determined more by what and how we think than by outside circumstances that may make us feel unhappy and sad.

Below is a list I’ve compiled to make both your outside and inside worlds a happier place, so you can start living a happier life.

“Happiness is not about making it to the peak of the mountain nor is it about climbing aimlessly around the mountain, happiness is the experience of climbing toward the peak” – Tal Ben Shahal.

Eat Healthy

Start by eating healthily and avoiding sugary refined foods as much as possible… my current weakness! We can start to avoid these sugary downs, lack of energy, and depression-like symptoms from aspartame. Eating healthily gives us more energy, vitality and just makes us feel better for the long term.

Is this something you’re slacking on? If so, start small, have one less chunk of chocolate, a teaspoon less of sugar in your tea or coffee, replace a chocolate bar for a piece of fruit… it may seem trivial, but all these little things really add up.

Exercise More

I now try to do some form of exercise every day. The effects are amazing, as I woke up this morning just before starting this post, I noticed my mood, I was slightly quick-tempered with the dogs and just felt a little lackluster, so what did I do? I started exercising, and my mood had improved tremendously. Now I feel energized and a lot happier.

Positive Thinking

The more positive thoughts you have, the less chance there is that you will have a negative thought sneak in. Think positive towards yourself, your life, people, animals, the weather, the world.

Happiness Priority

It’s your priority today, and every day to be happy, it’s your prerogative to be happy as much as possible. To not let outside circumstances choose how you feel, but instead, you choose a more positive emotion.

Meditate

This is where you are probably bored of hearing me mention, but it is the key to a lot of things, including happiness. When you don’t meditate, you have less control over your thoughts and feelings and also reactions.

Meditation helps you focus your thoughts and feelings so that you can choose a more empowering response. Don’t judge your meditations; just sit, meditate, and be happy with the fact that you are empowering yourself.

Train Your Mind

“The central method for achieving a happier life is to train your mind in a daily practice that weakens negative attitudes and strengthens positive ones.” So make it a daily practice to be aware of your thoughts, and as soon as a negative one appears, replace it with a positive one before you’ve even finished the negative sentence. Keep on negativity alert, employ your positivity task force and destroy any negative invaders.

Things That Make You Happy

Aim to do more of the things you like, things that make you happy. This is really simple, but a lot of people don’t do this. If you like reading, read more, if you would like to talk to strangers to find soulmates, do it!

Debt Free

With debt looming over your head, you’re going to struggle not to worry. Worrying will make you unhappy. Imagine your life without debt. What would you do with all that extra money?

Save an Emergency Fund

This is your way to stop worrying! An emergency fund is your backup, your rainy-day money. This is how you take away the “what if……?” of worrying.

Love Yourself

How do you expect people to love you if you don’t love yourself? When you love yourself, you will be a lot happier. The insecurities and fears will be all gone when you choose to accept yourself for who you are.

Adopt Optimism

Optimists are more successful and have much better health; learned optimism is a whole lot easier to keep once you start. Challenge every negative thought you have and find a more optimistic way of approaching it. Imagine you have just been fired, you take the optimistic approach and now decide that it was just a lucky situation, not personal at all, and only a setback, not permanent.

Find Like-Minded People

Find and hang around with more happy, optimistic, kind, and generous people. You’re equal with the five people you hang out with the most. So if you hang out with more inspiring and happier people, you will be a happier person.

Spend More Time With Loved Ones

More valuable time spent with your family and friends can boost your happiness and strengthen bonds even more. Pay attention and stay in the moment, don’t waste this time daydreaming or half-listening to what they say. Cook dinner and all eat around the table, ask everyone how their day has been. You will have a happier family and social life, which will roll over into all your life.

Only Control What You Can

You can’t control how others behave, only how you react. Many people get angry or frustrated trying to control others. STOP, choose how you react instead, and take control over yourself NOW!

De-Clutter Your Life

Start to de-clutter every area of your life, get rid of everything that is no benefit to you anymore. Get rid of all the unneeded material items that you rarely use, sell them or give them to charity.

Stop hanging around with the people who make you feel bad about yourself and only try to pull you back down with them.

Commit to Your Goals

Once you set a goal, commit to it and keep recommitting every time you start to slack back on your goals. Check every month if your goals are in line with your virtues and your signature strengths. If not, assess whether you’re going to keep or replace them.

Gratitude

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I say this regularly every day to train my mind to find gratitude in everything. There’s so much to be grateful for! Be grateful for waking up, for the air you breathe, the food you eat… everything.

Avoid Social Comparison

The only person you have to compare yourself with is yourself. Every time you compare yourself to someone else, you’re basically saying to your subconscious, “I’m not good enough,” which will send back conflicting signals and feelings of unhappiness and sadness. When you catch yourself comparing yourself to someone else, turn it around to a positive and say, “I have amazing confidence just like…”

Random Acts of Kindness

Kindness for no reason is amazing, and it can be in the form of a gift, a hug, helping someone, or whatever you choose. Know that when you show kindness to someone, serotonin is released in your brain, which makes you happy, and for the person receiving the kindness, serotonin is also released, making them happy. It’s a continuous cycle of happiness.

Mini Adventures

“Work hard, no play?” NO, take more adventures in your life, plan for the weekend and have fun. Visit a museum, go on another holiday, climb a mountain. Choose what excites you most and explore.

“We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them” – Epictetus.