5 Ways To Be Happy – Personal Tips For Being Happy In Life
You know that person. The one who is always happy. Nothing seems to get them down. They are successful, have good friends, exude confidence, and are fun to be with.
Is this you?
Everybody wants to be happy. It seems pretty simple, doesn ‘ t it? But the reality is different. Happiness is a choice. A few choices. And it ‘ s totally within reach for everyone.
So what can you choose?
5 Best Ways To Be Happy In Life:
Happiness is something that everyone desires, but it can sometimes feel elusive. Despite our best efforts, it can be challenging to maintain a consistently positive and happy outlook on life. However, certain habits and practices can help us cultivate happiness and a positive mindset.
In this section, I will explore 5 ways to be happy that can be incorporated into daily life to increase overall well-being and happiness. These tips are grounded in research and effectively improve mood and promote happiness.
Whether you’re feeling down or want to maintain a more positive outlook on life, these 5 practices can help you reach greater happiness.
#1 – Choose Truth:
You know, those decisions that make your stomach hurt. You make the ones because your brain tells you it’s the ‘ right ‘ thing to do, not because it ‘ s what you really want.
Yes. Those decisions. You probably made one today.
Those decisions are not based on your truth. They are based on some truth outside of yourself, some truth that is based on what everyone else says is “right.” These decisions are not good for you.
Making decisions based on what you want and what will truly be good for you are based on your truth. This kind of decision feels good in your body. These decisions allow you to sleep at night.
Decisions not based on our truth can make us sick and interfere with our happiness.
How do we stop making these unhealthy choices? We listen to our bodies.
Next time, when presented with a decision that needs to be made, pause and check how each potential decision makes your body feel. Our bodies will only tell us the truth. If the decision makes you feel slightly nauseous, it’s probably not good. If it makes your head hurt, the same. If it makes your heart leap, then that’s it. That’s a healthy decision.
Listen to your body. Unlike your brain, it will never lie to you!
# 2 – Choose love.
Everyone wants to love and be loved.
And ideally, everyone would share their life with that ONE person. The one you curl up with at night and eat cereal in the morning. The one whose hand you hold on the subway and with whom you binge-watch ‘ Sons of Anarchy ‘ at night. You know the person. The one who makes your heart sing.
If you have a person, don ‘ t let them go. And if you don ‘ t, believe that you will. Especially if you are happy.
If you don ‘ t have that person right now, you know that you have other people who love you: your sister, best friend, and neighbor. Make sure that you have contact with someone who loves you every day. In-person, via phone, or text (last choice).
And don ‘ t forget to love yourself. You are awesome. Tell yourself as often as you can. Because you are.
#3 – Choose Yourself:
Do you know how you choose to make everyone else happy first?
You go to that raunchy movie with your kids instead of that historical drama you want to see. Or do you visit your mother-in-law with your husband instead of working in the garden? We all do it. And it undermines our happiness.
Sometimes we must put someone else ‘ s needs above our own, but it ‘ s important to put ourselves first more often than not. Nobody else will take care of us, and we must do so.
You will truly believe you are last if you always put yourself last. Being last will not make you happy. Think back to your fight with your husband while driving home from his mother’s house.
Enough said.
#4 – Choose Kindness:
Did you know being kind to someone else is one of the best ways to feel happy? Think about that woman ‘ s face when you raced after her to return the wallet she left in the store.
Or the way the barista reacted this morning when, after dealing with the customer after customer who had not yet had their coffee, you thanked them with a big smile and a compliment.
Being kind is not hard to do, but so many of us forget to be in this crazy, jam-packed, and exhausting world that we live in. Making that small effort to make someone else happy can go a long way to making you feel happy too.
#5 – Choose To Believe:
A key ingredient in being happy is believing that you can be. Really. It ‘ s not an easy thing.
When you are unhappy it ‘ s almost impossible to believe that you could ever be happy.
When you are unhappy and look ahead, you are doing so with that unhappy feeling in your gut. Your future life seems hopeless because you are unhappy right now. But you gotta believe. Believing in anything is the best way to manifest it. Believe that you will get that job, and you will.
Believe that you will find that love, and you will. Believe that you will be happy, and you will.
How to believe? Visualize that job. Feel how it will feel to have it. Store that feeling in your body and summon it when you have doubts. The same with love. A picture that perfects someone. Feel how it will feel to be loved by them. Picture yourself happy and do the same.
It works. Try it and see.
Happiness is a state of mind. A state of being. If you make choices that cause physical pain, keep you from sleeping, and make you feel hopeless, you will never find it.
Try it. Try putting yourself first, loving yourself and those around you, and being kind and truthful. Believing. What a difference it will make. I promise.
If you ‘ ve made it this far you must really be struggling with how to be happy.
Let me help get you there, NOW, before you get even more stuck.
Email me at [email protected], or click here toget started!
I am a NYC based Certified Life Coach and mental health advocate. My writing has been published on The Huffington Post, Prevention, Psych Central, Pop Sugar, MSN and The Good Man Project, among others. I work with all kinds of people to help them go from depressed and overwhelmed to confident and happy in their relationships and in their world.
If I have one of those moments where I’m wondering about what’s right, what’s best for, or for others and it gets hard, I slow down and take time to feel. That oft helps me settle into a kind/loving mood and that helps better answers show up.
A small effort I’ll often make is just to have a playful conversation with the barristas, some corny joke or ordering something not on the menu 😉 You’re right, small but good.
I think you’re on to something with the emphasis on choosing Mitzi.
And of course, to choose you must identify your options…which your article provides…options which make me think…that aren’t always easy to take from the conceptual to action.
Yet, it’s the kind of awareness and sometimes challenge that makes life worth living. Don’t you think?
Thanks for stirring up some good thinking.