Everyone wants to be happy. I don’t think there is a person alive today on this planet that doesn’t want happiness and peace in their life. Happiness is what all individuals strive for in this very short life we have here.
At the time of this writing, the entire World has been affected going on 14 months, by a great pandemic, Covid-19 and over the months various variants have created additional waves of the virus.
People have been restricted from seeing friends and family, lockdowns have been imposed through out the entire World. Weddings, funerals, places of worship, organized sports and out door gathering have been restricted, reduced or closed down. Many people have lost their jobs, people have reduced income, other people have completely lost their small businesses.
Other people have lost loved ones due to the virus pandemic, unable to visit them in hospitals or long term care centers. Family members and loved ones that have died alone, or other wise healthy friends, husbands, boyfriends, girl friends and children have been ravaged by this deadly virus and the despair and devastation goes on and on. These are certainly anything but HAPPY times!
These are just the impacts of the deadly pandemic, but what about all the other stresses of life that we all are faced with each and everyday? People losing their jobs, people working long hours for poor pay, divorces and marriage issues. Or, there are those people who are lonely and do not have special people in their lives like a loyal husband, wife, boyfriend, girl friend or just a good friend.
As the Bible says, “We are living in critical times, hard to deal with”. These are just some of the things that we are experiencing today. Without going too much into the spiritual aspect of these foretold times, let’s just talk about what people can do today in order to learn how to be happy by yourself in life.
Tips On How to Be Happy in Life & Find Joy
Happiness is so sought after today that people have even found ways to profit off of it. One of the biggest and greatest examples of this is Walt Disney.
Walt Disney set out to build a dream park where adults and families could escape the stresses and anxieties of the World around them and just have FUN and enjoy themselves through wholesome, entertaining family experiences in his park. It isn’t called the “Happiest Place on Earth” for nothing. Every year millions of people visit these parks to enjoy themselves and escape the stresses, anxieties and problems in their lives to have fun and find some happiness. It obviously works, since Disney is worth billions of dollars.
What about you though? How can you learn to be Happy? Despite all the outside things that can negatively affect us today, how can you be happy?
To Be Happy – Stop Worrying About What Other People Think
One of the first things you have to do is learn to stop worrying about what other people think in order to be happy. Nobody is in control of you or what you do or don’t do. You need to learn to be happy with yourself no matter what other people think.
If you go through your life worrying about what other people think you should or should not do, then you will NEVER be happy.
Take Care of Yourself
To be Happy you need to start taking better care of yourself. This means taking better care of your body, mind and spirit. How can you do this?
In order to be happy, you need to start with the simple things like eating better food, getting proper rest (sleep) and finding a meaningful purpose in your life.
How do you view your body? Are you happy with the way you look physically? If not, then how can you improve things? You can start by being honest with yourself and the changes that need to happen to make you feel comfortable in your own skin.
Maybe you need to lose weight? If, so, why not start getting active? Go for regular walks, join a gym, drink more water, stop drinking or reduce your caffeine intake.
Take a look at what you are eating. If you diet consists mainly of take out, drive thru or pre packaged foods, then something probably needs to change in order to get you feeling healthier and feeling better about yourself.
Start eating better food like fruits, vegetables and lean proteins more consistently and you will see your energy levels increase and your blood sugar levels balance.
Get more active on a weekly consistent basis and you will see your energy levels improve, your clothing start to fit better and you will feel much better physically and mentally. The idea is to STAY consistent with these things! Consistency is the key!
When you feel better about your health, both physically and mentally, you can’t help but feel happy in life.
To Be Happy – Try New Things
People today are so busy with the routine and dull drums of life that they forget part of themselves. We become stuck doing the same things day in and day out. Boring, predictable things that prevent us from experiencing new, exciting things.
In learning how to be happy, try new things! Maybe you always wanted to learn how to dance, but never felt you had the time or the money. Perhaps you wanted to try karate classes to improve your self confidence and better self defense. Maybe you want to take some art classes and learn to paint or draw. Maybe you want to join a group running club, or join a sports team for the Summer etc.
The idea here is in order to learn how to be happy in life you need to try new things and stop limiting yourself, or stop waiting for someone else’s approval. If you have new things you want to try then set small goals and try them out before moving to the next new thing.
When you step outside of your comfort zone and experience new things in your life and learn new things that can make you a well round, versatile type person, this can have a positive affect on how to become happy.
Find Happiness Through Vacation & Travel
Believe it or not, there are people in the World today that never travel, there are also people who rarely take vacation time, even though they are entitled to it. It is a necessity that people today take a much needed break throughout the year away from their jobs.
Vacation time is very important to shut down, and to reset your body and mind without having to worry about deadlines, work stress and any other of the problems associated with our jobs.
You NEED to take a break. Everyone does, and if you don’t, you are not giving your mind and body the break it needs. No job should ever come before your own health. There is much more to life than just making money and slaving away at a job day after day. So when you have vacation time available throughout the year, be sure to take advantage of it.
If you have never traveled, then you do not even know what you are missing out on. There are beautiful mountains, gorgeous beaches and cultures found all over the World.
What travel are you interested in? Maybe your idea of travel is snow capped mountains, cozy lodges and some skiing.
Others may want to do nothing but stay in a beautiful hotel somewhere near a beautiful blue ocean on a white sand beach. The point is that vacation time and traveling can do you, your body and mind wonders! When you use vacation time to take a mental break, unwind and experience the peace, restfulness and beauty of travel you will be happy.
Travel can be addictive once you first do it. If you have never traveled then you will be amazed at the things you have been missing out on. I personally have traveled throughout my entire life. I would never not travel. It helps to keep me happy.
As a matter of fact, even if I couldn’t necessarily afford it, I would find a way to find the money, or find a more affordable way to travel. It is that important to me and my happiness.
I have taken friends who have never traveled before away to some of my favorite beach vacations and they were in awe! Ever since then they travel regularly now with their own friends and family because they now see how important and fun it is. Travel has taught them the important of fun and how to be happy in life.
Take advantage of your Vacation time & do something fun like travel for your sanity & happiness!
To Be Happy – Get Better Sleep
We kind of touched on this at the beginning of this article on tips for how to be Happy, but it deserves more discussion. Sleep is very important – extremely important.
Sure when you are young, you can stay up all hours, get little sleep and get up and do it all over again the next night. As you get older, it catches up to you. Lack of sleep wears you down and saps you of your energy.
If you deal with depression this is even more important yet! Lack of sleep or even poor quality sleep can mess with your hormone levels and feel good hormones like serotonin which can make you feel down, depressed, over whelmed and full of anxiety and stress. Anxiety and stress can wreak havoc on hormones as well and it all becomes to much and can wear you down. So get to bed early if you need to. Reset your body’s internal clock to get on a better sleep schedule.
If you apply some of the above mentioned ideas on exercise, being more active, drinking more water, cutting back on caffeine and eating better food – You will notice a better quality of sleep.
The more restful sleep you can get each night – the better you will feel as time goes on. The key again is consistency in these things and this will go a long way in how you can be happy and happier in life!
How to Be Happier in Life – Look At Your Friends
The people that you hang out with can have a serious impact on how you feel. Your friends can have a positive impact or they can have a negative impact on you and your happiness. The same can be said unfortunately for family members – sometimes these are positive relationships and sometimes they are not.
Your friends should be a source of support, upbuilding talk, laughs and a safe place to be able to confide in each other. Many people may have good friends that are positive and supportive. Friends that truly care about you and want to be there for you and support you in your life.
Unfortunately, you may have other “friends”, or associates that really do not support you. Sure, you may get together from time to time for a drink, or share some phone calls or texts back and forth, but they really do not support you.
Some of these imposters may, only talk about themselves. They may try to inflate their status. These so called friends may brag and boast about the good things happening in their life, brag about the amount of money they make or how good their lives are going.
These same “friends” may be uninterested in your problems. They may not be interested in listening, or not really listening. They may even laugh at your problems or kick you when you are down.
If these are the types of friends or family members you are surrounding yourself with, or spending your precious time with then you need to cut these ones out of your life or severely limit the time you spend with them until they can prove they are true friends and people deserving of your time.
If you want to be “Happy”, then why associate with people who really just want to tear you down? If you want to be happy in your life then you need positive, encouraging, empathetic people in your life.
Your time is precious. Recreation time is for relaxing, meeting with friends/family, having fun and growing as a person. If you are trying to learn how to be happy in your life, then you need to pick high quality friends.
If your closest friends are not upbuilding, positive, motivating, empathetic and encouraging, then find new friends. If your friends are not really interested in being there for you and only interested in themselves-then find new friends.
If your friends are always putting you down, laughing at you and your problems and not really interested in being there for you-then find new friends.
You need positive, upbuilding, happy people in your life. If you want to be happy, then you do not need people who are always depressed, negative and self serving around you. This will not help you to be happy in your life and can actually bring you down.
Everyone needs a good friend, but we also need to be a good friend if we expect it in return. We too need to be open to listening to their problems and concerns and do our best to be understanding, empathetic and upbuilding to them. Iron sharpens Iron.
If you want to be happy and find joy in your life, then be sure to examine your true friends. If friends or family members are always bringing you down – then its time to find some new friends and ease off on spending precious time with family and those that are constantly bringing you down.
To Be Happy – Break Your Bad Habits
Do you have any vices? Do you smoke? Maybe you drink a lot just to numb yourself and get through the week, only to do it on the weekend all over again? Maybe you dabble in various types of drugs? Maybe you rely too much on coffee and energy drinks to get you through your day, so much so that your body craves these things and you feel worse if you don’t have them.
STOP! Relying on alcohol, smoking or energy drinks, too much coffee, junk food etc. shows that these are controlling your life. They are stimulants and when you ease off or quit these things your body makes you feel terrible because it has been accustomed to getting these things everyday in order for you to function.
If you want to feel happy, you need to quit, or seriously reduce your use of these stimulants and bad habits. Yes, it may be difficulty to drop these unhealthy habits. Some will be worse than others, but if you want to be happy and find more joy in your life then you need to find positive habits to take the place of these unhealthy habits.
Find healthy, beneficial habits and daily or nightly activities to give you energy and improve your health. Go for walks, exercise, read, eat better food, reduce sugar intake and more in order to energize your mind and body.
When you do this, you will be healthier, get better quality sleep and feel more in control of your own mind and body and how you feel.
Doing this will make you feel happy overall as you improve your physical and mental health, choosing positive habits over bad habits.
Want to Be Happy – Show Gratitude for What You Have
It’s all too easy today to see the glass as half empty. To see all the things wrong in your life, all the problems and reasons why things are so terrible. In learning how to be happy, you must start by showing gratitude for the things you have to be Thankful for.
If you want to be happier then you need to see all the things that you do have. Sounds simple but you need to really start looking at all the simple things that you have that you may be taking for granted.
For example, some things to show gratitude for could be:
- Maybe you have all your hair?
- Maybe you have your health?
- Maybe you have a great job that you enjoy?
- Maybe you have an amazing spouse or partner?
- Maybe you have a loving family that is supportive?
- Maybe you have a great physique or body?
- Maybe you have a nice home?
- Maybe you have a car you always wanted?
- Maybe you have little or no debt?
- etc..
The idea is to find the small things that are often over looked in our lives. The things we take for granted. Look at these things that apply to you at this point in your life and then continue to build and find other things that you are Thankful for and things to show Gratitude for that are currently present in your life at this point in time.
To Be Happy – Stay Off Of Social Media
Social media today is out of control. It causes more depression in individuals as people compare their lives to what other people have going on.
The truth about social media like Instagram and Facebook is that you are purposely allowing others to throw their life in front of you.
Keep in mind though, that what you see lots of times is not reality. People use, filters, photoshop, and lies to present an image of themselves that isn’t necessarily true. In other words, what you see, isn’t necessarily what you get so to speak.
People can lie, and brag and present this fantasy like appearance of their life that isn’t necessarily true. If you compare yourself to what you ‘see’ as others having going on in their life, then it can really get you down.
Remember, it’s You vs. You, that’s it. You should NEVER compare yourself to others, or to what you see online.
You are in competition with no one, but yourself. Each day you should strive to look for ways in which you can grow or become a better person than you were in the past. You should work on personal growth, improving yourself and setting small goals that you can achieve to become that much better.
If you want to know how to be happy, stop comparing yourself to others and what you see on social media platforms.
10 Habits Of Happy People
Watch the below video on 10 Habits of Happy People for some simple ways to be Happy and find more Joy in life.
This is Why You Are Not Happy – Matthew McConaughey
