Do you feel trapped and unsatisfied with the way life is treating you right now, or the way life has turned out and all you want is an escape. Then, that's a sign telling you the happiness train has left you behind. Many of us think happiness is something which is short-term and people around us makes us happy, but the truth is happiness comes within ourselves.
So, what is the key to happiness?
Happiness, like other emotions, is not something you obtain, but rather something you inhabit. It is temporary. We can get mixed up thinking happiness is a goal we need to achieve. But finding happiness is not achieved in itself, but rather it is the side effect of a particular set of ongoing life experiences. We can't buy happiness and you can't achieve happiness. It just something which comes within yourself from other parts of your life.
As we often crave motivation, feeling happy can give us that sense of achievement making us feel like we are achieving our goals in life. However, if I asked you to associate a word which links to happiness- what's the first word which springs into your mind?
Whichever word or emotion popped into your mind is how you should be feeling. But then, if I asked you 'Are you happy in life right now?"- What would your answer be? It will be completely different to how you see happiness from a lens compared to how you feel. We humans don't really know what happiness entails or how it feels to be happy as we go through multiple emotions everyday. Studies have shown there are 27 distinct categories of emotions and we can go though an average of 34,000 emotions in a day from anger, hunger, happy, anxiety to sadness. All of these emotions can navigate how we manage our relationships with people around us, how we manage our energy and especially how we feel inside.
As Happiness increases longevity amongst healthy people, happiness is not the same as positivity. Someone who appears happy can be the most dysfunctional person you know. They can be experiencing underlying negative emotions which can lead to deeper and more prolonged negative emotions.
Does this mean a person with emotional dysfunction is a failure and won't find happiness?
No, in fact failure to meeting our own expectations is not antithetical to happiness, and I'd actually argue that the ability to fail is part of the experience or a fundamental building block to regaining happiness. Happiness is a skill and a choice which can generate how you create your own reality, emotions and force.
Here are some top tips to a happiness toolkit:
Life works better when you have a strategy. You weren’t born knowing how to consciously create your reality or how to stay happy all the time. Nevertheless, you can learn how to stay happy now, with these tools. Your “happiness tools” include:
Say no to 'happiness stealers'
We play the victim to our own happiness. Happiness stealers refers to something which we find ourselves ruminating about a certain thing in our life such as jobs, relationships, finances, health and wellbeing etc...
This becomes focused on what we 'don't want' rather than what we 'do want', making our happiness go right out the window. These emotions are replaced by disappointment, dissatisfaction and powerlessness. We can’t necessarily change the moment, but we can change ourselves and our lives by our actions to managing the situation. When you find yourself the “victim” of a happiness stealer, trace back the “unhappy” thought that got you there. Then take your power back! And create it differently. Don't be your own happiness stealer...
2. Choice
Choice is a powerful tool. When you decide to truly choose happiness instead of wish, hope or want then that is when happiness will choose you instead of you choosing happiness. You're behind the decision you make to choosing if being happy makes you a better person or not. We all control our own choices and decision so if you suddenly feel unhappy about an ongoing occurrence in your life that is a sign to tell yourself to change the way you perceive yourself and make the choice to change your life. The way you do particular things in life is assoicated to what makes you feel happy! It brings you a sense of joy and fulfilment. As you're the creator of your own life...believe to be happy, YOU ARE THE CHOICE MAKER in how you manage your own happiness.
3. Re-connect with Mother Nature
Studies have shown nature is our call to healing our emotions and re-energising our minds. Connecting yourself with Mother Nature can increase your happiness and restore response to your physical and emotional depletion. It allows you to reflect on yourself and give you the head space to help you gather your thoughts. By connecting yourself with Mother Nature instantly increases the brain's dopamine which is our happiness ingredient to making us feel good about ourselves, inside and outside.
4. Inspiration
Inspiration doesn't come easy, we're all looking for ways to inspire us somehow but once you find that path of inspiration you begin this new journey of feeling happy. We begin to kickstart our rhythm and self-drive to what inspires us and how we can incorporate this into our daily lives. By finding the right drive to happiness takes some time as we need to look for those missing jigsaw pieces. These can be reading inspirational books everyday, setting yourself a challenge or goal to complete for the week, reading motivational quotes in the morning. Whatever you do, think about why you chose this to make you feel inspired.
5. Gratitude
"Gratitude is a force born of intimacy and compassion, giving birth to joy and beauty, growing into magical and mystical success and never-ending happiness."
Studies have shown embedding a simple habit of feeling gratitude into your lifestyle can increase your happiness by 25%. It helps you realise the little things in life, can make a huge difference to how you feel inside. Gratitude is a powerful tool to increase happiness, but beyond making you happy, gratitude creates your drive to motivation and gives you that sense of feeling inspired. Saying a simple mantra when you wake up in the morning or just before going to bed can instantly boost the way you think in a positive form. Finally, the energy you create plays on your emotions which attracts reality. If you stay true to yourself by remembering you're unique in your own way. Then, there is absolutely nothing in this world more important in your life than YOU BEING YOU! No one can steal this from you. No one can take your personality, take the way you think, take how you feel or take how you want see things in a happy way.
"YOU ARE THE CREATOR OF YOUR OWN HAPPINESS"
DON'T LET ANYONE STEAL THIS FROM YOU!
I hope you found this post insightful and valuable for you to begin your happiness journey. Sharing a smile a day brings happiness to others. Thank you for reading this and I hope you have a amazing day! #MakeaDifference
Follow on Instagram: @madeadifference
Chandz
Comments