Blog
13
02
2019

Daily Happiness: 8 Simple Ways to Find it in Your Life

Life can be very challenging at times, particularly if you have a busy work schedule and are affected by stress.

It’s easy to neglect yourself and forget about the things that are truly important, like friendship, love, knowledge, and your personal happiness.

However, it is important to find time to perform activities that make you happy.

Happiness improves both your physical and mental health, boost your mood, improves your relationship and helps you get much more enjoyment from life.

To help you obtain more happiness each and every day, this article will share 8 simple ways to find more happiness in your life.

Why is finding happiness so important?

Taking steps to improve your happiness levels isn’t just about making your life more enjoyable.

Happiness can bring about a wide range of unexpected benefits for your physical and mental health.

For example, happy people tend to:

Have a healthier lifestyle

Happy people tend to eat healthier food, take care of their bodies, and get enough sleep.

They are also more active and enjoy better relationships with their loved ones.

This occurs because happiness can improve your outlook on life and encourage healthy behaviours.

Have stronger immune systems

Multiple studies have found that happier people are less likely to become ill compared to unhappy people because their immune systems are stronger.

Have healthier cardiovascular systems

Researchers have found that happy people tend to have a lower heart rate and lower blood pressure.

Another study found happiness reduced the likelihood of coronary artery disease.

Experience less stress and pain

Several studies have found that happy people have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that contributes to stress.

Studies have also found that people suffering from chronic conditions like arthritis experience less pain if they are happy with other aspects of their life.

Live longer

The benefits of happiness for the body can eventually result in a longer life.

One study performed over a span of 30 years found that happy people lived 14% longer on average.

8 Simple ways to find happiness in your life

#1 – Start with the basics (food, sleep, and exercise)

It’s difficult to be happy if you are feeling tired, rundown, or unfit.

To address these issues, start by getting more sleep.

This will give you some additional energy for getting through each day and for obtaining more exercise.

Getting a good night’s sleep will also give you more control over your thoughts as it improves brain function.

With more self-control, you will find it easier to process negative thoughts and make improvements in other areas of your life – including your diet and exercise levels.

Eating well and exercising will increase your happiness levels even more.

Eating well ensures your body has the nutrients it requires for good brain health, which can alleviate feelings of sadness and depression.

Exercise will trigger the release of feel good chemicals called endorphins.

They are natural analgesics that will give you a pleasurable sensation and increases happiness levels.

#2 – Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by being completely focussed on the present moment.

When you are in a mindful state, any thoughts and feelings are processed in a non-judgemental and forgiving way.

 Mindfulness has been proven to reduce the harmful effects of stress, lower anxiety levels, and promote emotional health.

It can also promote happiness by taking your mind off negative thoughts and emotions.

Instead of ruminating over unpleasant memories or being anxious about the future, you can simply enjoy the present moment. 

Incorporating mindfulness into your daily life is fairly simple.

Try some of these activities:

Meditate

Spend 10 minutes every morning focussing all of your attention on your body.

You could concentrate on your breathing or perform a body scan meditation.

When your focus shifts to other thoughts, calmly and non-judgmentally acknowledge them, then continue meditating.

The raison exercise

This is an introductory exercise to give you a sense of what mindfulness is about.

All you have to do is place all of your focus on a raisin (or another fruit).

Think about how it looks, how it feels, how it smells, and finally how it tastes.

Take your time and place all of your attention on this wonderful little object.

Mindful seeing

This is a simple exercise that involves looking at the colour, texture, shape, and brightness of objects around you — without labelling or categorising them.

Mindfulness colouring

Colouring in images can be a relaxing and satisfying mindfulness activity.

There are even special books available for mindful colouring.

When performing this activity, focus on the colours you are using, the feeling of the pencil in your hand and the shapes on the page.   

There are many more mindfulness exercises to try on this site.

#3 – Spend more time outside

Walking, running, or riding through a natural environment can be very invigorating.

It provides you with a sense of freedom, calmness, vitality, and happiness.

Make an effort to go for a walk in a natural environment each day and incorporate some weekend getaways that take you to beautiful places. 

#4 – Spend time with people who make you happy

The social connections and familial bonds that we form with other people are one of the best sources of potential happiness.

Make the most of these connections by spending more time with the people who make you happy.

Think about how much each person you know makes you smile and laugh.

Create a list of the people who evoke those kinds of happy feelings.

Now, think about the people who sometimes make you feel insecure, sad, or angry.

Write a list of their names.

Spend more time communicating with the people who make you feel great and less time people who make you feel unhappy.

It’s that simple.

Your happiness levels will quickly improve.

#5 – Do the things you love

Reflect on the kinds of activities that have made you happy in the past.

That could be a hobby, a traveling experience, a social event, time with loved ones and so on.

Your goal should be to re-incorporate these activities into your daily life.

In some cases, you may not be able to enjoy those activities in the way you used to, so you may need to develop clever workarounds.

For example, if your best friend has moved away, you may not be able to have a glass of wine with them each afternoon,

However, you can still have a video chat and a glass of wine.

If you don’t have time to do some woodworking each afternoon, you can still watch some videos of woodworking techniques while commuting.

#6 – Help other people

It should be no surprise that “you get what you give” when it comes to emotions.

If you are a loving person, you will usually get love back in return.

If you often complain and nag other people, well you will get more of that back (or people will begin to ignore you).

Try to be more positive towards the people you encounter in your life to make them happy.

You will quickly discover that any small acts of kindness towards others will also make you happy.

Giving your friend an unexpected chocolate chip muffin will brighten their day, make you feel great about yourself and improve the quality of your relationship.

Take this concept even further by volunteering to help a non-profit charity.

Helping disadvantaged people and animals in need can be extremely rewarding and help you improve your sense of self-worth.

It also puts you in close proximity with other caring people who are keen to make a positive difference in the world.

#7 – Enjoy the simple pleasures in life

The happiest people are often the ones who enjoy the small things.

They relish eating a nice meal.

They like to laugh at silly jokes.

They revel in a warm summer’s day.

They find slipping into a warm bath to be an erotic experience!

Emulate this behaviour by being more aware of the joys that are already present in your everyday life.

Cultivate some habits which give you great pleasure, like having a chocolate biscuit with a cup of tea at 3pm each day.

Be mindful as you enjoy these small pleasures and you will be amazed by how much they increase your happiness.

#8 – Be grateful

Another simple way to bring more happiness into your life is to be grateful for what you have.

Take 5 minutes to think about how grateful you are for your home, clothing, pets, friends, family, and the many other things in your life that bring you joy.

Incorporate this act into your daily life by spending some time being grateful as soon as you wake up or just before bed.

You will find that counting your blessings gives you a feeling of abundance which leads to feelings of happiness.

I hope you enjoyed reading Daily Happiness: 8 Simple Ways to Find it in Your Life.

For more articles on enhancing your happiness, subscribe to my site.

author: Stephen Coleclough

Stephen Coleclough is a leading international and domestic tax consultant who specialises in solving complex problems. As well as advising on tax matters, Stephen also enjoys exploring topics relating to physical and mental wellbeing. You can follow him on Twitter at SColeclough.

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