For many people, achieving happiness may be sourced in different ways. It can come from acquiring material wealth, or achieving goals, or maintaining good health, or just simply waking up to a warm, sunny weather. It may be defined by many factors—religious, psychological or physical—with contentment and fulfilment as its end-results. Because happiness is a basic human emotion, it can be fleeting and temporary. Only a few people can ever really achieve happiness in its pure and permanent state. But if you constantly make a conscious choice to practice ways to be happy, you can greatly improve the quality of your life.
Below are some suggestions you can do to ensure the wellness of your emotional state:
Seize the day.
Learn to live in the moment. Worrying about the future can only cause anxiety and undue stress to your mental tranquility. Regrets about decisions you've made in the past can only bring resentments and fears. These behaviors instantly obstruct your path to happiness because you tend to put the focus on what has already happened and what can possibly go wrong, when you should be grasping what's currently going on and living it. It may be as simple as enjoying dinner with your wife and kids now, instead of worrying about a project at work you have to attend to on Monday.
De-clutter your mind.
Learn to eliminate the unnecessary stuff. You can start by making lists of things you have to do to keep your thoughts organized and more focused. Set up a system in your household or at work, to streamline day-to-day activities and make your life easier. However, don't beat yourself up with projects and goals you think you "need" to do, and instead, understand the value of downtimes, or doing things one step at a time. Learn to say no to certain commitments to minimize getting overwhelmed and overstressed by doing so much. You don't have to do everything. You can delegate or really keep things simple. Skirumar Rao, who has written a book called “Happiness at Work” believes that becoming a multi-tasker can affect a person's state of happiness.
Listen to your body.
Be attuned to your body signal. Sometimes, the deterioration of your physical health can be a manifestation of your emotional health and well-being. Other times, it may just really be that you body is tired and you’re not depressed at all. Get enough sleep and exercise, and take pleasure in relaxing activities to allow your body to recharge. Happiness guru and author Gretchen Rubin says, "One of my favorite ways to get my blood pumping is to simply jump up and down, do jumping jacks, skip around the office, getting both feet off the ground can give you a ton of energy."
Have your ‘me time.’
Take your alone time to nurture and regroup from stress. Being with friends and family or forging social relationships can be fulfilling but sometimes, you need to have time by yourself and enjoy what you love doing best alone, such as reading, eating your favorite food, shopping or enriching your spiritual side.
Be thankful.
Practice the attitude of gratitude and adapt a different outlook of seeing things half-full instead of half-empty. Numerous studies have been done to demonstrate how being grateful can produce happier individuals. It supports the idea that grateful people are more content with what they have, even if they have so little. Hence, they are happier.
