I’m about to show you the secret to get happy and stay happy starting right now.
Getting happy and staying happy seems like such a simple concept but in fact over 50% of all people spend most of their time depressed, anxious, upset, tired, and worst of all unhappy. In this article I am going to try to help you understand what life would be like for you if you were happier and also go over some key things you need to be doing in your life to get your happiness back and keep it.
Benefits of Being Happy
- Better Lifestyle
- Positive Mood
- Improved Social Life
- Higher Energy Levels
- Self-Motivation
- Life is More Interesting
- Constant Feelings of Love & Joy
- Lowers Your Stress & Anxiety
- You Will Have More Fun
- You Will Have More Achievements & Be Able to Reach Your Full Potential
- More Self-Confidence
Being happy is the goal of so many people. Actually, everyone wants to be happy as much as they can. When you feel happiness inside, your life transforms from dull and boring to fun and exciting. Some people have a belief that they can’t be happy or if they can it has to be short-lived and there will be a certain amount of time before they are happy again. This is not true. You can be happy all the time if you really dedicate to changing your beliefs and learning the strategies of staying happy.
Being happy really affects your mood in a positive way. When you are happy you are almost always in a positive and enthusiastic mood about everything. This allows you to really enjoy every moment of your life. There are people who rarely experience happiness and joy and you know where they end up? The end up sad and depressed. Demotivated to do anything and following a daily grind of sleep,work,eat, and repeat. Don’t worry if you are one of those people there is help keep reading.
When you fill your life with happiness you will be self-motivated to do and achieve anything you want. This a crucial part of being successful at life. How many successful people do you think hate their lives and are miserable everyday? Now I can think of a few that are miserable years later but the truth is at one point in their life they were full of happiness and love for what they got successful for. People have a tendency to forget about whats important until it’s gone. Myself included.
The more inner happiness you have the more interesting your days become. When you wake up in the morning you will feel full of energy and almost spring out of bed. Even boring repetitious tasks can be fun and conversations will be meaningful and enlightening. Your mood affects so many elements of your mind and body its like it’s almost in full control. When most people are happy they are at the pinnacle of positive moods. Now you can be happy without some of these feelings, but they do come along quite naturally with minimal effort. I’m not saying you won’t ever get tired either but overall if you are in the right mood you will have more energy than you would if you were down in the dumps. Fact.
Also, you know whats great for relieving stress and anxiety? A smile. A simple smile sends a signal to your body that you are happy and it triggers a release of chemicals that stimulate the brain causing you to feel de-stressed and is a great combatant for anxiety.Fact. You will also tend to do more activities when you are in a good mood. There are many ways to get into this happy mode and I’ll cover a few of the ones I’ve discovered that really work.
Tips and Advice to Get and Stay Happy
- Have More Fun
- Eat Healthy
- Stay Positive
- Get Regular Exercise
- Find Hobbies & Stay Occupied
- Challenge Your Beliefs
- Set Short & Long Term Goals
- Have Passion
- Fight Depression and Anxiety
- Be Social
- Stop Bad Habits
If you want to be happy you gotta be the one to make the change. You will also need to break some bad habits such as eating when your bored, smoking, drinking, being lazy, having anxiety, limiting beliefs, and negative thinking. These habits are really bad for your overall happiness and I can’t stress how important this will be for you to achieve and maintain a true happiness.
Smoking and drinking provide you with a temporary relief from the real world. If you only drink and smoke on a rare occasion I am not talking to you directly, but if you drink more than twice a week or smoke more than a pack of cigarettes per week than there is a good chance you are using this as an escape from your real life. Cigarettes and Alcohol have chemicals in them that make you feel artificially euphoric for a very short time. But the truth is that unless you have them under extreme moderation than can easily send you on an emotional roller coaster making you feel good when you have them and making you feel like crap when you don’t. By putting yourself into this position you are making it impossible to be happy all the time without taking extreme risks and making unhealthy habits.
Quiting smoking and drinking isn’t easy or most everyone would do it. I will list a few good starter strategies here and plan on writing a full article on this later. One of the best ways to combat smoking and drinking is to cut back. If you smoke 20 cigarettes each day cut back one cigarette each day until you get down to zero. So day one 20 then day two 19 then day three 18 etc. This strategy has worked for several people in the past and can work for you. Same thing applies for drinking. In order for this to have maximum effect you need to find other ways to occupy you time. It can be a full-blown hobby or as simple as just chewing gum. Once you can eliminate your addiction two these two substances you will be one step closer to finding and staying happy.
Your health is a major factor in your overall happiness. When you are healthy you will have more energy and self-confidence. Your body will crave activity and keep you busy. When I say health I don’t just mean exercise I’m talking about the whole package regular exercise, eating healthy, and mental stimulation. You need to establish a regular exercise plan that is within your limits and always start out small. If you want to start walking do only 10 minutes starting out then the second week do 15 and so forth until you get to an amount you enjoy. If you are doing other exercises besides walking that is fine the main thing is you do something to keep your body physically active. Eating healthy is another important aspect of getting happy. You will need to find a nice easy diet for you that cuts out bad sugars, processed foods, calories, and man made chemicals. Replace those items with organic food, simple ingredients, correct nutrition, fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, good carbs, and the correct amount of calories. Also mental stimulation is very important. Try to do an activity that makes you think such as reading or something creative. By reading this right now you are taking care of the mental part of your health.
Pick up as many fun and enjoyable hobbies as you can. Several good examples would be riding a bike, hiking, walking in the park, reading, writing, drawing,go to school, play games, volunteer work, etc. You can do just about anything as a hobby just make sure its fun and enjoyable. This will keep your mind off of any problems you might have and keep you in a good a positive mindset.
An important thing to staying happy for the long term is making sure you are passionate about things you do in your life, whether its your job or your hobbies. Don’t ever do something just because you think you have to. Live your life full of passion and you will be one step closer to truly being happy.
Also, try and be as social as you possibly can. Interaction with other human beings is very important to being mentally healthy and happy. There really isn’t a substitute for this one. If you don’t have anyone to hang out with join a community group, go to church, volunteer, visit friends or family, or anything really as long as you spend time in the presence of other people. This is a great way to learn as well. You would be surprised how much information your grandma might have to share with you that can affect you life. Another way, but I want to stress is less effective, is to chat online and play online games. You do still get some social aspects in this kind of activity but you won’t be getting the full package deal. Still if your at home and bored there are about a million ways to communicate with people online and usually won’t cost you a dime.
Setting goals short and long term will be a dramatic help to keeping your life on track. The more structure you can add to your life while still giving yourself room to play the better. Take 5 or 10 minutes of your time to sit down and think of what you want to accomplish short term. Write those down and even put a day you would like to have them completed by. Don’t put anything on the list that is going to give you extra stress, just simply put things that you know you are going to do anyways and pick a day to do them. This little organization trick will help bring some comfort to your day to day activities. For the long term goals your going to need to have to really clear your mind and focus to figure out what you want 10 years from now. You can pull these from many different places but its up to you to know what you really want in life. When I say long term I mean longer than 1 year and as long as by the end of your life. If you do this it will give you some focus and something to work toward when you lose your direction. Be very clear to yourself about what you really want. Don’t worry about how your going to get it, I promise if you want something bad enough and keep trying you will get it eventually. Perseverance is a key to achieving this. If its a tangible product like a car, go online and print off a picture and post it near your computer. That way when you are bored in your chair you can look up to see it and get motivated. If you don’t believe you can do anything you might have to challenge your inner beliefs.
Beliefs are a lot more than what most people think. They are not simply if you believe you can do something or not. The truth is the beliefs are something you have gave control to and they have the ability to overpower your emotions and thoughts. Wow thats intense, but I can tell you from personal experience that it is very true. In fact most of us have 100s if not 1000s of beliefs about a huge variety of things and don’t even realize. Beliefs are an awesome way to be happy if you the right ones that empower and inspire you. The problem is that everyone (I haven’t found a person yet without them) has negative limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are the ones that keep you from being able to do something or be successful. For example “I always do bad on tests” or “I always write sloppy” and once you have this as a belief you will never be able to do good on tests or write neatly. Remember beliefs are controlling your life, that is ok you allow them, but the ones that keep you from being happy and successful need to go. It’s really simple to change a belief once you can identify it. Don’t point blame on were you developed your beliefs at either. Some of you might have had the same belief since you were three years old and have carried it up until now. The truth is you can change this belief just by identifying it and replacing it with a new motivating on. For example the next time you think or say “I always do bad on tests” stop yourself and realize that this is only a belief and you are in control of it. You will and probably have always done bad on tests as long as you believe so, but that can change very very quickly. Now, replace it with “I always do good on tests.” and you will start to believe it. When you talk about your personal beliefs they don’t always have to be based on fact, because it’s your beliefs and you have the right to believe how you want. But by changing your beliefs to positive ones you unleash the potential to do anything including become happy. I’m working on a huge article about beliefs and I will have it finished as soon as possible. You can subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on twitter to get your copy the day its published and I promise its going to be life changing for some people.
Another important part of staying in the happy mindset is to beat your anxieties and depression for good. In order to do this you don’t need medications or a psychiatrist to fix you. You just need to get to the root cause of your problem and start making some changes asap. Ask a lot of “why”, “how”, and “what” questions to find the source of your depression and anxieties. Once you identify the source make the changes necessary to not have these problems on your mind any more. Unfortunately for most people who suffer from these two one is causing the other. You need to understand that there is nothing wrong with you if you suffer from them that they are only feelings and don’t have any real control over you. They can mimic a number of other mental and physical conditions and lead you to get misdiagnosed with something you don’t really have. You and you alone are in control of your life. You have the ability to feed these emotions or to starve them and let them retreat. I can tell you right now that I have suffered from severe anxiety and depression enough to end up in the hospital and now I don’t have the slightest bit of either without a bit of medication. You have to understand that you can and will get better. You only need to stop feeding these feeling and find distractions. Once you get them out of your life along with these other suggestions I have for you then you will know what it feels like to be alive.
When you reach that state of being truly happy you will never want to go back to your old way of life. Everyone is going to have a set back day or an occasional bad day but if you have more than one per month its time to take your life back. Make the changes now and start applying these principles to your life. I know you can get happy and stay there and I personally wish you the best of luck.
**Note** Any health related recommendation should always be checked on by your doctor first. These are only suggestions and you should never change a diet, start an exercise, or stop taking medicine without first consulting a doctor.